Big Catch Up Fishing 2014

Big Catch Up

So I haven't updated my blog in months, I am just going to post some pictures up of all of the fish myself and friends have caught - Not going to be much of a story line to any of them but I have included a bit of information on some fish. Going to get straight to the point and share with you some thick lipped mullet I caught last summer. 

5lb 10oz Thick Lipped Mullet I caught this after work one day bang on hight tide, float fishing at a depth of around 15ft using bread flake and ground bait to draw them in.

I got the Mullet bug for a couple of weeks, so just going to show you all some other catches I had.

I love love catching Thick Lipped Mullet! They put up such a scrap on the light gear and I cant wait to be targeting them again in summer 2015

This one pictured below went 5lb 2oz :)

4lb + Thick Lipped Mullet caught at night

 Golden Grey Mullet picked up my redcat worm, using a rolling ball weight so it moves around a little on the bottom. 

Beach caught Mullet from the Summer!

 Another beach caught mullet this time for Sam Chapon this was the first time trying beach fishing for thick lipped mullet and he loved it! He burnt and went as red as a tomato this day 4lb+ Mullet for him though! :)

Caught this little chap the week before the Jersey Open Competition. I was getting a bit of practise in striking the bites whilst float fishing.

Here is a few Ballan Wrasse I caught last year using lures and crab for them. Had my bigger fish last year using crabs for bait. But didn't have any over 5lb :(

St Catherine's Breakwater is always a good place to target big wrasse, I was fishing a 2 hook paternoster with a weak link to my weight. Dropping my crab baits right against the back wall and the fish was biting hard this day, if I remember correctly high tide dropping is when they really turned on I had a few over 4lb and one just under 5lb. 

Then I thought I would try it on a slightly nicer day with the little bro! 

I really don't pull off the hat (cap) look haha! But check out the ball weight I use this when I have the rod constantly in my hand and I can bounce it around a little more of the bottom, just a bit less likely to snag up amongst the boulders (sometimes)

I am posting this picture up as I remember the day very well! I took some lures down to a favouite north coast bass mark of mine, and soon found out there was absolutely no bass there. I changed things up a little knocked off a few limpets from the rocks and just fished them on my plugging rod over a kelp bed and I could see the wrasse going for my limpet in only a few ft of water. 12gram Jig Head and a limpet just drop it straight down the side of the rock you are standing on you never know what you might get! (Its always worth 5 minutes trying if the bass aren't there etc)

My sexy girlfriend can still catch fish too :D

My 1st Channel Island Record!

I managed my first shore caught record last summer. It was a Thin Lipped Mullet weighing 6lb 6oz, I was targeting thick lipped & thin lipped mullet on this day. I got down the beach got my bread on the hook and cast out within 2 minutes I had missed a decent bite so I casted back towards where I thought the shoal of mullet were and my rod just bent right over and I was into a beast of a fish! I knew from the second I hooked it I would be lucky man to actually land it.

 I was playing this fish so carefully and I felt like it was on the end of my line for a good 10-15 minutes before I got the net under it - It was a happy moment. I never truly got to see a glimpse of the fish until the net so when I saw it was a thin lipped in the water I knew that this could have been a record fish. No scales on me I didn't quite know what to do with myself, carry on fishing and leave the Mullet in the net or leg it up the beach to my van to quickly give it a weigh. I decided to do that managed to get a dog walker to get a quick snap whilst I was on my run to the van :) 

Had to get one more picture with it, think I told a few people I had it down Noirmont Point on a lure (Just to let you people know that was a lie haha)

Managed to fit in a bit of lure fishing for bass last year, but not as much as I should have done really. It is a growing sport lure fishing it is so easy to just grab your plugging rod a few lure and get fishing quickly. Here is a few fish I had anyway including a few from the Jersey Bass Festival. 

Enjoyed this session with Alex Plastic loads of mackerel bubbling on the surface and the bass was right underneath them we had around 4 bass I think and lost a couple too! Alex's was the best at around 6lb if a remember correctly.

Best bait caught bass of the year over 6lb. 

Time for some rays? Yeah why not :)

11lb 8oz Undulate Ray caught on a pully rig at range using pouting fillet for bait.

Wont go into too much detail on this fish as I fluked it big time! Caught it under a harbour light with a small sand-eel and a size 4 hook. (Jammy Ferguson Strikes Again) It weighed bang on 10lb though.

Undulate from the summer caught on a whole squid :) 7lb 4oz

If you want an undulate ray come over to Jersey as they do seem to be in numbers now - Think the ban on commercial fisherman landing them had defiantly helped us shore anglers out.

 8lb 4oz Undulate Ray

Sam Chapon getting in on the action with this fine undulate weighing  7lb 8oz

9lb 2oz Small Eyed Ray caught on Sandeel using a pully rig 

Scott Batchelor showing me how its done on a fine summers day with this cracking small eyed ray weighing 10lb 

9lb 3oz on a different day for Scott! I will call him one rod wonder man from now on. One rod is all he needs even if it is a boat rod and a huge catfish reel loaded with thick braid.

Rob Dingle with a small eyed ray weighing 5lb 7oz

Gareth Mcmonagle showing me how its done one night down St Catherine's Breakwater!

