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o perhaps i should continue this blog on another note in fact i wanted to cover something i very rarely mention here at all my favourite items of tackle other bloggers write whole entries on rods reels and rigs i do not perhaps i m too cynical about the tackle trade and the world of sponsored shenanigans but i know that some readers do find it interesting so i thought this week i would give you a few recommendations of the kit i have enjoyed recently or for a longer spell of abuse it s something to talk about while i remain biteless anyway so here goes 1 spro micro game rod 70m so many rods exist these days but this is the first i have bought for several years after a few months i have taken it everywhere from devon harbours to amsterdam it packs down into an absolutely silly length 38cm and still performs really nicely hook an eight ounce perch and it bends like it shouldn t hook an eight pound pike and amazingly it still survives without smashing to bits i d call that a very dependable light rod my model is rated 5 15g but this is way out it feels right at home with 3g jigs or my various dropshotting experiments with small jellies and flies what can i say i love this little rod even if it is almost unbefitting of a large bearded man 2 lone angler unhooking mat stalker seat what a brilliant little piece of kit this is so portable great to sit on too but also very functional folds into three and slides into the back pocket of my fly vest yet big enough to protect a barbel or zander not quite pike size but you can t have everything and this is a great compromise for fishing small waters for fish like perch and chub when you don t want to be lugging a vast mat around could also save you from the horrors of farmer giles on the derriere 3 daiwa lrf net handle 5 9m another cracking piece of kit for the roving angler why didn t someone come up with this years ago totally portable it folds down neatly to some 70cm odd and has a shoulder strap yet when you need it you have a whopping 6m or near enough of reach i particularly like the fact that a net head can be attached through the bung which prevents all the sections from sliding out willy nilly when you don t want them to so bloody useful i m already making a hitlist of spots such as harbour walls that this net will now allow me to land fish from where previously i wouldn t have dared ruddy useful kit 4 turrall barbless river flies ok so i like to tie my own flies where possible time is a killer these days though so it is extremely darned useful to have reliable patterns tied properly on barbless hooks that look and fish the part after all so many cheap barbless river flies feature rubbishly cheap hooks and are sold more overdressed than lady gaga and just as tasteless not these designs personally selected by chris ogborne with a competition angler s eye for detail granted i am one of the turrall team these days but i like these so much i ve been fishing them all season and now also stock them in my own shop here do grab a set before i use them all myself 5 orvis forceps ok so this is not a new tackle accessory by any stretch when you own an item for the best part of ten years however and it s still going strong you know you re onto something good these are top drawer meriting that reassuringly expensive orvis price tag i must say and i m pretty attached to mine literally they never leave my fly vest not just great for removing the hooks from fish they are also good at debarbing flies while that little spike is genius just the thing for clearing the eye of a fly when you re struggling to pass the leader through damned near indispensable in my book ok that is about as techy and tackle orientated as i m about to get for a while now go and fish heck do one better than me and actually catch something posted by dominic at 03 46 no comments labels blanking tackle tench wednesday 11 may 2016 new horizons and old haunts does anyone else suffer from false dawn syndrome each and every spring the yo yo temperatures and random seasons don t half mess with the moods of both fish and anglers at times and this applies whether you re lure fishing a cove in south devon or tackling one of cornwall s wild fly fishing lakes which is why i write this week s blog with some relief after some tricky fishing and hard won catches i had promised visiting angler jim sutherland a suitably mixed trio of outings in fact for what would be an unusual mission for me the idea was three days of very different predator and fly fishing adding a different twist to my usual guided fishing trips in devon and cornwall besides brushing up on casting skills and discovering some new fishing styles he wanted to fish alongside me to produce an article a refreshing change for me because by and large i do not fish when i guide aside from demonstrating the odd technique i think it s poor form equally as many articles i ve appeared in i can probably count those written about me by someone else on the fingers of one hand as often as not i tend to cover what others are doing tending to agree with the saying that there s no telling what can be achieved if you re not fussed about who gets the credit this way you get a much broader pool of knowledge than your own limited perspective but this time it did make a nice change not have to do all the running and note taking we started with a spot of lure and fly fishing in the rockier extremities of south devon if you can be bothered to walk there are some stunning secret beaches and coves here it s especially lovely to return to some of these spots you remember from childhood armed with more grown up fly or lure fishing tackle the only slight hitch was that it had been a couple of years since i d been to this particular spot hence we slalomed through poky lanes and on one occasion popped into a local village hall where a makeshift polling station had been set up just to ask for directions on this occasion i intended to start with the lure rod like jim because i desperately wanted a lure caught wrasse however my usually reliable shimano reel then decided to have a meltdown with the spool no longer locking in place usually i cannot fault these reels but i guess nothing lasts forever and twelve odd years had taken their toll a bit embarrassing to say the least to be left with a tangle and a bust reel it was to be a curious quirk of fate though because i soon got into the rhythm of casting a sandeel style fly pattern and began getting bites a small pollack came first before i wondered if i was seeing things on a couple of deliveries i thought i had spotted long silvery shapes chase the fly and then i had my answer a garfish took hold my first garfish on the fly ever in fact i ve often seen them chase but never got one in the only slight regret is that i didn t get a better picture but the sun was right in jim s face and i decided i wanted to avoid excessive handling and let the thing go we had a testing sometimes gruelling day after that i was certain the bass and pollack would arrive on the rising tide but they just wouldn t appear and so eventually we turned our attention back to the wrasse in my case i eventually tore myself away from the fly as jim let me borrow his spare lure outfit although i spent the day getting ribbed about hire charges i broke my duck later in the day but it was jim who really earned his stripes with an absolute cracker that fought like fury i m going to be a party pooper here