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  • Crack Off Colin 8:25 pm on 16, May 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    Strange Chesil Trip 

    Noticed a window in the weather and work and thought I would take a trip to Chesil for some Plaice and perhaps a smoothhound !!

    Loaded up the car with all the gear and some rag lug crab sandeel and macki with 2 rods and a beach buddy. After an hours drive arrived at the beach to find a due south wind and a nasty lop on the water although it was clear.

    Set up the vmax 2 with a loop rig and the GB lite with a dvice the vmax was fished at range and the GB lite was fished in short. There was not many other Anglers about although just as I made my first cast a mature angler arrived with his set of feathers and started to pull out strings and strings of mackerel every cast he made produced fish!!!. Time to rebait halfway in felt a tug and on the two hooked loop rig two mackerel had attached themselves onto bare hooks.

    Time to pull in the dvice to rebait and the same thing happen again another mackerel hit the bare hooks this occurred every time I pulled in there must have been a massive shoal around for most of the afternoon I have caught the odd mackerel on retrieve but never like that every time I wound in a fish would hit it.

    However I did manage a nice dab but no plaice it was a bit rough for them I think still it was nice to get out and I did avoid the blank!

     

    • digger 12:27 pm on 18, May 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      interesting report Colin amazing those mack go for anything moving and shiny though bet it wouldnt work in a comp where ur often desperate to seek em out . good supply of frozen mack there

  • Crack Off Colin 1:48 pm on 4, May 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    Doggies at Highcliffe 

    A lot of rumours have been flying about regarding Rays being caught east of Bournemouth so when I had a call from my buddy Barry to try and find some I jumped at the chance

    We went to a mark I have not fished for a while just to see what was about, it was a nice mild evening and to start with there was not any weed about.

    We fished 2 rods each with all types of baits and at all different ranges but apart from the 2 dogfish that I had and Barry had 2 whiting it was a poor evening fish wise and not a hint of a Ray. However after the tide turned at about 9 pm the weed arrived so we left the beach about 10.30 pm.

    So the hunt for a decent ray goes on I will try nearer home tonight as the tides look to be good and I have earned brownie points this week so I am allowed out 2 nights in a row!!!!!

     

    • digger 12:30 pm on 18, May 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      me too still havent landed a sized ray yet though always contact the small ones which is better than nowt the last one i caught 2 weeks ago at dykes ish area still put a great bend in the rod ,like watching it in slow mo it was

  • Crack Off Colin 9:43 am on 24, April 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    Nothing changes 

    Last night was the first the first round of the Doubles league fished at Hengistbury Head . As always Sally and I had our prematch drink and talk of what tactics we were going to use!

    When we arrived at the meeting point all the other teams were ready for the off some even had bikes so they could ride off to I presume the back of the head or the famous wrasse beds near the groyne . We of course drove to harbour road and just flopped over the top onto the beach and in fact a few of the other less mobile anglers did the same thing.

    The sea had calmed down a fair bit but it was a raining so it’s a good job we bought our shelters. We fished various rigs and baits at all ranges but failed to get a bite in fact all we heard about was a small sole caught 3 pegs down .

    All though it was a good evening it was disappointing fish wise ,however as we didn’t attend the weigh in I have no idea what was caught by the other teams who ventured further along the venue.

    So it looks like we have started how we mean to continue with a single point for turning up! The next venue is in May at the Milford Shingle Bank how I love that venue(not)

    Just had it confirmed that many of the other teams also blanked it appeared that if you were not in a fish holding area then you stood no chance although one angler did manage a 3lb SE Ray.

     

    • digger 5:49 pm on 26, April 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      dont worry col i blanked too many did it was one of those nights where the fish were only in patches

    • Crack Off Colin 5:58 pm on 26, April 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      That makes me feel better! Roll on Milford I always blank there come to think of it I blank at most venues!!!!!

  • Crack Off Colin 12:00 pm on 14, April 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    At last ! 

    I have been involved in a lot of coaching over the last month or so and I thought that at some stage somebody would turn up with a Zziplex HSM for me to try before I buy one after reading how good they are.

    So imagine my surprise and delight when I met Mark today and he took a HSM out of his rod bag and a top of the range Diawa reel and put that on the bottom of the butt! a perfect combination .

    I took a look at Marks cast which was very fast and he was not letting the rod load before powering into the cast so we went back to OTG with the inside lead lay out and once we made a few adjustments the lead was really going out to sea well with less power than his normal style.

    Next we added a swing and tried to slow the whole cast down so the rod would load before he put the power in. After a few false starts Mark really slowed his cast down and even with the mags on max it was going a fair way and under complete control. We next back off the mags and got down to 4 and the lead was going even further!

