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!!

A hard week

Been out fishing a few times in the last 7 days, Bass count = 0!!

We had a decent blow around the South-West, resulting in water that stayed murky for a whole week. I managed one hook up on a mid week session and that was pretty much that. Until I decided to have a crack at LRF(Light Rock Fish). Had been reading a fair bit about it, and even though my gear was far from suitable, I still managed this little monster on a 3'' Big Hammer shad and 3g Jig - this by the way, would be considered as going pretty heavy by LRF standards.

I'm going to try and pick up some Ultralight gear this week and have another crack at the little rock dwellers. From what I've seen on the Forum, there are a few guys local to me that are interested in going light for the winter, so should hopefully hook up soon.

While I'm on the subject of the Forum, I'd like to say a big thanks to Mick and Nicola for organising the big give away yesterday. This was to celebrate the first birthday of the Forum and was a huge success. I managed to win some SP's, but saw some truly generous prizes go to people who took part.

This weekend see's the Forum Cornish Bumble, with something like 50 lure anglers from various parts of the UK attending. It also coincides with a new 'lure only' tackle shop opening. I'll post some details of the shop once I've been and had a look. More shop's like this can only be a good thing for our ever growing sport and I always admire people for having the stones to set something like this up. Best of luck to you guys!

The true cost of safety

Can we really put a price on our safety? We take part in a sport that involves standing on rocks and being battered by waves, wading in currents up to 8knot and sometimes even doing all of the above at night. We've all been there, you cast out and begin your retrieve, before you know it a wave that appears from nowhere has jacked up before your very eyes and you can do nothing but brace yourself and take it. If your lucky, you've stayed on your feet. But what if you don't? What if you get washed off the rocks and straight into the turbulent water that you're fishing? I Consider myself a strong enough swimmer and spent my youth Surfing in the sea, but with waders and chest pack on, how efficient a swimmer will I be? And in those conditions? Scary!

If you spend as much time trawling through Japanese video's as I do, you'll notice something. They're always wearing life jackets. No matter what sort of mark and in what conditions. As I don't understand a word of Japanese, I'm not sure whether they are bad swimmers, or if they are genuinely safety conscious(and rightly so). One thing I do know, is that some of the life vests they have available to them are very cool!

Take this Mazume Redmoon 111 for example. It looks a very stylish and useful chest pack, with the real bonus of being a safety device. I've seen Japanese Bass guys wearing them on video's and they hold decent lure boxes as well as everything else you're likely to be carrying with you. I know there are a couple of guys in the UK with them now. Yes, they are pricey at anything up to £300 delivered(including UK taxes), but when you consider what you're actually getting, they don't seem so expensive anymore.



After reading Toby Harnett' report on the Forum, how he got himself into a real pickle yesterday while trying to rescue a snagged lure, getting washed into the sea in the process and being saved by the fact he was wearing a Snowbee auto-inflate vest, can you guess what's just found it's way onto my Christmas list?

The fishing this weekend has been terrible, persistent rain, heavy winds and water that's just too coloured to fish effectively. Still, as they say; A bad day's fishing beats a good day at work. Put me on those rocks, soaked to the bone and blanking over being sat here at my desk any day.



All work and no Bass makes Matt a dull boy. All work and no Bass makes Matt a dull boy. All work and no Bass makes.... Well you get the idea.

Last weekends session feels like an eternity ago. The move went well and we're settled in already, so now I'm looking to Friday's planned session with a few boys from the Forum. The weather isn't looking great so far, but rest assured, I'll be out no matter what! Had a new toy turn up this week in the form of a very red Tenryu Red Luck Super Distance. Can't wait to get it out and take it through it's paces and with any luck, connect with a few fish.

Halloween Bassing

Managed a few hours out on the favourable Estuary mark yesterday. Arrived an hour or so after high tide, with the intention of fishing it down to low. Conditions were nicely overcast with intermittent, showery rain and wind was manageable. There was a huge swell running on the beach, which was just broken up before reaching us. Steve did cop a decent slab to the mid-section, which I thought was going to have him swimming, but he just managed to regain his balance. Got to keep your wits about you while wading this place, as essentially it's a run off into a surf beach which itself is a real hot spot with surfers from near and far.

I messed around for a while with different lures, using a Rudra suspended and drifted in the flow. After an hour or so of no interest, decided to put the Athlete SS out for a swim.

Casting well up river and then pretty much bouncing it along the bottom, just jerking it up every now and then to impart a little life. Pretty much exactly how I work an Xlayer in the same situation. It's using the Athlete this way that makes me certain the Driftbait's that I mentioned before are going to work at this venue. It wasn't long before I have a sharp snatch at the lure and it was fish on! A decent little scrap(as with all Bass in the main flow of the river) and I guided a lively 2lb Bass to my waiting Bogas.

A few more casts with the Athlete saw no more interest, so out with the Giant Xlayer(Ayu) and straight into the next fish. That pretty much set the pace, and next hour was pretty hectic with a total of 6 Bass landed. No fish of any size, all between 1-2lb, but the sport was great. Even had one fish leap well in to the air upon realising she was hooked.

I'm sure we could have seen more fish, but Steve gave me the wrong time(thought it looked pretty light considering the clocks had gone back!) and we set off back to the car. On the plus side, this gave us the time to stop off for a pint of Ale. Nice to wind down and reflect on the fishing.

Not able to get out for 2 weeks now(!!), as I'm moving this weekend. Staying in Plymouth, but just up sizing to a larger apartment. I'm sure drooling over tackle choices for next season will keep me going until my next session.... Just!