Bait clips

Bait clips are something that come up in the shop on an almost daily basis so I thought it would be well worth an hour to write up my findings on them. There are several on the market and having tried them all I will do my best to give you, what I think, are there pro's and con's of each.


Why use bait clips?

Bait clips are designed as a device to that goes onto your rig to clip your baited hook onto. The idea is that they release the baited hook on contact with the water. This helps you in several ways.

The first is that it protects delicate baits like worm and crab as the bait doesn't take any of the massive pressure of the cast and stops the splatter of the precious juice.

The next is that it streamlines your rig. Because your bait is tucked in and not flapping about it is going to aid your distance and by a good amount.

It will also add massively to your bait and rig presentation. As I mentioned before, your bait doesn't take any of the pressure of the cast so not only do you not bust the bait up but it also stays put on the hook and doesn't slide round. It also keeps your rig body and snood tight so your snood doesn't spin around. When your rig hit's the water you can be pretty certain that it's not going to be tangled and spun up. This then gives you the confidence to leave your baits out a little longer.

There are of course many occasions when your not going to need to consider using a bait clip. If your fishing close in and not casting too hard then it's just an extra component on the rig that you don't need. I personally don't clip my live eel baits down either as I tail hook them so the main part of there body is below the hook so the eel just doubles back on itself and it kills them.

Rigs for bait clips

I will leave the intricacies of different rigs for a different blog but for now i will say that certain rig's are suitable for incorporating bait clips into and others aren't. This is because you are going to need tension on your hook length to keep it in the clip. I have mentioned in previous blog's that the mainstay of my fishing is done with pulley rigs. This rig work's beautifully with a bait clip because of the sliding nature of the main swivel. It keeps a nice even tension on your snood and spreads the load of the cast equally throughout the rig.

You can also use a bit clip with a paternoster but the issue you will find is that the snood and the rig body stretches so your snood will not be under the correct tension. You can get around this by making an adjustable paternoster (a rig I tried for several month's) and adjusting the tension for every cast but I have found this to be a pain in the arse so I don't bother.

There are of course many different rig's and hundreds of slight variations of these but I have definitely found that bait clips work best with pulley rigs.

Types of bait clips

There are plenty of different ways of clipping down your bait. Here is a run down of the most popular.

Breakaway impact leads are a good please to start. These have a bait release system built into the lead itself. You hook clips onto the bent piece of wire on the top part of the lead which has grooves in it to allow the water the push the red piece of plastic up which will slide the hook off of the clip. I have found these to be reasonably good but there are several issues that I have with them. The first is that you sometimes get the hook releasing prematurely as the clip isn't at enough of an angle. The next is the cost. They typically cost 60-70p more per lead then a standard one, not much in one sense but if you lose plenty of leads in a year then it all adds up. You would also need to use a lead clip to attach the weight itself. That said though these are minor niggles and the product itself isn't that bad but for me I prefer the flexibility of being able to change the shape and weight of standard leads without having to use the only shapes they do. Gemini also make a version of this lead called a splash down but not having tried them it would be unfair of me to make any comment.

These little clips are called breakaway Imps. They are a dual purpose lead clip and bait release system. You can see in the picture that you attach the lead to the metal clip and your hook goes on the little plastic grey hook. When your rig hits the water the plastic flap on the bottom of the plastic hook is pushed upwards which spins the clip around and releases your hook. These are the clips that I use myself. They are very streamlined and tuck in behind your lead very nicely giving you an aerodynamic rig. It's very rare that these don't release and they don't seem to eject the bait prematurely. Recently though, Breakaway changed the design of these (pictured) as apparently people were complaining that they were difficult to put together. They basically elongated the wire lead clip which made the clip easier to open up and put the plastic bit on. But an effect of this was that folk were losing the plastic part. But you will all be glad to know that they have reverted to the original design now, so no more problems.

These are Breakaway impact shields. They are threaded onto your rig body, above your lead clip. They need a stopper of some kind to work but all of the bits are included in the box when you buy them. Your bait is clipped in behind the cone section and when the clip hits the water it is pushed upwards towards the stopper which slides the clip at an angle and pushes your hook off. I have found that although these work fairly well they are big and bulky and also take a bit of extra time and patience when rig tying. As the stopper you tie is adjustable these do work well on a fixed paternoster rig as you can adjust the clip and not the snood.

The easiest and cheapest way to clip down your baits is to use a rig/bait clip. The rig body is tied to the eye of the clip and your weight just slides onto it. Your hook then tucks under the bent piece and releases when it hits the water. using these clips will by no means give you a fail safe release but they do the job. I tend to carry a pack in my box for emergencies. A little tip though is that these clips make brilliant rotten bottom clips for fishing rough ground when used upside down. You tie your mainline to bottom of the clip and your weak link to eye and the lead. Then you just hook the eye of the lead over the upturned clip and cast it out and your lead will come straight off of the clip and your lead is then only attached to your rig via your weak link.

I mentioned previously that Gemini make a splashdown lead but I have not tried it yet. Whilst putting this blog together I had a letter from Gemini with this flyer in it. They are producing a stand alone lead / bait clip which will come in packs of 5. I'm not certain that I like the look of them but they are due to be sending me some out by the end of the week to try out so I'll give them a try over the coming weeks and will update this blog as to my findings. I'll also have a few packets for sale in the shop if anyone else fancies giving them a go?








On a slightly different note I had my first Bass blank for many a month last week. We were kept very busy on the night catching plenty of whiting (up to 1 1/2lb) some big dog's and some reasonable codling so it wasn't the end of the world. I put it down to the fact that the sea just wasn't quite big enough and the tides were the neapest of the neaps. But things are looking up for the weekend with a 10-15ft ground sea coming in on the back of big springs so we are expecting to catch a few fish. Hopefully then, my next blog will be a report of that session.

As always I welcome any feedback on this blog or any other. Please feel free to add any comments on what you think and your own experiences of what I have to say. After all, I can only report on what I have found and everyone is different.

If you havn't already then please Like my facebook page for regular updates on what's on in the world of County Angler.

