LRF - I could get into this!

May bank holiday came around and some friends had invited me and my better half to a wedding in Cornwall. The idea was to drop the kids off at the in-laws in Torquay, stop the night and then drive on into Cornwall to a b&b near port Isaac, with all that sea around it would've been rude not to take a rod along!

Now, light rock fishing or LRF as it is better known has grown massively in popularity in recent years as more and more anglers discover the sporting opportunies that the mini species which can be found in abundance all around our coastline can offer. The best way I can describe it is ultralite lure fishing at the seaside!

Usually for me, a trip to the sea involves me packing my beachcasting gear and ordering some lugworm at the venues local tackle shop but this time around I really quite fancied a dabble at the whole LRF thing as I'd never tried it before and I was hoping that it would add a whole new dimension to my already varied lure fishing exploits.

I did a bit of research on the internet with regards to lures, tackle and suitable venues and soon enough something like a plan was formulated. It felt quite odd packing such light kit for sea fishing and I have to admit to being quite dubious as to whether it would be up to the task!

Padstow harbour was to be my first port of call as I figured fishing vertically off walls into calm water would be the easiest thing to start with as it allowed me to exert the most control over the lure without having to worry about currents, rocks and tides too much. My research had told me that the first thing I needed to fish there was a permit from the harbour master as I was told I risked a hefty fine if I was caught without one. Fortunately the permit is just a formality, it's free of charge and valid for life plus I got some tips from the harbour master as to the different spots to try and the ones to avoid.

 

That sorted, I was soon tentatively dangling a tiny jighead baited with an ecogear aji-must alongside a moored boat completely unsure as to what to expect. My initial confidence soon began to wane however as, despite trying several spots, I never had so much as a tap.

 

I checked the time, it was nearly 10am and the harbour area was really starting to fill up with tourists. I didn't have too much time left myself as the wedding was at 2pm that afternoon and I had to get back to the b&b to get ready. I was just contemplating giving it up as a bad job when I noticed a couple of kids across the way chuck a load of fish bits in as they packed up their crabbing gear, the small fish topping over the 'loosefeed' was what really caught my eye and I was round there like a shot. I couldn't see anything on the surface upon my arrival but a couple of sharp taps on my first put-in really got my heart going even though I missed them. Next drop I connected with a fish straight away and swung in my first LRF-caught fish and my first ever Sand Smelt, I was most chuffed!

 

I managed a couple more afterwards to prove it wasn't a fluke before time got the better of me and I had to be gone. Although I was pleased to have caught, from what I'd been reading I really was expecting a bit more in the way of small bottom dwelling species such as blennys and scorpionfish. I figured a change of venue might be worth a go next time out.

After the wedding and subsequent reception shenannigans the previous night we headed back to Torquay feeling somewhat jaded and decided to blow the cobwebs away with a stopoff for something to eat at Brixham on the way. Obviously I'd already planned this little adventure beforehand as it allowed me to checkout the dangling opportunities around the towns breakwater! After convincing the missus I needed to take my rod along for our walk to the lighthouse I was soon having a cast around a likely looking feature for 'research' purposes (of course!)

 

In the all too few minutes I managed to squeeze in I had several good pulls but really couldn't connect with them so was non-the-wiser as to what the culprits were. I resolved to return at first light the next morning for a proper go prior to our long journey back to the midlands. That afternoon I also popped into the tackle shop in Torquay to pick up a few bits and ended up buying a slightly heavier 3-12g rod as I felt a little undergunned with the 0.5-7g I had been using. The currents off the breakwater were much stronger than in the harbour before and it was also extremely rocky.

The next day I was back, this time with my daughter Charlotte in tow, both of us proper determined to catch something. Once again I was getting lots of unhittable taps and decided to scale everything right down further and switch to dropshotting as opposed to fishing jigheads.

 

Straight away I was getting taps and still not connecting but after spotting some small wrasse darting in and out of the seaweed and rocks at my feet I decided to drop the lure on top of them to observe their reaction. They were on the bait instantly and although they were having a good go it became obvious that the problem was my bait and hook size. I swapped the size 8 for a 12 and the 1.5inch sliver of marukyu isome worm was reduced to half an inch. First put-in gave me a pretty little wrasse and I knew I was onto a winner!

A succession of small wrasse followed and it was really interesting watching them approach the bait and almost bristle at it in much the same way as perch do. It was also fascinating how they just appeared from nowhere every time the bait was lowered down amongst the rocks, the camouflage on those things is incredible. Charlotte was quick to get in on the action too and I ended up having a job prising the rod off her so I could have another go myself!

