Into February now..

Weather has been the usual up and down this month, but there have been a few good days and I've taken advantage of breaks in the storms. I've been fishing off the SIB mostly and at my usual spots as there was no time to explore further.
Even though the fish were still there, the 7.5c water temps after all the melting snow, has definitely slowed them down and as expected the bites were more finicky and would come very close to the bottom. The large shads that were so successful the past few months, were still getting hit, but I had to downsize to get more fish to stick.
At times the fishfinder would show shapes hard on the bottom, they were pollock and could still be caught but needed the lure jigged right in front of them to incite a take. Many fish had eye-worms.
I did manage to get a couple closer to 70cm though and they were all full bellied, getting ready for the spawn.

Fat belly.

A lovely one in the sun..

Better stamp of fish now.

A wee video as well

 I've also had a couple shore sessions and the fussy bites were an issue too. Moreover, the fish were very colour-picky, with bright colours (chartreuse and pink) faring much better than natural ones.
Texas rigged paddletail with a 30g tungsten bullet weight and 8mm glass bead was the most productive presentation along with soft jerkbaits on 20-30g darting jigheads over cleaner bottom.
I got a proper shock at some point after landing a nice Ballan wrasse that put up a spirited fight! It was my first ever in February! Must be global warming...

There's a 7" DOT Crawler in there...

WTF!

Pink was the most effective colour on the day.

Something had a go at this one.

Bruiser..

 I lost a what felt like a big fish due to the snap opening up and I now tend to tie straight to the Softplastic every time. A bit time-consuming but as the best chance for a big female is now, the stakes are higher and lost fish hurt!

Tight Lines!

Gear used (Boat)
Rod: Tailwalk Saltyshape Dash Power Rock S90H,
Reel: Shimano Stradic Fk C3000
Mainline: PE1.2
Leader: Daiwa Tournament FC fluorocarbon 20lbs - 25lbs
Lures: various

Gear used.
Rod: Sportex Black Pearl travel, 2.7m, 80g
Reel: Shimano Biomaster SW 4000XG
Mainline: PE1.5
Leader: Daiwa Tournament FC fluorocarbon 25lbs - 30lbs
Lures: Texas rigged 4" bright coloured paddletails, 5" soft jerkbaits on 20-30g darting jigheads.

First proper go from the SIB!

Last week I managed to capitalize on a break in the weather, straight after storm Callum, and got the SIB out along with my friend Pablo. We headed for a mark in the north part of the Island and fair enough the water was looking good.
It was also an opportunity to test my new electric pump and see how fast I could get the boat in the water. It turned out to be a bit over 15 mins and I'm quite happy with that.
We hit a couple reefs close in (using navionics) and soon enough we started getting bites.
They werent from big fish and felt more wrassy. I had tied a heavy Texas rig for Pablo and soon enough he had a fish on! A pretty wrasse came up and this was Pablo's first fish ever!
After a few more drifts with only tentative bites, I decided it was time to target more exposed spots and after a short run, we came to a favourite spot of mine, albeit from the shore...
I changed rigs for the both of us, putting on a cheburashka rigged paddletail on one rod and a slim straight sp on a darting jighead to the other. We were casting near the kelp edge and it didnt take long to find the fish. Pablo was in first and his rod was bend all the way! The fish made some powerful runs but soon enought we had it in the boat. A quick pic and release to be followed by some more decent pollock and also another wrasse! Pablo was definiely having the beginner's luck on his side...!
It didn't take me long to find a nice fish though and managed to get a lovely looking pollock in the boat.

He's in!

A wee ballan for Pablo.

I love wrasse!

Bronze slab.

 A vid from the session.

After a good number of fish (kept a couple for the table) we decided to head back in and we were all packed in the car just before the rain started! This was a very satisfying session and its given me a glimpse to the fishing potential from the boat.
I still need to make some additions/modifications though, starting with installing a fish finder and maybe ugrade the outboard to a more powerful one at some point...
The shore fishing has also been very good whenever the wind allowed me to have a cast, and especially around dusk, I've been having some steady sport on topwaters and sps. I love this time of year as the fish are all out aggressive!

So much fun!

A pack of them and entertainment guaranteed!

Among the coalies...

I think due to the constant winds and storms of late that have reduced water clarity, fish tend to prefer white/chartreuse topwaters and again the addition of a red treble seems to make fish aim for that area of the lure. Moreover they're that aggressive right now that they will freely hit topwaters even in rough water.

Another little vid.

Hopefully, we'll get some more settled weather soon and I'll be able to get the SIB out again and try topwaters and even the fly!

Tight Lines!

Summer visitors started showing!

The past couple weeks the weather has improved drastically and the waters have been warming fast. As a result, the fry has filled the shallow bays and some summer species made an appearance... It's amazing to note how much some sunshine speeds things up! Sandeels are in and that makes pollock very picky at this time of year thus I turned my attention to lighter targets, namely flounders and wrasse. I was intending to do some freshwater fishing, but the swarms of midges that also came along with the heat, put me off a bit..!
The flounder show up in a couple small harbours in the South part of the island and they're usually pretty aggressive. I used and LRF setup with 3-6g cheburaskas and fat micro pilkers with a #6-#10 hook rigged with Isome or Jackall Peke Peke/Ring.
I suspect the intense sunlight made them more cautious than usual and they were harder to tempt, but with a little persuasion a few came out for a pic!

