Ive recently got a Light shore Jigging rod (Major Craft Solpara SPS-1002LSJ) in order to help me target the bigger fish from the rougher marks here. The plan was to use it with my trusty Abu Garcia Soron 40 Stx but in truth the reel is showing its years of hard use (and abuse!) lately even though its been serviced fully (not a very good idea in the end). Thus I was on the lookout for a powerful reel in a similar size and weight to the Soron. I could well get something larger but I'm intending to get a new 10-30g rod soon and would like to use the reel on both rods. After a bit of searching around I decided to settle on a new Shimano SW Biomaster 4000XG from Japan that cost much less than even the cheapest price from European e-shops. I received the reel on Wednesday and spooled it straight away with the YGK G-Soul X3 PE1.5. This may not be the best braid around but I couldn't pass on its price (around 9 euros), besides I also have a dedicated jigging braid to fall back to (YGK G-Soul Super Jigman X4) if things don't workout.
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| New shiny toy! |
More recently I have bought some Hayabusa Kick tail inchiku jigs as they are of a similar style to the Duel Salty Bait and could be very useful for sorting out the pickier fish especially in the deeper marks.
On Thursday I decided to try out the new setup and visited one of my favourite Northern marks after a slow session in a kelpy bay. The day was rainy but with little wind and a neap tide. The latter made fishing on this mark much easier as there was less current and the fish seemed to be liking it! As soon as the Kick tail hit water I was getting bites even before touching bottom. Moreover the fish seemed to be everywhere (!) with some surface activity and I was also getting bites even at distance over relatively clean ground and not just at the usual holding spots (reef, rock base etc). The Kick tail has got a little muppet at the back that has that sway side to side but instead of an offset hook, it has a double assist hook. I had some missed strikes due to the hooks being a bit small in my opinion but then again I didn't snag it!
It didn't take me long to start hooking up though and I had two decent fish over 5lbs that gave a very good scrap! On the second one I thought I had a seal/tuna again...! After catching a good few fish on the inchikus, I switched to softplastics and then hardbaits and had success with them all but not as much as the inchiku.
The reel performed very well with effortless winding of the fish from the depths and no trouble with wind-knots etc while the casts were superb. I hope it will continue to do so for a while!
Unfortunately something went wrong with my action cam on the day and Ive got no video from the session, hopefully this wont happen again...
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| Xrap opens the day... |
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| A nice coalie on the softplastic. |
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| A hungry one hit the DUO... |
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| First decent fish of the day on the Kick Tail. |
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| The Zonk 120 sw... |
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| The little Volkien inchiku. |
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| The second good fish of the day on a softie.. |
It was interesting to note that the fish were so active at this deeper, 'reefier' mark yet not so much at the shallower 'kelpy' bay I fished earlier that day. Admittedly I was a bit late reaching the first mark and fished some of the incoming tide (soon after the low tide point) instead of my preferred outgoing tide. But nevertheless I don't think it was a coincidence. The weather was textbook pollock-weather (westerly breeze, overcast, wet) and only the tide being a small one seems to be the most significant factor for the fish feeding activity. I theorise that in shallower waters fish like larger volumes of water pushing in and out the bays, bringing more food, while in the deeper reefs this current can get too much and turn the fish off... More on this soon..
All in all it was a great day out and I really enjoyed my new toys! Definitely onwards and upwards as they say...
Tight lines.
Gear used.
Rod: MajorCraft Solpara SPS-1002LSJ, 3.05m. max 50g
Reel: Shimano SW Biomaster 4000XG
Mainline: YGK G-Soul X3 PE1.5
Leader: Duel Hardcore Powerleader fluorocarbon 20lbs.
Lures: Hayabusa Kick tail 20g and 30g, Volkien Soul Mini battle inchiku, Rapala Xrap, Megabass Zonk 120 SW, Duo Realis Jerkbait 120sp, and slug type soft plastics on darting jigheads.
Hi, so you've got me, I'd like to try this shore jigging\LRF. In your opinion what should I buy first an LRF rod or a light shore jigging setup as per your post? Can you recommend which will be more productive on the usual west sea lochs (wont always have time to walk miles to deep water marks)Which rods in the £50 - £100 bracket and what rigs in your recommendation? Cheers Neil
ReplyDeleteHello,for the western lochs i believe neither should be your first choice...!
ReplyDeleteI suggest looking at a finesse rod either a seabass,kurodai or light HRF. The ideal casting weight should be about 3-15g and lengthwise around 8'should be best. take a look at the solid tipped models from Majorcraft (seen some Shimanos aa well lately) that are just fantastic for such places. These rods will allow you to use a great variety of lure sizes and types. And youll have fun playing the usual sized fish (1lb) while having the strength to cope with something bigger.
In this price range youll most probably need to buy from outside UK. Checkout Rakuten and other Japanese e-shops along with Tackle4all in Cyprus.
Rig wise youll need to adapt to whats best for your mark. Start with cheburashka and dropshot and go Texas,carolina if there are a lot of snags and algae. Dont forget metals of 7-15g...
All the best
Oh no not more choices..hehe. What about this
ReplyDeletehttp://www.artoffishing.co.uk/lure-fishing-rods/major-craft-turel-tus-792ml?filter=128
It's a MC Turel TUS-792ML 5-21g?
my email is dimitrioschariskos@gmail.com
DeleteMe again or http://tackle4all.com/majorcraft-solpara-rods-c-65_74_456_463/major-craft-solpara-kurodai-series-sps782mlkurodai-length-238mt-lure215gr-p-7064.html
ReplyDeleteAnyway, do you have an email address, perhaps better to email you some of these links?
Cheers