 

I spotted a few much larger shapes moving about further down the rocky slope and after much coaxing with a larger bit of worm I managed to hook one which looked around the 3lb mark. Now this thing really pulled and I struggled to stop it getting down into the rocks whereupon it promptly smashed me up, gutted! I couldn't hook another despite my best efforts so decided instead to stick with their smaller brethren.

Apart from a solitary goby all the fish we caught were wrasse and from what I can make out we caught three different species of them, Corkwing, Goldsinny and Ballan.

 

After a couple of hours I'd well and truly lost count of how many we'd caught but it had been a great trip for both of us. On my part it had given me loads of confidence in the whole LRF approach and for Charlotte it had given her lots of dropshotting practice to build on and obviously we both really enjoyed ourselves. Forget the bait fishing in future, whenever I visit the inlaws it's going to be LRF all the way now!

 

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Pitsford Predators

Following on from last years successful trip to Rutland water, the lads from the same Facebook group decided to organise a similar session on Pitsford water. The venue was to open it's doors early to predator anglers this year so we decided to book some boats there on opening day.

Having never been to the lake before I was surprised at how big it was. For some reason I had a picture in my mind of something much smaller but after setting out in the boat and motoring through the tunnel under the nearby road into the main body of water it became obvious we had a seriously long trip ahead of us to get to the dam end! The wind had really put a good chop on the water and we were motoring directly into it, waves crashed over the bow of the boat and we got soaked, the sun might've been out but it certainly wasn't overly warm.

Eventually we got to where we wanted to be near the bubblers and, after bailing out some water, we set about fishing. We had 35ft of water below us which seemed a good depth given the bright conditions. Not much happened for the first hour but I think that was more down to Phil and I getting used to handling and positioning the boat in the strong wind. Neither of us had boat fished in such conditions before so it was a steep learning curve for us but we got somewhere near in the end.

Phil struck first blood fishwise when his shad was smashed by something considerably larger than the perch we were hoping for. After an unbelievable battle we were surprised to see a small Pike of about 6lb break the surface, it pulled so hard we were convinced it was a large trout for most of the fight.

 

After that we had a couple of fruitless drifts along the dam wall before deciding to head to some shallower water. In the entrance to a large bay we found a lovely drop off which sloped from 23-25ft up to 8-11ft over a very short distance and it was here where we both found some fish. After a couple of missed hits I eventually connected with a small jack to open my account and Phil nailed another one too.

 

There seemed to be a few fish in this area and we both had another pike apiece aswell as missing/losing others then another boat moved in and it went dead. We decided to work our way along the windward bank from there back around the lake towards the road end. Over the next hour or so I managed another jack aswell as missing a couple more thumps before we found another area with a significant drop off where we concentrated our efforts.

More fish were landed albeit pike, the perch were noticeably conspicuous in their absence so I decided to go all out for old esox with the big lures. I was amazed that some pike were literally following the lure right to the boat in over 20ft of water and I even had a couple of hits right under the rod tip. I was fishing with Savage gear real eels and the small supply I had were getting chewed up pretty quick!

 

I don't want to steal phils thunder as I'm sure he will want to recount the story in detail in his own blog but he did catch an absolutely fantastic pike of 22.8 on very light tackle after a lengthy battle which involved me having to follow the fish around the lake in the boat big-game stylee!

 

Morning rolled into afternoon and after beaching in a picnic area for some lunch with our comrades the wind had dropped quite a lot and we headed back through the road tunnel into the area of lake in front of the boat dock. This side of the water appeared much shallower and we had an average depth of around 16-18ft and there seemed to be less weed also. Phil managed a jack and I had a follow from a very decent fish but it was slow eventually we found ourselves headed back to the area we caught well from earlier.

It didn't take long to get amongst a couple more pike but I had to switch to large spinnerbaits to provoke a response as the eels seemed to suddenly lose all effectiveness. Maybe it was because the fish had seen them being pulled over their heads in that area for most of the day.

As the evening drew in I became aware at just how much I'd caught the sun. Because it had been windy for much of the day I never really noticed it but now it had dropped I found I was absolutely glowing and I think a touch of sunstroke may have occurred because the next day I felt quite unwell as a result, another lesson learned!