Israel - Netanya

So I went on holiday to Israel and not going to lie the travel lure rod came with me (of course) 

Here is a little selection of the fish I caught I also had a small mullet and a small white bream on my first session when I didn't have my camera on me. 

Only went fishing a couple of times! Did a little bit of surfing and had a great time doing non fishing things :) 

Back to fishing in Jersey now here is a few more conger eels caught. Biggest one for me last year was just over 30lb but other than that just a few to around 24lb.

 Sam Daniels with a nice Conger caught for the conger competition.

Jersey Open Shore Angling Festival 2014 (JOSAF)

So this was a tiring week, as I work for a family business my parents picked this week to enjoy a holiday in the sun somewhere and left me to look after the business for a couple of weeks one of these weeks being the fishing competition. Nothing I could do about it I had to try and catch my fish before and after work. Luckily the competition falls on a bank holiday weekend so once I finished work on Saturday I was straight into the fish . 

Little picture of me getting prepared for the festival.

Golden Grey Mullet 2lb 1oz - Had another one of 1lb 11oz just missed the weigh in size of 1.12

Now I had the mullet bug I went onto targetting the ones with the thick lips and I managed one too :) 4lb 2oz 

Weigher Black Bream 1lb 12oz 

I also managed a couple of weigher Conger Eels but didn't get pictures with them 17lb was my first one, then I had another towards the end of the week weighing 19lb 12oz

Some how I dont even know how I did it but I won overall angler of the competition and had to work 34 hours. As you can see by this next picture I was rather tired towards the end of the week lol!

Alderney Angling Festival 2014

I could write an essay on this but I feel like I should have done it straight after the festival. Pictures & Weights & Location if your lucky - I try to be a little bit secretive. 

5lb 6oz Bullhuss

I was really trying to get a conger big enough to get on the board it has to be 25lb which is a big eel. I think I caught at least one every night for the first 5 days. But it just wasn't meant to be..... here is a few I got anyway :) 

End of Alderney breakwater small whip

 14lb 8oz caught in the harbour area

17lb 8oz Conger Alderney Breakwater

15lb Conger Alderney Breakwater

19lb 8oz Conger Eel caught on Commercial Quay - Casting back towards the breakwater at max range.

Matt smith who was in our team managed the only one over 25lb in the festival weighing 32lb 13oz.

Leigh Mullins with a nice Bullhuss and Cuckoo Wrasse which didn't quite make the board. The cuckoo would have if caught at the beginning of the week.

Ballan Wrasse just under 5lb 

Our first night fishing in the competition and Leigh Mullins gets a Bass weigher 5lb 7oz 

7lb 4oz Bass for Leigh Mullins improver on his first weigher - Bit of a story to the landing of this fish including me throwing the net in and not having hold of the rope, meaning me having to leg it all the way to my van to get another net out, all part of the fun I guess :) 

He was on fire last year catching so many good fish! Here is the beasty thick lipped mullet he caught with his dad one morning. Think his was one once bigger than his dads :) 

I tried quite a few times to get a weigher black bream, I found them with the help of Ross Johnson but only to 2lb 8oz 

I managed a new species in Alderney a couches bream this was the biggest fish I have ever caught on rod and line!

 Before the competition even started me and Leigh had a little play around :)

Here is myself with a lure caught Bass caught at Doyle!

End of Alderney Breakwater fishing a P-Boy in the run of tide at the end resulted in my target species as well as a few nice pollock!

Soft Plastics work a treat for wrasse in Alderney here is Leigh Mullins proving that I am sure only a couple of hours after he landed.

Here is a small but welcome thick lipped mullet caught from the beach.

Okay I did manage my first weigher in the competition only a Garfish but got me on the board :)

It weighed 1lb 1oz 14drams. ( It got knocked off the board in the final weigh in) 

The boy did well

Here is a picture of the final board - Cracking week!

Got to say thanks again to Ross Johnson for letting us kip at his house, much appreciated :)  

Now I am just going to post a few things I might have missed out before - Here are a few large squid I caught last year biggest one went 3lb 12oz!!

Check out this link to see a full report on why and how I caught this squid below

http://www.itv.com/news/channel/search/?q=squid

Caught down Bouley Bay

My personal best squid 3lb 12oz caught down Victoria Pier

Caught a couple of Red Mullet in November last year up to 1lb 8oz as shown below.

Had a Sole on the same night also :) 

Flounder Time!

2lb 8oz beach caught summer flounder for Alex Plaster

 Small summer flounder for me as well :) 

Tackle Heaven is carrying out a species hunt competition this year check it by clicking on this link, direct you to the tackle heaven Facebook page you will be able to find out all of the rules and information there :) 

https://www.facebook.com/tackleheaven?fref=ts

As you can see I am getting involved already this year and so is a few other anglers!

Thanks for reading my blog, if you have any questions leave them in the comment box below, Please subscribe to my YouTube Channel as I am going to try and post a few videos up this year. Will post them up on the blog also, as I am going to try and keep on top of it this year and post throughout the year, Rather than one big pile of mess like this blog post, but it was really annoying me how I hadn't posted up for months. Please click on the link which directs you to my YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCGXzGH6RHsqwxOZNLTu6IwThis is what I am going to be using to film with. I have already tested it out - Check out this video of my friend Sam Chapon catching a Bullhuss last weekend! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-DTevfxxuU