April 2016 - January 2017 Blogpost (About time I did one)

So I have decided to put a bit more into my blog post this time round. It must get a bit boring seeing pictures and no story's to anything so I have included a little more info than usual (Might be because I have made £16 last year on Google Adsense - Thanks everyone keep clicking those Ads haha!!) 😊 

 Big news is I am now a Dad to my son Oliver! My fishing days will be more restricted but only for the better. Jersey is only 9 miles by 5 miles so the sea is never too far away & once my little son gets a bit older he can come fishing with his daddy. 

Included a picture below when I am not showing off a fish its a baby lol!

He can already say the words Slosh Reel & Savage Gear 😂

I might still find time to update this blog for the odd session here and there babies sleep right ? (So far so good but early days yet) I am getting married next year too how crazy, I am very happy I have found the perfect woman. 👰💖

Pretty much every fish I have caught this year has gone back to swim another day apart from a couple of competition fish but nothing has gone to waste. Its hard to write down about a whole years fishing like this. I have stopped & started this blog post around 4 times now as so much to talk about which means the fishing in Jersey is pretty good at the moment! 

8th April 2016

Popped down to a local North coast pier Greve De Lecq and managed a 12lb Undulate on my first cast. 

April 25th 2016

Birthday Bass - It's a bit of a tradition to get out for a quick lure bash on my Birthday and a quick 20 mins on the rocks produced the one fish on the 65g Savage Gear! 

30th April 2016

5lb 6oz C&R sight float fished with bread flake for this beauty (Watch her go back in the video below).

Come to the realisation putting the dates on everything might take some time so gonna stop doing that now for my own sanity.

Lure fishing for Wrasse has always been something I love doing year after year. I get so exited to get out there and to try to find the elusive 6lb wrasse I have desperately been searching for. Still never even seen one that big get caught yet so I am looking forward to that day. We do have some great sport to be had over here in the Channel Islands when it comes to shore wrasse fishing some sessions you can catch over 20 wrasse.

Here are a few pictures of myself and friends with some nice Ballan's. I have personally caught them to 5lb 8oz this year on the lures. 

                                           Alex Plaster with a chunky wrasse on the Bass Assassin.

My heavy wrasse set up

I think my set up is ideal for targeting the bigger specimen's.

Sometimes the fish can flap out both your hands on there first attempt haha!

Daiwa Saltiga 4000

30lb braid (good quality braid) & a 

9ft Daiwa Tournament Bass Lure Rod

20lb Amnesia Clear Leader 

20g rolling float weight 

3/0 strong & sharp weedless hook

Lure 4" Bass Assassin of course!

Skishing Time.......Na only messing we are just having fun 😏

Alex Plaster & I had an amazing day on the Kayaks we kept stopping off to do some shore fishing along the way too. (Please take care and wear a life jacket if you try this we are setting a bad example) 

This 5lb Orange Beauty is shown being caught in the video below! This fish took a Lunker City Shaker Soft Plastic 

Check out the video I made of this fantastic day's lure fishing for wrasse.

Here are just a few quick sessions after work here and there not going to do much explanation on these ones 😆  

I had a fair few Garfish last year biggest one going 15oz

 I always like a few casts down the harbour this was just messing around with the LRF rod. 

2lb 6oz Common Eel & my biggest last year :) 

LRF Common Eel fun

Gave up on the Angling trust species hunt! I kept forgetting my Species card lol!

LRF FUN

I have spent a fair amount of time with the bream gear out this year. I loved using braid as mainline I can see alot more bites especially when the tide is running hard. This one looked so good straight out the water lovely breeding colours. She weighed 2lb 6oz and was returned to get bigger for next year.

Bread catches everything! I still believe that you could catch any fish that swims on bread for some reason I dont know why it just works! 

Over the years I have had Bass to 5lb on bread whilst mullet fishing. I dont mind them more the merrier! 

We all know these things like bread! 

1 of 3 Bass caught on bread in a short session. 

Another nice ballan on the lures.

Jacob Carpenter with a nice Wrasse

Jonathan with a Small Huss from early on in the year we had a couple small ones this night. 

Saw some birds working on the beach as I was driving past I couldn't resist a chuck.

My biggest Wrasse of the year was caught on a Lure and I only spent 20 minutes fishing as soon as I caught the fish I left a happy man! 

5lb 8oz Lure Caught Ballan 

Solitaire mission produced I think was my only small eyed ray of the year not a bad one too weighing 9lb 4oz C&R the fish took a long mackerel strip as far as I could possibly cast with a running ledger rig and 8oz grip weight. 

I invested in a bigger net soon after this always leave my nets down rock marks / beaches or they get caught on bushes when climbing back up. Sorry Rob Dingle lost yours once haha

Double figure Conger which was the only bite in a few hours this night.