LRF in the sun! Nothing better!

Such cool fish!

Crystal clear!

On a micro pilker tipped with isome worm.

Saw this one take the lure...

Then it was the wrasse's turn! I was actually fishing for pollock in a shallow mark but they were ignoring my lures for the most part... As I brought the shad over a rocky ledge I saw a shape following it and gave a couple jiggles to the lure. The fish hit and I struck to a plump wee ballan. I recast again and saw another one hit but I struck too fast and startled it...
In the end, I had a couple more casts at the pier and got another smaller ballan.

First ballan for 2018!

Fussy pollock...

Later on the same day, I targeted a much deeper mark hoping that the cuckoo wrasse would show as well. It took a while but I was rewarded with a good sized male cuckoo in full spawning colours. It hit very aggressively OTD on a Texas rig with 28g tungsten bullet weight, #1/0 offset rigged with a 4" slim paddletail.

Just stunning!

 Will be making a wee vid of some of these catches and really hope this fantastic weather lasts abit longer!

Tight lines!

Gear used
Rod: MajorCraft Solpara SPS-S792M, APIA Foojin'R Best Bower 96MLX,
Reel: Shimano Stradic 1000Fc, Stradic FK C3000
Mainline: Duel Hardcore x4 PE0.6, Duel Hardcore X8 PE 1.2
Leader: Toray Excellent fluorocarbon 6.8lbs, Daiwa Tournament FC fluorocarbon 20lbs
Lures: Various

Oh Ireland!

Been a couple days back home from my holidays in Ireland and one thing I have to say is that I will definitely be going there again!
I went with my girlfriend Claire and we spent a week in County Kerry. This was most certainly not a fishing holiday but the travel rods went into the suitcase of course...
I didn't have any serious targets or 'must catch' fish list in mind, though I definitely wanted to get some wrasse and if possible a bass or two. Moreover I'd be taking the LRF gear as well so any of the smaller predators would be very welcome especially with some scad among them!
I had done some homework before the trip and had scores of points on Google maps ready to be sussed out...Most areas were exposed rocky coastlines and beaches with the occasional harbour/pier for the light stuff. I had heard only the best and was fired up to get started!
The weather was ok to begin with and we got a couple decent days but I only fished a bit here and there with the LRF and managed to catch my first Irish fish... Not a scad but a coalie 😆
Little did I know that the weather would turn bad and I'd get few chances to fish the more exposed marks I wanted.

Not a scad!

The first area we stayed in was Valentia Island and from Google Earth and the web I could tell that it would be very suitable for wrasse fishing, plus having some piers/harbours close by would offer ample opportunities to fish the light gear.
This being the open Atlantic, the swell was present at various intensities throughout the week and I only managed one HRF session for wrasse before the swell build up.
What a session it was though!
After a bit of a hike in the wind and rain with Claire we found the path down the rocks and on first look it was pretty rough (but still fishable). Thankfully we found a hollow at the rocks and out of the wind to settle down and fish from.
I was using my Spro Mobile Stick 80MH paired with the Shimano Stradic FK C3000 and the rig of choice being the good old Texas rig with a 20g tungsten bullet weight, glass bead and #1 wide gape offset hook. I would be using 3" Gulp Alive swimming mullets in a simple drag and pause retrieve.
From the first cast the fish showed their presence but instead of wrasse I got some pollock! Definitely not what I was looking for there..! Soon enough though, I started getting the familiar sharp taps of wrasse and after setting the hook a different fight ensued...
It didn't take long to get the first ballan out and there were many more to come!
All of them around the 2lbs mark but fighting hard and in a ravenous mood... Haven't had similar wrasse-fishing since I left the Channel Islands...

Toothy...

Them lips!

On the act!

Decent size...

Cant say no to them!

Big gob!

Conditions were lively...

I love wrasse!

That was my most memorable session of the trip. The next day the swell intensified considerably and
I had to find sheltered areas to fish. This meant more LRF and I had good sessions with mackerel, coalies and smaller ballan and corkwing wrasse but unfortunately no scad!

Dingle harbour breakwater.

Lovely corkwing.

Loads of mackies about.

My LRF setup was a 7'2'' (0.5-7g) Snowbee Kuroshio travel LRF rod paired with my Shimano Stradic 1000fc and using mainly small cheburashkas and metals. I didnt take too many softplastics with me as the space was limited and again I relied mostly on the Gulp.
We spent the last couple days on the Dingle peninsula and in retrospect we could've spent the whole week there as it simply has got it all!
Got pollock from the rocky points, wrasse in the harbour and while I snuck out before breakfast for a few casts, had a feisty bass on the trusty Megabass Zonk Gataride. Unfortunately this was gonna be our last day in Dingle and I didnt get the chance to fish there more... What a place.!

Before breakfast.

It was a great holiday in all and got some useful observations/notes for the next time:

• much cheaper and convenient to get the ferry there in my own car. Too much unnecessary hassle renting one there..
• No need for fancy rigs and many lures. 
• A tubular tip LRF rod might have been more suitable as when I encountered a bass following my tiny softplastics, I couldn't use a topwater or a jerkbait to potentially tease it into striking.
• Just 2 setups would be enough. a 1-10g for light game (but capable of something heavier) and a sort of 10-30g for the bigger stuff. 
• Swell forecast more important than weather forecast...

 I'm working on the videos now and should be up next week sometime!

Tight Lines!