and only show my own more modest effort because i don t want to steal his thunder for the full write up in the process of a really interesting three days we covered miles in the end tackling cornwall s colliford lake in pursuit of its stickleback clobbering browns not to mention a jaunt on the local canals the latter i think really floated jim s boat like me he is a confirmed sight fishing addict with somewhat itchy feet which was probably for the best given how many yards there were to cover over three days we had action packed hours and slow hours but it was all interesting fishing perhaps the highlight was a foray into shallow waters with the fly we had seen bream on the verge of spawning but for the first time in the year i also spotted numbers of roach and hybrids sunbathing they were willing to rise too although they wanted quite small flies larger bugs were flatly ignored while a size 16 to 18 spider was sucked in gingerly by several nice samples we also played with the pike and perch in my case using my own dropshot minnow flies which you can now find on my site the perch were tricky but in the clear margins it was possible to sight fish and use fluorocarbon rather than wire to earn more takes a little split shot or two and you can work these beautifully on the fly rod but they d also cast on a light lure set up i m always torn with this kind of fishing i m reluctant not to use wire but with fluorocarbon you tend to get more takes from perch while you ll also land the typically small pike that take a shine to the minnow it almost goes without saying that you should also debarb the fly lure so that if there is a mishap the thing will come out easily once the tension is gone when it comes to prospecting with the fly and areas where you can t spot pike and take evasive action however the only option is a wire trace this was just one of several fish we shared on small lures and bigger pike flies again i m reluctant to reveal all because no doubt jim will produce a cracking write up and i have no desire to steal his thunder nor is this anything new because it s fair to say that there s always a lot more between and behind the lines with what i write here i just cannot include everything don t get me wrong i love the blog as a kind of quick fire diary but i cannot give away everything for free and nor would you want me to unless you re keen on the idea of a fishing landscape almost devoid of real books or magazines i ve been as critical as anyone in the past about the fishing magazines but it is as vital as it has ever been to support the print media to give you some inside perspective from my own world the balance of my income from print writing to digital content has swung totally in favour of the latter in the past three years part of this is because i write blogs for hotels and tourism these days but in fishing the same is steadily happening and while we all have to embrace change we could be left with a world devoid of printed words if we re not careful which would be a huge shame remove the rewards and standards will drop with the world of advertising holding all the ace cards it s as simple as that it has been almost an ironic twist therefore that having written for the fishing press for over a decade now i finally have a weekly column in the angling times yes i know i ve been outspoken once or twice before but to their credit they have freshened things up with the new look magazine and even found space for an oddball like me the far bank looks set to be a lot of fun my remit is a sideways glance at the funnier and stranger aspects of the sport this week s topic for example is all about the lure of dicey spots and dodgy casts i have lots more hot strange and thorny topics to come in the months ahead but if there s anything that amuses perplexes or bothers you that you would like me to get my teeth into do get in touch with me or drop the angling times a line posted by dominic at 10 57 no comments labels colliford lake dropshot flies jim sutherland lure fishing sea fishing south devon wrasse thursday 5 may 2016 lure fishing cold lessons there come times for most anglers where you get rather out of your comfort zone it s extremely healthy to learn new things even if that sometimes comes at the price of a fall or two it also means taking a few risks and casting where you never thought of doing so before and that can be a confidence tester most recently for me i ve been well and truly tested but also highly taken by two challenges one totally new kayak fishing and one i ve returned to only to find a total revolution taking place saltwater lure fishing looking back i think some of my better articles have come from this sort of leap of faith it can be exciting if you shed this idea that i have to be world champion highly experienced to write about this because in reality it is only by jumping into something new that you can see things with a fresh perspective once you ve done a method a thousand times you forget all the seemingly daft questions you had and challenges that other anglers also face not to mention the sheer excitement of it all and yet this idea prevails the writer has to be a total expert on everything they cover here s the secret though i am not my writing and general fishing skills may have slowly developed but there are still areas where i am like that kid in the tackle shop peering at all the strange bits of kit in wonder this is a great position to be in such has certainly been the way on recent lure fishing missions to the coast where i ve been scaling right down and watching experts like lrf wizard andy mytton with a keen eye and more than once a sense of total bafflement close control using cute rods the neatest and freakiest of little lures bonkers presentations involving special split shot rigs dropshot weights and knots i d never seen tied before i ve thoroughly enjoyed lure fishing for most of my life whether it s casting for pike or bass but i ve been blown away by the current light lure fishing scene what is happening currently is little short of revolutionary and incredibly exciting you can read some of my musings on the joy of the diddy rod in my angling times slot this week but suffice to say there is a lot more to come and i am enjoying feeling like a kid again perhaps my favourite recent catch in fact has been one of the smallest in the form of this sea scorpion i d both enjoyed and endured a cold spring session with the tiddly lures with andy and the sight of this critter brought back great memories of childhood fishing off the rocks circa 1991 i was afraid to touch these fish but they are quite harmless furthermore if you are brave enough to place one in the palm of your hand you could get quite a surprise not only do they go all puffed up and defensive like perch they actually vibrate i thought this had to be b it at first but it s perfectly true it s like holding a fish that has swallowed a mobile phone must be a defence mechanism other lessons from my trips are also stacking up quickly whether it is a timely reminder that evening and night fishing are often better than daylight in the salt and that it is well worth fishing low and even dropping tides for different species i guess you appreciate the smaller stuff even more when sport proves slow but that s the great thing about lighter tackle everything fights energetically even a tiny pollack more to follow in print and online on various topics shortly but suffice to say that at the moment i...