Dodging the fog in Inishowen.

Hi all,
With the weather being excellent the last few days How could I resist a day afloat.
I had planned to try for tope in the Foyle area but the fog was horrendous.
So went for a bash in Kinagoe bay.
The fog was out there to but I planned a session of hugging the rocks.

Foggy but fantastic scenery as usual.
Ye as always with the fog hanging over the rocks and the sea like glass, It was like something out of  and air brushed photo.
Those of you that are good at the photography would have had no time to fish trying to get it all on camera.

The kayak is a Profisha 525.

 

The Guillemots and Razor Bills  where busy picking there nesting spots.

 

I was there to fish but its easy to get distracted here.

Get back to the fishing.
Ye I nearly forgot I was out to fish there for a minute.
At this stage of the morning  it was 2hrs before high water so prime Pollock time.
First up was the old faith full jelly worms, I fished them deep, shallow, fast and slow with little interest. I persisted at slow and deep and only managed a few half hearted taps on the jelly's.
So it was time for the big guns.
Some fine rag that a kind gent gave me them last day as he finished up on the water.
Down they went to the bottom, a 20g jig head with a jelly worm as a weight as I had no very small leads with me, 4ft of line to a size 2 chinu hook baited with a whopper of a rag.
A very slow retrieve resulted in the first fish of the day.
A small Pollock of no more than 12" long.
Well he saved a blank lol, I am not sure if he grabbed the rag or the rag grabbed him.
Another cast and a slow deep retrieve was made and half way up a very exciting tap, tap, tap on the rod was followed by a fine diving run.
The fish gave a good account of its self and half way up again a power full dive back down.
I had visions of a 7 or 8lb Pollock coming up.
But it was 2 Pollock of a couple pound each. Brilliant fun on the light rod.
I got this rod from Terry Jacksons page for entering a write up about our skate trip.
Cheers Terry I love the rod. That's Terry's link below well worth a look.
//www.angling-ireland.com







                                 The dry suit I am wearing is a typhoon PS220 Extreme.

I fished away here and only managed smaller Pollock until the tide eased up a lot.
The fishing totally eased and with the weather ideal for some exploring.
On the far side of this bay is a spot from our boating days which was the mecca for Pollock.

The Dutch man.
To hell with it, I thought its just across the bay. All 2.6km of it.
No a huge distance but its one hell of a spot for strong tide.
But to be honest it was an easy paddle in the stealth and didn't take long. By now the fog was hovering about 80ft above the water so it was a fantastic paddle.
Here's a pic I thought I would never take from a kayak. The Dutch Man, this spot can be unreal for Pollock but on the ebb tide in April there was nothing happening only small Pollock not a lot over the 1LB mark.

 

 

 

This spot brings back some memories of days gone by.
I will be back here in the summer for sure.

It was a brilliant day weather and touring wise, a couple of alright Pollock made it a great day afloat.
From the Dutch Man to my launch spot was also 2.6km and a leisurely paddle back took me 25 mins so I was happy with that. I took it handy and made good time.
So it was bad enough dreaming of monster tope in the coming weeks and now I am dreaming of monster Pollock from an iconic spot.

So thanks for reading every one. I hope you like the pictures as much as I did taking them.
Until next time tight lines and paddle safe folks.

A few sessions in the fine weather

Hi all,
The weather has been great the last short while and as per usual I do my best to make the most of it.
Mike and myself organised for a session at the tope hoping to see if there about yet.
Mike was due down 2hrs before the low slack water at about 11am.
But I was itching to get out so I hit the earlier tide.

Well the birds are in,
I was down 2hrs before high tide and I paddle out to my mark and the first thing that struck was the amount of bird life and porpoises that where about.
They where every where. I saw at least 5 porpoises.
I anchored up and got the baits down and as usual I had a rod down with the camera on it. The tide came and went with hardly a tap on either rod.

