[Keith White]

Well, last minute phone call from Chris Steel saw just Chris and myself fishing town harbour tonight for just 2 hours. 2 hours prior to the low tide in fact. It was a little breezy still but eventually, at dead low, it dropped to a sheet of glass.

Before we move on, I was on the Zaltz Rockfish 0.5 -5g, 5lb fc line, 12 hook and Chris started 1g jig head to 8lb fc leader, 8lb PE 0.8 Yamatoyo and his Cormoran ULF.

Chris missed a few bites but I quicky raced ahead fishing Carolina with a no1 shot 18" from the hook. I started to line watch with the slow fall as the lights lit up my fc line. I took 7 fish real quick. The baits were falling slower due to the light weights but, also due to both myself and Chris fishing some new in today, soft lures that are fairly buoyant. Some are 10 per pkt, 1 size, the smallest, has 96 soft lures per pkt for £4.50 !! really addressing the need we had for tiny soft lures and we ordered these in with Mick's research around 7 weeks ago.

So back on track..., Chris Steel breaks the double figure LRF tally in one session tonight and becomes only the third person to do so to my knowledge. The other 2 being Paul B and myself.

The title 32 isn't an exaggeration, we had 32 fish in 2 hours.

All on Carolina, mostly on the drop and all on the new soft lures.

In the end, we missed loads of bites too. Chris lost a Pollack, must have been 2lb. I'm coming in to get 2 free packets of this stuff Mick before it sells out.
Surely, the most LRF in one session, most I've caught, 21 in one session and Mr Steel hammering his PB regards numbers of fish shows us that...

The bait works, the rigs work, the rods are showing the bites, well, feeling em anyway and, Chris has switched to PE 0.8 and seen instant results.

LRF rules. What a blast.

Anyway, what an advert for the new stuff. It rocks man. Nice feel, cheap as chips and catches fish. Is real plastic too so the Gulp anti faction group has no grounds to sue either LOL

Chris has really got it now. He fished really well.

Awesome sport. Yes, sport. It really was.

 

[Ben Field]

Brilliant!!!!!!!

 

[Gary A]

Well done guys.

 

[Tim Griffin]

You nailed it guys - brilliant. I am sure it's been convered, but in dummy's terms, what is a carolina rig?

 

[Tim Murphy]

Well done chaps, I really must get the hang of this "on the drop" fishing!

Tim, have a look at this: http://www.insideline.net/articles/rigging-guide.html

 

[Ritchie Campion]

good stuff guys!

 

[Andrew Wilson]

Well done guys, I could see my kids loving this type of fishing on our summer holidays. They were catching loads of little wrasse, pollack ect last year on bits of worm, with the SP's are you dropping them straight back in or do they need attention/rerigging each time?

 

[James Davis]

Love this reports. They seem daily at the moment.

Don't think I caught 32 fish in total from around summer to winter last year! And that was with at least 3 outings per week.

 

[Keith White]

You nailed it guys - brilliant. I am sure it's been convered, but in dummy's terms, what is a carolina rig?

Its a static Carolina. Really simple. Just a small split shot up the line. Where though makes a difference. Usually, somewhere between 6 and 18". The fish don't take the weight of the jig and, you can fish much smaller lures whilst keeping casting weight reasonable. I took the pouting by, shot hitting bottom and then, the soft lure sinks real show. Just keep in contact, Bang ! fish on.

Well done chaps, I really must get the hang of this "on the drop" fishing!

Tim, have a look at this: http://www.insideline.net/articles/rigging-guide.html

Thanks for posting that.

good stuff guys!

You should be out here with us Ritchie. It's brill. Heard on the grapevine that our m8 Jamo is out 'stealth' training LRF and he had a blinder last night too.
You young blokes need to grab this by the balls and overtake us. It would be great for lure fishing in general.

Well done guys, I could see my kids loving this type of fishing on our summer holidays. They were catching loads of little wrasse, pollack ect last year on bits of worm, with the SP's are you dropping them straight back in or do they need attention/rerigging each time?

