Penn 525 mag 2 manufacturing quality review

It can't have been too much more then a year ago that Penn released the predecessor of the legendary 525 mag. The new version being imaginatively entitled the 525 mag 2.

Well, the first of the mag 2's that i have sold came in for a service yesterday so i had my first chance to have a look at the quality of the internals.

I'll start off by stressing that I have never even cast one of these reel's. This post is purely looking at them from a manufacturing basis.

Having stripped and serviced an inordinate amount of reels I'm always way to excited to be having a tinker with something new, looking at it's construction, what's done different and how the parts work.

I'll start off with something that most people would over look but it's something that anyone who has serviced a lot of reels will know is important. The screws. This was something in the front of my mind as i spent a bloody age servicing a pair of Daiwa 20 SHV's yesterday. The servicing itself isn't really any more challenging then any other reel but the issue with the whole of the sealine range are the crappy, excessively long, excessively numbered, soft, brass screws. They are just not up to the job. But I'm happy to report that we have nice, short stainless screws on the Mag 2's. They are flat head which is a bit of a pain but it's still better then Daiwa ones.

The reels came apart really nicely without any need for 'persuasion' and had a sensible amount of lubrication in each (you would be amazed at how many reels i see with far to much grease and oil in them) For those that are familiar with the old 525's Penn have stuck with the tiny screw that sits underneath the gold side plate surround and have still left enough room so that the surround can be removed without having to remove the clutch handle. The clutch mechanism is the same as before with a clutch handle attached to a clutch cam which turns as you operate the handle. This cam then moves a plate up and down, which in turn moves the pinion gear up and down taking the reel in and out of gear (see 4th picture down) Another point worth making is that the clutch cam is Brass as opposed the sealine range which is plastic (again, something that is fresh in my mind as i spend ages pinpointing and fixing a problem with the plastic clutch cam out of an SL20 last week)

 Next it's worth a look at gearing / drag system. As with most other reel's they are integral, as in the drag washers sit inside the main gear. The main gear itself is (I'm guessing) what pure fishing call durabrass which is a brass based alloy that's harder and wears better then just brass, But still not has hard as stainless. Interestingly though, the pinion gear is stainless. This seems a bit daft to me as both will wear a different rates. It remains to be seen what, if any, effect this will have. The pair that i have just stripped are showing no sign's of wear at all after a year of use. The speed of retrieve is 6.0:1 which seems to strike a nice balance between the power of lower gearing and the time taken to retrieve a bait from a hundred yards plus. I'm not sure what the holes in the gear are in aid of but it could possibly be a weight saving measure.

Here is a picture of the inside of the handle side showing the most part of the internals all together. It seems to me that this is the best system for taking a reel in and out of gear. Much more simple and less prone to failure then Abu's system. It's worth me pointing out that the pinion yolk (the bit the pinion gear sits and rotates in) is also metal. The plastic ones in the abu's are another weak point of those. Especially in the 6500 high speeds.

Here is a look at the difference between the drags of the new mag 2 (top) and an abu 6500 (bottom) You'll notice the bigger gearing which gives the ability for bigger drag washers. The bigger the drag washers, the more friction and the more friction the more drag pressure. This is absolutely going to assist in hauling that big ray up off of the bottom or lifting that winter Bass up 30 ft.

This part of the reel really interested me. This is a shot of the inside of the left hand side plate. The side that houses the magnetic controls and the ratchet. I'll start off by saying that it's a shame that they stuck with the stupidly complicated ratchet clickers but seen as it rarely goes wrong that's not too much of an issue. What was interesting though was a magnetic control system that i have never seen before and a very clever on at that. To explain why I will explain to those that don't already know that there are usually 2 ways that magnetic cast controls are configured. Slidey and knoby. Slideys are controlled by sliding a button back and forth and knoby's by twisting a knob on the side plate. Both do exactly the same thing to the magnets though, in that the move the magnets closer to, or further from the spool giving a greater of lesser magnetic effect, speeding up or slowing down the spool. This system is different. The picture above shows what it looks like with the magnets fully off. There is a piece of plastic that contains the magnets under the metal. When you twist button on the left hand side plate it slides the little bit of steel across and exposes the magnets, exposing them, which gradually has a bigger effect on the speed of the spool. I don't know the science of why it works, but it does. I'd go as far as saying that this reel has a much greater range of magnetic effect then any other i have ever played with, meaning, with the end float set at the same tension, it will run like a machine with the magnets fully off but slower then tar with them fully on.

