Monday, 20 February 2017

Gear talk.

I don't usually elaborate too much on my gear as I prefer to make any comments on it after its seen plenty of use but this past season has seen me use quite a few bits of kit (more to come as well) and I'd like to say a few things about them.

Rods and reels.
In the beginning of the season last year I acquired my first Daiwa reel after a long time since I last used one... It was a Daiwa Freams 2500 and the first impressions were very positive.  The reel had a very smooth drag and effortless winding. Long casting and light, it matched very well with my ML rods. A few months in though and after plenty of good fish it started loosing that smooth feeling. that didn't bother me much as I kinda expected it to happen. Where the reel disappointed me though was in the line lay. It may have looked very tight and symmetric on the spool but especially when I put on a fine 8-strand braid (YGK WX8) the problems started... I lost the first spool (30£) in only a few outings as I was having unexpected wind-knots way after the cast... I bought an other spool and also upgraded the line roller by adding an rbb thinking that this would help but unfortunately it didn't. I need to mention that I didn't experience similar problems with 4-strand braids on that reel although I didn't have more than a couple outings with 4-strand. In any case I sold the reel and decided to add a Light Shore Jigging Setup in my collection as I thought it could help me with the bigger fish here and also when fishing over thick kelp.
I chose the inexpensive Major Craft Solpara SPS-1002LSJ max 50g along with a Shimano Biomaster 4000SW and I have to say that this setup has done even more than I asked... I think there were only a handful of fish that cut me off on this setup and only in the roughest marks. The Biomaster though powerful, could've done with some more attention in assembly as I had to get a replacement handle knob cap and I now need 2 small screws as well (all got loose and fell off)...


 From my older reels (Stradic 1000fc and Stradic 2500F Ci4) both are going strong with the Ci4 having had a service and a new RBB. Recently though I started to notice (by a friend's comment as well) that the drags on both the reels were slipping and generally getting inconsistent. The smaller one wasn't great to begin with and thus I thought that an upgrade may be in line...
After googling around for info, I realised its an easy process to do and duly bought two Carbontex drag washer kits, each kit fitting to the according reel, for less than 10£ each. In addition I got some Cal's drag grease for lubing the washers.
The process went like this: I took apart the drag systems, removed the worn out felt washers, lightly lubed the Carbontex washers, polished the metal washers and put them in the original order they came out. From initial tests there is a marked difference (positive) to the feel of the drag although I'm told it will take some good runs to get them in optimal working order.

The original drag assembly on the Ci4.

Notice the muck...

Worn out felt washers..

Shreds of felt were stuck inside...


The 3 Carbontex washers in the bottom.
Braid and Line.
 Have been very happy with the Duel Hardcore X4 for a while now and I still consider it very good value for money. Tried the YGK G soul WX8 and was quite happy with knot strength, abrasion resistance etc though I'm not entirely sure that the wind knots were the reel's fault entirely. Regarding 8-strands, Ive had the Duel Xwire X8 on the Biomaster for a while now and it has proved to be a very good choice. Easy knotting, smooth and strong.
For my fluorocarbon leaders Ive mostly used Duel Hardcore Powerleader FC and the YGK Nitlon DFC. Both lines very dependable. I had high expectations for the Seaguar Ace fluorocarbon but it did not fare well with my knots. Good abrasion resistance though and a 'harder' feel to it than the others.

Offset Hooks.
I'm not gonna make this a full review of my tackle as it would be tedious but hooks (offset ones in this case) are very important especially at this time of year. Cant fault the Gamakatsu and Owners plus some of the newer VMC ones are holding up well (e.g 1x Strong) . Most of the Decoy ones like the 13 Salt and the RS worm hook worked well too. Wasn't very happy with the Crazy Fish ones, Mustad and Matzuo as they're either not sharp enough or too soft.

I have sold quite a bit of gear as well and making do with only (😆) 4 reels and 6 rods at the moment, covering from LRF (tub tip and solid) to finesse (solid tip), ML and Light Shore, not including the travel rods... My main aim for this season is to finally match a good Medium - Medium Heavy setup. Something in the lines of 9ft, 10-30g. I have already got the reel (3000 StradicFK) as I'm incapable of resisting a bargain and will be looking for a new rod soon!
Moreover I hope to get a quality long net for some of the high marks where access to the water level is tricky.
Recent fish average stamp.

Fishing wise the past week has seen rain and wind return to us but I've still had enjoyable and productive sessions even though I had to visit different marks to get out of the wind.
Seemed to be catching mostly smaller fish though and I'm considering that this may mean the bigger (adult) fish started moving to spawn. Will be out the first chance I get for some more!
Below some videos from recent sessions. Yes I can talk!




Tight Lines!



Sunday, 12 February 2017

Making the most of the sunshine!