Marbella Fishing July 2016

First fishing session in Marbella this year I got a taxi to a fishing tackle shop in the morning & got some worm I wanted a Gilthead Bream. I just found too many small fish getting to my baits too quickly!

It took me 30-40 minutes to walk from the tackle shop in San Pedro to Puerto Banus I fished a rocky arm which is mixed ground but shallow! You could catch a small fish every cast if you wanted too but very hard to keep away from small fish.

After loosing a Octopus last year I was quite keen to land this one. I took extra care but it was well hooked. Good fun on my 13ft light mullet travel rod I had with me, caught on a live bait! I managed to get this footage on GoPro still not got round to making a little video for it....that will come soonish. 

                                                            My first ever Ornate Wrasse

Many different species but all pretty small lucky I took the light mullet rod with me.

More of a relaxing Holiday than a fishing holiday made a great contact in a Local Tackle Shop over there who can get me out on his friends boat Tuna fishing next time so I am very keen to give this a try!!

Lots of other species caught on the light float gear I even saw a small barracuda caught one early morning so next time I know what to do in order to get myself one and it requires a Dexter Wedge! 

Once fully acclimatized & back in Jersey it was mission Smooth Hound for me! To be honest every year its mission smooth hound for me well maybe not this year so much but will always enjoy targeting these fish!.....There is just something about them which gets me going.

Here are a couple that I managed best two going 4lb 6oz & 5lb 2oz 

My brothers first Smooth Hound. Liam seems to be getting into fishing & is getting out alot more this year. He is catching some fish too here he is with his first ever smooth hound he caught on a hard back crab fishing for ballan wrasse. 

Not letting him have all the fun!

Liam my Brother best mate Finn has had some fantastic fish this year. 
I thought this is well worth a mention as any 5lb wrasse is a great fish.

 

I was enjoying waking up early every now and then I love a sunrise! 

Small one - Worth the quick hour before work! 

Best Common Smooth Hound of the year.

Its also handy stocking up on mackerel for the Freezer whilst the big rods are out mackerel bubbling on the surface!

Lure wrasse fishing I just cant resist! These below fish were caught on the Bass Assassin 4" Turbo Shads you can pick these lures up from my site only £5.99 FREE P&P Click here or the link above. 

Jersey Open Shore Ballan Wrasse Competition 2016

Many thanks to everyone who took part in the Jersey Open Shore Ballan Wrasse competition we had a huge fish which won the competition which weighed 6lb 14oz but this competition is done by length 😁 This is the longest wrasse I have ever heard of! Here are the results 😁🎣 Scroll down.

Longest specimen - Paulo Alves - 58cm

Best bait caught Ballan Wrasse

1st Place - Paulo Alves - 58cm

2nd Place - Steve Mullins - 51cm 

3rd Place - Jack Gavey - 49cm

Best lure caught Ballan Wrasse

1st Place - Daniel Ferguson - 53cm

2nd Place - Dave Allen - 49cm

3rd Place - Jonpaul Fleming - 46cm

 I only fished for a few hours over the weekend but I picked my tides right & I did manage a few nice fish. This was the biggest ballan I caught on the Bass Assassin 4" Turbo Shad lure which went 53cm and weighed 5lb.

Paulo Alves - Winning Fish 2016 - 58cm

Well done Paulo great result winning the Jersey Open Shore Wrasse Competition 2 years running!

A session to remember

What a cracking session with Liam Harrison we started off catching wrasse, mackerel & scad then we put some big baits out. Of-course Liam would show off his bass skills with a massive 10lb 8oz Bass caught on Fresh Mackerel! Then I got in on some action and managed a Double Figure Undulate Ray weighing bang on 10lb 

I think Liam has had around 3 or 4 Double Figure Bass now! 

My 10lb Undulate Ray

Jersey Open Shore Angling Festival 2016

I booked the week off work this year with full intentions of giving it my all. I was half organised with a few rigs made but of course never enough and all of my reels were freshly relined.

My first night I fished on Jersey's SW coast in some deep water with mixed ground. I was hoping for Congers & Huss with the chance of a Bass & Undulate Ray. Fishing was slow I managed a couple of eels both under the 15lb qualifying weight needed.

I kept on fishing with little sleep managed mullet, bream and wrasse not big enough. It was time for my GG Mullet.....I timed the tide right with a spot I have found some big ones before. Ground bait went in and it really didn't take long to get some nice fish feeding. I must of have around 10-15 fish feeding hard in my ground bait.

I got a float set up with 6lb fluro carbon - Sakuma Chinu size 6 hook, I was only fishing shallow as wanted to sight fish for them this way I can pick which one I strike and can choose the direction of my strike depending on which way the fish is swimming. After purposely not striking the smaller fish it gave the bigger fish enough time to come up for my bait and luckily I got him first strike and it was a nice one too weighing 2lb 5oz 14dram which finished 1st place in that section of the competition. 😁

I was after my 2nd weigher now I have had a bit of sleep. The GG Mullet took a bit of pressure off me as soon as I get on the board I allow myself to have a sleep haha! 

