What gave the hardest pull this year?

 Whether the day is just breaking and we are on passage from the harbour,

or whether we are on the way home just coming onto the pier, thoughts naturally turn to the best fish of the day.

The hopes and aspirations at the start of the trip are matched equally by the pleasure of memories of fish caught during it. So what did give the hardest pull this year? To be honest I'm not really sure. A big ray kiting across the tide can be a beast to deal with and there has been some muscle straining action as a wise old Thornback is pumped up. Tope, now when they are in the mood they seriously pull. Funny fish tope though because at times they will come to the boat like dogs on a lead, whilst at other times the first adrenalin filled run is like hooking a steam train, In fact my best analogy is its like tying the reel line to the collar of a Labrador, throwing a ball and yelling fetch. Unstoppable.

Then there is the mighty bass, a good one on light tackle is a different prospect to anything else we fish for here in the UK saltwater. They pull hard. The surprise of the early season were the bountiful spurdogs that use guile and muscle to put a cracking scrap into any effort to boat them. The seasons best went to 20lb and my word did it fight. Similar in so many ways are the smooth hounds but they pull harder still. If the Labrador analogy works for tope then smooth hounds are grey hounds. Keep up with them if you can. But perhaps the thing that pulled the most was this boat. Broken down and in need of a helping tow, 3 Fishes knew she had a scrap on!

So here is the list.... enjoy.

Bass - 9.5 lb

Tope - 51 lb

Spurdog - 20 lb

Ray - 10 lb

Smooth Hound - 7lb

Huss - 15 lb

Cod - 3.5 lb

Pollack - 4.5 lb

Gurnard - 2.5 lb

Whiting - 2.5 lb

After this the list gets almost endless and includes, flounder, plaice and dabs, coalfish, mackerel, herring, 3 species of gurnard, 2 species of weaver, launce, garfish, 2 species of wrasse, scad, pouting, 2 species of eels, dogs, dragonet, etc etc.

Q. When is a fish not a fish? A. When its a shellfish

Lucky me. I get to take you fishing for fin fish and when I'm not doing that I'm either fishing for them myself or hauling my Lobster pots in the hunt for something wonderfully tasty! Under current legislation anyone can 'fish' five Lobster pots on a hobby basis (i.e. you do not sell your catch). The rules are that you must have a 'hobby' licence from the Sea Fisheries people and you should not land more than two legal size Lobsters a day. Your buoy's should be clearly marked with your issued hobby licence number and as a courtesy to other boat users leaded buoy lines are necessary. After that its up to you to chuck 'em in somewhere good and hope!

This summer I fished four lobster pots for fun and for food. I would have fished five but my stock had diminished and I felt too tight to spend £60 on new ones. A problem I have now solved by salvaging four perfect storm blown pots off a local beach recently. Five pots next year! The game is so simple I find it endlessly surprising that more people don't do it. Add its simplicity (bait, drop, leave, pick up again) to the fact that its great fun and I'm even more amazed. Maybe its the fear of eating something that needs some preparation. Lets face it buying a pre boiled frozen thing from a discount supermarket that was caught in Canada probably a year ago seems so much easier. It comes in a nice clean package probably complete with instructions!

But then I'm a hunter gatherer and like all of my ilk, I enjoy both the hunt and then I enjoy the proceeds. Cooking is a part of the process. A spicy fragrant salad of lime, garlic, palm sugar and fish sauce and salad leave tossed into still warm lobster takes some beating. Here as well as on a south Asian beach! By the way the stunning Spiny Lobster that I found on a beach yesterday was under size and returned to the sea. If the miracle happens and I catch it again in a few years time it will still be returned. Too beautiful even for this hunter gatherer.

What did it for me? The definitive Shallow Runner list

If there is one question I get asked more than any other it is; 'where can I catch bass?'. And it is a question that I'll politely avoid answering. It is after all a significant part of my trade - the where to find fish thing. If you are a client then there are no secrets, I'll happily point you at shore marks but catch up with me on the harbour wall with a 'eer mate, eard you no were to catch bass local like' and I'll tell you little.

