Sole Man!

I'm a Sole Man!

First things first i got my Sole! After many many sessions trying over last couple years it came on my 2nd session of the year for them only weighed 1lb 6oz took Lug worm on a 1 up 1 down rig :)
Dont need to cast far for these, had this right under my feet pretty much. (Think i was singing im a sole man for 30 mins after i caught it hahaa)

My first Red Mullet of the year went 1lb 4oz took lug-worm again on a running ledger :)




Me & Alex went Congering, so with the conger competition coming up was in need of a bit of practice to went to new mark we never have fished at night only for 2 hours and we managed 1 Eel each :)


Here is Alex with the best Conger of the night going 16lb+




Then i managed a whip too!





Myself and Ben der Bates targeted some Sole & Red Mullet on the Worms and he wanted to bring his lure rod down and did! (as we got to the car park i had a phone call of Callum Robertson wanting to know if i was fishing i told him where i was and he met us down there).


I had a spot in mind but when we got there Anglers was already there, so fished a rock near by i also knew there was chance for my sole and reds So before i even set up 1 Bait rod Ben has had 2 follows and hooks into a fish i run over with the net as he screams with excitement and scooped up a Bass Quick Picture then off to right another day:





Here is a Close up for Mick Ward as he sold him this lure lol





So Callum got down, i said to him that a couple of Bass around & Ben has had one and couple follows. So he sets up and hooks into them straight away after loosing a couple on first few casts... he got one in! Best one of the session too! (I wont mention anything about him using smelly worms on the Tenryu when it got dark hehe )





So now i am sitting there with shame on my face for not bringing my lure rod down So after this session i was driving home around 10.30pm and i was thinking to my self ah i want a quick bass on lure too, so had a few casts down a spot on way home and manged a small one




Conger Competition :)


Myself, Leyton, Ritchie was the 3 Man Team in the above event, 72 Anglers Entered the competition. We was geared up for strong winds and thanks to Leyton who managed to catch us aload of Cuttle fish was geared up with Bait! Weighed my Rucksack before i went down it was 40lbs (Graft) oh well off we went and got fishing. Leyton on the Mackerel Feathers managed the first fish of the session which was a Pollock came in handy for our rubby dubby sack :) !





I went on the Bream at first and i had x2 Bream and 1 mackerel . Leyton also got Mackerel so a bit of fresh bait cant hurt anyone :) Leyton then gets a phone call saying that the weather getting real bad! like force 6/7s and heavy rain. At this point Ritchie wasn't keen to stick out the night so he left the mark before dark. So now me and Leyton got on the Beers and waited for Darkness.....Rods went out......waiting game now i said. And what you know on Leyton 1st cast his rod started to bend over!


(Not exactly the monster we were after but gained a bit of confidence as it was first cast!)





Still on the first cast i also managed one around the same size. No piccie going on here i cba lol :)
Then after a bit longer of a wait my rod had a good bite, picked the rod up it was pulling down ...pulling down....pulling down STRIKE fish on :) good scrap and was on the Gaff. Yeah Buddy! its a Weigher weighed on scales around 24lb i was happy with that in the bag it went!





Then another one came in for me. This one 14lb, Leyton also had another one under 15lb. God we have had a few now it not even 11pm i was thinking! 5 Eels so far Bloody good session really.





The Texts where going on winding up my mates about how many Eels we have had and my rod Started screaming off! I was thinking bloody hell i whacked this one out very far (like nearly emptied my spool) anyway picked rod up and double striked this fish as could feel some power to it. Wanted to make sure i had hook set! Was coming up pretty easy at first but as soon as i got it towards rocks F*** Me did it pull down, i was not letting it go no where keep drag fully locked and just letting rod bend, trying to tire it out. As it was against the rocks but still deep i could feel line rubbing! This is the point i was like i gotta bully this So Pumping time! Very heavy fish and up came the Head...my words was "Holy S***" Leyton down on the rocks was saying the same i was like omg that head looks like a 50lber (as you do). As trying to gaff the fish i felt like the line snapped....i think i was ready to cry...but then i hear a voice saying "Yeeeep Yeeeep" Got it!!! My face soon changed to Panic still dont think i have slided down rocks so quick in my life grabbed the Gaff off him and got it on the rocks. i knew i was not in a safe position to carry it around to wear my gear was so i just held it. Leyton brings the bag over, and after struggling trying to get it in it woke up! as i took it of gaff...oh bollocks its going back towards sea (repeat of last year) Leyton starts kicking it haha, i was either depating give it a Bear hug or just use the gaff...gaff it was again in its head. "Leyton go empty my Rucksack" managed to curl it up in there and Zipped up its safe now! :) WHohohooo i weighed it in rucksack with still few bits in it and went 44lbs i was like GET IN (i knew wouldn't be that much at weigh in i was hoping to just brake the 40lb mark tho. Here it is at the weigh-in going 39lb 12oz :)