    So I had a cunning plan to put my rocket on his HSM just to see how he cast that!!(of course) and put a 4ozs lead and cast and it went just as far as the 5oz and with a relaxed style so all in all a good session . Mark enjoyed it his cast is now much slower and it goes a very long way with less power now and more control.

    Session over my turn at last to try the HSM first impression was that it felt a bit bottom heavy but looked like it had a great fishing tip. It felt stiffer than the vmax2 so let’s swing the lead and see how it goes .

    The lead climbed into the backswing turn head and a gentle hit it went away well but felt more stiffer than I am use to. However the more I used it and the later I hit it the better it felt so its a rod I have to grow into . Will I buy one watch this space.

     

  • Crack Off Colin 4:42 pm on 26, March 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    What can I say!! 

    I had a couple of sessions this past week where the fish beat me

    The first was an evening session at Paddys Gap near Milford on Sea where there had been some early ray caught but not for me. Fished the tide over high and with the weed building after 4 hours without a decent bite I gave up.

    The highlight if you can call it that was being accosted by a good natured drunk, he appeared from a local wedding and firstly said he was going for a paddle so off came his shoes and socks and off he went down the shingle that was the easy part coming back up while p——d was the funny bit

    However he made it and returned to the wedding only to reappear an hour later to tell me his life story!!!!!

    So with bait left over and time off for good behaviour I went down to Southbourne still chasing the mythical rays. Parked the car on the road and walked down the slope onto the beach where as it was a nice evening and it was “Holby” night the beach was busy.

    Got the rods out and the rigs and then looked for my bait l then realised that I had left it in the car so off I trundled back to the road to get the sandeels and macki baits.
    I passed a dad and his 2 sons on the way back who were fishing nearby and noticed that the gear they were using was rather antiquated but left them to it.

    Another 4 hours went by with only a few rattles to be seen on the rods so gave it up as a bad job and started packing up and doing the walk back to the car. The dad and his sons also packed up about the same time and we met halfway up the slope. Any luck I said and to my surprise they told me they had a few whiting a flounder and a sizeable bass!!!! So perhaps their gear wasn’t that bad after all

     

    • digger 7:57 pm on 27, March 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      good post Colin i too came across drinkers at hordle seems to attract them. As for the gear the fish cant see those zippy stickers or quite frankly my dear they dont give a damn

    • Crack Off Colin 7:46 am on 28, March 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Yes I agree digger about those zippy stickers. As for not catching any fish it has been said more than once that ” those who can catch fish do those who can’t coach!!!!”

  • Crack Off Colin 4:50 pm on 14, March 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    He who laughs last! 

    My fishing buddy Sally and her work colleague Reubin went to Bexi for a shot at the plaice to the left of the car park . Due to a client of mine postponing her appointment till next week a window of opportunity appeared so I loaded up the car and went to join them.

    They had been bite less for at least 4 hours by the time I got there and of course the normal banter took place. Now one of the problems of being a coach is that if you lose gear make a mistake and foul up then those two really give me grief!!!!

    I set up near them cast out and promptly lost my nice new wish bone rig to an unseen net or heft so that made them laugh, anyway tackled up again on the GS match with a 7ht mag and hit it again they were winding me up about the distance I was casting.

    By this time it was nearly dusk a good time for plaice to feed. As I watched the GS I saw it twitch but kept looking at the tip as normal with these flatfish I liked to give them time. After 5 minutes I picked up the rod and started to wind in feeling the extra weight and hoping it was not weed!!!!

    They noticed the rod was bending well and I could feel the fish kicking on its way to the beach, they tried to convince me it was weed still I kept winding . Eventually the plaice arrived on the beach they couldn’t believe their eyes as a plump 2lb fish arrived at my feet. I just turned and smiled as the abuse went on!!!!!

    I fished on into darkness for a while but left them to it and I understand they fished until midnight so that was 11 hours without a keepable fish. So it just goes to show that sometimes not all the time distance does catch fish, I wonder if they will ask me again when the go mmmmmmmmm.

     

    • digger 8:41 pm on 15, March 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      job done and im not at all surprised that ur cstin distance paid off at this venue

  • Crack Off Colin 5:37 pm on 7, March 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    More left hand pull!! 

    For sometime I have struggled to use the zziplex GB lite 3 piece beach rod at @ 14ft it’s the same length as the vmax but has more grunt . Normally I put a Penn 535 on the butt and use it in Ireland over the rocks and kelp.

    However I read an article recently by Peter Thain about using more left hand pull as a way of creating greater power rather than just hitting it with the right!! So I thought I would put a sports rocket on the butt and stubby Dvice( more of that later) on the business end lay it out under the rod and pull the left hand and let the right follow with the power going in late.