After all of this praise, the only issue that i can find with them is the cage, and even then, they are still an improvement over the original. It's the same plastic but in a much thicker gauge so it shouldn't break a easily. My concern would be where the footplate is riveted to the cage. It was too hard to photo with my phone but i would say that the 3mm thick plastic where the footplate is attached is a touch too thin, leaving potential for separation. But after a bit of research i cant find any instances of this so maybe that's me just being picky.




On the whole i really am very impressed with them. I have heard nothing but praise from there users, I've had no warranty returns and they are very well built. I'm so impressed that i think I'll sell my toriums and get myself a pair of these.

As always, feel free to contact me with any questions you may have through my facebook page. Just clik this link

Time to dust off the old blog

Well, it's been a couple of month's since i posted anything on here. But to be honest it's been a couple of month's since I've felt even a bit of enthusiasm to get out. Of course I've been out fishing most weeks and caught a few fish but really I've been going just for the sake of going. But this has changed after our last session.

At the start of the week I'd decided that the combination of the tides size and time looked best for Thursday but come Tuesday morning i felt a calling that i hadn't felt since the end of last year. I actually wanted to go fishing. Yes, the wind was blowing a steady 10 knots South easterly, the tide was smaller then a small thing and there was barely a ripple of swell but for whatever reason, i really fancied a go. I picked Woody up just before low water to give us the chance to get set up in the day light and be fishing in time for the pushing tide. We crested the hill to be greeted by this glorious sight (left) and made a quick pit stop in the lay by to see what was what. Unusually the whole beach seemed pretty uniform.

On such a big beach there tends to be big differences in how big it is over the length of it but i think that the small tides and flat sea had smoothed out any of the contours and gullies that would have been present if the sea had been a little bigger. The conclusion we came to was that it didn't matter where we were. With a sunset like this to look at we didn't really care. Fish or no fish, it wasn't going to matter.

With eager anticipation we jumped back into the car and headed down the hill to the car park. The light was just starting to fade so we both quickly threw on our gear, Put our rods together and made out way down to the beach and headed towards our favourite spot on the beach (it's our favourite spot quite simply because it's where we always seem to do best)

The plan we had formulated through the day was firstly to fish 2 rods each. One close in with a big squid bait for a Bass and the other at distance to try our luck and see if there were any early Small Eyed Ray about on the North coast yet.

My distance rod was going to be my trusted combo of an AWB 122 with a TSR strapped to it and a clipped down pulley rig. But for the second time in the year i was having a go with a set up that's new to me. In the winter i  had bought a Shakespeare zed lite 2-4oz Bass rod (circa mid 90's) to sell as second hand stock. It had the original crappy rings on and the duplon handle was a bit on the tatty side but i was blown away by the blank. Firstly it looked fabulous. The blank itself and varnish protecting it was pristine. It has that Kevlar weave that many of the top end rod's of the 90's had (and some still do) in a light red and a light green colour which sounds grim but it looks lovely. The action was something else, just what i liked, a nice and soft but crisp tip action rod with a nice progressively gutsy mid to butt section. I just couldn't bring myself to sell it.

So i stripped it down and had a new set of Fuji bnog's put on it. With a new Fugi dps 22 reel seat and a length of x-weave shrink tube it back to looking it's best and had been given the rebuild such a rod deserved.