 I had a look at the camera when I got home and a few dabs and flounder came and went and where hardly bothered to batter my baits.
Which is unusual, they are normally like savages here. But there was an easterly breeze blowing on and off the last week so that may be dulling there appetite.

 

 

Change of plans.

But it was a brilliant morning even if there where no fish biting.



At that I headed in to meet Mike and we decided to head out to the coast in search of tope and other stuff.
We got there and a stiff easterly breeze had got up but we where keen to get on the fish so out we went.
As the tide was running with the wind it was calmer than it would be when the tide turned.
We anchored and it was apparent from the start that where not going to be out long  as the weather and sharp chop was battering us.
My light line was down about 5 mins with the yellow euro champ rig when a welcome rattle came and an unusual fish for this spot came to the kayak.

It was a nice short spined scorpion fish.



But by now in this short time the wind had gotten up even more.
So with the tide easing and soon to turn it was due to get a lot worse out there.
So we headed in for some fun with the coalies.

Coalies, let the fun begin.
In no time we where in to some great fishing. Mike was on the feathered rigs and I was using the jig heads on the light rod for some added sport.
What a laugh, they are a mental fish. They go like hell on light gear.
After a couple of great hours sport I switched to the camera rod and trolled that around and trying a few thing.
I wanted to test the single hook against the treble hook as I am not a fan of the treble hooks on lures.
Well there's a video below and the results speak for themselves.

Also some Eddystone Eels.

They fairly loved those rubber eels. That video above is all taken from one 20min clip.
So that day ended and it was a cracker even if the fish where hard to find at first.

So thanks for reading, and tight lines.

The one that got away.

Hi all.
It has no been easy getting out over the last short while, between wind and swell.
One day its like Spain and the next winter. Some days you get the whole lot, winter, summer etc.
But sure we will get out when the chance comes along.
Thankfully the wind had come around a little bit and the swell meant to be settling.

Looks nice,
I landed at my launch site and it looked quiet nice on out in the shelter of the bay but not much further out you could see the big swell on the horizon. I wasn't going out there so I was happy enough.
There was a good run of swell on the slip as the small swell that was running into the bay and straight up the slip. Not what you want to see as it can be a nightmare coming back in.

On out regardless.
It was not to bad really more bothered about scratching the nice shiny kayak.
So out I went and the further I got away from the shelter of the pier the breezier I got. But fishable none the less.

Anchors away.
With the wind being quiet strong and this flat fish mark being very small drifting was out of the question.
So I lined up and dropped my anchor. But again the anchor settled and straightened in the wind I was on the outer edge of my mark. On a normal day this wouldn't be a problem. So I stayed where I was.
Of course I had the camera down with a home made jig head spreader rig and a boom up the line about 10 inches for doggies, whiting, gurnard etc.
I can't find a pic of the spreader rig but its in the video below.
On the light rod I had a small hi-vis orange lead and short snood with a strip of mackerel so I could cast away and search for small turbot and flounder.

Maybe the wrong spot.
I was fishing a short while and hadn't had a touch on the baits. Which is unusual here as they normally batter the baits as soon as they touch down in the flooding tide.
I checked my baits and what do you know a star fish. A bad sign I thought as I have never caught a starfish on the sand before, which was convincing me I had over shot my mark with the wind.

 



I was thinking about moving when my light rod showed some interest so I reeled down and there was a decent bit of life on the end of it. Now this was a mackerel strip so I was thinking small turbot or flounder.
But no, to my surprise it was a plaice. My first ever plaice on mackerel strip. I was really surprised as I had plaice on video last year watching a rag bait tipped with mackerel and for half an hout they watched with out touching it and when I put down just rag they nailed it straight away.
By now the wind was bitter and dam cold on the back of the head, thankfully the new suit Typhoon PS220 extreme has a nice hood on it, With that hood up it soon killed and cold.

 

 

I was delighted with my first plaice of the year and decided to give it a little longer there after that fish.
Fishing away and it was still quiet one rod searching and one on camera. So a bait check again revealed a mass of bloody star fish. Loads of the buggers, they where even mad about the yellow lumi tube. Not sure why must be some sort of scent in the tubing.

