New travel rod testing..

I have recently purchased a new travel rod since I'm looking to have a complete range of them in preparation for future trips. The rod is the Savage Gear Roadrunner XLNT, 7', 3-16g and as soon as it arrived I was anxious to go and try it. Yesterday I got my opportunity to try it as it was my day off.
I was going to start with the freshwater, throwing some hard baits in the shallow bays for the pike and hopefully perch, and then I would close the session at my pollock mark in Loch Etive before sundown, targeting the pollock with soft plastics.
Reaching Loch Awe and on first inspection the rod seemed nice and light to the hand, being perfectly balanced with the Mitchell Mag Pro Lite 1000, and with a fast action without being too stiff.
 I rigged  a 6cm floating Salmo Slider as the water was quite shallow and I didn't want the lure to dig in the weedy bottom. I was casting in the middle of a weedy bay and retrieving the lure with jerks and twitches on a medium-fast pace trying to work it close to some bulrush. As the lure came closer to the edge of the bulrush, I got the first violent strike and after some vicious head shakes I got my first Scottish perch!

Small but feisty!

Another cast at the same spot lead to another strike and better resistance this time but unfortunately the fish (a bigger perch) threw the hook,, I made a longer cast and after a few turns of the handle with a couple jerks I got a different hard strike and I knew I had a pike in the end of the line. I struck hard lifting the rod as high as i could and the fish was on! It made some spectacular runs and jumped clear of the water 20m away from me (I'm sure these Awe fish are on steroids!) but after a while I got the upper hand and managed to land the fish. It was measured at 74cm and on closer inspection I discovered a long trace going well into the fish's throat.. I didn't try to pull it as I didn't want to cause any additional harm to the fish and let it go. Other than that the pike seemed in good condition so I hope it will be fine..

Bulrush covered bays always hold some fish..

Plenty of these fish around the 75cm mark.

I continued casting and walking towards another bay and then I saw another pike similar to the one I caught but unfortunately this fish was dead.. It had a small hook under its jaw and I'm not sure what happened there.. Possibly bad reviving effort? Anyway after seeing that fish I decided to leave the pike alone and go for the pollock instead.

Such a pity..

Culprit?

I drove to my mark and the sun was going down, the tide was also receding so it was perfect conditions for pollock. I rigged a 3'' Daiwa D'fin shad on a 5g articulated football lead head and started fan casting. It took longer than I was expecting but on a long cast I got a bite OTD and saw the line accelerate, I struck and the fish was on. I could feel it was a decent fish but it didn't start crash diving like a pollock, It felt like it was just cruising with its flanks against me and I thought i might be on to a decent cod or something.. As the fish came closer though, it woke up and made a proper crash dive towards the bottom.. I knew I had a pollock then and after a fantastic fight with a few more runs I managed to land him.

Took him a while to wake up..!

As usual, engulfed!

Another good size pollock and I was quite pleased for an afternoon's fishing, so much so that I decided to call it a day and head home for a beer and a good meal..
I'm quite happy with the rod as it works hard and soft plastics adequately with a good sensitivity on the tip. It also bends well on the fight despite being fast actioned.  I wish they made it a bit longer though but overall I'm very pleased that I bought it and hope it will give me many more fish from my travels to come!
Other than this session I had a previous one covering the same places with the addition of my trout mark a couple days before. I got a couple trout and one surprisingly on a metal jig (lost it on the fight) while yoyo-jigging it with the flow and I feel there's more to come by using this presentation.

They are getting more active..

I then went to the bays with the perch in mind and got my Ul dropshot gear. Instead of catching perch though, I caught a nice pike of 75cm that would not give up and let me land it! But in the end I managed to bring it on the bank. It was caught on a dropshotted Lunker city Ribster on my usual K2K dropshot rig. I am also posting the K2K knot I'm using as it really works best for me.

Sorry for the bad photo but I was using my Action camera and I'm not used to it yet!