I already had a nice fixed spool to go on it and although the Biomaster 8000 was a touch on the big side i couldn't justify a new, only slightly smaller reel to go on it when i already owned a gloriously smooth reel. Si loaded that up with 50lb braid and a short 3ft 40lb leader. I always keep my leaders short when using braid as any knot tied using braid is rock hard and can easily pop the liners out of the eye's.

Being that i was planning on using this combo for close in fishing i didn't fancy using my usual pulley rigs so instead settled on using the simplest rig of them all, a running ledger. I was only going to be casting 30 or 40 yards maximum so there was going to be no need to clip any bait down. Up until now i have spent many hours refining how i fish on the beach in whatever conditions but with this set up being new it will pay to try some different things. I'm pleased to report though that it seemed to work well. I made it quite long at about 6ft of 30lb memorex and used a zip slider with a 4oz swivel pear lead. Of the 3 casts i had i didn't have a single bit of a tangle. But that said, it was as flat as a ballet dancers tit's and with the small tide there was no rip either so I'll need to try it in a few different types of conditions to pass any judgement.  On the whole though I'm really pleased with the set up so far. It sets a lovely tip and it's nice and stable on a sand spike. I just cant wait to catch a mahoosive Bass on it. The combo of a light, tippy rod and braid should be great.

So back to the report. We had plenty of bases covered. Between the 4 rods out there was one at distance, one given a fair old chuck, one a mid range and another in very close with all rods on either unwashed squid or jumbo sand eel.

The sunset was breathtaking. It felt kind of special out there. Things just felt right again. As the light dropped further there was a lovely sight that you just don't see very often. It was dark but the sun was ever so lightly illuminating the clouds on the horizon. It looked spectacular how there was a slight red glow that faded into a fiery orange, then from a light green into a deep blue, then the stars and darkness of the sky. All within about 15deg of view. Venus was also particularly bright which was nice to see. The only thing i could liken it to was the glow that see around the Earth from pictures taken from space. I just felt totally at peace. I tried to take a picture of it but an iPhone camera has certain limitations. 

So in the end the fishing was crap. Between the 2 of us we didn't have a single bite. But it didn't matter one bit. That one session, although poor in terms of fish, has given me back the bug. The motivation i need to get back out and start this years campaign proper. There are going to be plenty of blanks along the way but it's all part of the game when fishing for big Bass. A bad nights fishing is better then a good day at work.

I'm just not sure if my new found enthusiasm stretches to fishing tonight. Flat calm seas and North East winds. That said though, it's a nice tide at a nice time. You never know. I might just give it a bash.

Tight lines

Rich

Nothing to report......

Ok. I admit it. I have lost all interest in catching anything other then Bass. In recent weeks I have trying to motivate myself but it's just not happening. Though I never seem to struggle in the autumn. There are weeks that go by when I'd be out every night if I could. So I find myself asking myself why? Why am only interested in Bass fishing and nothing else? What is it about being on the beach that i love so much?

I think the first thing is that Bass are a worthy adversary. There not an easy fish to catch. That said though, they are not really that difficult either. For me, Bassing is all about being in the right place, in the right conditions, at the right time. Get those three thing's right and you can catch Bass on virtually any Cornish beach. It's putting the hard hours in find all these factors out that is the difficult bit. But then i suppose that those factorsare applicable to any type of fishing, not just Bassing.

Then there's the beach itself. It so much more pleasant being on the sand with plenty of room around you. It's easier to cast, it's quieter and it's generally darker. I'm probably talking rubbish here but I feel like I'm more 'at one' with the sea and thus the fish when I'm on the beach, purely because you spend about a third of your time in the water.

I spent the latter part of last year trying to scale all of gear back and fish light with one rod. Just wearing a waterproof bum bag with minimal gear in it and waders. It was nice to wade out, cast and then come back to standing knee deep in the water with the rod in your hand. Of course i would take a sand spike so I could have a drink of roll a fag or go for a chat but you really can't beat having the rod in your hand. For the first half of the year i fished the usual 2 rods. My problem with this is that when you are fishing at distance your looking at the best part of 20 minutes to reel in, change your bait, wade out, cast and wade back and that is just for a single rod. That's 20 minutes of a having a fresh bait out there with only a couple of glances towards your rod tip. I must have been missing fish. I just must have. Using a self hooking rig like a pulley does of course help but there's not a single Bass angler out there that can say that they haven't missed a massive bite what ever rig they are using. There's just no better feeling then getting that whack, whack, whack when the rod is in your hand.