Sea safety

Within the last week a local angler was washed from the rocks by a freak wave in heavy sea's. He was in the water for over 20 minutes and, by all accounts, is lucky to be alive. This seemed an opportune time to log about safety.

Fishing is never without risk. When you spend so much time near the water then anything can happen. It might sound stupid to some but there are plenty angler's out there that would agree with me when i say that the adrenaline rush of a close shave is all part of the fun. But it's things like these recent events that remind you how careful you really do need to be. Certainly I am guilty of complacency. I fish the same marks in big ground sea's and the more time you spend on a mark the better you get to know how the sea has an effect on it-where the splash and run will come up to etc. This then gives you a false sense of security, which clearly could be deadly. With this in mind i'd like to give you all a few pointer's towards some step's that you can take to help avoid any potential danger.

Billy no mates?

The very first piece of advice I would give to anyone is to never fish on your own. I know that not everybody has the luxury of a like minded fishing buddy, who can usually fish at the same time and is happy on the same mark but with fishing forums and the like it has become a whole lot easier to find a like minded angler to fish with. This is imperative for yours and your fishing buddies safety. A good casing point of this is a story about a Newquay angler I know who went to a well known North coast ray mark that's about a mile from the car. The walk down is fairly easy but a little sketchy at times. He simply misplaced his foot, slipped over and turned his ankle. With this he was unable to put any weight at all so couldn't even contemplate the walk back to the car. Luckily for him it was a mark that has good mobile signal so he called the emergency services and was promptly airlifted off of the mark. It's just so easy for things like this to happen.

Tell somebody where you are going

Another thing that you should always do is to tell someone where you are going and roughly what time time you will back. They also need to understand exactly where the mark is. We anglers might know where pot dog cove or swamp donkey point is but your Mrs might not, so take the time to explain. Also bear in mind that there will be plenty of occasions when you might not be able to get onto the mark you wanted to but a quick text back home at least put's someone into the picture. If your going to be late then again, send a text to let someone know.

Take your phone

You mobile phone is probably the most important piece of safety kit an angler can have. Often marks don't have signal so it's always good to keep an eye on your phone on the walk so that you are fully aware of exactly where you need to get to so that you have the ability to make a call. It is also worth a look at buying a waterproof case for your phone. Good ones aren't horrendously cheap but the cost will still pale into insignificance when compared to the rest of your gear. You can buy something like this Aquapak to just use whilst your fishing. They also have the benefit of keeping sand and squid juice off of your phone. If you need something a bit more substantial then these Griffin survivor cases have had some awesome reviews. I've got one of these on my Christmas list.

Have a good look

It's always worth spending 5 minutes looking at what the sea is doing before you drop down onto your mark. It doesn't matter how well you think you know it, different conditions can produce wildly different swell patterns. Swell comes through in set's which can often be minutes apart and differ in size so make sure you spend enough time looking.

Use a good light

A good, bright, tough head lamp is another vital piece of equipment. Gone are the day's of heavy lead acid batteries and halogen bulb. LED light's are where you need to be looking now. They are vastly lighter, brighter and last for miles longer. They also don't need new bulbs every other session. There is a good lap to suit every budget. I'll do an in depth headlamp guide at another point but here are the headlamps that I can recommend.

A good budget lamp is a Chub SL200 at £24.99. It's got red LED's for the beach and a nice bright beam for the rock's.

LED Lenser H7's are a good mid price lamp at around £50 (they are available cheaper from the states but bear in mind that LEDco can tell an American one by the serial number and won't touch it for warranty purposes)

My favourite lamp for the rocks is a petzl ultra. There not cheap but they built like brick shit houses and should last a lifetime.

It's important to have enough light to light up the path, the rock's and pick fish out.

Keep watch

Whilst your fishing you need to keep on eye on the sea. Swell can kick up from no where on changing tides and changing wind direction. This is especially important when fishing on the rock's in the bigger swells. There are often occasions when you need to drop down a little lower to land fish. It doesn't need to be said now but whoever has the rod in their hand keep an eye on the swell while the other drop's down to land the fish.


Clothing

There are a couple of options as far as clothing goes. The first, and generally the most popular is to wear a good floatation suit. There are plenty of them on the market and each have there own features. I stock the ones that i think are the best built, made by mullion (the folk's who make the floatation and submersion gear for the RLNI) They also have positive buoyancy trousers that most don't have.

The other option is to wear good quality waterproofs and a life jacket. I perfer this option for a couple of reason's-Good waterproof's are lighter and much more breathable and a life Jacket has much more buoyancy then a floatation suit. Life jackets are light and small so don't really get in the way.

Footwear is also worth a note. I wear good quality walking boots and tend to get a good couple of years out of them. I have sold an awful lot of Snowbee rock hopper boot's recently. Although I haven't tried them yet myself I'm told they grip to wet rock like shit to blanket.

I hope that none of you reading this ever need any help from the emergency services but if any of the points I have raised help a single one of you then this post was worthwhile.

Just remember, it's only a fish. It's not worth your life.

Using sand eels as bait

The humble sand eel is about as versatile a bait as you are ever going to come across. I'd list the various species of fish that i have caught on eel but it's easier to say that there arn't many fish i can think for that won't take them.

With this in mind I thought I'd try and explain how to use them, when to use them and how to look after them.

The sand eels you buy from a shop are usually lesser sand eels. The greater variety are more commonly know as Launce which are also sold in most shops. They tend to hang out in shallower water over sandy ground and can bury themselves up to 30cm down. They are often seine netted from the shore using a small net and a small rowing boat.





Sand eel selection

Sand eels are generally bought as a frozen bait. They are usually caught and frozen down very quickly, so once defrosted they are still fresh. The very first thing to look at when you are picking sand eels up is the colour. They should have a silvery brown tint to them, but not too dark. If they are very brown then put them back as they will split when your hooking them up. They should be solid and be in an air tight vacuum packed bag. There are plenty of on-line bait suppliers that will send bait directly to your door but sand eels realy need to be bought from your local tackle shop and kept frozen for as long as you can before you need them. If they have partially defrosted (which they will be, even if they are send on a next day courier) then again, they will split when you use them and be useless)

Most shops will also sell different sizes of sand eel. You need to think about your target species when selecting what size of eel you need. If your fishing for smaller fish with smaller mouth's then use smaller eels. I would use smaller eel for mackerel and Pollock spinning, medium eel's for Turbot fishing, large for Ray fishing and extra large for Bass fishing.