I'll be taking a few kids this year and my own. They are gonna love this stuff.
Re: soft lures...
They often stand a few fish. Sometimes they last all night. I went through half a dozen or so last night in discards but mostly because we were trialling these new lures.

Love this reports. They seem daily at the moment.

Don't think I caught 32 fish in total from around summer to winter last year! And that was with at least 3 outings per week.

Well, they are genuine catch reports, on lures m8. Sooner or later people will accept that this stuff isn't fluked and, it's just the best fun. People will develop new skills doing this because, lets face it, based on what you just said, it's not really that easy to learn quickly only getting a moderate number of fish. Remember too that guys can go all season without a Bass. A guy who called me recently hasn't caught one in 4 years !! Imagine going lure fishing over a week and getting a hundred fish ! It will happen. I'm chasing 50 LRF points in a session now.

My LRF points table (like in the 4 harbours challenge/bumble)is based upon 1 point per fish and 1 point per new species.

Last night I had 21 fish and 2 species. Total 23 points.
Chris totaled 11 fish, 2 species for 13 points.

Just a bit of fun really but it will give myself and hopefully others a target.

 

[Ben Field]

Its a static Carolina. Really simple. Just a small split shot up the line. Where though makes a difference. Usually, somewhere between 6 and 18". The fish don't take the weight of the jig and, you can fish much smaller lures whilst keeping casting weight reasonable. I took the pouting by, shot hitting bottom and then, the soft lure sinks real show. Just keep in contact, Bang ! fish on.

We'll probably start to find (as you probably already have Keith) that a shorter distance (shot to hook) will be better when fish are really having it, and a longer distance will be necessary when they're not so 'on it'.

There is obviously a huge coarse fishing comparison here when fishing on the drop with light tackle (as you would on the pole), but for those that don't know, the closer to your hook the shot is positioned, the faster the bite will be registered*. If the fish are hungry then this will be a good thing, but if they're being a little more cautious then you might find you miss bites. By lengthening the distance between the shot and the hook you will be giving the fish more time to take the bait before the bite is registered - so hookups will be improved.



In brief:

1. Longer distance for hard days when the fish are cautious.
2. Shorter length when they're hungry.
3. Anywhere in between.

If you are deep-hooking many fish then try shortening the length between shot and hook.


* Thinking about this theory of weights closer to the hook creating more direct bites, eventually you get as far as having the weight ON the hook - your standard jighead! The Carolina rig should therefore, in theory at least, be better than fishing a jighead on days when the fish are not so aggressive. Jigheads are generally the only types of rigs really used here by the masses, but (including me) the Carolina rig should get a lot more use if the above theory is anything to go by. Jigheads are ideal on only a certain percantage of days. The Carolina rig should be considered when standard jigheads aren't getting the fish.


Update/advanced: this may be most relevent when fishing slower or paused retrieves when the weight occasionally has contact with the bottom. On faster or straight retrieves the resistance of the bait will make the bait the 'anchor' and the line to it more direct - so bites are felt more quickly. This is true at least until the baits get so light and slim that it weighs less (and has less resistance) than the weight/shot. At this point then the weight is the most direct item on the line; the bait just follows (so the above/original information becomes relevent).

...Starts to get a bit more complicated when you get in to it.

 

[Andy Marquis]

Wow!! That's a heck of a session.

I haven't been for a week now and not all that fussed but the weather is supposed to come back nicer next week for some evenings so I might try some of the deeper marks.

 

[The Squid]

I must admit that I am pretty much laid back when fishing -- even when catching specimen fish -- the only thing that animates me is Mullet fishing, that was until LRF fishing.

 

[Keith White]

I must admit that I am pretty much laid back when fishing -- even when catching specimen fish -- the only thing that animates me is Mullet fishing, that was until LRF fishing.

Yes m8, you were getting quite 'animated' last night. Has your rod straightened out yet ? LOL