Since my last post I spent the end part of the river season trying to bank my first ever Barbel and/or my first Chub (from a river).
Unfortunately I didn't catch, I do feel though that I learned a lot to help towards finally managing it this season! I did also get to spend some much needed time to myself with some great surroundings.
It was due to the overwhelming desire to catch the elusive Barbel that all other aspects of my fishing got put on hold, that and the lack of good weather and the Quay seemingly being void of fish for the first few months of the year, this is something I now know is quite normal as the water gets colder but as a LRF noob I had no idea at the time!
The LRF duck was broken finally though when a proper piece of opportunistic fishing seen me land a Corkwing Wrasse, The better half (called so in case she is reading this) and I decided to take the kids for a walk down the Quay as the sun was finally out for a change, I managed to hide my rod and small lure pouch in the car whilst putting some of the kids things in!
As it was the first fish in what felt like forever I decided to pose with it as if it were a 7lb version of one of its cousins, something I am also planning on targeting this year.
This is also something I have been doing whenever I have been out with the family on walks and things, every time I've managed to get near the beaches or anything of the such I have been looking for likely looking spots to target the Ballan Wrasse I'm after this year, something again I'm very new at having never targeted a specimen fish from salt water.
I'm off out in the next week putting some rigs to the test targeting some Bream in a local lake, the particular water doesn't hold anything big although my personal best Bream is only 5lb so there is always a chance of bettering that!
I spent a few days down the Quay over the last couple of weeks (only for a hour or so at a time) and have already managed 5 species, to most people this may not sound like much but after around 4-5 months of LRF last year I finished the year on 9 in total so its a good start on beating that. I have set myself a target for the year of 20 species so I will be putting a lot of time and effort in to reach that for the rest of the year!
The second species I managed this year was the first one I ever caught so was very please to see plenty of them back around again.
This in case you don't know is a Shanny or common Blenny, feisty little guys and super aggressive for they're size I love nothing more than sight fishing for these little guys down by the boat yard at the old end, the water is only about 3ft deep against the edge at high tide so its very fun fishing.
The next species I caught was a awesome little Black Goby, although they don't seem to be around in huge numbers yet I have manged about 3 of them now in comparison to the 50 odd Shanny.
Next trip out I managed another few Shanny, a single Black Goby and my 3rd species for the year in the form of this really cool common Goby!
The last species I managed this year so far came in the form of the smallest fish I think I have ever caught, made even better by the fact it was one I didn't get last year, it was so small I found it very hard to pin point what it was however after trawling through countless books and google searches, as well as getting some help from other LRF anglers I am now confident enough to call this a sand Goby!
So its been a very good start for me this year on the salt water front and it has also been a good year for my fishing partner after he managed to bag himself a Kingfisher award in the Angling Times magazine with this cool 5lb common Carp!
Thank you very much for reading and I really do hope you enjoyed the post! I am planning on getting back to doing at least 1 a week however it may take a bit of time for this to be possible so please bear with me!
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