Many shop's will also stock live eel's. But let me tell you from my own experience that this isn't easy. You need the space, the equipment, the time and the supply of them. Even with all of this you can lose a tank full of eel overnight for no apparent reason. When you can get them though these can be a killer bait.


How to hook and present sand eel's

Getting sand eels hooked up properly is of great importance. Not only because bait presentation to the fish is paramount but because a badly hooked eel will spin up your trace leaving it sitting there without the chance of a bite. For frozen eel I always take the tail off as this will act like a propeller and spin your trace up. I then thread the hook through the eel and bring it out near it's head. Then i cut it's head off just behind the gills as this will let the blood out giving you a better scent trail. I tend to use a pennel hook (a free running hook on your trace line) to hook through the top of the eel. This not only helps in hooking fish but keeps the eel in place. I have found that a good, fresh eel, hooked nicely and with a pennel means that i don't need to use bait elastic.

Here is a link you a video showing how i hook my sand eels.

Live eels are totally different. They are usually supplied by the dozen and need to be kept alive. This can be done by using either a bucket full of salt water and an aeration pump or by keeping them in a small cool box with a cool pack wrapped in news paper. A tea towel dampened down in salt water will then provide them with all of the moisture they need. Eels will live happily for 12 hours+ using this method and it's the method that i use. Generally though live eel will only be available from shops between May and October. Hook wise i use a carp hook for live eel. Korda wide gape X's in a size 2. They are small hooks but have plenty of guts. I then just nick the hook through the skin near the tail and tie a couple of half hitches over the tail and the eye of the hook. Beacuse you are only nicking him through his skin he will stay alive on the hook for ages. I would do a video but i'm not sure that Youtube would approve of me putting a hook into a live creature.

There are, of course, many other ways of doing both but these are the way's that work for me.

As always i like to clip down to my sand eel baits using pulley rigs with Imps as this will aid in distance and stop the spinning effect.

Another advantage to using sand eel is the cost. A pack of large eel will cost you £1.80 in my shop and that would do one rod for the whole night, so a couple of packs and that's your bait sorted. Certainly bassing wise your never going to get as many bites as you do whilst using lug but you will pick the better fish out.

So give them a try and as always, if there is anything that i have forgotten to mention then feel free to ask via the comments section below or on my facebook page. There is no such thing as a stupid question, just a stupid answer.

My last few sessions

It would be nice to blog about every single session I have but unfortunately, not all sessions are blog worthy. I could pad out every report with gumpf but if I lump them all together it's a bit easier to fill a page or two.

Rock mark Bassing (1st November)

You'll see from previous reports that through the autumnal storms we had some fantastic Bass fishing whilst the sea was up. The charts showed that the swell was dropping for the coming week so made sense to take advantage of the last it and get out to see if we could winkle a few more out. Woody was busy with other things that night so I made a quick call to my mate Gary, who is always up for a session (the joys of being retired eh!) and we arranged to meet up on the rock. I turned up to find a perfect sea so quickly got my gear on and made my way down.

Gary had already been been fishing for an hour and had caught 3 or 4 codling and had a couple of 2lb+ Bass on the rock that he had caught within the the last 10 minutes. It didn't take me long to strap a rig on, bait it up and cast it seawards. Within a couple of minutes were were both into fish.

As per the last session this just continued on for the next hour and a half or so with both of us catching a mixture of reasonable sized Bass, Small codling and the odd dog fish. Everything was coming to lug worm again as anything remotely fishy would have been hammered by the dog's within seconds.

The next fish was a bit more of a surprise with Dennis Taylor landing this lovely little 3lb Codling. Then all of a sudden the sea flattened off and we went from having a bite a chuck to pretty much nothing so we packed up and made our way over  to the inside rock to see how a couple of mates ,Christian and Beiber, were getting on. I've given up trying to hide my marks from Christian. I think he's got a tracker attached to my car as every time I have been somewhere and caught fish, guess who turns up the day after!

We were greeted by this fantastic sight. A Smooth hound of about 8lb. We don't see to many in Cornish waters so they are always nice to see and this must have lead him a merry dance in deep water in a biggish sea. They'd had a few other fish but nothing to write home about and not half as many as we had. I would have swapped all of my Bass that night for this chap though.




A couple of beach sessions looking for another ray

With the conditions dropping it was perfect to get back out onto the beaches and see if there were still any ray about. The joy of ray fishing is that if you don't catch any ray then you are still more then likely to catch a few Bass and that's exactly what happened. Both myself and Woody had a few Bass each and both missed run's, which were obviously ray so they are still out there. I didn't take any pictures though as all of the Bass were only a couple of pounds.


Another beach session on the ray (6th November)

With a house full of visitors I was happy to get back out onto the beach. The tides were looking better then the previous trips and Tom, my sisters boyfriend was keen on coming out fishing. It wasn't going to be the greatest night to helping out a total newbie but he was keen and picked things up nicely the last time I took him so I borrowed some waders from the only other guy I know who has canoe feet and we set off for the beach, picking Woody up on the way. It was another testing night with the usual long surges that you get on a flat north coast beach on big tides. This meant a wade out 60 yards and a big cast which, by the time your back at your sand spike, means your fishing at 150 yards or so. This makes bite detection a bit more difficult, especially in the breeze but we didn't manage too badly.

I finished the session with 4 Bass and Woody missed a good run first cast. I'm glad to report that Tom coped admirabily and landed his first Bass from a Cornish beach. Good job all round.








