Hythe Reclaimed Land Is Red Hot!

I fished Hythe’s Reclaimed Land today with my angling companion Scott Gilfoy and it could not have fished better!

If you are thinking about fishing soon then that is the place to go.

Two hook rigs and Ragworm for bait was the winning combo on the day.

I caught 15 Bass and 4 Flounders and Scott caught 14 Bass and 5 Flounders. So just to recap that is 29 Bass and 9 Flounders between us!!!

I will show you a couple of pictures now but all the information and rig details and the hot spots will be on our ‘Fishy Tales’ section of www.bellsofhythe.com by tomorrow night.

Here are a couple of pictures to get you started.

Do not forget to click on the images to enlarge them.

Cheers.

Scotty Too Hotty with a double hit.

Me with a double hit.

Weed, Wind, Rain, Bass.

On Tuesday night Scott Gilfoy took a trip down to Burton Bradstock on the famous Chesil Beach to try and winkle out a fish or two.

The weather was not what he expected it to be with the wind blowing directly into his face from the sea. There was also some rain that had not been forecast.

There was also a lot of weed on arrival as the tide was low and there were large clumps of it floating about on the surface.

The method of fishing was to fish one rod close in just behind the breaking waves and the other rod cast out to about 50 yards, not too far at all but this is where he has caught fish in the past.

The first fish that Scott caught (a Bass of 2lb 8ozs) fell to a Ragworm on the 50 yard rod just after dark. Next came a thick run of Pout for about 2 hours! All of the Pout looked like they had come from the same mould and all were about 9” and weighed 7ozs approx.

Then the tide came up to its highest point and the fishing fell dead, this was perfect time to top up on Coffee and Cigarettes and hide from the wind for half an hour or so.

About an hour later when Scott had recast he managed to land a Banzai Dogfish, a perfect little miniature version of the real thing about 6 inches long.

Then came what he had gone all that way for, Scott recast out closer in this time, about 40 yards roughly and tried a smaller bait, a strip of Mackerel on a 1/0 hook. 

After 10 minutes the rod tip folded over and then line touching the water was making its way uptide heading left up the beach, it was obviously a good fish.

After hitting the rod Scott followed the fish up the beach and had to duck under another anglers line until he was level with the fish, after a 2 minute battle Scott surfed the Bass up on a wave using constant pressure and the fish was his.

The fish weighed 6lb 7ozs and was a perfect specimen. After a hard fished session this was a great reward for Scott’s efforts.

Black Lug, Bait Elastic, Sun Tan Lotion???

Local angler Paull Curtice had a fantastic session at Abbotsbury a few days ago and who would have thought that he would end up shirtless and drinking cold drinks on the 1^st of October?

Paull who used Black Lugworm as bait managed 7 separate species on the trip with the biggest fish being a Plaice of around 2lb.

He also caught Sole, Dogfish, Pout, Whiting, Gurnard and Poor Cod.

Paull could not believe that he would be sunbathing at this time of year but as you can see in the pictures it was red hot.

It looks like Chesil Beach is in full swing at the moment and after this unseasonal warm spell disappears I think we could be in for some serious Cod from there.

New Forest Brand Hunting Catapults 2012.

Here is the latest promo video for New Forest Brand Catapults including 7 new designs.

To view, click the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyfZwE4kp40 

The Perfect Rig?

As we all know your choice of rig from the beach can be the difference between catching and blanking.

I have been interested in rigs for a number of years now and have made some good ones and some not so good ones. The important thing is to try things out and see if they work as you never know when you might stumble across a fantastic idea that will catch you more fish.

We already know that fish target species and bait size are key to the hook size that you use but what about snood length?

The longer the snood the more likely it is to get tangled so a lot of anglers will opt away from a longer snood however, a longer snood looks far more natural in the water and will (I believe) catch you more fish.

I like to fish one up and one down using two hooks but I have had problems in the past with tangles.

One of my friends Mr Ian Golds decided to overcome this problem by starting a snood at the top of the rig and a snood at the bottom of the rig and clipping them both down in a revolutionary way.

Friend of the shop ian Golds.

The rig took off like wild fire as its results were staggering!

This is the rig, you might know it as the Loop Rig or from its more commonly know name The Portsmouth Rig.

Click on the image below to enlarge it.

As you will notice there are two snoods at two different positions on the rig and that can open up a lot of opportunities. You could use 10lb line and a size 1 hook for the top more moveable snood and 30lb line with a 3/0 for the more positioned rig.
That would mean a couple of beads and some "Bling" on the top snood for smaller species or flat fish and a couple of Peeler Crab on the bottom snood for Bass/Smoothound?
The possibilities are endless.

You do need quite a few bits to make this rig but believe me the end result is well worth it.

Sponsored Run. www.alanshergold.com

 Between October 1^st and December 16^th 2011 I will be running a series 5 and 10 kilometre runs until I reach my total goal distance of 250 Kilometres. To give you an idea 250 kilometres is the total length of The Netherlands.

I will be running a series of 5k and 10k local runs until I finish my 250^th kilometre at Poole Runners Boscombe 5k winter event on the 16^th December. 

I am doing this for Keeley Cullen, my cousins daughter who has Spastic Dipledgia Cerebral Palsy and will soon be receiving treatment to help her.

Please see www.alanshergold.com 

Many Thanks.