That convinced me to move. As I thought I couldn't be on the sand.

Time to move.
So back over the mark about 300 yards and set up again.
Again it was desperate quiet and the wind was really starting to batter me. I fished for 3 hours in total and I didn't notice any bites.
So I was keen to check out the camera when I got home.
Firstly to see was I actually catching starfish on the bare sand and was there any fish about other than the one I caught.
Well this post is called the one that got away so watch the video and you'll know why lol.

A small swell with the wind.
With the breeze getting up so did the swell, even though the wind was against the swell. Which is not good as it would be getting rougher on the slip.
So with that in I went and there was quiet a bit of swell on the slip.
Not good at all, any of you that have done this know its a nightmare at times. But thankfully this slip you can paddle along side the slip so I did. I went above where the swell pours over the edge.
So I unclipped my rods and put them on the slip, next  I stood up on the kayak and hopped onto the slip and with my anchor trolley unclipped I pushed the kayak out and as the swell run up the slip I pulled the kayak up and as the water receded I held the cord and the kayak just sat there,
A quick grab of the kayak and I carried it up the rest of the way.

 



You can see in the pic how far up the swell was running. But I was in unscathed and the profisha 525 in 1 piece thank fully.

Until next time tight lines and be safe when your near the water, it can be a very unpredictable time of year on the water.

Can this year get any better, and it's only april.

Hi all,
This a catch report and a news flash of sorts.
Well first the news FLASH.
The very kind people at https://www.typhoon-int.co.uk/ have been kind enough to sponsor me new PS220 extreme dry suit. A very nice piece of kit.
It was all organised trough Mike at wet and http://wetandwildwatersports.com/ in Belfast.
As you can see they have a fine selection of stock and can get pretty much anything you need.

Here is Mike, he's the man to sort your water sports needs.

 Oh I had to get a pic while the new suit was still clean, I am 5'7 and I have the small medium size and it is ideal for me. It was a great fit and very comfortable. But a whole lot more on that later.
Thanks to them both and back to the fishing.

A launch in the fog alone.
This particular morning I would be launching alone as the lads had a long way to come and I wanted to get out early.
I got there early but I was met by a thick fog.



I had 2 lots of gps devices with me so I was going out regardless. Soon I was out and searching for fresh bait.
Before I got clear of the bay one of the local lads Declan landed. He was for staying inshore so out deep I went.

Hitting last years marks.
After last years success with the Common Skate I have been trying at every opportunity lately and with the weather I have just managed 2 tries.
The first run out to the mark for our skate was a lot stickier than last year and I had my concerns whether things had changed over the winter.
In the end I anchored exactly on the mark and let the water wolf camera down to the bottom for a luck.
I was desperately disappointed when I got to see the vid at home the ground was devoid of the gravel that was there last year.
Now it is just pure large boulders.
All the gravel seems to be gone, hopefully it will come back. I am not hope full of that so I will have to go on the hunt for new ground and I think the water wolf and gps together will be a massive help.
Despite the fog it was fantastic to be out and the sea was a joy. There was a swell of 4 to 5ft but it was more like curved glass than an actual swell. Brilliant experience.
I anchored in various spots around my mark looking for a clear patch of ground but only hit very sticky ground which is not what you want when after skate.
But I fished on and hoped for the best, sure the day was that nice I wasn't to concerned.

Here come the boys.
After a few hours the lads landed and I headed in to meet them. The fog thinned and thickened as the day went on and half way in the fog thinned enough to get a glimpse of the land.

No bother to the lads, out they came and we headed for a patch of ground and anchored 100yards apart and chummed away like something out of the JAWS movie.

There was no messing with Brian he had a rod and reel with him that was well able to tackle JAWS lol. Mike was also geared up to do battle with what ever we could get but we only managed small stuff with Brian getting the best ling of the day of a few pound. I had 5 species. Dab, Whiting, Ling, Pollock and coalie.

