Having a Lerf – Chapter 1 – Great Expectations

Stick 70 odd ‘big kids’ and some rubber worms in the same place and the results are nothing short of spectacular! But my story starts before then, and I have broken this down into another series as got carried away with the typing.

As I sit this morning on my coffee break with a slight high still from the semi-final win in the football, I’m gently reminded by the Facebook posts still bouncing around about another reason I am pretty much floating this week, despite having been ill for a lot of it. After around 16 months of only really seeing my family or the occasional 1 or 2 other people at a time, I met up with other enthusiastic anglers from across the UK to see what collectively and individually we could tempt out of the waters of Weymouth on a lure.

Now first of all, my plans were hugely railroaded again by this awful pandemic as cases hit my son’s school meaning he could no longer join me on our planned weekend adventure! To say I was gutted is a huge understatement. Owen, you were really missed!

My weekend of fishing adventure kind of started a day early, as I drove to Plymouth on the Thursday evening after work as I had left most of my fishing tackle down there including my LRF rods and reels (and most importantly my stocks of gulp and isome). It was too good an opportunity not to have a few casts at a loved Plymouth mark (the ‘Elphinstone Carpark’) on arrival. So I rigged an old 7g metal on my perch setup and managed to find myself a small pollock to wet the appetite for the weekend ahead (this pollock would have been considered huge after a few hours fishing in Weymouth Harbour).

I had to work on the Friday daytime but I did slip in a lunchtime trip to see Simon and Dave at ‘Osborne & Cragg’ tackle shop and their ever tempting selection of shiny goodies with very little in my mind of actually wanting but I ended up with a nice selection of goodies including 3 very lovely (and more expensive than I’m used too for metals) Majorcraft Jigpara metal lures. YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE!

As soon as work finished, which was later than I hoped due to a late booked Friday afternoon meeting (“What the F***”), I loaded the car, cranked up the fishing podcasts and got on the no stops road to Weymouth.

On the way I had 2 calls with anglers who had already arrived including my fishing buddy for the weekend Wayne. Both told me of seeing large schools of mullet swimming on the beach and In my mind I immediately thought bass! My following of so many social media groups and reading books, listening to podcasts etc. paid off for sure that evening as I know bass love to swim amongst the mullet.

Upon arrival, I pretty much abandoned properly preparing for the Saturday’s competition in favour of hitting the beach. I rigged up 2 LRF rods with sub 5g metals and off I went with Wayne to see the mullet (and hopefully bass!)

FISH ON!!!!

It didn’t take long at all, maybe 15-20 short casts in around the mullet and my 0-5g HTO Urban Finesse was doing its best impression of fighting a giant trevally by arching right over and the mullet all around my hooked fish were jumping clear of the water to avoid the commotion as I reeled it in. As I fully expected it was a lovely little silver school bass.

Just the ticket. I’m not going to lie, it felt great! Wayne was looking at me with a look I’ve seen so many times before when showing LRF tactics to someone who hasn’t seen them before. You could call it luck, but when going small like this with confidence, you simply catch fish! Maybe not every time but as a general rule when there are fish around and feeding, presenting a false meal on light tackle worked the way you know you should be working it produces bites, and because you are confident you are usually ready and get the hookup!

My Dad will probably tell you how many times we have been fishing now and I just turn up and catch and very often on the first cast. It’s frustrating to see for people I know, but that’s how I felt as well with my 10 foot plus rods, seeing light lure anglers catching whilst I blanked before I eventually turned to the light side.

After a few photos (thanks Wayne) I slipped it back.

Light-bulb moment

Now if you ever wondered how much difference a little confidence makes, I returned a missed call from my wife after releasing the first fish and whilst talking witnessed Wayne hooking up and reeling in another lovely little schoolie and I’m certain his change in concentration inspired by knowing there were bass there made him do something ever so slightly different, a half turn faster, holding the rod at a different angle as he concentrated maybe, just something ever so slightly different that put a little more life into that little Savage gear psycho sprat lure that made the bass go ‘I’m avin it’.

So we worked our way along the beach casting at any movement we saw trying to perfect the landing so it didn’t spook all the fish but was still close enough to get noticed. It was great fun, visual fishing with both bass and mullet regularly surfacing and at times jumping clear of the sea, fins surfing along the breakers. Awesome.

It wasn’t long before I hooked up again, this was bigger, my rod was doubled over to a point I was concerned knowing I had snapped one already by lifting too heavily into a fish, the nerves were short-lived though as the fish jump clear of the water like a seatrout and spat the lure mid air making some onlookers gasp and me utter a few choice swearwords. It was a good fish, I’m terrible at guessing weight but it was above 2lb and possibly as big as 4 (I know there’s a big difference between the two haha). It was at this point I realised I had left my GoPro in the hotel and had missed an opportunity for some cool footage. Shaking off the lost fish I missed a few more bites before hooking up again, this time I gave a little strike once I felt the consistent pressure to pull my treble hook home and stay there before keeping the pressure on and reeling the fish to the shore. Another lovely little schoolie.

Shortly after, Wayne got a bite close to his feet and reeled in this lovely little flounder. Now I know those who fish beaches a lot for bass etc often pick up flounder on lures and some target them specifically(checkout Ben Bassets awesome blog post) but I think catching a flatfish on a metal lure is an incredible capture! Well done Wayne!

We fished our way across the beach towards the pier in hope to meet up with some other travelling anglers including Clive Sharp of the Plymouth LRf scene and along the way had several more bites and I landed my final bass of the evening.

Checkout the rather sexy Major Craft Jig Para micro lure still hanging from its gob.

Just as we approached the pier we met Andy Mytton who stopped his car for a yarn and soon after Ben Coleman joined us too.

We fished along the pier for about half hour with Clive once we had found him and this was rather uneventful apart from my failing to land a hooked smelt which came off on the swing to my hand (doesn’t count in my book unless you touch the fish or leader for toothy fish).

We finished the night with some filthy food from a local kebab shop before heading back to our digs to prep and sleep before the mornings competition.

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