LRF

A brief hour down at Elphinstone with the LRF kit. Took a mate of mine James who's never fished before, but try as we might he didnt get any hook ups, but still enjoyed it.
Met another chap down there LRFing and compared plastics :-)
I had a couple small pollock which was nice to at least feel the rod bend (or wiggle in this case).

Coarse

A brief evening jaunt to my local pond.
One rod in the margin in 10 inches of water on 8mm bloodworm boillie produced an 8lb mirror in the daytime, and then my PB from this pond in the form of this 12lb 12oz mirror after dark.

8lb mirror

12lb 12oz mirror

The other rod cast further out near the island didnt move.

Saw a fair few carp cruising round the edges, which is not common in this place.
Also tried some LRF lures but no takers :-)

Mike has been down since this trip and said the carp are spawning again given the current heat we are having.

Coarse

Managed to escape for a brief session yesterday. Just fished 5pm till 11pm. It was a lovely day in between a long run of very wet windy weather.






 

I fished the shallow dam wall to make the most of the warmer shallows the sun had been on. Using just 10mm boilies, I threw my traps very tight into my margins. I was rewarded with a brace of doubles.

   

11lb Leather

11lb 4oz Mirror

Karl joined me at 9pm for a cuppa and a natter, which rounded the evening off beautifully.

LRF and Shop

After a horrid morning, I finally made it to the Barbican to see the new Art of Fishing shop there. Its very cool indeed, and I was glad to meet and chat to Matt Newcombe of Plymouth Lure Fishing blog and Ben Field the Art of Fishing owner. Very patient and helpful guys right there.

After buying a few bits and some new line even though I swore I wouldn't spend anything (super fine braid, feels like I'm trying to fish with button thread) , I headed down to Elphinstone. After faffing about loading up my reel with the new braid, I started having a bash on the water.
I managed a small smelt, then a really fat one, both on a Isome rag worm in red.
Another one for the species list :-)


Then nothing for ages. I tried an ecogear white pintail, but no joy, and I began to get cold.
As it got dark, I though Id try and be a smart arse, and change to a black pintail for the Pollock. After lots of jiggling, dropping and bouncing, I gave up and just watched the boats, only to have a small Pollock hook itself. Typical.
Ive come away both a little despondent that I didn't catch more, but then again happy that I didn't blank, and maybe I'm beginning to find my feet with this style. Well, when I say 'find my feet', I mean not suck quite as much as I did.
I'm trying to do everything on this style that I'm being told and read, but its not quite coming together as it should yet.

LRF

A brief hour with Mike after work chasing some mini species LRF-ing off Elphinstone Car park tonight. Just missed high tide at 6pm. Mike tried a tiny tube in red/white and I tried a small black/white curly tail worm. I had a hit just after dark, which was a small pollack, so at least I didn't blank.
Another one for my lure list competition with mike :-)

South West Sea Fishing match

SWSF had a friendly match, 'Devon Vs Cornwall'
Devon won (boo! hiss!), but we had great fun and learnt a few things.
We were trying for wrasse on HRF gear, but resorted to tiny jigs (LRF really) to see if we could temp a mini or two.
Mike and I both had a species on Lures for our little challenge, each of us had a Long Spined Scorpion fish, or Bull Head as they are sometimes called.

Lure challenge.

After that we used our bass rods and bait fished in the dark. I had no more, but mike had a couple nice Shore rocklings.

Method Mix / Floor Sweepings Update

Update to this Post.....

I wrote to Angling times, who in turn passed on my letter of complaint and the bag of hardboard and plastic detritus I was sold, and to their credit, Dragon Carp Direct called me.
They apologised right off, explaining it was from a supplier they don't use any more, and posted me back 4 bags of prime groundbait.
Shame it happened at all, but at least I had a fast apology and replacement products.
Well done Dragon Carp Direct. :-)

Sad Face

wow. Its now past Xmas and a week into the new year, and I haven't been fishing since November the 7th !! :-(((((
My wife's been rather ill. Shes expecting our second child, and her morning sickness has been so bad shes ended up in hospital, so Ive been looking after number one child and doing all the usual housework and running around.
Its all worth it though :-)

Ive been reading about using soft plastics for lure fishing and LRF (light rock fishing) and HRF (Hard rock fishing) for many different species rather than just Bass. In fact just about anything that swims, with focus on Wrasse, Pollack and the various mini species.
There's a kind of mid range too. These, as far as my research and conversations have gone fall into three camps
LRF - 0.5g-5g on ultra light rods.
MRF - 2g-15g light rods (sometimes called MRF)
HRF - 15-50g on standard spinning rods.

LRF - uses the very lightest of light gear. 4lb line, a 0.5 to 5g jig and tiny worms. Mainly winter.
MRF isn't really discussed and tends to be thought of as just light HRF.
HRF is HARD rock fishing, and basically meant all types of rock fishing with lures, but its ended up being used to describe 'heavy' rock fishing.

Ive bought myself an HRF rod (Sakura Shinjinn 15-50g) and an MRF rod (Cormaron carbostar 2-15g.) Along with a smashing saltwater Sakura reel.
Ive also got all the relevant soft plastics for both styles.
Now all I need is a chance to get out and play!

I'm also planning to try this method for carp and maybe even Roach, as they are both somewhat predatory, and we already catch them on plastic baits, so.......