I had one ok ling just big enough for a fresh tasty bait so on he went down to the bottom to see what would take him. He would have been returned but he had thrown out his stomach on the way up.
But he was sent down to the bottom and only a lobster or brown crab had a taste for my ling.
While the ling was on my lap out came this unfortunate creature, what looked like a small half digested 5 beard rockling appeared.

 



After many quiet hours.
The action was very slack and it was time for home, the lads had headed in a head of me and we all had a decent few coalies.
So that was the scene set for the next days fishing.

Day 2.
With the coalies arriving close to shore there was only one thing to do, scrap the original plans for a plaice chase and bring the kids out for some caolie bashing which they love. For those of you that have not had the pleasure, they are like mackerel on steroids and couple that with light gear they are immense fun.

So Craig, Eoin and myself headed out for our mark, there was a stiff breeze blowing across the bay but it was ideal to see what Craig could do paddling wise as he is keen to get out on the salt,]
but he won't going until he could do some proper paddling.

Here they are getting a feel for it before heading out in the bay.It was no bother to him.

 Well he done some proper paddling in bucket loads and could manage it even with his younger brother in the back.
They where a great laugh watching them fishing together.

They had a great time and they had some nice coalies and one point Eoin was shouting his rod was going to break lol. The coalies fought like deamons, it was great fun.

 

 

I will have the video up of the action very soon, Have to say it is one of the better under water action clips. I hope you enjoy it.

 

Thanks for reading and tight lines.

Tope are coming.

Hi all,
Well it's getting close to that time of year when those hard fighting sharp toothed torpedo's will be hitting our coast line. Yes those feisty rope will be coming very soon to devour what ever swims and fits in there mouth and at times things that won't fit in there mouth. I had one try and eat a spurdog I was reeling in one day, and another day one tried to eat a string of 3 large coalies that one lad had along side the angling boat.
Well it won't be long now until they are in range again and I'll be waiting for them.
Here's a little piece on what I like to use and where I find the tope in my area. Not all areas are the same and there favoured food will determine where they are.

When should we be seeing them.
We should be seeing them at the end of April or the beginning of may. Weather dependant, very heavy rain and cold weather can hold them back by a few weeks but they should be well on there way by mid may. But for the larger tope on open ground at sea they can be as late as mid July.
The last few years have been quiet good for tope and they have been the highlight of my season the last few years.

Where to find them.
Loughs and some large estuaries,
Early in the year tope generally turn up in loughs and large estuaries, generally mud and sandy areas.
I like to try for them along the edges of shelves where channels rise quickly on to shallower sand beds/bars.
Tope will easily enter water less then 15ft but seem to be more nervous the shallower they go.
But I generally fish a spot that is 30ft deep and they have no problem snatching a bait from directly underneath me.
I have even had a double hook up at times like this.
Later in the year from mid to late june the tope will be on the more open ground. Depth really isn't an issue once they are out there they can turn up almost any where from 30ft and more. Also later in the year they can be found on almost any type of ground, from rock to sand. But all areas that hold tope have there hot spots, be it a feature the holds small fish, a ledge or even a head land and at times even near strings of crab pots can hold tope. It can take a lot of effort to find them but when you do it will be well worth it.

What they are eating.
For years  believed tope came in after the standard bait fish. Mackerel, herring and sandeel.
But the last good few years the tope where around long before the bait fish show up in any number and they are really on the feed.
So what is there at that time of year?
Well, Whiting and dabs. They just love them.

Here's one a tope devoured earlier.

 

Dab are not my favourite bait to use to be honest but if there's nothing else they will catch.

I am not mad about them as the tope can be hard to hook using them.

The one in the pic above I find a good size to use, any bigger my hook up rate goes down badly and any smaller the take rate goes down also.

This size dab I simply hook the dab trough the head just behind the eyes.