Then i chilled out for a bit Leyton needs one now. He had a couple which got away but then he Strikes he is onto one. i knew this was a weigher by bend in his rod! down i went with gaff and up it came :) Whohoo shake of the hands is required, cut the lines packed up the rods. Waited around till weigh in and rocked up with the fish. Leyton weighing 23lb 14oz.





Final results was:
1st Daniel ferguson 39lb 12ozs
2nd Simon Gavey 24lb 12ozs
3rd Leyton Hunnisett 23lb 14ozs
4th Steve Mullins 22lb 8ozs
5th Colin Shales & Martin Shales (tie) 19lb 12ozs
Winning team was Daniel Ferguson,Leyton Hunnisett & Ritchie Campion 63lb 10ozs
Well done also to Lee Jarvis wh managed a pb conger of 19lb 6ozs and just missed out on the prizes.
Anyway enough of those slimmy things :) ...1lb 8oz Flounder i had the other day as well as couple Bass, & a couple Smooth Hounds :)




My new P.B Small Eye 9lb 9oz :) Took whole squid on Running Ledger :) Literally had the bite 2 mins of the bait being in the water!





Here is another Sole which i had took lug-worm on a 1 up one down rig, hopefully more of these to come :)

I Freken Love Summer

I Freken Love Summer 

Well to kick this blog post off, i will start with this Bass which took a White 42 Gram Savage Gear Sand-Eel. My first proper Bass caught using my new Shimano Stradic Rod! Handled it brilliantly as you can see from the background, i fish fairly high up from the water. I cast into any Gully i see white water made from the swell! This is a perfect feeding ground for Bass waiting for any small fish to get caught up in the swell, helps alot when there is a few heads under water, also the Bass tend to be sitting just behind the heads waiting for bait fish to swim over them :) This bass weighed 3lb 6oz





Also had a small wrasse :)






Spot of Boat Lure Bashing with Johnny Manners




Johnny was kind to invite me out on his boat for a days lure fishing! It was very hard work with not many Bass around feeding! I managed to kick things of with a lovely Green Wrasse over 4lb. We had quite a few Wrasse and a few more chunky ones.











As for the Bass those buggers where very hard to find. Johnny managed to find this one though and i managed to hook him :) Was testing the Take Fluro Carbon Line in 20lb its quite thin for 20lb but seemed to do the Job just fine :) even caught Mullet using it for hook length.



This is the one i have been waiting for!!!!

Got a secret little spot which i have to keep to myself for Smooth Hounds never seen anyone there before, and really couldn't be bothered to fish alone. As i trust Ross and he is only over for the summer i thought i would take him to the special spot, my Smooth Hound Partner is normally Alex Plaster but he was away on Jolly Holidays. He is the only man that also fishes this spot, that i know of. It was very quiet for the start of the session first two hours was dead with no bites really ( i think i had one baby Smooth Hound at high water) and that was it! I just had a feeling that the fish would be there, was getting annoyed that i choose the wrong spot to try! And then the first proper Smoothy Run happened! ZZZZZZzzzzz Yeah buddy Fish on! I cant actually Remember the size of this one i think like 8/9lb





We carried on catching lots of Small Hounds, Until yet another screaming run, from the sound of the reel we both knew this was a big one! After striking and feeling that it was very powerful i begin to S*** myself thinking i better not loose this! This fish luckily was swimming towards me a little and was not going near the heads under water....then i saw it F**k "Ross you better be ready for this, don't loose it get it in the bloody net" and after a bit of splashing around on surface it was in "YESSSSS" I knew it was the double i was waiting for, when Ross brought it up the rocks i was like OMG thats over 15lb..hit the scales on bang on 17lb (New Personal Best Starry Smooth Hound)





Had this fish at around 11.30pm & Stayed fishing till 1am thinking another one would turn up, only couple more small ones. Think we ended on 12 Hounds between us.