This has been an action filled weekend with plenty of fish and in glorious sunshine!
On Friday I visited a mark that I though might hold some fish as it can get tiring going up and down Neist all the time! The mark is a rocky bluff with good depth, little current yet very near some fish farm cages. Its relatively easy and quick to get there yet landing fish can be a problem. Nevertheless I decided on having a go and my target for the day were coalies as I wanted some for the pan.
I had the ML/HRF setup on the day and fished a variety of softplastics and metals. Unfortunately no coalies were caught and I just couldn't avoid the pollock! All of them of a decent size (3lbs+) that made landing them extremely difficult. Moreover the mark has long chains underwater and some kelp close in that helped the fish into making landing them even more difficult!
Anyway I managed to land one fish that I kept. Cleaning it I saw it was full of milt and that seems to reinforce my thoughts that its mostly the males active now, while the larger females are either not feeding well or moved offshore. I suspect things might get quiet soon...
A tricky mark.

Male gonads full of milt...







 Definitely a long net needed for this mark... Something else Ive noticed lately and also got into a conversation with a friend, is that the drag on the stradic Ci4 seem to have become less smooth and precise... Ive had quite a few sudden line breakages and I'm not convinced its the braid to hold accountable. Will be looking into possibly upgrading the drags in both my Stradics later on and hope to see improved performance.
Yesterday and today I devoted my time on Neist Point and had some brilliant fishing. The seals pestered me a bit yesterday but today I had the whole sea to myself. Tried to get some coalies on the LRF setup, but instead caught bigger pollock that cut me off. It seems that coalies prefer larger prey at this time of year or need longer casts as I got some on the ML setup. They weren't as plentiful today though I did go at a low water period.
Moreover I fished very slow at times, practically dragging the lure (subtle lures worked best) and got into some better pollock than the past couple days.
Used 14g-16g jigheads, small metals and hair jigs (LRF), 16g Cheburashka and Carolina rig. Had some issues with some of my offset hooks as I was out of EWG's and used ones with inward looking point that cost me some fish. I changed to Sickle offsets and the losses were minimised. The fish although plentiful weren't biting as hard as in the previous months.

What a day!

On LRF instead of coalies..

On the ML setup and larger lure...

Seal business...


Hugging the bottom.

Better fish today..


Predator's eye.


Another video below.


I don't know how much longer this weather will last but Ive really made the most of it!
Looking to make some new additions to my arsenal soon...

Tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod: MajorCraft KGEvolution Basic KGS-902L.
Reel: Shimano Stradic Ci4 2500f
Mainline: Duel Hardcore x4 PE0.8
Leader: Duel Hardcore Powerleader fluorocarbon 16lbs
Lures: various subtle actioned sps (small paddle, curly tail, straight) on 15g jighead, 16g cheburashka and Carolina rig with added floater near the hook.









Thursday, 9 February 2017

Cracking February fishing!

A few days ago I went for a session on the rocks soon after my arrival back to Skye... I couldn't believe how mild the weather was (coming from snow-ridden N. Greece!) and with water temperatures of around 8.5℃ I was pretty sure that I would find active fish.
Now usually at this time of year I had good results down at the Sea-lochs albeit with much smaller fish. Moreover in the East Coast you could get better-sized fish although in my experience you might be looking for a few bites in a whole day! This is Skye though, and after putting on a 4" UV/motoroil, long John paddletail on a 20g jighead, I got straight into fish! A plumb, hungry coalie managed to fit the lure in its mouth and was released soon after. I got fish after fish on almost every cast after that! Coalies were out in numbers and with the ML setup they were proving to be the best fighters of the day! Got a good number of pollock as well, especially as the day got on. Sizewise coalies were around 40cm and pollock around 55cm, but the pollock seemed subdued and much more prone to get straight in the snags than making runs... This can be explained by the low water temps and also by the big bellies on some of them indicating spawning time.
THE place!

Ravenous coalfish..

Decet stamp of pollock about..


I stuck to solid coloured lures throughout the day, either dark or loud in order to be more detectable in the milky water, on jigheads, cheburashka and Carolina rig.
 Coalies would typically hit anything while the largest pollock seemed to like the lures pinned to the bottom (even dragged) especially rippletail worms. I fished from the ebb onwards and bites were more frequent before and after the high tide mark. This may also be due to the sun coming up...

Some really nice coalies..


Carolina rig is very effective for pollock on the bottom.


Bruiser..

Metals would invariably get coalies!


It was a thoroughly enjoyable day with way too many fish than I'm used to for this time of year.. The Isle of Skye is such a generous fishing destination and with these mild winters I find it more to my liking fishing now than in summer with all the tourists!
Below a video of some of the days fishing. Unfortunately the batteries were very low and I didn't get the whole day's worth of action.

Tight lines and more to come!

Gear used.
Rod: MajorCraft KGEvolution Basic KGS-902L.
Reel: Shimano Stradic Ci4 2500f
Mainline: Duel Hardcore x4 PE0.8
Leader: Duel Hardcore Powerleader fluorocarbon 16lbs
Lures: various solid coloured (light or dark and UV) on 20g jighead, 16g cheburashka and Carolina rig with added floater near the hook.