 

Baits, fresh and frozen.

As above whiting and dabs are top of the early topes menu.

But with the lower hook up rate I find using flat fish I like to use whiting a lot more. But I also use mackerel fresh or frozen. As they give off a strong scent. Even if they are not the best put at least one down and a couple of fresh whiting near by will be the ideal set up.

With tope the fresher the better so much so I stopped taking the baits out of the freezer the night before to defrost them.

Your mackerel will defrost in a short time in a small amount of sea water so no worries there.

Also most white fish will take tope, even coalies have worked for me in the past.

Saying that I have yet to catch a tope on Pollock.

 

Baits, whole, fillet and flapper.

As above with whiting and dabs I generally fish them whole, but bigger whiting half flappered can be very good.

Mackerel I generally like to fish them as a fillet bait. I find a filet bait has an excellent hook up rate, and you get between 2 and 3 baits per mackerel. As when bait is short keep the head as it can also be used as well.

But when dog fish, large gurnard and whiting are about you may have to change to a half mackerel or whole mackerel. As dogfish can be a real pain when your low on bait.

Flapper baits can be excellent for getting a good scent going, but where I fish I get tortured with dogfish and a decent gurnard will tear the side off a flapper bait.

Here is a video on how to hook each bait.

 

Rigs,

Pulley rig,

For me I find the pulley rig the ultimate rig. It has great action in the water and superb hook up rate and I very rarely get a deep hooked tope.

My rig consists of 5ft of 150lb mono onto 18" of 100lb wire with a 7/0 O'shaugassey hook. Here is the rig I like to have it so the hook is off the bottom as the tide slackens.

Here is the way I tie the swivel to the wire. I like to use a stopper knot to stop the trace spinning around the main line. I also use a wind on leader which the pulley rig is attached to. My wind on leader is 15ft of 100lb to 150lb mono. This ideal for a tough day at the tope. I have used 65lb mono before but it needs to be changed as the tope are very sore on it.

 

Flowing trace.

Personally I am not a fan of the flowing trace, I know a lot of lads on the east coast use the flowing trace to great effect, but between the huge numbers of dogfish and rocky ground it is not worth the hassle here in the area I fish in Donegal.

But again your flowing trace can be made the same way as your pulley rig but with out the running swivel. So you will have an over all length of 7ft. this is to stop the tope rubbing trough the trace.

 

Float fishing/ballooning.

Last year was the first time I deliberately tried this method and dam it was exciting but I found it difficult to connect with the tope on the end but I will be trying it again this year.

There are lads Like Alain Storey whole sell float rigs for tope and I hear of good reports about this method and I can see it being done more often in the future.

 

Jigs

Yes jigs, last year I was hoping to give them a go. But it is hard to change from what is working.

But I put a small whiting on a jig head as a flapper gave it 2 turns of the handle off the bottom and let it sit as I fished.

I was hooked into one tope when the jig head got slammed. The fight was epic. A light rod and fixed spool reel, It was that good I will definitely be doing it again this year.

Here is a vid of it below.

The fly.

I am not aware of any tope being caught on the fly in Ireland but I am more than confident there will be some caught this year on the fly. I gave it a try last year but my line just didn't get down and stay down deep enough. If you want tope flies http://www.chasingsilver.org/ tie some amazing patterns for tope and shark.

I will be trying a 10wt salt fly rod and a 10wt reel and super sink 10wt fly line.

 

Set up,

Rods, reels and main line.

Unless you are after monster tope say 50lb plus, a 12lb to 20lb class rod will do nicely. I have had tope to over 40lb on 12lb class rod, It was a battle and a half but great fun. I do quiet regularly fish a 12lb to20lb rod with bigger baits in hope of a bigger tope but bigger baits don't mean bigger tope unfortunately.

My normal rods at the tope is a 12lb to 20lb SK3 7'6. This rod is very nice and can comfortably handle the bigger tope in my area.