So marks are off limits (unless you like to geek my photography - yes some do - for the occasional background clue). However I am happy to talk lures. This is a big mind set change for me and one that didn't come easy. I've had to learn that keeping lure secrets is pointless. After all one man's dream catcher will be another man's dead loss. Added to that fact is I believe 'the be all and end all' is in the instant in time that a lure swims past a fish. No one can replicate that as the variables are too endless. Think about it in this way; you will never fish the same spot for the same fish in the same conditions ever. So mimicking my lure choices will do little to enhance chance.

The important issue is one of confidence. Buy a lure online 'blind' and you will have no faith in it and if it has not caught in 20 mins of fishing, it will rust in the bottom of the box. By a lure online that you know others have caught with then your faith and therefore confidence will grow. So my advice is clear don't listen to those that say 'try this'. Listen only to those that say...'I have caught plenty with this'.

So here it is season 2014 Shallow Runner 'plenty of fish' catchers. In no particular order of preference but all caught well. Remember please that this is not a list of every lure that caught fish this year, just the ones that caught consistently.

1. Rapala's subtle but oh so effective Max Rap. Casts poorly by today's standard, swims slowly and they love it.
2. Luckycraft's Flash Minnow 110. Welcome to lure heaven. Fake and burn it or simply wobble it home either way its deadly in any ones hands.
3. Rapture's Momoko 120. The surprise of the season. Fish it slow'ish'. Fed up with £25 lures then this is the baby. Get 5 for the price of 1!
4. Rapala's xrap. No good in a head wind but want depth (c.2.5m) and this little lure is unbeatable. Yes unbeatable.
5. IMA Sasuke - the Ferrari of the shallow runner world. All glitz, all poise, all expense.. But hell it catches.

Next time = top water and here, as a tease, is one of the sexy ones!

I love it when its calm

A couple of mornings ago, before the N wind returned, I went fishing. A rare and beautiful event as I hardly ever go fishing just for myself. Corrine, the dog, 3 Fishes and me. Of course we chose the best day of the season (don't worry guys that's best day of the season so far). The sea was glass calm as the picture proves better than words.

We left the harbour at first light and headed straight to a great HW hotspot. I had slept listlessly the night before as I practised how I would position 3 Fishes on the mark so that Corrine could fish it to its maximum. My wife is a surface lure aficionado. Truth be told its hard to get her to fish anything else and this particular spot is a surface lure dream. As the light came up I crept 3 Fishes up to the mark and C fished it beautifully without moving a single fish! Sammy let us down. There was only one conclusion - the bass were not there. And as bassing is all about location, location, location (without Kirsty Allsop) we moved on.

There is a special spot where a shallow reef extends out of the coast. Its not known locally and one that I cherish and keep under wraps. No one has seen me fish it (other than customers) as if there is a boat around I'll not go near. As we cruised into the ground we saw fish move, and then a boil and then another. A dense area of fairly gentle fish movement was just outside of us and I used all of my field craft and 30 odd years of sea fishing experience to identify as mullet. Good news as open water mullet equals bass. We watched this large raft of fish drift slowly away from us and made no attempt to follow them absorbed in our own ground.

And then for no apparent reason the drifting and gently boiling raft of fish came alive. Suddenly sandeels were scattering like mini air born missiles and the boils became wallops and splashes. Shit they're bass you plonker!

I dived into the wheel house fired one of 3 Fishes wonderful engines up and gave her a quick shunt towards the fish. Engine off again and 9m sprint to the bow and my rod. C casts and hooks up on the sammy instantly on lure splash down, I cast and hook up on a flash minnow. Double hook up!

C boated 5 and I boated 2, one of which went to 6lb on the boga. And then they were gone.

Bass heaven, seen, experienced and banked in the memory for all time. Forget fizzing Henry, I love it when its glass calm!

