silly season continues....

Just in after fishing four hours of the flooding tide.
The mark is one of my favourites, and has produced many fish over the years...and tonight the tide and weather were perfect. I arrived to find the water clarity was great and a complete (almost) lack of weed...looking good I thought!
I fished away for a bit with no sign of anything and then moved to a deeper spot, and first cast a follow!
Nothing special...about 2 lb...and then another....and later another and again!
Then while fishing some red gill Evo. i had some mackerel pecking at the tail of the lure...all good signs!
Well after my fifth follow (that i saw!) things went quiet and later a mack hit and hooked on a 6 inch slug-go.....greedy bugger!
And that was it....
I went through various size hard and soft lures and tried all the tricks..even a top water!!
So my silly season continues...kayaking on Friday next so i will keep an eye out for any fish activity!
That's fishing!

Yet more Mullet madness....

Another mullet outing off the kayak, with a plan to catch one on a home made fly.

The fly was some sponge super glued on to a size 6 Drennan hook...this didn't work out though, because the sponge soaked the glue up and became hard to the touch.

A little squeezing of the fly softened it enough, although i wasn't fully happy with it.

So...an onion bag full of bread was deployed just after i anchored up, and things looked good.

Within minutes they came on the feed and out went the fly...bump!

They hit ...and i struck the line....oops... the hook came back minus the sponge.

On with another "sponge fly"..and again a fish lunged at it!

Again i struck, and the hook and line parted!! Oh my God...what is it with Mullet? OK time for a breather...i switched to bread flake on a free line size 6...and after several hits and missed bites, i finally connected to a very nice fish.....

the fight was on and some incredible head shaking and lunging here and there...then...pop!

The line and hook came back to me......fish off...gutted!

 



 

The swim totally died after this, and i moved around for hours, with only the odd fish slurping some bread...a few more missed bites and my sanity called for time out!

A little more tweaking of the fly is needed also  i think!!

A nice morning on the water though, and the weather was great!

 

 



Sovereign islands....

A trip with Phoenix Kayak Club last night...finished with some rescue practise...

https://picasaweb.google.com/100799116552005341391/September62012?authuser=0&feat=directlink

The Poor season continues.....

Its an excuse to play with the Go-Pro and video editing........

Rod Ring repair....

Using a Stanly blade..scrape away the old epoxy...and remove the old whipping..

Inspect and clean up the area to be whipped...

Secure the new ring in place with a bit of tape..and begin whipping on the new thread..from the blank towards the foot not on the ring foot...

Once the ring is whipped on coat in epoxy resin and keep turning the rod until it drys..approx 5minis the epoxy  type to use..one minute is too short and 15 min too long..

 

The finished repair...almost as good as the factory finish and just as strong!

 

Lots of internet stuff out there on this so have a detailed look first...i repaired two beach caster rings years ago and their still good....( sorry about the poor pics)

I had a quick look...

I grabbed my fly rod and went on a "no plan" ramble yesterday morning...the only plan was to visit a few marks miles apart and go light on foot.
Once again the water was dirty and unsettled and on three different spots i felt i was wasting my time.
The high-light was a welcome Muffin and coffee in White gate village!
And today the weather is as bad as ever...but a few settled days forecast....I'm on evenings this week so ...when will i get out again?
Also, i damaged my 11ft Fladen rod last Friday...i arrived at the mark and closed the car door on a rod ring....so so silly!
I always watch for this mistake and cant believe i did it! So this morning i removed and re-whipped the new ring on, and its due for an epoxy coating tomorrow. I didn't have black whipping thread, but a deep purple and a Sharpie pen to change it to black....hmmm, once its coated it should be fine?
The mullet are calling me also!
Some size 10 drennan micro barb hooks on the way!
Talk soon.

Mullet madness 2

Mullet.