I prepared for my evening session and my first session with Ross Johnson. We went down a Mark I had only been once before & I had never properly bait fished it. The tide was pretty strong so I went for a pulley rig with a weak link and wacked out a whole squid on a 5/0 Sakuma Manta Extra. It didn't take too long for my rod to arch over and I winkled out a lovely 5lb 9oz Bass! (2nd Weigher) 

Was quiet a disappointing night after this, time seemed to fly by and very little rod tip action apart from one possible eel pull near the end. 

This is the biggest wrasse I managed during the JOASF. Went out to a low tide reef I only had 30 minutes fishing and the fishing was tough with only this one bite and one fish! But it made me realize its not about the quantity its about the quality! 4lb 12oz

Thick Lipped Mullet were plentiful during the week I fished for them on quite a few different occasions east coast I found most of them but they are all over our beaches and our coast in general. Didn't make the cut getting on the board with one personally but during a session with Ross wading the beaches he managed two weighers right next to me.

Here are Ross Johnson's fish 4lb 2oz 12drams and 4lb 6oz 12drams he caught these using free lined surface crust. 

We tried down all the right places at all the right times. The eels just wasn't the size or in the numbers that they are later in the year. 

Couldn't believe my luck after going up and down many cliffs and easy marks included! I was finding a few Bream mainly down a low tide mark at range but I took some ground bait with me and got them feeding in only a few feet of water - Not seen this much in Jersey but I have had them mulleting on the float and even float fishing deep on the rock marks. But never over stoney shallow ground after a few smaller bream I hooked into I hooked what felt like a steam train on my plugging rod! I was using braid and a 2 hook paternoster with a 3oz grip weight & squid strips of course.

This 2lb 6oz Black Bream came along which was my 3rd JOASF weigher!! I then went onto getting trapped off on my special conger rock to have a lovely blank lol!! 

So chuffed to get my name on the Black Bream Trophy for the first time & the Golden Grey/Thin Lipped trophy for the 2nd time. My Bass ended up in 2nd place with Sam Chapon getting a beast weighing 9lb+  in the last couple of days.

 JOASF 16 Final Board

Lure fishing for Bass - Surface Lures - Starting to love them even more than I did before. I have just not been doing enough of it, hopefully I will find the better fish next year.

Savage Gear Sandeel still proving its worth! 

7lb 4oz Undulate Ray for Jonathan Baillie during a St Catherines bash and a big spider for me. 

Here is another special fish for me as its a new Personal Best. Weighing 8lb 6oz this Bullhuss took a whole dirty squid during daylight. The session went a bit quiet with only a small conger for me and a 3lb Bass for Gareth. A few more Huss seem to be coming closer to our shores over the last couple of years, I personally think its only going to get better for them over here or we are just getting wiser on how to catch them either or!! 

Gareth with his Bass caught on the Zip Slider.

Once again met up with Gareth for a bash and he winkled out this nice Bass on a live pouting.

Alot of wrasse getting in the way during a Plaice fishing session. No plaice caught but a few double hook up wrasse landed on the light gear.

I was after my big conger once again one night fishing with Sam Chapon. Again we both managed the target species.

14lb 8oz Conger caught at range down a North Coast rock mark.

On the Conger subject I might as well tell you about my next few sessions. I have done a fair few now and for the amount of sessions I have done I would have expected a bigger eel that the 14lbers that I have had so far.

Sometimes you dont need to go down the rocks in order to catch them. I kept my plan simple and sometimes simple is best!

14lb 12oz on a fresh pouting flapper 8/0 Sakuma Manta Extra hook choice.

With 22 fish weighed in for my Sinkers club year and no Conger I knew time was running out. I have to use my next couple of sessions wisely I thought. I knew there was fish down the breakwater as I had lost one or two. I just had a feeling to give it one last proper go! Sam Chapon & I went down and on my 2nd cast for eels I hooked into one which actually had a bit of weight behind it! I knew this one was a bigger fish than my previous efforts this year. Once surfaced it was just a case of getting it in the net, within 10 minutes of patience and care Sam managed to get it in his drop net! Mission Accomplished my best conger so far this year weighing 29lb 12oz caught on a 8/0 Sakuma Manta Extra Hook. Bait choice was a Cuttle Fish & Mackerel wrap. C&R of course. 

Sinkers Jersey Open Shore Bass Competition 2016
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Since I was 15/16 years old I have been entering this competition with my best mate Sam Chapon we missed a few years fishing together but we must have done a good 5 Bass comps together. He is known for catching Bass in Bass competitions in previous years winning the junior section a few times. 