That aside we were treated to a lovely sunset as we took the boat back to dock and another cracking day afloat came to an end. Pitsford is certainly a water I shall be returning to in the not too distant future without a doubt as there are some cracking fish to be caught there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Dawn raid

I needed to get some more species down on the list for the bloggers challenge and with limited time I decided an early morning attack on the local canal could well give me a few points. I had to be back home for 10am and it was 5.30 when I arrived bankside.

I began by chucking some hard lures about in my favourite Zander swim and despite getting a couple of savage pulls I couldn't connect. A switch to a soft lure saw me land a scrappy little Zed on my first chuck which went 1lb12oz.

 

 

My next cast saw me bump another then I couldn't buy another pull so I went back to the car to swap the lure gear for the float rod and set about trying to winkle out some more fish.

The wind was pretty horrendous which meant I had to fish down the inside track which wasn't where I really wanted to be. I managed to scrape a few different species together though, perch, dace, gudgeon, roach and a roach/bream hybrid, all small but all points!

 

 

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Braving the elements

First day back at work after the bank holiday and as I travelled to the gulag I couldn't help but notice that the weather conditions were screaming at me to go fishing! The wind was strong but very warm and rain showers intermittently poured out of the thick black clouds above, for the first time in ages conditions looked really good.

My local lake hadn't been at all good to me this year, in fact not a single carp had fallen to my rods and it wasn't for lack of trying either! As I sat in the office watching the wild weather battering the windows I visualised the carp stacking up on the windward bank of the pool, embarking on their first mad feeding spell of the year. I really needed to be there.

4pm arrived and I was out of the workhouse in double quick time and first out of the carpark by a country mile! after an ultra fast pitstop at home to eat and load the gear I was soon back on the road and headed to the lake. Upon my arrival there was already two anglers in residence with very little to report but fortunately neither were in my fancied areas. The wind seemed to be gusting from all different angles and no single swim jumped out at me. It was generally pushing towards the longest and blandest bit of bank on the lake which also has some very deep water in front of it so I decided to wait for the carp to tell me where to go.

Within a couple of minutes one stuck it's head out of the water in the vague vicinity of where I thought I should be so I headed around there. I opted for a boilie only approach using good old fashioned stringers as I think the fish are wary of little piles of pellets and groundbait because every man and his dog seem to be using pva sticks/bags and method feeders in there at the moment.

The weather lashed at my brolly to the extreme over the next hour and I soon got fed up with adjusting it to stop it blowing away. Somewhere in all the chaos though I suddenly became aware of a delkim warbling urgently and thank god for snag ears because my left hand rod was taking on an alarming bend as a fish made it's bid to get to the far end of the pool.

I leaned into the fish to try and turn it but it seemed hellbent on getting into the reeds along my margin. After a few hairy moments I managed to turn it towards open water where it was much easier to battle despite the ferocious wind making my wielding of the landing net somewhat difficult. A nice looking common was eventually netted and I was pleased to record a weight of 22lb8oz, my biggest from the venue so far.

After that I never bothered to recast as the weather had really started to close in and the drizzle became torrential, home beckoned! A quick result with a decent fish on a work night was a sweet reward for braving some truly shocking weather :-)

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Taking up the challenge

In past years some of my fellow bloggers have taken part in a big fish challenge whereupon points are awarded for specimen fish caught across three different catagories, river, canal and Stillwater. The number of points awarded is based upon the fishes percentage of the current record for that species. After seeing that the lads were running another one this year I thought it might be fun to have a go at it myself and, after a belated email to Russell Hilton to sign up, I now find myself in the lineup!

Everybodies got to start somewhere and after the major grueller I've been having of late I decided to head out to try and bag a couple of easy carp to kick things off. A trip to a favourite little pool in Leicestershire was the order of the day as I knew it would give me a double or two with the outside chance of a 20.

The rain was tipping it down upon my arrival which made for some uncomfortable fishing but It cleared up as the day progressed and I managed to find a few in the end. The biggest I had was a slightly disappointing 11lb on the button but points is points and I need every one I can get at the moment! I had a few bait robbing skimmers too and again it was all about the points as I weighed a veritable monster of 2lb5oz.

 

A mediocre start I know, But I'll be building on it soon enough for sure. A bonus koi touching double figures provided a nice end to my trip, shame they don't count in the comp though!

 

 

 

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Filling the void

All of a sudden the closed season is upon us and, for me at least, that time when something is badly needed to fill the angling void between the rivers shutting and the weather warming up for the summer species. Ordinarily I'd turn my attentions to bream and tench at this time of the year but a total lack of preparation and a reluctance to revisit waters of the past has conspired to put a dampener on things a little. Instead I decided to split my time between carp and lure fishing until hopefully a flash of inspiration or a better offer came along!

