Return of the Mojo part 2

Heading south on Tuesday at 5am was a bit of struggle. The tides were ok so I thought it would be worth the effort. Arriving and getting the gear ready it looked like it could throw up some fog again despite the wind. I took a waypoint when my feet were on the beach and logged my trip with Belfast Coastguard again, something I always do as I fish alone mostly. I gave the area a good rinsing with the Fiish, SG eel, Redgill Evo and a couple of hard lures. It looked and felt really fishy so I figured that it was a matter of finding something that woke the Bass up. Maybe a noisy surface lure would work? I decided to give old faithful a run out. On every trip, kayak or shore I’ve used it this year but failed to take a fish off the surface, unusual as it is consistent catcher. Rarer than hens teeth these days and the last I own in the top colour I clipped on the  Mag Popper.

Three casts in and I had found a solution. First off the top this year and first surface caught from the kayak, nice fish too. It really wanted the lure, in fact it was the deepest hooked Bass I've caught. With the lure out of site I had to despatch the fish. It will be salt baked and enjoyed, something that I rarely do with Bass.

It was great taking fish off the surface again, feels like its been a long time. This fish missed it twice, pausing the lure it came back on it again as they sometimes do, great fun. I had five in the kayak like this off the top, one dropped off on lifting it in.

One for the Fiish BM in white and the one below on an Evo

I've enjoyed what Bass fishing I've done this year and hopefully I can manage a few more trips  before the bell goes.

 

So a couple of great days fishing off the yak. The sparks back and it's all good.

 

 

 

 

Return of the Mojo part 1

I’m not going to lie; I had lost the spark to get out there recently. Having lost two close friends over the summer and with domestic projects taking up time and money it’s been hard to get motivated. On Saturday, at the last minute I decided to take Monday/Tuesday off but before then, I travelled down to Moniave with my mate Billy .We visited our mutual friends, drank too much, ate well and had a great time catching up. Just what I needed really. On arriving home I checked the forecast and got my kit sorted for Monday, for once the forecast looked great, no wind and blue sky, excellent. What was even better was that I was fishing in Ayrshire, no two hour drive each way, 30 mins from my door, tip top.

As I launched on the beach visibility wasn’t great but it would burn off wouldn’t it? I hit a waypoint on my GPS about 500 yards out and got down to reaching my spot just under two miles away. I hadn’t launched here before but considered it to be a better option at LT rather than the last time I fished this mark. The distance travelled would be longer but easier at both ends of the trip in terms of entry and exit.

The fishing initially wasn’t spectacular but I was picking up a few fish on slow spun ragworm, my favourite presentation for Pollack, deadly if they’re not in the mood for lures. I was sure I should be doing better so I tried a Bass Assassin chartreuse/lime lure trolled to cover a little more ground. They liked this, numbers improved, as did the visibility, for a little while at least.

The vis was going downhill rapidly and the sound of foghorns in the distance increased and got closer.

The fish were still on the bite but I wasn’t totally comfortable. Having had a decent enough day I changed out my battery to one with full power to mitigate any problems with my plotter for the return journey and made a start back to the launch site.

30/40 yards maybe?

As luck would have it I came across some nice returns on the Lowrance. I was past the worst of the potential obstructions so decided to have a few casts. The next hour and half was probably the best local fishing I’ve had, ever. It was a fish every other cast, 2/3 pounds, great sport. I then got kelped by two better fish. I took two waypoints at each end of the spot where the fish seemed to be holding and re-rigged with a white SG eel and began fan casting the area. The average size increased, some real quality fish for this area . It was magic, screeching drag, fish taking almost at the kayak and going back down 20ft, taking on the drop, all sorts.

Unfortunately I lost 6 images from this part of the day, the light, the fog and the hassle of changing the position of the kayak to account for the position of the sun. I've also used a filter, poor I know but it's the best I could do to get anything from these fish which is a pity.

I rocked up on the beach to find it like a scene from the John Carpenter film. I asked a dog walker if she had spotted a silver car parked (checking her hands for hooks and knives first) obviously she hadn’t, she was shouting her dogs name, it had disappeared. Lesson learned, take your launch waypoint at the very start of the trip and plot a track kids. 500 yards out won’t cut in conditions like this.

Back on the Bass next. Would they play ball?

August blues

I was extremely busy in August with my job as well as the work I’ve been carrying out on our house.  This left me next to no time to fish but I’m glad to say it’s almost at an end. Time consuming and expensive  but worth it. My trip to Grafham didn’t go as well as I would have  hoped for( no Zander) and  being the only time I fished in August it left me feeling deflated, not unusual for August as it happens as I’ve noticed a seasonal pattern here. I’ll cover that trip off in a post later in the year as I’ll be back for another beating till results improve.


Having been off this week I managed to get ahead of the game on the home front and decided to head south to  D&G with only a fly rod. It’s been a very long time since I caught a Bass on the  fly, I thought I was doing well with my casting earlier this year when I was targeting Sea Trout, today I was truly pish. It’s one thing pinging lures 40/50/60 yards, the world becomes very small place with a fly rod, if you don’t know this you should try it.  Seemed to me like turning up to Turnburry with only a putter for a round. I had to re-wire my head. That's been needing done for decades anyway.  Such are the thoughts of a mainly lure angler with a flee rod in his hand.

Any fish would be a bonus and as the tide rose I thought I saw a fish chase my clouser up the rocks on a breaking wave.

Video still images are never great but I got what I needed for today. My GoPro is  now dead. Submersion in a bag of rice cured it for a wee while but it gave up the ghost today.

 

A couple of Bass and a handful of Pollack isn't the worst way to spend a Friday afternoon on a most rotten of neap tides.