Well, the winds have been NE and Easterly for days now, quite strong too. Small tides has meant clearing water and we had 2 days of virtually zero swell to let things stagnate Monday and Tuesday.

I'm right in the middle of the long process of adopting my 2 foster kids but still finding time to get out. I've' skished a few runs taking Wrasse, Bass, Pollack and the other day, Triggers on baited Mepps intended for Thin Lipped Mullet.

Been testing loads of new gear. More than I can shake a stick at and, there are some real gems in this batch. I had a ton of stuff from Monster Tackle and have more than impressed with the Sluggo 'El Salto' and Proluresdirect sent a batch of hard and soft lures. In amongst those are some pretty clever baits that are proving their worth and fish very well indeed.

The ' El Salto' Sluggo. Accounting for lots of weightless rigged fish right now. Cheap too and durable.

Loads of these guys are hitting salt weighted freelures. They love em. Freelures aren't free it's just a way to describe a lure that only requires a hook to operate. Senko's, Xlayers, Sluggo's etc can all be fished weightless/weedless with no added weight to good ranges and depths.

Anyway, another guy finally started the modular course. Dave (Krashtest) Watson has been deliberating starting for months. He isn't a total newbie and has been out to try new things on various occasions and, being honest, I think he's done ok considering. He has interpreted these blog pages and gone out there to do it. Fair play.

Rubbish tides and strong Easterly borne winds don't usually make for good Bass fishing and this trip wasn't a gift from the Bass gods but...we talked structure, tides, times, where Bass sit, hide, feed, and, best of all, we fished from low daylight into my beloved darkness that doesn't scare Dave anymore. He's already broken his night Bass duck thankfully.

We walked a good section of colourful beachfront and as darkness fell, fish were literally at our feet in 6" of water. We were kneeling 3 rod lengths away from waters edge as Bass and (I suspect Mullet) roamed the very clear edges of the cusp. Dave was lucky to see this activity on day1.

It wasn't long before Dave nailed this little guy on a Reins UV shad. It hit the lure stopped, doing nothing, in the dark. Well done Dave.

This Bass came to join the party. Just fishing a dead slow, and I mean, dead slow to stopped xlayer we both missed a few tentative takes. The Bass wern't easy at all but were there which helps of course.

Again, straight shanked and pegged weightless lure did the business. There is a whack of stuff in the blog about rigging weightless and weedless.

Another one falls to the same tactic. We could have stayed and enjoyed a bagup I think but it was important to show Dave the layout of the whole area as the tidal state changed.

A great start to Dave's modular. Unfortunately, right now, I cannot take anyone else on re: a modular as I'm currently at full capacity with session work. I am still free for some full days and nights as Sept reaches for it's dying breath but I'm pretty solid with stuff right now and, I have to get 4 other blokes back up to speed this next few weeks as fishing and hopefully weather improves their chances.

You know who you are so be ready. The next tidal set in Sept is usually indicative of the start of the back end and I'm predicting good things.

I'll be showing all these new lures along with rigging when i get an array of photo's to work with.

Until next time......

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

 

Hi, just put this this together as I thought I'd share this technique which has caught quite a few good Bass over the seasons.

Hopefully, self explanatory (just click on the thumbnail) but if you have any questions just use the comments form or email me at myfish@jerseybassguides.com

A busy week coming up and last night's trip on a local gutter yielded 4 nice Bass to 5 1/4lb on this very technique so despite the water colour, the swell, the weed and the night, the Bass still home in and nail lures fished on this method.

I will admit to scenting the paddletail up with Illex Crustacean paste but whether or not it made the difference I cannot say.

Loads to do....

Until next time.....

Thanks for reading.

well, what a week I've just had.

The fishing overall has been very, very poor. Boat reports, excursions underwater and my own trips have been very mixed. Yea, sure, the night-time skishes have been mega successful but shore fishing has largely been awful.

There are a few things to discuss on this post, one of which is people who are currently undertaking or planning to undertake guided trips out with jerseybassguides should now contact myfish@jerseybassguides.com or use the contact form from this blog as I will no longer be using the forums for posting or contact. It is a shame it has come to this but for reasons best left off my blog this decision has been difficult not to make. I will be transferring the wrasse comp to jerseybassguides but, sadly, can no longer tell you if the prizes offered by the sponsors will be available ? I'm guessing not. Any fish caught should be submitted to me under the rules (which I will re-iterate here later) and the fish and leaderboard will be updated accordingly.