On the carp front things have been exceptionally slow, in fact as I write, a month into the closed season my tally stands at just a couple of fish to mid-double figures.

It's not for lack of trying though and although they've started to show on my regular water they've proven incredibly hard to tempt. Some Other anglers have reported catching one or two but the vast majority, myself included, are going home with dry nets which is most frustrating! Whilst we have had some warm sunny days it has still been very cold at night and the sunshine I think has put me into the mindset that everything should be feeding but in reality I think they are still only just waking up after the winter.

On a trip last weekend I suffered a lot of liners which told me there was fish moving about around my baited area but it wasn't until the evening when I finally received a proper take which turned out to be my first tench of the year, which was nice, but it wasn't my hoped for carp!

Even the lure fishing has been tough! I don't know what's going on with the perch of late but they certainly aren't in their usual areas and seem to be very finicky when it comes to feeding. I've caught a fair few of course, mostly on the dropshot, but certainly not as many as I was expecting from the conditions. Other lure anglers I've met on the bank have been struggling too so it's not just me.

 

The canal I mostly fish has been very coloured up due to the sudden increase of boat traffic brought on by the warmer weather. As a result bites have been hard to come by and lure fishing in coloured water never fills me with confidence at the best of times. To this end I started to think about what other attraction could be used to attract the fish to my lure besides action and colour and decided to experiment with rattles. Obviously, to get the loudest rattle, I would need to go down the hardbait route and after a bit of research (and asking those in the know) I settled on a couple of rapala and bill Lewis patterns to try.

My most recent session was to be my first with the new lures and upon arriving at the canal it looked fairly coloured and good test for the lures attraction. The first cast gave me an opportunity to check the rapalas action which proved to be what I can only describe as a rapid shimmy! On the next cast I was just admiring the feel of the lure through the rod when a gentle tap had me striking into a nice fish, result! It proved to be a Zander of around 4lb but as I fumbled about with the landing net it threw the hook leaving me somwhat disappointed! I needn't have worried though because a hefty thump right at my feet on my next cast saw me land another Zander of around 2-3lb .

After that I began to struggle with all the debris which was floating in the canal because my lure was like a magnet for it! More often than not I was bringing back twigs and other rubbish so, having already proven my rattle theory to myself, I decided to switch to the dropshot setup and went on to take around a dozen small perch over the course of the morning.

I've got a fair bit on at work and home over the next month so time will be limited but fishingwise I've got a few ideas in the pipeline so I'm hoping things take a bit of an upturn and I can start banking a few more!

 

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End of the season trips

The last week of the season has often been very good to me in terms of bigger fish and I was hoping that it would be a similar story this time around and booked a couple of days off work in anticipation. I had originally planned on perch fishing for the last few trips but suddenly every man and his dog seemed to be fishing for them and, even worse for me, my favourite stretch of river was proving to be extremely popular this year thanks to a few high profile newspaper stories involving perch captures from said river. Somewhat disgruntled I decided to bin the perch idea off altogether and try something else.

At the back end of last summer I found a lovely little pond in Staffordshire with some nice carp in and seeing as it seemed quite prolific I had it earmarked as a bit of a winter water. Unfortunately I never got round to fishing it in winter proper but seeing as I couldn't get it out of my mind I decided to give it a go.

As expected, upon my arrival, the lake was empty and didn't look like it had been fished much at all over the winter. I setup on the main body of the pool as I figured this would give me a good vantage point to spot any fish movement should it occur.

The weather decided to take a turn for the worse as the morning progressed and my maggot hookbaits remained untouched by the fish although the local tufted duck population seemed rather partial to them! Just after lunchtime I decided to reel in and have a mooch around to see if I could find any clues to the whereabouts of the fish.

The water was pretty clear and it was obvious that there wasn't much happening in the margins, that is until I arrived at the far corner of the lake and the water there was noticeably cloudy. Although it was the shallowest part of the lake, it was also the most sheltered and on the back of the cold wind to boot. There hadn't been any bird activity over there all day either so it didn't take a rocket scientist to work out there might be a few fish moving over there. I rushed back to fetch my kit sharpish but at this point divine intervention occurred and the heavens opened proper. I cowered under my brolly to wait it out but 30minutes later it was still going strong and I had seriously lost my enthusiasm to move! Shortly after that I decided to pack up on the next lull in the downpour and return on a better day!