The beach just feels different too. It just seems to heighten your senses. It might be pitch black walking to the beach but I can tell by the sound of waves if it's right or not. Maybe it's just the fact that your stood up all night and constantly moving up and down with the tide all night that makes you feel like that but I can honestly say that I feel different when I'm out on a beach.

The good news for those of you that haven't yet caught the Bass bug is that there are still plenty of fish out there to catch. For a start there are plenty of decent Dabs out there. I'm still hearing of some decent Codling caught and there are still plenty of whiting around. It's also going to be worth a bash at the flounder this weekend with the frost and building tides up and coming. Crab activity will also be at about it's lowest point of the year. Talking to the boat anglers there are still plenty of good size codling about but they seem to be just too far off shore for us shore anglers. Not too much out of range though as I've spoken to several anglers catching big fish within 400 yards of dry land.

I've half arranged a session out on the Huss this weekend so lets just see if I can muster up the motivation.

So, how's your motivation?

Well, it's January again and the winter fish have certainly shown up in good numbers. It's not the easiest time of year to get yourself out fishing with the unsettled weather but plenty of those that have been putting in the effort have been having fish. I'd go as far as saying that the Cod and Whiting fishing have been as good as they ever have been in at least a decade.

All over the county there have been numerous reports of big Cod in good numbers. Only last week, a good customer and friend, Jason 'penfold' Hawke had a 8lb 13oz Cod (pictured left) from a deep water mark down west. He's gotten off to a total flyer in the club this year landing that big cod, a 2lb 1oz 13dr Whiting, a 3 beard Rockling of 2lb 4oz 9dr and a Dab just under a pound. That's given him around 450% in the club and county championship for 4 fish. This just shows exactly what can be done if you are prepared to put the hours in.


(for those that don't know how club and county championships work, they are based on specimen weights for each species and are given a percentage based on your fishes weight compared to the specimen weight. That specimen weight is deduced by using a formula that takes several years returns into account)

The county Whiting record also went twice in the last month. First was a mighty fine fish of 2lb 15oz 9dr only to be demolished days later by a monster fish of 3lb 7oz 9dr.

Having said all of this I really should follow my own advice and get out myself a bit more. Like most people, i really struggle with motivation at this time of year but that's more due to the lack of my favourite fish. Bass. It sounds foreign to many but if it's not shiny, silver and spiky I'm just not that interested. In the right conditions and on the right mark, there are still plenty of Bass about but it's been a while since we have had good South Westerlies with a big ground sea. I've had a couple of Bass on each of my last few session's but nothing to write home about.

It's also the right time of year to be setting yourself a couple of target's for the coming year and reflect on the year gone by.

Last season I'd decided that i wanted to catch a Bass every month of the year and i'm happy to say that i (and woody) succeeded. February and March were the month's i was worried about. but after we both cleared that the rest of the year without an issue. There did seem to be a sever lack of big Bass last year though with very few proper fish being caught. My best of the year was only 4lb 14oz but i can console myself with the fact that only a few of the other out and out Bass angler's had anything to shout about. Why? Well I don't have a clue as there were shed loads of smaller fish around but I'm just hoping it turns around again next year.

I suppose for this year rather then set myself any targets I'm going to make an effort to fish for other species. I always used to enjoy going rough grounding, hauling big ugly fish with very sharp teeth out of the depth's but in recent year's I just haven't done any at all. So hopefully you'll all be seeing reports of big Eels and Huss in the coming month's but rest assured that if the conditions are right I'll be out on the rock's catching Bass.

It would be great to see a few comment's below of if you managed to make your targets and what yours are for the next year.

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"