He even turned up to one of the JOSAF competition weigh in's with a 14lb Bass. 

Sam knocked me of the top spot in the Jersey Open 2016 so we had a bit of tension between us haha!

We teamed up made a plan and stuck to it! Straight after work I caught the live bait within 5 minutes I landed a Golden Grey Mullet whilst targeting pouting so I had a good feeling my luck was going to be in 😏

I got a few live Pouting but I was really struggling to get anything of a decent sized the ones I got was very small but I got a couple of prime sized whiting so was confident they would do the job. I ventured to the rock mark with Sam and got the rods out conditions were perfect small rolling swell lovely bit of white water but still very fish-able! 

Sam's rod starting twitching away...Bass dont always hit hard I have had them playing around with a bait for sure and sometimes the bigger fish know to drop the bait once they feel any tension. On his first cast with a Bass live bait in the competition and Bass man Chapon got one weighing 5lb 1oz fish took my lovely prime sized whiting I caught for him earlier lol! 

Then I thought I best check my bait to find my live bait had disappeared....No wonder I am not getting any runs, we only had tiny pouting left in our live bait bucket. I put one on & out she goes and it didn't taker long for my ratchet to start making a noise. 

Sam did the honors with the net (The Bass was Swell assisted beautifully into the landing net may I add) 

We lost a couple of fish due to the rough ground and I was lucky to get mine in to be honest, I even had to winch over exposed rocks (Which frayed my line) but luckily I had a treble hook in my live bait so Mr Bass wasn't coming off. She weighed 6lb 1oz we had to pack up to run up to make the midnight weigh in we had the biggest smile climbing back up that cliff and we was buzzing for the incoming tide. 

So we had 11lb of Bass between us already and we have only fished for a couple of hours we knew that one of us just needs that one big one now so change of tactics and onto location number two.

 I started with a big mackerel bait on each rod with very little bait elastic and on my first cast (Of course haha) I couldn't believe my luck again my rod bent over.and my reel was making that magic sound. First one in smaller than my last but still a great fish weighing 5lb 7oz she was returned back in quickly. 

Around 30 minutes went by with not a touch and I was trying to stick to one of the most important rules in fishing changing baits often! I think this is one of the most important things to do when bait fishing. I was reeling in id say every 20 minutes if I was getting any crab trouble I reel in straight away check the bait and get it back out there quickly. Nothing worse then reeling in a empty hook so many questions come to mind...How long has it been like that what fish could have done that. Out went half a mackerel (Tail end) and 10 minutes later I was fighting with a decent sized fish. Id say I was fishing around 45 yards out at this point and as soon as I struck the fish she made some amazing splashes out the water then went onto a kiting dive across the beach. I knew this one was pretty special and took great care fighting - Thankfully Sam was right there with the net and I managed my 3rd ever biggest Bass & in the Bass Competition cant get any better than that! 8lb 12oz. 

We carried on right through with only a bit of sleep here and there one moment driving along our 40mph motorway I had to pull over in a lay-by to get 30 mins kip...woke up with a fresh idea and went onto catching a few Bass on the surface lures but nothing to compete with the Bait caught fish. 2nd night down the rocks was quiet - Sam had a Bass around 2-3lb Saturday night but fishing became pretty difficult but then we had KFC to make us feel better and a couple of pints of the presentation always a great weekend. 

Picking up the Team Prize at the presentation. 

  I had to make my sessions count getting towards the end of the Sinkers Club year. I did a few sessions for a red mullet/ sole but only managed to catch a couple the biggest went 1lb 2oz.

When fishing for Red Mullet you always get fish getting in the way too! 

Sole was another story with only catching small ones this year I needed/wanted to catch one of 1lb to make the sinkers club sizes. I consider myself as rather lucky I really put the effort in but the luck always falls into place for me too especially when I managed my sole of bang on 1lb on the last day of the club year lol!! :)

Top Bait - Redcat Worms (Maddies) Hard digging but if you can find them use them!

Since December 2016 I have managed a few sessions but slowed right down. Met up with Leigh for a couple hours he showed me his way of catching Sole he always makes it look easy mind you.

Alex Plaster returned as his does for a short period of time. In this time he was more than keen to try for a Bass. We haven't really experimented much with Bait Bass fishing this time of year so when it pays off there is always a lesson to be learnt. She weighed 5lb 8oz the swell was rather large which made me loose two fish on surface didn't even get to see them amongst the white water mind you lol! 

Now this may come of a shock but only fished 2-3 times this year a total of like 8 hours max. Had a lure caught bass on my first session of the year and my first cast with a savage gear which as you can imagine truly made my day! 

Caught you all up now I have got a nappy to change 😆 Tight Lines for 2017 everyone many thanks for reading (looking at the pictures - That's all I ever do.)