More ray fishing (8th November)

With all of the fishing I had squeezed in over the last 10 days I was planning on staying in for the rest of the week but i had a call from a friend, Pete Glassback, asking if I fancied another session on the beach before the weather turned and the swell picked up again. Initially I was amendment I was going to stay in but I figured this might well be my last chance of a decent ray this year. After much deliberation I decided to go and arranged to meet Pete in the car park between 19:30 and 20:00. Upon arrival the sea was a little bigger then had been forecast but it just within the limit's of being OK. The surge had also gotten a bit longer. None of it was too much of a problem though but it did make for a hard night's fishing when coupled with a steady 20mph South easterly, gusting to quite a lot more.

Pete was first off of the mark with plump little 2lb'er followed by a steady stream of bites and fish for me.

We were just talking about going home when I saw a small but definite bite on my rod. Nothing came of it for the next 30 seconds or so I put it back into the tripod to get myself a drink. A minute or so later I had another bang so quickly picked up the rod and stuck into what was a weighty fish. Bigger Bass don't tend to fight too much on the beach until they get into shallower water and I wasn't certain if i had a big Bass or a small ray on until it was about 30 yards out when I could tell of certain i had a Bass on. It was shaking it's head and going mental. Pete waded out into the surge to get behind the fish if the unthinkable happened and I hear "you spawny bastard!" I'm starting to get excited now as I haven't had a single 'proper' Bass this year. "How big?" i shouted and all I got back was a laugh. That's when i saw a big flash of silver. It looked massive. That's until I saw that I had in fact got 2 bass on 1 bait. One on the main hook and the other on the pennel hook. I was totally gutted but it was another two for my tally.

I ended the session with 4 to Petes one. I'd shown the old boy how to go on and was happy for it. The fish had really only just come on the feed properly as wew were leaving but it was already 23:00 on a school night and by the time we'd walked back to the car's, got our gear off, got home (and Pete had to drive back to lanson) and cleaned the gear off, sorted the bait out and cleaned up the Bass it was going to be a late enough night.

Now I'm definitely staying in for a couple of nights...........

Thanks for looking and don't forget to like my facebook page.

Shock leaders

I'm sure there are plenty of you that read this blog that i am about to teach to suck egg's, but this is more for the benefit of those of you that are newer to this glorious sport. Here is my advice and thought's on it.

I'll start by saying that all i can tell you is what i personally think and my experiences. I have yet to meet another angler that does things in exactly the same way. I've fished pretty much twice a week for 6 years with Woody but we both do things slightly differently. Different rod's, different reel's, different hooks and different knot's plus, I'm sure, many more.The point i'm trying to make is that we all do things slightly differently and just because i say it, it doesn't mean i am right. It's just my experiences with it.

What is a shock leader?

A shock leader is a length of heavier breaking strain line that is attached to the end of your mainline.

Why and when should you use a shock leader?

In virtually all fishing situations you should use a shock leader. I believe it's your responsibility as an angler to fish in a safe manner. Safe for you, safe for your fishing buddy and safe for the many members of the general public we all undoubtedly come across whilst fishing. A lead can be traveling 150mph when it's leaving your rod tip which could easily be deadly. There are certain times when you might not need a leader though, like when your rough grounding with 30lb+ mainline and only lobbing baits out, or spinning light lures but if your bottom fishing from the rocks or the beach then if you follow the following rule then you won't go too far wrong. Use 10lb breaking strain shock leader line for every ounce you are casting, so 50lb if you are casting 5oz leads. What i have found though is that 60lb shock leader is perfectly adequate for 7oz leads and big bait's, cast hard. Certainly in the brand that i use it is anyway.

What are the advantages of using shock leader? 

Aside from the safety aspects of using shock leader there are several advantages (and also disadvantages)

The first one for me is abrasion resistance. When your fishing from the rocks the closer the fish gets to the shore, the nearer it gets to the abrasive rocks. The higher breaking strain line you use, the better it's abrasion resistance so you are able to lift fish over rocks when 18lb mainline wouldn't stand a chance.

The next is that it minimizes snap off's. Because shock leader is able to take the massive strain of casting hard you won't lose nearly as much gear.

I'm sure that there are many of you that are reading this this that will agree with me when i say that i like the security of the shock leader. When you playing a big fish in a big sea or a beach that has a big shore dump it's a lovely feeling to get that leader knot on to your reel so you've got the security of heavier line.

I suppose i should also mention the disadvantages. Any knot in any line is a weak point. This Means a good knot is required. Another point is that it will slightly slow your cast down as the knot you use rattles through the eye's but again, another reason for needing a good knot.

How do you do it?

As i have mentioned, I use 60lb shock leader for virtually all of my fishing. My own personal favourite is Ultima Powerflex (and I'm not just saying that because I sell it, rather i sell it because i know it's good) and I tend to use longer leaders then the general consensus because, as I said before, I like the security of landing fish on the heavier line. Most would advise that you only need enough for 4 or 5 turns on your reel, then length of the rod and the drop from your rod tip to your rig (20ft or so) I use more like a 40 ft leader but a you do sacrifice a bit of distance on your cast by doing this. It will also catch the tide a little more and will collect a little more weed as but i make these slight sacrifices for the security a longer leader gives me.

Knot's wise i use a leader knot called a spider hitch. Here is a video of how to tie it or feel free to ask for a demonstration next time your in the shop. I use it because it has never once let me down and it's very easy to tie when your hands are cold, wet and windy. You end up with 2 small knots as opposed to one, and a short length of  doubled up line but i feel the extra knot strength that this gives you is worth it.

Here are other leader knots that other people use and links to help you tie them. I'm sure that there are plenty of advantages to each and there are others that I won't have mentioned but it's all about confidence.

The albright knot This the knot i used to use but i binned it after i had one slip whilst attached to a big eel.


The blob knot (usually only used on the tournament field)

The standard leader knot there is also a variation of this knot where you can tie the bigger loop on both sides.

The blood to blood knot

The double grinner knot

The binimi twist This is also a knot I used to use. It's notorious for being difficult to tie but it's easy once you have the hang of it. My issue with it is that it only gives you the same loop as a spider hitch does but involves a lot more messing about. No doubt the loop is stronger but I have never had a spider hitch give up on me.

