New developments!

Been a hectic time lately as I've been sorting out quite a few things...
Firstly, I got a SIB!  Been a while now on my list, and I was torn between a kayak or a boat, but in the end my laziness got the hold of me and I decided to get the boat. Its 3.8m (Yam 380S) and got a 10hp 2 stroke Evinrude outboard on it. Had the maiden trip on it the other day and even though conditions were far from ideal, the potential is evident... Just with the Navionics app on my phone, it was very easy to find interesting looking spots and even though I didn't fish much, I found some mackerel. Can't wait to get it out again, though in much better weather conditions and with an electric pump!

It's so much fun!

looking forward to many trips...

Secondly, Ive been having some success with the hookup ratio on my topwaters, due to the treble changes. So far the most successful tweak has been an upgrade in size in both trebles (a couple sizes over), switching the back ones with Owner STY-35MF short shank and the middle one with a ST36RD red treble. I've had purposely used topwaters of 10-12cm as they come out of the box, got hit (but the fish not sticking) and then immediately switched to similar size and profile 'tweaked' lures and the fish hit the middle treble and got hooked in both times. I'm sure this hookup rate won't be 100% positive all the time but every little helps...

The bottom right lure and configuration has worked best..

A superb striker!

Hit the middle (red) treble and the back hook stuck too.

Same thing again after missing 2 strikes with another lure...

And the vids.

Moreover I've bought new rockboots and went for the well known FiveTen Canyoneering model. I've not added any studs to them yet, as to be honest, I haven't felt the need to do so... They grip extremely well to even wet rocks and only feel like they need studs when over kelp and seaweed. Will give them some more rock time and I'll report back with results...

So far so good...

And lastly, Its now only 4 days until my first trip to the Lofoten archipelago in Norway!
I'm going there for 2 weeks with my girlfriend but I've already booked two days on boats and also planning to do plenty of shore fishing as usual. My main targets are cod and coalfish, with the hope that Ill manage to get the latter on topwaters!
Will be taking 5 rods to cover from LRF to heavy pirking and I honestly cant wait to get there!

Prep time...

XXHeavy HRF Jika rig...

 A bit of a mish mash of a report but there's a lot going on at the moment and not much time... Hopefully, the next blog will be from Norway and the monsters of the North...

Tight Lines!