My other rod is a 12lb Abu Garcia. I also use an Alcedo 180-200g rod with a fixed spool reel for maximum fun in the deeper water.

 

Reels

Again reels don't have to be huge but tope can destroy cheaper reels, I have a Shimano tld15 multiplier  an ideal size for tope it may even be a bit big but a lovely reel for the job and the lever drag is excellent to keep up with fast moving tope, and I have an Okuma multiplier reel on the other.

The fixed spool reel I use for the tope is a Fin-Nor fs60. It is meant to be salt proof and I have mine about 4 years and apart from it need cleaning twice a year it is well up to the job.

 

Main lines.

Braids or mono.

Braid

I only use braid for all my fishing and I find it a lot better in the strong tide. The braid catches less tide so I can use less lead which is a big bonus with the tope as you don't want them felling any resistant's when they lift your bait.

I generally use 30lb and 50lb braid. 50lb braid seems a lot but when your in the shallows it is nerve racking to hear the 30lb braid coming out of the top eye on under big pressure.

I like to have at the very least 200yards of line on the reel as they can run a lot of line off in the shallows. Not so much in the deeper water.

 

Mono

Mono can be used and you generally can get away with 30lb or 40lb mono.

You will need more lead to get you down in a tide but with the mono being less prone to abrasion a wind on leader is no really needed.

Also I would stick as much mono on the reel as you can get on it.

 

 

Good luck

So good luck to all and I hope this piece you get into your first tope and I would be delighted to see a pic of your catch should this piece help you catch one.

So tight lines until the next time and be safe out there.

                                                                                           

 

 

 

Getting into kayak angling part 2, you have your kayak what next.

Hi all,
Following on from how to make a start in kayak angling.
Here's some pointers to get you on the water safely and what you should have before heading out.

So you got your kayak,
So you have gone out and bought a kayak, hopefully you have given it a paddle and are happy with your choice before handing over your cash.
You should be on some sort of kayak angling forum by now and having a chat with the lads there and checking out is there many lads in your area.
So hopefully you have gotten a lot of info and also info on your local area.
If you are unlucky and you find out you are on your own you can still get the basics in.

Before heading out.
Before heading you should have these basic items of safety equipment. This list is the bare essentials.

1. Very importantly you need a dry suit,
Get one from ebay or a shop or off a forum but try and buy one as wet suits are not ideal. As dry suits are a real life saver.
Cost; second hand E100.00 up, New E300.00 up

2. A decent PFD [personal flotation device]
Self inflating ones are not ideal as they can hinder you getting back on your kayak if you end up in the water.
Cost; New E60.00 and up, try and buy new.

3. Magnetic compass NOT electronic,
As long as they are kept away from radio's and steel they will be fine and rarely develop faults. You keep them away from metal and radio's as the magnetic field from them interferes with the magnetic compass.
Cost; New E10.00 up

 4. Now your into electrics,
As I am talking about essentials I'll keep it short.
Vhf, water proof or in a water proof case,
Phone same as above,
Cost; New Vhf E130.00 up

5. Paddle leash and a sharp safety knife.
Cost for both; New E30.00 up

6.  Last but not least a drogue or anchor.
You need at least one of these as if you get tired or hurt while afloat you can slow you drift and stay away from dangers while some one comes to your aid if needed.
Anchors are great but if you are new a float they are the trickiest part of kayak angling. So a drogue is excellent while you get use to anchoring.
Cost; Anchor and reel with anchor line about E60.00 but just the anchor and line about E20.00 you could make your own reel.

If you still have a few pound left.
Flares are an excellent item, but they are expensive and can be hard to keep in useable condition on a kayak. I double vacuum pack mine with some kitchen roll around them  to keep them in top condition.
Hand held flares, about new E9.00 up depending what you want. A minimum  of 7 of these is recommended.