The next day I wanted to fish for Chub on the Trent as I felt I had neglected them way too much this season and first light saw me stepping out on the bank and forging a path to my favourite haunts. The weather was in complete contrast to the previous day being bright and sunny if a little cold, good conditions I hoped.

The first spot I picked was my total banker swim, how quickly and how many I caught here would be a good indication of how the day would pan out. It didn't take long to get some interest either as my mashed bread and flake combo proved too tempting for the first fish of the day, a lively 3lber which gleamed nicely in the early morning sunshine.

A bumped fish on my next cast quietened the swim down somewhat and it took around 20mins before I had another pull. This fish was slightly bigger than the previous by the look of it but I never got chance to find out how big exactly because a large pike walloped it right at my feet and broke me off, a move was definately called for!

My next two swims never produced a rap despite being reliable spots in the past and the third gave me a missed bite within a minute of casting in then nothing else. I was somewhat disheartened and decided try one last spot before upping sticks to a new bit of river. It was very shallow but there was a distinctive crease in the flow where it came off the side of a gravel bar into slightly deeper water.

Ten minutes after casting in the rod tip tapped a couple of times and I hit into a decent Chub which was well over 4lb. It had a nasty looking wound on its side so I put it back ASAP without weighing and quickly got cast back in. Another ten minutes later and I found myself playing a heavy fish which stayed out in the flow, it kept me guessing right to the end and the hoped for monster chub suddenly became a Bream which was most surprising considering the scrap it put up!

A move to a new stretch followed and rather than trying my usual swims up there I decided to look for new spots in the shallower areas. The decision paid off aswell and I went on to take several more nice chub over the course of the afternoon.

Just before packing up I had a swimfeeder taken by a sizeable pike on the retrieve. The fish bit me off but was certainly large enough for me to start making plans to come down and catch it on my next trip out!

The following Friday I found myself setting up in the same swim armed with the dead baiting gear. It was a fairly tight swim so I opted to Floatfish a sardine under the rod tip. Unbelievably, as I was plumbing the depth, a jack hit my float and bit me off! The pike must've been really hungry in this swim!!

Once I got fishing properly I noticed that the river was starting to colour up and after a biteless hour it really was quite brown and starting to rise. The previous nights rain must've been heavier than I thought . I decided to move swim to some more sheltered water but before I did so I had a couple of casts with a small shad on the the lure rod. A gentle tug from deep in the murk at my feet had me striking into something heavy and I was pleased to see a very large pike break the surface like a crocodile. It had to be the same fish from the week before and having had a good look at it I knew it was a good upper double, maybe bigger. At that point it decided to wake up and one shake of its head had my shad flying out of its mouth and into the grass at my feet before, with a flick of its tail, it sloped back off out of sight, I was well gutted!

I did get a consolation Perch of over 2lb on the shad a short while later but the river was coming up fast and I didn't hang around for long before heading home with plans to fish the Soar for pike the following day which also happened to be the last day of the season.

I wanted to finish the season with a few fish under my belt so I headed to my favourite pike runs area where I knew I'd get at least some sort of action. The weather was surprisingly cold but fortunately the soar was running low and clear which was in total contrast to the Trent which by now was carrying nearly 3ft!

It took around half an hour to get some interest but I managed to lose the first two fish which picked up my baits to hookpulls. The third run I had more luck with and promptly went on to land my first pug nosed pike from the river which looked about 6lb.

 

It was obvious these fish were finicky feeders after being regularly fished for all winter, two fish lost to hookpulls and a third barely hooked at all had me thinking about my rigs. After two dropped runs on my conventionally hooked bait on the downstreamer I decided to drop a hair-rigged bait on the same spot. It was away within a couple of minutes and I managed to land the culprit successfully, properly hooked it was too!

 

Another jack to the same rod half an hour later had me thinking I'd cracked it but the local rowing club soon started up their usual Saturday morning activities and my action was killed stone dead. I was pleased to get a few fish anyway and an early packup at lunchtime was to herald the end of my river fishing season. I've certainly had better seasons but as long as I keep getting my string pulled there's no such thing as a bad season!

Now, a couple of weeks into the closed season I find myself in the doldrums slightly as the water is still a little too cold for the summer species to feed with any vigour and the canals suddenly have lots of boat traffic which makes them slightly more tricky on the lures due to the coloured water. I need a plan of action methinks..............

 

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