K2K knot step 1.

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4.

I finished that session at my polllock mark as well and although I got no big fish I managed a few smaller ones and a codling on a combination of blades and  HTO metal jigs.

Pollock on a HTO metal jig.

Pretty codling on a metal jig.

We are really getting into summer mode lately, with the freshwater especially firing up and hopefully more fish will come. I'm really looking forward to some perch fishing as I really get a kick out of it! Its disheartening though to see fish dying after being mistreated and I think bait anglers especially should be more cautious as the pike can get the bait very deep.
I will probably follow the same pattern on my next days off and try and work on using metal jigs for the trout and some dropshot for perch..

Thanks for reading and tight lines!

Gear used

Rod: Savage Gear Roadrunner XLNT, 7', 3-16g
Reel: Mitchell Mag Pro Lite 1000
Mainline: Fins windtamer, 10lbs
lure: various

Where are the big ones?!

I haven't had much time for fishing lately, but on my day off I had an enjoyable session in the north part of the island. I decided to carry the medium and heavier setups, so that I could hopefully target the larger fish while not saying no to the smaller ones if their parents didn't play ball!
I reached the mark on high tide and started fishing the shallow bays while moving towards the tip of the point. Setting the lighter setup first, I used a carolina rig with a 45cm fluorocarbon trace and two 4g sinkers followed by a bead. This increases the noise and the long trace helps keep the lure floating over the thick weed on the bottom. The bites weren't coming fast but I managed some small wrasse.
Getting closer to the tip and with the tide starting to move out, the fish turned on and the fishing got better. They were no monsters, averaging a couple pounds, but there were plenty of them to keep me happy.

I changed rig to a weighted hook and swimbait/jerkbait lures and the fish kept coming. A very successful swimbait was the 4" Daiwa D'fin. although a very sensitive lure that gets ripped rather easily after a few fish.

Having my fill of these smaller wrasse, I decided to change to the heavier setup and the bigger lures. I put on a 25g Fiiish Black Minnow, and started casting and working it from top to bottom. The bites didn't take long to materialise but not from the fish I was after.. There seemed to be loads of smaller wrasse feeding hard and they appeared to really like this lure.

After a while I decided to change back to the light gear as the big fish weren't around, and after a couple casts near an area with some good flow, I managed to hook something serious. The fish made a nice long run but managed to spit the hook!
I kept working the area but got more small wrasse, until I decided to move back to the shallow bay I  started from. Usually around this time (near sunset) wrasse hit well on cranckbaits and the place being shallow and with lots of rocks seemed ideal for crancking. I put on a deep diver and started to bounce it along the bottom, feeling for snags and letting the lure rise and giving it a sharp pull again. I managed two more wrasse and then decided to call it a day.

Well I may not have gotten the big fish but with the limited time I've had lately it was really enjoyable to get amongst so many of these feisty little wrasse.. I was very impressed with the Fiiish Black Minnow as it really looks nice and attracts the fish. I have also had a much better wrasse on it but the photo is terrible.. I think the designers would be surprised at the effectiveness of this lure on wrasse!

Thanks for reading and tight lines!

Gear used

Rod: Major Craft KG Evolution KGS-832ST 2.53m, 3-15g. Shimano Beastmaster BX STC, 4pc, 14-40g, 8'-9
Reel: Mitchell Mag Pro 1000, Abu Garcia Soron STX 40
Mainline: Berkley Nanofil 0.10mm, YGK nitlon DFC fluoro leader 10lbs. Daiwa tournament x8 braid, 0.12mm
Rig: weighted offset hooks and wide gape jigheads, sizes 2/0-4/0, weight 5g-7g. Carolina with double 4g sinkers and 45cm trace.
Lures: 4.5" Big Bite Shaking Squirrels, 4.5" Hogy Sandeels, 4" Daiwa D'fin, 4" Reins Rockvibe shad, 12cm Fiiish Black Minnow.