    Firstly with the rocket in place the rod felt much lighter and the Dvice really flew out to sea into a stiffish breeze straight and under control !!. After a few more casts I was happy that by using a bit more left hand pull the rod was responding and bending well, although its a work in progress hopefully I can use it more often and the distance will increase.

    Another thing I wanted to find out was to see if a large ish sandeel would stay in a Stubby Dvice or would it fly out on route. So I fitted the eel into the Dvice half of it was hanging outside , wrapped the snood line around my fingers and put that in there as well. To be fair it looked like a tangled mess of line with half a sandeel in the middle of it, it would never work I thought.

    However much to my surprise it sailed out to sea nothing was ejected during its flight and on retrieve the sandeel had been ejected as it had been designed to do when it hit the water with no tangles.

    I fished the whole session like that and had no problems at all with the Dvice so that looks like a good way of getting a decent ray bait out there with a simple OTG cast .

    Hopefully will have the chance this weekend at chesil to try the system out again in some deeper water with a range of baits and may pick up an early ray.

     

  • Crack Off Colin 7:37 am on 29, February 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    Stiff rods! 

    I think I must be getting weaker in my old age as the number of anglers I teach who turn up for a lesson with state of the art power rods and 6 ozs of lead and wonder why they struggle. Had a session with Paul today who had a couple of century rods one was stiffer than the other. We struggled with the stiffer version yet when we used the less powerful version every thing fell into place and the cast really began to fly and under control with an easy relaxed style, result one happy angler!

    I am more and more convinced that if anglers used less powerful rods with less lead they would increase their distance and their enjoyment of their sport.

    It’s all a question of making the rod work for you, the OTG cast does that for you however you will always struggle if the rod is to powerful for you as the above example shows so give it go use a less powerful rod 12lb line and 4oz lead and see what happens!

    You may well find that your distance increases you will certainly have more fun catching fish with this lighter set up and perhaps your arms neck and back will not ache as much after a session!!!!

     

    • digger 12:06 pm on 4, March 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      been there made that mistake myself if u cant bend it forget it.

  • Crack Off Colin 10:43 am on 24, February 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    First of many(hopefully) 

    Had a call from a mate who has been having a rough time recently who told me that he wanted a few hours on the beach to relax and did I fancy a go!

    Never one to refuse a fishing invite we met at Southbourne for a few hours on a nice warm evening.

    We fished mid tide to high being my home patch I had a go for an early Ray with a sandeel in a dvice rig and decided to use the GB lite with a new mk 2 rocket on it and use the OTG style in readiness for when the Rays do start to appear.

    Barry had 2 rods on the go one with sandeel the other with worm, however have to report that all we had was a small whiting and that fell to the worm bait, my sandeel was left untouched all evening!!!!!

    The GB lite and rocket set up worked well as did the OTG easy cast it seemed to be going a fair old distance and certainly less stress on the back and shoulders . I was also trying to see if a sandeel bait would stay in the stubby version of the dvice without it flying out mid flight but fishing in the dark that was hard to see.

    All in all it was a good evening and it was good to get back on the beach again . Hopefully we can have a few more evenings out soon when the fishing picks up again.

     

  • Crack Off Colin 8:25 am on 12, February 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    West Bexington in the cold 

    Despite the cold weather I was persuaded to venture down to bexi for a casting session with julian and perhaps see if the reports of plaice were true!

    Got down there about midday the weather was clear and sunny and walked the mile or so to where various members of CBF were fishing. They had been there a few hours without any plaice showing.

    Julian was up,for his casting session and we recapped on what we had done at our last meet and he demonstrated his OTG cast which was coming along well. So much so I decided to move on to the dreaded pendulum as all that is needed is to add the swing to a solid OTG cast.

    After sorting the swing out the cast was now taking shape we had no crack offs or bird nests so he has something to work on between now and our next outing. Another member Paul was keen to,have a lesson so I looked at his style.

    Paul had his own version of OTG which entailed him bringing the rod round the side of him self like a swipe of a broadsword so he was not getting the rod to load properly and was casting left of centre however with a change of rod and lead position he was in the right position for the hit and although he didn’t get on with it last time he tried we moved the reel down the butt and I like to think everything then fell into plaice!!!

    Talking of which all the plaice I saw were a couple of small ones taken by one of the group I did live up to my nickname as Julian had a new rod a primo hi flex match and Diawa ST reel so its always nice to have a go with rods you have read about and not used. However the first cast on a setting of 4 went well nice flexible rod with a glass tip, so second cast on a setting of 3 went a bit further third cast on 2 went even further however it was unattached as i had cracked it off !!!!!!

    Although the weather was nice and calm as soon as the sun went down the temperature dropped like a stone so it was time to head for the warmth of home, it was a great way to spend a few hours and hopefully the guys enjoyed their casting.

     

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