Tapered leader's are also worth a mention. These are a set length so you usually get 5 or 6 on a spool. They taper off from thin line into your leader. 16 to 60 lb line is common. The idea behind it so that you get a smaller leader knot but my personal opinion is that you lose most of the benefits that i have talked about before and also that the knot strength of 18lb main line to 16 lb tapered leader is always going to be lees then it would be for a proper leader.

The colour of line is also something i get asked about a lot and when it comes to leaders my rule of thumb is that i use a clear leader on a beach and a coloured leader on the rocks because you have less space to cast from the rocks you get a few more tangles and it's just so much easier to pick them out when they are high viz. I don't subscribe to the theory that the fish can see the line if it's bright, or even if they can the odds are they won't have a clue what it is so it wont put them off feeding.

It makes me realise how much of geek i am when i can write over 1200 words about shock leaders but I hope that this has been of use to some of you and if there's anything that i haven't mentioned then please feel free to comment below and ask.

Light showers?

Those of you that are lucky enough to live near the sea would hopefully have gone to have a look at it over the last 2 days. For those that don't let me tell you that there has been one hell of a sea running. It was very, very big.

For me that mean's one thing. Rock mark Bass fishing. The tides were spot on. Nice big tides and at the right sort of time. The wind wasn't a problem either. 20 Mph southerlies would be blowing right over our heads. The only issue was the rain. It was hard to decide which forecasting to go with but either way it was going to rain. Being an eternal optimist i talked Woody into it with a promise of "light showers, clearing in an hour or two" which was of course, total bull shit.

As i sat and waited for Woody to turn up the rain just got worse. It was a mix of moderate rain with much heavier showers. But I'd got my gear sorted and with the conditions as they were i was going fishing come what may.

I was glad to arrive at our chosen mark and see that no one was on it. Usually there are plenty different places to fish on this mark but on a 10' sea you would be taking your life into your hands going anywhere but the highest point.

The sea was raging. Big, thick, powerful ground swell filled the bay, building from a good half mile out. It was going to be a serious night. One in which the utmost attention was going to need to be paid. The rock's were obviously wet through and very slippy. Where we were fishing we would be safe but extreme care had to be taken when dropping on to the slippy lower ledge to cast.

It was clearly going to be a one rod night. We'd both put two into the car but fishing one rod in wet, windy and swelly conditions is no mean feat, never mid two. Armed with an AWB and Torium 14 i quickly set myself up with a short pulley rig with 40lb trace and two 5/0's, popped a big lug worm on and tightened up the grip wires on the long tail, long grip 7oz Gemini leads I'd brought with me. I carefully made my way down to the bottom ledge and walloped one out just onto the edge of where the white water cleaned up a little and made my way back to my box.

Woody filled the next 10 minutes moaning about the "light showers" but by god it really was raining. There was just no let up. 10 Minutes in and we were both wet through to the bone.

It tends to take several minutes to get used to the movement of your rod tip at the start of a windy session and the monster swell was doing a good job of making it even harder but after a couple of minutes, BANG. A typical Bass bite, a series of short, hard , fast pull's. A quick strike and i was into a fish. Obviously nothing massive but enough to warrant a careful trip down to the lower ledge to land it. A couple of minutes later i had my first Bass of the night on the rock. He was just around minimum but i always put fish of that size back so i dropped down as low as i dare so as to give the fish the best chance of surviving the 20' or so it was going to dropped. But as usual he was gone in a matter of seconds.

Another single lug worm was threaded on and banged back out, a couple of minutes passed and Bang. Another bite. But i missed that one and had popped out the gripper so it had to be brought back in and re loaded with another lug. The bites came fast and furious and in the first half an hour or so I'd landed 3 Bass up to a couple of pounds, dropped a bigger one on the lift and missed several bites but unbelievably, Woody, sat right next to me, casting into the same area with a similar rig and the same bait hadn't even had a touch. After a few more minutes of talking about the "light showers" he was into them too, landing another fish around minimum size, but again, that was carefully released to grow a bit bigger.

Moving between the lower ledge and upper ledge was becoming tiresome so we settled on the lower ledge to save a bit of messing around. At this point i was beginning to lose count of just how many i had caught. It was literately a bite a cast, every cast for me. Woody kept up, missing a few bites and hitting into several more. The only issue with staying on the lower ledge was that as  the tide dropped the rock that sends spray up became exposed and several times we were both hit square on with a jet of spray you would swear had come from a fireman's hose. Not that it really matter as the "light showers had seen us both dripping wet anyway. But it's amazing how you forget about the "light showers" when your catching fish.

I was just in the process of casting another bait out when Woody hit into something much bigger. His HSM was bent double. I gave him a minute or so to get to grips with the fish and then unleashed the full 350 lumens of my Petzl ultra headlamp to try and pick the fish out and to light up the reef that had by now appeared in front of us, to give Woody the best chance of timing his retrieve as a bigger swell washed over the reef. I spotted the fish from around 30 yards out. It was clearly a big Bass. Just how big was impossible to tell. It disappeared again as it saw the light. I picked it up again at about 20 yards out and this time had a much better view of the fish. Again, it's hard to guess a size from 30' up and 20 yards out but this was a minimum of 7 or 8 pounds. As the fish hit the brightest spot of the lamp it turned, dropped its head and with a couple of flicks of it's massive tail, it disappeared back into the depth's, nearly pulling the rod out of Woody's hand as it did so. I made a dash for my my seat box to grab my rigging gloves to make an attempt at hand balling the fish up as it was going to be rather difficult to winch. But by the time i had put my rod down, loosened the clutch, made my way back up over the slippy rock's, fished my gloves out of my box and made my way back down he had already started lifting it. And yes you guessed it. The lead got stuck, the fish gave a shake and off he came. Gutted.

Despite this the bites just kept on coming and carried on doing so until we ran out of bait. A whole pound of lug worm gone within about 2 hours. Between us we must have landed 15 - 20 Bass with the best being around 3lb, a couple of 2's and several just short of 2. Woody also landed a small codling and a shore rockling.

