[Mike Sullivan]

Well not sure if i have dropped this in the right place, I have recently packecu p fly fishing for various reasons.
My passions have always been bass, mullet and swffing, in general.
Though for a new challenge i have decided that i am going to switch back to year round mullet fishing and lure fishing. Never did have a big thing for bait fishing in general.
so i have a couple of questions that i hope guys here could answer in depth if possable.
Lure fishing for bass sorted same as fly fishing for them. Though during the colder months when there are less bass around in the south west i want to start fishing with lures for other species.
I have started to read up on this LRF/HRF thing and slightly makes sense though what would i target in winter and what would i need rod wise and lures. I have my stradic 2500's so thats sorted though not sure what winter lure fishing is like?
Mullet fishing in winter is tough, so i always liked a challenge.

tight lines all:shock:

 

[Carl B]

mike have a good read off the archives of jersey bass guides, loads of stuff on there, was all new to me at the time but great sport in the winter and the SUMMER, good luck

 

[Ben Field]

Hi Mike. Welcome aboard!

LRF is definitely the way to go. Being Plymouth way I'm pretty envious of the options you probably have as well - with regards to all of the harbours, piers, breakwaters etc etc that you've got access to. Check out the LRF section on here for proper info, but rod wise you'll probably want something casting up to 10g and somewhere between 7 and 8 feet. The reel you have will be ideal. Line wise you'll want either 5lb fluorocarbon straight through (reduced casting distance and feel), or braid between about 4 and 8ish. Realistically, the finer you go the better. Bait and weight wise, you'll soon be looking at 3g jigheads in a new light, as they'll probably be as big as you'll go. Small soft baits of between 1" and 2" are pretty normal. Hard baits will most likely consist of vibration baits up to about 7 or 8g, or simple casting jigs up to about the same weight. Generally the smaller and lighter you can go the better, but there's a certain case for starting a little heavier, just to get yourself in to feeling for bites and making things easy. Go lighter as you get the hang of it. How light you an go will likely be dictated by how light your rod will go whilst stioll enabling you to feel tiny knocks and bumps as the fish tacke a light bait as it sinks. You could easily find yourself casting a single swan shot (or smaller) and a tiny bait. You'd be surprised how small you can go for some very reasonable fish. You could be looking to catch almost anything really (pollack, whiting, pout, rockling, literally anything). Up to a couple of pounds would be realistic, depending on where you are. I fished down here a fair bit last winter, but mostly around Mevagissey where the average size isn't that great. plenty of fish to train you up though. You probably couldn't be better located - in fact, I'm thinking of heading up that way this winter to do it properly!

 

[Mike Sullivan]

Thanks guys much appreciated taking the time to answer those i have always been a lure fantic though i have usualy fished the dly as you will know from SWSF Ben.
Though recently i have been leaning more and more towards the lures fishing in proper and concentrating on this more.
So is my thinking right that to cover all the lure fishing apects i could only use 3 rods LRF i.e 3 - 10grams, 10-50grams and 20 - 60 grams.
Considering something along the lines of Teklon concepts and a lrf rod also pared with my straid 2500's and also my stradic 4000 reels. running braid on them 20lb braid on the 4000's with a 30lb fluro leader.
and 4-6lb braid on the 2500's with a 10lb leader.
Would this suit all lure fishing or could i go lighter on the braid front?
I have to admit that i was like a kid in a sweet shop on your opening day mate, so i fear that i will keep popping down through the years and grabbing new rods, reels ect. I hear that the rareium reels are favoured for lure fishing though i have to say i have always used my stradics with no issues.

tight lines:shock:

 

[Ben Field]

Sounds about right mate, although you could probably go lighter on a few things. Rod wise, chosing 3 I'd go for one LRF up to about 10g, one up to about 25g for your bass soft plastics and HRF, and one say 50g rod for your general plugging on rough or windy days. If the second rod went to say, 30g then I think you'll find yourself using it more than the heavier one during bass season. There will be odd, odd, odd bass around all year actually - generally bigger and much more sparse though. Good choice to have some LRF fun! For the flounder too!

