If I'm going to hit my target of 35 species this year I think the list will have to include lots of 'mini species' and if I can have a bit of fun whilst targeting blennies, gobies and the like all the better. So with this in mind I popped down to veals and purchased a Tronix-Pro Rockfish UL rod, a small shimano fixed spool reel, a couple of packs of isome worms and a few sundries to get me started.
The murky waters of the Bristol Channel aren't conducive to lure fishing of any kind especially with a rod rated to cast 7g and 6lb braid so had to head back to Portishead marina where the water would be clear enough to work the lures. I didn't take any ragworm with me so I had to work at my technique with the isome worms.
It was a cold and windy day which made casting light weights a bit awkward but if I kept the rod tip low I was able to cast well enough. It took a while to get the technique right, I think to begin with I wasn't leaving a big enough pause between twitches for the flavour in the isome worms to work. As I experimented it became clear leaving up to 20 or 30 secs between twitches was the way to go and I started to get tiny nibbles.
The next problem was learning when to strike. Do I strike straight away or let the bite develop and then strike. To be honest when the first proper bite came the fish pretty much hooked itself and the rod bent nicely into a fish and I swung in this little black goby
A few minutes later I had another hit-able bite and landed another fish this time it was a common goby
Although I had a few more bites those two little fish were my only catches of the day but they were both new species for the year taking my species tally up to 5 for the year.
What did I learn about LRF? Well it was a pleasure to go fishing with just a rod, reel, landing net and a small bag of bits and bobs. I found the small red isome worms produced more bites on the day than the pale pink ones although on another day it could well be the other way round. I think as the water warms up the number of fish which can be caught on LRF will dramatically increase. I'm going to try small soft plastics on mini lead heads next time I use the LRF rod and these should be good for getting the more predatory fish such as bass and pollack. And I can't wait to hit something 'big', an average sized mackerel would be fantastic fun on this light gear.
My next trip is hopefully going to be my first boat trip of the year down on Flamer IV out of weymouth targeting big pollack and ling (that is if the weather is kind to me) and I may have to take my LRF rod and have a play in the harbour before we head out.
Until next time
Tight Lines
2013 Species count - Thick lipped mullet, whiting, flounder, black goby, common goby
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