I'd have dearly loved to take a few pictures of a few fish on the night but it was honestly impossible. Taking any electrical device out in that rain would have resulted in certain death for it. But pictures or no, it certainly was a superb night's fishing. I'm going to go again tonight and with similar conditions i would hope for a few more, but tonight i don't think we should get away without any "light showers"

Planning your sessions

Being sat in a tackle shop i get to see an awful lot of people who are going fishing but it never fails to amaze me how many folks don't take the swell, wind and tidal conditions into account when deciding where and when to go.

With this in mind i figured i should share the tools i use to help me.

In my opinion, the biggest step an occasional angler can make is to go from "were going on a Friday night because that's when we always go" to optimizing there fishing time and going when the tides and conditions are the best. Don't get me wrong, i personally don't have all the time in the world to go fishing. Six days a week i'm out of the house for around ten and a half hours and like everyone else, i have to make time for my family. On average i try to get at least two session's a week, maybe more if we are catching fish but there are plenty weeks that I'll not bother at all. I've given up flogging dead horses. If it's not worth going, it's not worth going. My point though is that you need to think about the best times to going as opposed to just going for the sake of it. Maybe try going for 2 short session's as opposed to one marathon.

At the start of every week I'll get together with woody and have a good look through the time and size of the tide's, the speed and direction of the wind and the general weather conditions. We'll then throw in a few idea's of where is likely to fish in the given condition's for that day but the critical thing is that we never commit to fishing any mark on any day but more make a general plan and then see how thing's pan out with the weather and wind and then make a decision on the day. You all know how thing's can quickly change from what was forecast earlier on in the week.

I try not pay a great deal of attention to one website for weather condtions but more look around several sites and try to build up my own picture of what i think will happen.

Below are a list of sites i use to try and predict what i think will happen and thus plan my week's fishing from there.

Magic Seaweed is the site i spend the most time looking at. It gives you the swell, the wind speed and direction, the tide sizes and times and a general overview of the weather. There are also eyeball reports of many beaches where users of the site upload the real time conditions that they see right in front of them. They also have a good selection of webcams (but generally only on the North coast beaches) which helps even more. One tip i would give you is that the swell and wave height are rarely correct. The general size is always accurate but they are measured on offshore wave buoy's and it tends to lose a bit of it's sting by the time it reaches the shore. My personal method is to knock a third off of the wave height and that is normally about right. They also have an excellent app that is easy to use and seems to be more reliable then some other weather app's.

Fishing wx is another site that gives you an awful lot of information. You have a quick overview of the week and then a much more detailed look at everyday. Weather wise it seems to be the most accurate site i look at but if anything it tends to be on the optimistic side. Again, it is easy to navigate but the site itself can be frustrating as sometimes it takes an age to load pages and sometimes doesn't bother at all. It's worth persevering with though.

Wind Guru is worth cross checking with the above sites for the wind speed and direction. Just try not to pay a great deal of attention to the gust speed's under the main wind speed as not matter what is happening, it seems to love giving silly gust speeds which rarely come to fruition. They also have a great app that is well worth a download.

Tiger24 has some very useful webcams if you fish the North coast. But for a reason unbeknown to me, if i leave a tab open for a while it seems to crash my browser every time, without fail. I don't know if anyone else suffers with this but the website is definitely safe-I've just put it down to a flash conflict.

Now I can't tell you when the best time to be going to your selected venue are but it always pay's to make mental notes when the fish come on and when they go off. The more you persevere with a mark the knowledge you will build of it and the less time you will waste waiting for the fish.

With the bloody forecast we have had to cancel our trip to Chesil again this weekend. But it's not the end of the world. The sea is getting up and the wind is picking up. As I've said in a previous blog, there is nothing better then fishing in a 10ft sea and 30mph southwesterly and if I'm being honest, i was a little bit gutted to be missing out on my favorite conditions. Hopefully in my next blog you'll be seeing some pictures of the lunker Bass we have hauled out.

If any of you guy's have any other websites you use for session planning feel free to let me know in the comments and I'll update the blog.

Don't forget to have a look at my Facebook page and click on the like button.

Dedication and perseverance paid off

With Woody catching that that ray last week we've been eagerly awaiting the wind and swell to ease back so we could get back out on them.

Last night was pretty much the first night the conditions were sensible enough to go and after checking the webcams at various intervals throughout the day a last minute call was made to go for it.

The only issue was the late tide. It was low water at 23:00 and with the fact that most of the North coast surf beaches are flatter then a ballet dancers tit's it would have been futile to try and fish the dropping tide. So we arranged for me to pick Woody up at 20:45 and after a 15 minute drive and a slow set up we'd be into the slacker part of the tide and it wouldn't be too bad chasing it down the beach.

I'm not usually to keen on arranging trips to go out later because after a hard day at the shop drinking coffee and smoking fag's I'm usually worm out and the moment i sit down that's the end any aspirations of going fishing. That coupled with a massive roast dinner the Mrs had waiting for me when i got home meant i was firmly glued to the sofa with little chance of moving.

But with a couple packs of Eel in the cool box and the chance of ray i somehow managed to haul my arse off of the sofa and get my gear sorted. It wasn't too much of a mission as my TSR's we still on my rod's from the last session and my beach bumbag was still loaded with all of the gear i needed. With the big tides and reasonable swell though i decided it would be fool hardy to try and fish two rod's. As much as i like to fish two rod's sometimes it's just better to concede that fishing one rod can, not only be easier but also be more productive. With any year's experience of fishing the beach we were going to i knew full well that on a big tide, with reasonable swell there would be a big surge which would mean wading the best part of 100 yards casting, and walking back and leaving an unattended rod for the best part of 5 minutes. Forgetting to loosen the drag and getting a good run could well result in seaward bound rod.