You've seen the big ones

Look the fact is, no matter how much I spin it, not every bass I catch is a big fish. Oh I wish, no I really do wish they are but they are not. And I don't believe that its any longer the point. Bass are now too scarce to be fussy about any catch. I'm fairly firm with anyone who steps aboard 3 Fishes only to exclaim when they get a hook up 'oh that's a small one'. To me a bass is a bass. Too many chef's have made too many TV programmes cooking sea bass fillet and they are over persecuted often illegally simply for the quick buck that a carcass brings. The ultimate insult to such a proud and noble fish is to drown it in a gill net, sell it for cash in the black market and give the cash to the local landlord. As meaningless and pointless as over exploitation gets. So getting a hook up and a fish aboard is an achievement to be celebrated and enjoyed, no matter its size. And whilst I'm on the bass fillet thing let me tell you this. Eat Mullet; there is more of them and they taste nicer (yes really).

That said its also true that we all like looking at big fish so I'm keen to post pics of the big ones and the other superb achievements go unheralded. Until today when I celebrate the small ones! Although the one above actually isn't that small but its somewhat helped by the fact that Noah is a small person.

Fishing is a strange sport. get one and you want another, get another and you want a bigger one, get a bigger one and you want a bigger one still! Its part of its mystery and the drug that is fishing - what will take next!

What am I catching on?

The stonking amazing beautiful and still swimming bass that a client had yesterday was a fish of a lifetime. And I am choosing my words carefully as 8lb is the new 10lb when fish of this class are involved. The thing is that this fish measured out on Bass Anglers Sport fish Societies weight length tape at over 10lb but boga'ed at 8.5lb. It looked bigger but bass and indeed fish often do. For years I carried only the BASS tape as a succession of scales proved unable to with stand the wear and tear (and salt). In fact the tape did all I needed of it firstly because anything over 55cm always go back (take two bass limit per person on 3 Fishes) and secondly because its quick and easy to use. However with the boga revolution seems to have come a handy durable and reliable tool and thus far I'm happy with it. It weighs light but I'm happy! 

As I handed Paul his catch like a proud and relieved mid wife handing over a baby I was chuffed to bits for him, for those on the boat that got to see this ultimate predator and myself for delivering the product (again!).

I had said to the guys aboard and got disbelieving snigger's in return as I said it....'bass are in fact bloody easy to catch, just bloody difficult to find'. The point was proved yet again as we had only a cod (2.5lb'er) and some baby pollack off the first four locations we fished and there on the fifth was this baby and four others. 

Ok I here you saying get to the point - what did it take? It took a Rapture Momoko 120mm shallow runner but the colour I'm keeping to myself and the lads at Rapture (ask them). I will however tell you this about the colour.... I've made a loud and clear point blogging about it in the past, so if you follow what I do online and in Sea Angler mag you'll be there.

I'm liking these lures more and more now.They mimic some IMA stuff that Henry Gilbey is very fond of but come in at around 25% of the price. They are catching, that's reason enough. They cast well enough and their action is tight and sweet. Clearly a fish puller. I've just ordered more.

Here's the cod and proud captor Lee.

Rapture capture

If you follow my Facebook ramblings you'll have spotted that the lads from Trabucco UK flew in (yes posh I know but they really did fly in to Aberporth just down the road) last week. They came to give their bassing gear a work out and were particularly keen to give the new Rapture series lures a swim.

The bottom line is that the lures catch. Indeed they catch well. Now let be be clear and up front with you about this. I am not in Trabucco's pay (other than they paid for the day aboard 3 Fishes as anyone else would) and I have no 'deal' with them its simply a good working relationship. The came, they used, I put them on the fish and I watched. Seems fair enough.

I like the look of what I saw and can find no better thing to say about the lures than since that day I have been giving them to clients to use! In the pics associated to this blog are a couple of strong lures that clearly catch fish. The big selling point for these fellows is the price range (as well as the fact that they catch).
The Chartreuse Monomo 120 below retails at £7.99. Yes that's right there is no numeral 1 missing from in front of the 7. Nice kit, good price and it works.