Happy New Year

Having severe computer problems at the moment, hopefully all sorted by next week. Just wanted to get on here and wish anyone that reads my blog 'all the best' for the year coming.

Here's to beating P.B's and pushing ourselfs to try something new in 2011!!

Have a good one people.

Matt.

Light Rock Fun

**Posted this on the Forum, but thought I'd share on here also. Lazy? Maybe :)

Managed a couple hours out last night, this time armed with some bits I picked up at Bens' shop - A Mebaru pocket in pack and some Spro 28mm Pearl shads.

I fished a 10 meter stretch of Harbour wall, managing 3 fish - 2x Pouting and a Pollock. The interesting thing is that they all took the lures in different ways. The first Pouting was taken a 1.5'' Grass Minnow on a swung drop, parrallel to the wall - maybe holding a foot off the wall. The take was pretty positive. After that, interest wained and it was time to switch tactics.

On with a 2" pink Power Shirasu, no interest at all. Change over to the same lure in pearl colour, no interest on the drop - let it settle on the bottom, shakey shakey and deadstick = fish on. Very aggressive take, shot off like a Wrasse, Pouting number 2 on the deck. Thinking that this may be the key now, I stick with the shakey style, couple nibbles but no more takes. I bring the lure up slowly until possibly 2 meters deep, and all the way I'm getting bights that I just can't connect with - as the lure comes in to sight, I can see that there are 2 Pollock flanking the lure, but clearly never taking a bite. Interesting. Now I know that not every bite I'm feeling, is actually a bite. Swap around lures a little, get exactly the same reaction from the fish, no bite, just flank.

Last lure to try is a Spro Trout Shad, which comes in at 28mm - pretty minute. I see some decent mullet cruising past, manage to sight fish to them a little. No interest whatsoever, even put it past ones mouth and it either didn't see it, or just didn't care. Will try again for those guys though for sure!

Slight change of tactics, I'm able to cast just short of the boats moored opposite. Try out a 'swung' drop for a bit, no interest. Then I recall some stuff about 'feeding the fall' and getting the lure to drop horizontally. I get a couple of positive plucks at the lure now, nothing that I'm able to connect with though. So I follow the same pattern, feed the drop - but now I start a dead slow retrieve(KVD??) and within 5 turns of the handle, solid hit and fish on. Nice powerful fight on the CarboStar, beaming smile and Pollock on the deck.

So as you can see, I kind of had to keep adapting to induce the takes - But this is what I'm loving about LRF - True adapt and overcome stuff.

All lures were on 1.8g Shirasu heads with #6 hooks, I'll certainly be going lighter and experimenting more as my collection grows and I'll be sharing any findings on here along the way.

LRF is go

Just got in from a short and very cold session at a local harbour - well, one corner of it anyway. It's pretty massive. Plenty of action in the water, with small Pollock flanking the lure constantly on the drop, but not committing to eating it.

My LRF lure collection is very limited at present, but not for long. Should be expanding rapidly over the next week or so. I think if I had a smaller(than my 2.5''grub with 3g jig) lure, chances are I could of induced more bites - Here's to 1'' baits with 0.6g jigs and size 12 hooks!!

In the end, I did manage a Pouting, by cutting most of the curl tail from the grub, I got less interest with the bastardized lure, but what little interest it raised, converted to a fish at my feet. Going to be a lot of 'adapt and overcome' moments with this stuff I can see.

Got a Bass session with a few of the Forum members planned for Sunday, a few local reports of fish starting to pop up on the Forum have got my hopes up. The plan so far is to hit some deeper water marks in S.E Cornwall - marks that have produced plenty of fish this year, so if the Bass don't play, there should be Wrasse and Pollock to keep us warm.

Well, I'm not sure if this major cold front is to blame, but the Bass fishing is definitely dropping off. There are a few pockets of fish around, but unfortunately, they aren't present where I've been fishing.

I attended the Cornish Bumble on Saturday, what a great turn out - Possibly 30 or so people from most reaches of our nation, and a who's who of The Lure Forum members from the UK main land. Was great to see a few familiar faces from the previous Devon and Cornwall meet, but also to meet a bunch of other guys and put faces to the names. Wish I could of stayed around and joined the festivities, but alas, with prior commitments for the Sunday, it just wasn't to be.

I'm thinking that I'll still squeeze a few Bass sessions in over the next couple of months, when conditions are decent and the wind isn't giving me ear ache!

My main focus of winter though, is undoubtedly going to be LRF (Light Rock Fish). There are a plethora of mini(and some not-so mini) species around our sea front that will readily take a lure. All be it a very small lure, but a lure all the same. There are already a few guys from the Forum getting some good results on this ultralight gear, as well as the guys on the Channel Islands who have really worked to push this style of fishing forward and make it available to the masses.

There are 2 stores that I know of, who are putting they're neck out and stocking 'proper' LRF gear. you should have a look Here and Here at the array of little sparkly things. This form of fishing is absolutely HUGE in Japan, with them generally being just as enthusiastic at a 1lb Aji(Japanese Horse Mackerel) as a 15lb lunker Bass.

Anyone who is interesting in LRF(or any lure fishing for that matter) should really be joining the Forum, the info on there, is literally light-years ahead of anything posted on the other UK forums. The members here really are some of the most forward thinking anglers in our scene, so much to learn and so many people willing to share their knowledge. Long may it continue!!