This was one Afternoon i decided to do a bit of lure bashing






First ever Rockling in the Day Time






This has to be one of the best bait fishing sessions i have ever had & it was a Solo mission as-well so all these next few photos was self timer camera shots & all fish was released of course...apart from a Mackerel ;)!!! It all started with my first cast, out went a Launce on a Running Ledger 4/0Sakuma Manta ExtraMy new Personal Best Undulate Ray weighing 13lb 8oz

Yet another Personal Best a 9lb 14oz Small Eyed Ray which also took Launce on a Running Ledger 4/0 Sakuma Manta Extra



Could this really get any better?? Well it some how managed too...9lb 8oz Small Eyed Ray!





I managed another Small Eyed Ray of like 6lb but didn't even bother with that photo, needed to get back out in the water this was like 5 Casts 4 Rays!!


I had a little go for some Mackerel and Wrasse & had a few too :) Then i prepared the Smooth Hound Rod as Darkness was nearly upon me. Landed one whilst by myself about 5/6lb which took a whole Squid.




By now i had to phone someone to tell them that the fishing is awesome and to come down! So phoned up Ross told him where i was and he soon came down :) Think he did manage 4 Smooth Hounds but he couldn't get any over 4/5lb
Double Hook up Smoothys both pretty small but always good to get a picture of two people holding fish.




Even caught a Conger on the Ray/Smooth Hound Gear! Only a small one but another fish to carry on this awesome session!




So around 11.30pm i called it a night and left Ross by him self down there to only catch a couple more small hounds lol Tony Heart Boat Fishing for Tope!!

my best Tope so far this year estimating around 25-27lb from the skipper, (i personally think bit smaller) The only Tope of the day which came on Live Mackerel all the others took Bream Fillet Tagged & Released

Here is the Biggest Tope of the day going to Chris Robinson weighing 30lb ! Fish took Black Bream Fillet




Sam Daniels in on the Tope action :)




So myself and Ross Johnson met up to try for a Thick Lipped Mullet! The fish started feeding in our Shirvy very quickly, i think we had 5 or 6 thick lips between us. All pretty small though! Then we saw a couple of tiny White Bream come into the shirvy. I said to Ross "look there i think there White Bream" as he is a species hunter he got so exited he was watching them the whole time he was there pretty much. Before you know it he somehow managed to hook Mummy White Bream! He shouted out "Its a White Bream" whilst concentrating very hard not to loose it. I quickly got down the rocks and scooped it up in the net for him!

Weighing 1lb 9oz (Well done mate)







MULLET TIME

I took Ross down a easy beach mark for Golden Grey Mullet, after seeing loads the day before in the shallows i was sure we would get a few! But it just didn't feel right, wasn't many jumping around etc. We fished the tide in for around 1 hour and Ross managed just the one Golden Grey (Took Lug-worm) , i only had one bite which i missed! 



Baby Thick Lipped i had the day before on a quick session down St Aubins Harbor lost one caught 1




Me and Ross had a few Common-Eels one evening after work, as well as Wrasse :)



Here is Ritchie and his Mullet holding a fine Golden Grey Mullet ;) Which took a lug worm free-lined



Golden Grey Mullet i had on the Meps whilst spinning!




Thick Lipped Mullet i took whilst float fishing using Bread Flake for bait estimated around 5lb, was a great scrap and quickly released :)




Here is Sam Chapon with the biggest Thick Lipped Mullet i have ever seen landed estimated at 7lb (We was fishing somewhere we wasn't meant to be!) But was only a bit of fun quick catch and release jobby :)



To finish of this Blog Post the last fish i had in July was this Bass of 6lb 5oz caught on Mackerel Head & Guts Fishing with a 7/0 Sakuma Manta Extra Hook. This is my best one so far this year and hoping to get a bigger one sometime soon :)





I have had a few blanks and rubbish sessions along the way of course! But that pretty much sums up the last two months of Fishing :) fishing competition coming up end of this month. So lets hope i get a few to weigh in! Thanks for taking the time to have a look please come again.