Anyway, water under the bridge. Their loss.

Back to the post.

I did a few trips out with clients as I do every week and we did one trip to the extreme North East.

(All photo's courtesy of Mr X)

Fantastic ground up here.

Me (left) and Gareth working a headland race. Small Pollack, Mackerel and Garfish present but VERY tough to catch. Mr X is up the cliffside taking the pic.

I was using a load of stuff Monster Tackle have recently sent me (Sluggo El Salto, Weights, Hooks, etc) and was using the Lucky Craft ESGII that I have on long term test when a good fish came knocking at the door.

What a lump. A really good Wrasse put the ESGII through it's paces and I must say, it was brilliant. I've had good Bass and now a decent Rockfish on the rod, took it skishing and it has performed admirably.

I'll be showing you how all these Lunker City bits fit together in a later article.

I met up with Chris Isaacs to do a long range rim wade mission the other night in the forecast F6. We met up along the East coast and waded miles and miles out through the extended network of gullies on the ESE side on the gutter system. We found some runs and constrictions to die for but, only managed 1 bite each in a round 5 mile trip ? This just shows you that regardless of planning and effort, things can come and smack you across the face. That's fishing and we accept it as such. We found some gems that we'll be doing again though.

Chris and I were discussing a theory for hours the other night after the weekends dive. He was telling me about what he thinks happens with pressure waves. Smelt or Grasdos as they known locally or Roselet (Guernsey) (so check your local names for these fish) just ride or sit either in or on the current or slack water in the dark. In daylight they school with a lead fish but at night they shoal loosely.

Remember, schooling and shoaling are different, do a google search to enhance your knowledge.

Anyway, by day, you can't get anywhere near these fish unless you are very quiet. However, at night, IF you are quiet enough and stealthy enough you can actually reach out and touch them.

Chris predicts that the Bass know this. In fact, he predicts that not only Smelt react like this. We hacked out the theory that these baitfish can be approached at night by the Bass and, the darker the better. (Our fishing results support this). We also decided that this may be the reason that static or very, very slowly fished plugs or soft lures are so readily taken by the Bass under cover of darkness.

If you move an object quickly toward a baitfish even from 6", they dart away. However, move ever so slowly and the object can be within millimeters of said object. Bass suck food in using a negative vortex and this again supports the slow approach and why you should wait longer and work slower at night with slow sinking, drifting or suspending lures.

This would also explain why Bass are more active in faster or noisier water as it would mask the approach. Like I've said, all our fishing results in the dark support this and I think the plan is to try to film this as we approach a smelt underwater in the darkness.

Anyway, until next time....

Thanks for reading.

You've probably noticed the frequency of posts to the blog has changed a bit. This is due to the complexity of planning surrounding organising these skishing runs. Each one is unique regards depths, currents and features. We are making lots of recon trips, dives and of course, I'm still doing my guiding work... All takes time. Anyway...

The Skishing run talked about here is a short one by comparision but, it gets us into flow even on smaller neap tides. The main difference is the gutter is approaching 8  - 9 meters deep at the deepest point when we run it. This means we have 3 - 5 meters of flowing water running over the top of Japweed and bootlace weed beds. There are a few steep sided heads mid gutter that we catch and tonight was no different. It produced 2 fish before we made the jump into the main flow.

We headed out in what little daylight was left. I was fishing heavy, 7g head + lure. Kev was fishing 4" Xlayer on splitshot rig. No point in us emulating each other and my plan was to punch down into the weed column whilst Kev, well, he was to drift up in the layers above it.

First one of the skish falls to the 4" splitshot rig. Nice Bass.

30 minutes went by with odd takes and I missed a cracking fish that lunged at the 5" Senko just as I lifted it off to re-cast. Kev nails another good-un on the splitshot rig totally on the dead drift.

We catch those mid gutter heads for Kev to swing his Xlayer into the mouth of this Bass. I'd just had a take moments before I took this photo. I re-cast to the same area....this time with a 4" lure to show it a profile similar to Kev's Xlayer.

A nice Bass comes to hand.

I passed the camera over to Kev to take this shot before this fish, like all the others was returned unharmed back into the blackness.

Straight tails again ruled the roost, again, fished very light despite the deeper water.

Kev took 1 more Bass just before we yet again became land lubbers and the wetsuits emptied warmed water into our boots.

The fish are coming..