So, by 21:00 we were in the car park, waders on, jacket on, bumbag on, hat on and headlight on. A quick look down over the beach showed the tide was miles away, a bit more swell then there had been earlier and a fair amount of weed on the high tide line with other bits spread down the beach. I wasn't massively happy but I popped my rod together and set off for the beach to be called back. Guess which numb skull had brought the butt section of a zippy HSM and the tip section of a Century TTSM? I'll give you a clue.....It wasn't me! So back to car, all the gear off back out of the car park and back to Woody's house to get a matching rod section. Not a great start but these thing's are sent to test us. It was very tempting to say bugger it and go home as losing half an hour of what was always due to be short, hard session wasn't ideal.


By around 21:30 we were actually ready to go and quickly walked to our preferred spot. As we had thought there was a massive surge running and there was bound to be a hefty left to right pull. A southerly wind would also put a bit a left wind bow in the line. Common sense, something woody obviously lack's, then dictated a walk left from the sand spikes, wade left and a long cast left. This seemed to work perfectly as, the time we were back at the sand spikes it seemed to be nice and straight.

That first 5 or 10 minutes after your first cast is probably my favourite time of time any session. You've missioned to the mark, got hurriedly set up and baited up and cast out but you can then chill out, spark one up and crack a tin of Strongbow. But unfortunately that time didn't last too long. My tip bent right over to be follwed by a couple of short bounces. It certainly didn't look like a bite so picked the rod up of a few second's which only compounded my first though-weed. It's not what you want after the mission we had just had, you've waded out miles, cast even further, just started to relax and then you've got to bring the bugger in and go through it all again.

"not to worry" i though to myself. I always like to check my first cast fairly quickly to see how my rigs are doing in the condition's and if i need to make any adjustments, so i would have checked it soon after anyway. It's always far more annoying getting weed though when your raying as it's always difficult to tell for certain if it's weed or if it's a ray as a big lump of weed can catch in the rip and feel very much like a fish. Anyway, it was weed and my rig was perfect so i strapped another eel on and cast back out again.

Next was woody with more weed, then me, then him, I'm sure you get the picture. It was worth persevering though as we were fast approaching slack water at the bottom of the tide which would mean less rip, less wading and hopefully less weed.

Then around 20 minutes from the bottom of the tide Woody had the same tapping we had been getting for the last hour or so but then it went right. And not just a touch right put well right. It had to be a ray. A good little scrap later resulted in another fine double for Woody.

The Small eyed population has really suffered in recent years. For whatever reason they have been very few and far between for the last few years. Whether it's commercial activity or just a natural cycle i don't know but either way, you don't see to many big small eye's anymore so this one was again released after a quick weigh and a couple of pictures.





As a good fishing buddy does i spent 10 minutes or so helping Woody land it, weigh it and takes some pictures whilst trying to keep an eye on my rod. Bite detection was difficult when we were stood under the rod's which made it pretty much impossible from 20 yards away. On returning to my rod's my line was slacker then a prostitutes knicker elastic and well right-a ray...but a quick strike gave no resistance and no fish. It must have been a ray as there was no sign of weed on my line but sometimes you've got to accept your going to miss a few. Given the choice of my mate losing a good ray in the surge whilst i stood by my rod or helping him and risk missing a fish I'd be helping him out every time, but he would do, and has done the same for me.

Within a couple of minutes of my next cast a small but obvious bite resulted in my first Turbot of the year.He was in size so could have come home with me but this is another fish you don't see to many of so it was nice to see him swimming away after I'd managed to safely get the 5/0 Sakuma manta out of his greedy little gob. He's next to a 7oz long tail Gemini lead to give the picture a bit of perspective.

The next cast highlighted why you need to be careful on a beach. I was very close to grabbing this little weaver fish before i noticed it. A sting from this fellow would have meant the end of the night. Funnily enough he was hooked fair and square in the mouth but he was smaller then my hooks so it was an obvious fluke and I'd probably picked him up on the retrieve.

Next up was a dog fish. I've said before that i never mind catching doggies but this one was particularly upsetting as it had a bit of weed on it and i was certain it was a ray. Especially when i picked it up with my headlight in the surge and saw the orange eyes staring back at me. With the weight and the eye's i was certain it was my first small eye of the season. I couldn't have been more gutted. But that was species number four for the night and fish number 3 (or 2 really) for me.

Last but not least I had a small Bass. Just over minimum but yet another species for the night. 5 species on a beach at the end of October!!! Then around midnight it started to rain. It was a shame as we were looking forward to the pushing tide but with the wind, the weed, the rain, the rip, the time and the tide it would have been too much to carry on.





It just goes to show that if you put the effort in and persevre when the going get's tough you can often get the rewards. Yet again i didn't catch a ray which is a bit gutting but we fish in a partnership so really it doesn't matter who catches the fish as long as we catch fish. Our next session is going to be up at Chesil, when we go away this weekend. Expect a good report from that too!

Hedge your bet's with bait and tackle selection

I can Safely say that Bass are my primary target fish. Once you have the Bassing bug it can stay with you a lifetime and for many angler's-it has.

One thing all anglers should always be aware of, especially when you expect the fishing for your target species is likely to be slow, is what other species are likely to be on your chosen mark and then making slight changes to you usual tactic's. Of course you need to keep "what if i hook into a biggy" in mind so you don't want to go silly but a shorter cast, a drop in hook sizes or a drop in bait sizes can result in a fish you didn't even know were there.

On the beaches that me and my buddy fish there are plenty of other species to think about.

Turbot are common, though it's rare to catch a good size fish from the beach. The better Turbot generally come from deep water headlands. When targeting Bass using sand eel on a beach there is always a chance of a turbot and the bigger hooks don't usual deter them and they only tend to appear when it's a little flat. If I'm looking for a turbot I'd fish slightly longer traces then i normally would, cast a little further, drop down from 5/0's to 3/0's and cut the head and tail off of my sand eel to make slightly smaller bait. This then gives you a better chance if there are any Turbot on the beach but you will still quite happily catch Bass.

Plaice / Sole / Flounder are also reasonably abundant on the North coast beaches at certain times of year. I've grouped them together as they all tend to be caught when using Lug. Me and my fishing buddy have a blanket ban on using Lug worm from beach. It certainly results in more bites but catching bigger Bass on Lug worm is rare. Again, you'd want to drop a couple of sizes on your hooks to maximize you chances on the flatties but still be able to land a Bass. Maybe try using a strong 1/0 instead of a 3/0.