Dillington Pond - Summer League

Dillington Pond - Summer League 

I arrived at the Royal Oak for the draw today at the same time as Robin who was looking very worse for wear! There were nine of us today including Bruce 'The Speed Machine' Hunt and there was also a new face at the draw, a really nice bloke called Guy and it's always great to get some new anglers fishing. I pulled out peg 20 which I was quite pleased with and had Moses on the next peg and he was keen for a side bet again, I also had one with Rob which I reckoned was a good shout as there was a very good chance he'd be asleep before the end of the match!

When I got to my peg, the first job as always was to mix my groundbait and today I was trying Bait Tech Mantra for the first time. I set up two rigs, both Drennan Roach floats, one for fishing at 8.5 metres with 0.10mm hooklength and a size 20 B611 barbless hook and the other to fish at 5 metres just off the reeds with a size 18 in the same pattern to 0.12mm bottom. On the whistle I cupped in two balls on the longer line and one on the shorter line and started at 8.5 metres with caster on the hook.

The rig settled and then just sat there!, after ten minutes I switched to maggot and had a tiny perch so went back to caster but it was really hard going, I only had a few fish but then hooked a fish that pulled out a fair bit of number four elastic and I gratefully netted a 10oz skimmer. Moses asked how many fish I had and I shouted back that I'd only had five, he replied that he'd had 21 fish, including a 6lb bream on the whip!

I was feeding casters and hemp over both lines and a brief try on the shorter line saw me catch a couple of fish before that dried up as well. I did add another skimmer from the longer line and it's lovely to see them and I do wonder just how many there are in the pond. I was getting odd fish on caster and kept trying maggot as well. Looking round the pond it looked like everyone was struggling but it can be deceiving so I just stuck at it.

By the half way point I'd only had around thirty fish and Moses kept asking how many I had and he was always ten or twelve fish ahead and he had that 'Brucey Bonus Bream' as well. I was catching mainly small roach but every now and again would get a better one of 4oz or so which I netted to be on the safe side. With two hours to go, I've had another decent skimmer and then added two more, both on maggot. Moses was now catching quite well on the whip and looked to be heading for another win.

With an hour left I was hoping my catch rate might pick up but my bites slowed right up and I only added a couple more roach to finish with 57 fish. I thought I might have 4-5lb but I didn't think it would be enough to frame today. After packing up, Moses soon arrived at my peg with the scales, my fish actually weighed 7lb 5oz which was a lot more than I thought (just for a change!) and then Moses weighed 10lb 7oz and that bream made all the difference. Terry Morgan had 3lb 6oz and then it was Bruce's turn, he had over 130 fish but reckoned they were all tiny, he weighed 4lb 7oz so I was still in second place and would have to wait to see how the other section had got on.







Moses had this cracking bream in his winning catch





Terry Morgan had some quality roach in his catch






Bruce had over 130 fish today

Steve turned up from the other side and Guy had weighed 3lb 6oz in peg 4, Richy had 2lb 8oz from peg 6, Steve had struggled for 1lb 6oz, Rob had managed to stay awake for the whole match and weighed 3lb 9oz and Fieldy weighed 6lb 4oz so I finished up second and picked up £25. I lost a pound to Moses again but had one off Robin so I finished up all square on the side bets.
Quite an enjoyable day and it's lovely to see those skimmers, what was quite noticeable though was the lack of small perch, there used to be hoards of them, yet I've only caught one tiny stripy today.

1 - Moses Holbrook (Ilminster) - 10lb 7oz
2 - Jamie Rich (Against Men and Fish) - 7lb 5oz
3 - Graham Field (Taunton) - 6lb 4oz

Sections
A - Rob Cox (Ilminster) - 3lb 9oz
B - Bruce Hunt (Tiverton) - 4lb 7oz

So with one match remaining the league is pretty tight and it will go down to the last match, the league standings are as follows,

1 - Graham Field - 745 points
2 - Moses Holbrook - 730 points
3 - Rob Cox - 655 points

Next up - Summerhayes (Longs)

What's new - Lots of page updates and don't forget to check out the new links page

Check Out - My first match at the Viaduct (below)