A mixed week really here in Jersey. People reporting some Bass from locations around the Island but in general, schoolies. A few of the guys learning LRF and HRF techniques have had some pretty good results venturing out over this weeks pretty huge 39ft plus tides.

I have spent much time doing recon dives with Chris Isaacs this last week and it stands to reason that actually seeing what is there prior to any Skishing run is always going to be an advantage. It would have under normal circumstances but...as usual, Jersey weather is totally unpredicatable and during Fri night the wind picked up and swung North threatening NE 5's. This, combined with heavy rain ruined an mission I had planned out on the SE flats with some guys who are really starting to 'get into' this stuff. It would have been miserable for them trying to master flats LRF in driving wind and rain. It's great when people are flexible like that.

Anyway, needless to say, we'd planned this new 'looped route' Skishing trip well in advance of actually doing it and, with the knowledge of the drop tide gutters learned by Kev and myself over the decades and Chris knowing the outer rim like the back of his hand we set out into the blackness. It was an early 2am.

It was proper dark , just like we love it. Fins up and over the back of the shoulder, quickly make the last tackle and gear checks, and off we go.

We walked over a series of fast out-flowing gutters until we reached the mid point lagoon area which was much deeper but still flowing. Time for putting the fins on.

Now we were Skishing, still heading out and getting a ride by the still fairly strong ebb tidal lateral current. We approached a banked and enclosed constriction which Chris had previously marked as a potential hot zone. Drifting apart now to give each room we all caught the bar and started working Xlayers, Senko's and DOA Jerk Shads....

Seconds later.....

Kev is in. A tell tale rap on the falling lure signals a take. I hear the drag going and swim over to make the shot seen here.

A great start for the 3 Amigo's out on this new loop. Waypoint 1 holds fish, superb.

A great fish that went back unharmed using single barbless and weedless rigs. A great way to catch and release.

My turn. Xlayer Giant, no added weight, just drifted and boon-dogged in the outflowing current. Thump, Fish On !

I heard Kev in the distance call "Fish On"...the flash didn't quite make the distance...I started to swim to record the catch.

After wallowing through one hell of a dense Japweed bed, we hit waypoint 2. Kev is in again. Smaller this time but still a nice Bass.

It wasn't long before the species changed..

As the tidal flows slackened as we approached the outer rim the Pollack came in to play. Still brilliant fun.

We could just about see daylight starting to creep up on us now in the far eastern horizon. Damn it.

Still, lets make use of what darkness remains. We had about a dozen and a half more as the tide made it's transitional swing back. We held our ground to fish what looked like some of the best potential night skish constrictions we've been on to date. However, I will stress, without proper guidance, planning, proper equipment and navigation skills the average Joe would be on a one way trip out here.

This is specialist stuff make no bones about it. On the run in, at 2 hours up 2.5 miles out, in the dark, it would have been much easier to have GPS plots and triangulated compass bearings to waypoint the myriad of flows, secondary constrictions and rips that were forming all around us. It was like kids in a sweet shop.

Sadly, it was now full daylight, overcast but still daylight. When God made the Earth you'd have thought he would have given more consideration to Skishers needing more darkness in the Summer Dog days eh ?

Flow, opposing wind and secondary swell from the west created this slop. Chris, HRF'ing for the first time was into a Bass. He'd already had Pollack so now, species no2 on a new method. Note the attitude in the water  Chris maintains even under fish pressure. He is extremely 'Aquatic'.

I'm trying to wind in my rig, swim around and across the front of Chris whilst we are all getting blasted through at a fast pace. Camera lens totally swamped by now again, I get this action shot as Chris's Bass breaks surface for the first time.

Chris was bumping a 7g brush guarded football head to a UV shad Reins 4" G-Tail Saturn curly tailed grub. Seconds before he said to me, Keith, this is bumping great along this bank...Thump, Fish On !

Fish is now beaten as it comes to hand. This shot in it's watery out of focus glory pretty much shows you what it's really like being exposed out there. Safe, IF you prepare well enough.

Chris as usual, has a gadget for everything as you can see in this underwater shot. Yep, that's his shoes under his armpit for rockhopping should the need arise. I know he's going to buying a new rod after his first experience of trying to work lighter jigs and soft lures on the Skish.

There we go, HRF Skish Bass. Not optimum conditions but good, very good tidal patterns.

Now, when we get out there, dark out, dark in...

I'm expecting good things.

All in all though, a great first run through SR:1

It made all the planning and training worth it.

Until next time.....

Thanks for reading.