But for me the primary species to hedge your bet's for are small eyed ray. These shark descendants are hard fighting and can often go on spectacular runs. But more then tackle the primary thing to consider is location rather then tackle. There are certain beached that seem to hold Ray and others that don't. I don't know why but that's what i have found. My own opinion is that the topography of the bigger beaches, with there stronger tides and rip's must just suit them better. Unless your lucky your going to have to find these venues yourself but fishing any of the North coast's big, flat beaches would be a good start. I slightly hedge my bet's on tackle in that i would use a short 40lb trace as opposed to 30lb and stick with one rod on eel. Where possible i would try and use a plain lead as Ray's are bottom feeders and can spook from a bait if they feel the grip wires but you'll have to suck it and see with that. Personally i have done better on the bigger tides when there is a bit of sea running so using a plain lead is impossible. Using a Pyramid lead is a viable alternative though. The main thing is that Bass also like large eels so you've got just as much chance of catching a big Bass as you do that ray. In fact my PB bass (8lb 2oz) was caught on a night i was hedging my bet's whilst my fishing buddy had a lovely ray on the same bait, rig and tactics.

Last night was a great example. We went to a beach that, with the tides and conditions we had, we knew there was a good chance of Ray as well as a Bass so instead of fishing all out for the Bass with squid on both rod's we both upped our usual traces to 40lb, slightly shorted them and stuck with large eel on one all night. This resulted in 5 small Bass around 2lb between us and this fantastic Small Eye for Woody that tipped my digi's at 10lb 11oz and was safely released to swim another day after a superb fight.

So give it a try. Have a think and see what you can change.

Rock mark Bass fishing

Whilst Bass seem to be an elusive species for many an angler i am blessed to live in county that holds these aggressive predators in abundance.

I'm not usually an angler that like's to set myself a target but this year i decided to try and catch Bass every month of the year. We are now obviously most of the way through that year and i am happy to report that, up until now, i have landed several Bass every month. February and March were the 2 months that i was most worried about but both passed without issue. It was just a case of being in the right place at the right time.

In this blog i'll be trying to offer a few pointers to those that wish to have a go at catching Bass from the rocks.

Mark selection:

Without doubt my favorite time of the year to be out Bassing is from now until early December. As much as i like the space and flexibility of being on a beach i am yet to come close to anything that surpasses the adrenaline rush of being out fishing on rock mark in an Autumn storm. The fish tend to drop into deeper water in bigger swell's as it is just too messy for the fish to be inside.

As a rule you are looking for rock marks that on either side of a beach and behind the swell. It is also going to need to be high enough to offer protection from the swell but also low enough to be able to land and return fish.

The main thing's that we are looking for at this time of year are pounding sea's, that not only can you hear and see but you can actually feel and strong Southwest winds. The kind of winds that would make most pleasure angler's think more of being tucked up indoor rather then being out Bassing. But yet another blessing of our Cornish coast is that in effect we have 3 coastlines to choose from: North, South and west, so no matter where the wind is blowing from we are able to shelter from it.

Safety is by far and away the most important thing to think of if you looking at going out rock mark Bassing. You will already know the sea can be a savage, unpredictable and unforgiving thing so it's just not worth taking any risk's. No fish is worth risking your life for. Year's of experience usually dictate where we go, in what conditions and at what state of tide but those of you without that knowledge really need to going with someone that does. Even now we spend a good 10 minutes surveying the mark we intend to fish from high above to ensure it's going to be safe. This is not really the type of angling for an inexperienced angler.

Tackle:

The gear you are using is also going to be very important. When your casting a lead and bait into 8ft+ sea's a light beach rod is never going to cut the mustard. I use 7oz long tail gemini grip leads (I'll save the details on why for another blog) as anything smaller risk's popping out and being washed onto the rocks in minutes. When this is coupled with a whole squid bait your looking at a good 8oz so a good rod capable of casting that weight is essential. Another point to bear in mind is that you are going to have to lift the fish, usually 20 - 30 ft, so a bit of backbone is required as well.

My preference on the rod's front are my trusty AWB'S. They have a sensitive enough tip to pick up a fish fart but more then enough grunt to haul a 6lb'er straight up. I then couple these with a pair of Torium 14's. These are tough old reel's and although they dont have the out and out casting ability of a TSR they have a vastly superior drag and much more winching power. I have winched 5lb Bass straight up without stopping many a time. You just couldn't do that with a 6500. Penn 525's are what my fishing buddy uses and these are equally capable. These are loaded up with 20lb Ultima F1 and a 40ft 60lb leader.

Terminal tackle wises i prefer to use pulley rig's. I like the ability to clip down bait's. It not only adds distance but it help you stay tangle free. I use 60lb rig body and 40lb amnesia for the trace. I'm a big fan of breakaway imps too (now that they have returned back to the original design) as opposed to using leads with inbuilt clips-they just don't give you the versatility and imp does. A pair of Sakuma 540 manta's in a 5/0 then complete my rig. These are strong, wide gaped hook's that have never let me down.


Bait:

Bigger bait's = bigger Bass. It's as simple as that. The mainstay of my fishing is unwashed squid. It's big and it's smelly but it certainly does pick the bigger fish out. There are of course situations where you just cant use fish bait....When the dreaded dog's turn up. My favorite haunt has been plagued with dog fish of late and any fish bait has resulted in a dog within minutes. I never begrudge catching any fish but when your out there targeting bass it can get extremely frustrating. So we have had to switch to lug worm which seems to be the only bait the dog's will leave alone. This has resulted in lots more bites, an awful lot them missed. This is due to the smaller fish being able to take the smaller baits but at least using 5/0's tends to stop the hooking up.

Then it's just down to time. Like any other form of fishing, the more time you have to put into it the better result's you likely to get.

Thanks for looking and keep an eye out of my future blog's. I'll try and differ from the usual fishing blog's just giving reports and general advice in that i'll be going into more finite details about tackle and bait that most blog's wouldn't cover.