Leader wise, you could probably go down to 5 or 6lb if you wanted on the LRF kit. Even lighter if you were fishing mostly for small fish. It's all about the fun of being out there really and size of fish caught is usually pretty irrelevant. As a result, you could safely fish 2lb at times. It would be considered madness by some, but the truth is that by going so light, you'll catch more fish and probabloy despite initial reservation, you won't get broken.

Bass wise, you could probably just use a 20lb leader, rather than 30. The 30 would be fine for hard baits, but if you wanted to fish soft baits too then I usually go down to a 15 or less. If you have any spare spools then it'd be worth considering a 10 or 15lb braid for your bass fished soft baits (and HRF). I've used the 15lb Daiwa but am back using 10lb Yamatoyo now.

Rarenium are a brilliant reel! Much lighter than the Stradic, but sometimes it's not all about the weight and more to do with how they balance on the rods you're using. You'll be fine.

 

[Mike Sullivan]

thanks again mate i will definately be picking up 3 rods during the winter and a selection of lures ect.
i can get spare spools for my stradics quite cheaply so i will pick up a selection as i go on. have fly fished for years just got shot of the gear and funded a new pair of diawa porky pigs the best mullet rods ever made.
Shall start collecting in a couple of months just get the mullet rush done first before they bigger off again apart from the ones i target through the winter.

tight lines

 

[Shaun Austin]

Hi mike welcome to the forum.

 

[Mike Sullivan]

hi shaun, thanks for the welcome mate, i must say this is a wealth of lure fishing information. :-D

 

[Keith White]

There is a ton of LRF stuff in the C.I catch reports from around last Jan...

Worth reading as it might help you stop making all the mistakes we made.

As mentioned already, my blog has loads of LRF tips and stories on there too.

 

[Mike Sullivan]

thanks keith i have spent the last 2 days reding though it the more i read the more i like, not sure on this skishing though would help if i could swim i guess. lol.

 

[Keith White]

You don't need to be able to swim to skish. It's a real blast and I'm looking for salt resistant LRF gear to take out in the water for the cold water pollack early next spring. Should produce some outstanding sport.

 

[Mike Sullivan]

from what i was reading last night mate your in deep water in a wetsuit and no bouyancy aid using fins to move around. or are you in contact with the bottom at all times and i mis understood it.
If you dont need to swim i would love to have a go at it properly. though i have so much to learn on this lure front.
Thanks again for all of the information.

 

[Keith White]

from what i was reading last night mate your in deep water in a wetsuit and no bouyancy aid using fins to move around. or are you in contact with the bottom at all times and i mis understood it.
If you dont need to swim i would love to have a go at it properly. though i have so much to learn on this lure front.
Thanks again for all of the information.

The wetsuit IS the buoyancy.
You can't sink.

 

[Toby Harnett]

You don't need to be able to swim to skish

:shock::shock:

Skishing sounds crazy as it is (I'd love to give it a go someday) but skishing when you can't swim:shock::shock:?? even crazier:badlol:!

 

[Mike Sullivan]

sounds really interesting i used to surf a lot and swim a lot until i had a serious accident at porthleven reef that almost killed me. Didnt swim since then maybe i should start again this skishing definately looks like serious fun though.
I tried surfing at night that was cool, so next step in due course i guess. :-?

 

[Mark Sleep]

Mike, no such thing as stupid questions. I thought for a while that 'IMHO' was some kind of fishing term that I'd not heard of when people used it in posts, until I realised its short for 'in my humble opinion'!

 

[Mike Sullivan]

thanks mark at least im not the only one asking questions i guess. i honed my watercraft many years ago with fly fishing now i just have to see how i can transpose that to lure fishing.
In winter i used lighter rods and smaller flies so akin to lrf really i guess really fun. looking forwards to the next 12 months with glee now as lure and mullet are my only methods. :wink:

 

[Martin Evans]

Hi Keith
what are the C.I catch reports?

 

[Paddy]

Hi Keith
what are the C.I catch reports?

The reports from the Channel Islands mate http://www.thelureforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28

 

[Martin Evans]

Thanks couldn't work out the C.I bit duh!!