PLB,
Personal locator beacons. I do have one of these and I find it ideal for where I fish.
As the average hand held vhf only has a range of 5miles and less if close to cliff faces. The PLB works from the satellites and sends a signal trough the satellites when activated. So in my view if you only have the money for a vhf or PLB I'd get the PLB. This is my personal choice, check out your area and circumstances before you decide what you want.
Mine one was E220.00

Handheld gps
These are an excellent item but only if you can us it. You can practice at home and have a good mess around with it until you know it inside out.
You can get a Garmin etrex from about E60.00 second hand. I have a garmin 60csx and cost about E120.00 second hand, a very nice unit.

After that it's pure personal choice.
You have fish finders, tackle boxes and a multitude of cameras all have there place and enhance your time afloat but try hold back and get the essentials first.

Forecasts,
These are essential, get use to watching them and compare them to what the weather is like in your area, as some forecasts are more accurate in certain areas.
I use xc weather and magic seaweed. I find xc weather not very accurate in the winter months but much better in the summer for some reason.
Magic seaweed is excellent for exposed coasts as they give a very good swell height forecast also.
Always, always, always check your fore cast before going out. Check the night before and the morning before you go out as they can change quickly. Also so never go out in a decent off shore breeze as it may strengthen and make it difficult to get back ashore.

You have your essentials.
You have what you need now and it's time to wet the kayak.
Hopefully you have some company to do this the first few times out.
If you can get yourself down to a nice shallow beach preferably with an onshore breeze so if things go pear shaped your kayak will wash ashore.
these beaches are excellent for getting use to the stability of your kayak you can have a go at surfing in small waves and get use to hoping back backing on your kayak.
You do not need to be out of your depth at this point. Get use to your kayak and have a bit of fun at the same time.
I do this with my kids every year and just go for a play in the shallow surf and they just find it a bit of fun. But they are learning how to do a re-entry with out even knowing it. They are like penguins now on and off like a shot. Its great for snorkelling to.

When your feeling confident.
You have had a few plays in the surf now and your confident in your ability to stay up wright.
It's time for your re-entry drill out of your depth.
Now don't be heading out to sea or the middle of a bay or in strong tidal flow.
Find a spot that's deep enough and close to shore [WITH IN  FEW YARDS OF THE SHORE] with someone with you. Either in  a kayak, boat or a friend on shore.

Re-entry drill.
Instead of a long wind bit of waffle here's a video of mine on how it's done.
You don't need to go in head first, just slip in over the side of the kayak and get use to doing it before you start diving in head first lol.

So when your in the water compose yourself, Don't be getting over excited. Your floating your safe do it wright the first time not 3 or 4 frantic attempts that really tire you out.

You have your re-entry off to a tee.
You have your re-entry down to a fine art now and you can hop on and off at your ease.
Don't venture to sea unless you can do it easily. As at sea or muddy lakes make it a lot hard with wind and chop adding to the difficulty.
Also you should practice a capsize drill, meaning flipping your kayak over and get use to flipping it back over again and getting back onto it.

After dark.
To be honest give this a miss for a good while the darkness can be very disorientating and you need to be very confident to fish in the dark from your kayak. A night time re-entry can test the nerves of the best kayakers.

What next.
Well this is the best part after you got over the initial fear of falling in you should be having a good laugh with your kayak.
So just add water, get out to where you want to go, find the fish of a life time and be prepared to sell you beach gear lol.
The vast majority of people that try kayak angling truly love kayak angling. The freedom and ability to fish nearly anywhere at anytime is second to none.
You can fly fish, lure fish, bait fish what ever you like.
So try meet up with other kayakers and enjoy yourself and some day I hope to meet you on the water some where around Ireland.

Thanks for reading and until next time paddle safe.

Home made lures and jig heads

Hi all,
As per title this is about how to make your favourite lures and save yourself a lot of money.
In this bit I will be showing how to do a floating lure and how to make an articulated wobbling jig head.
The jig head is considerably easier to make and works very well. The jig head bit is at the bottom so you can skip to the bottom if you don't want to read a pile of stuff about lures.

Where to start.
To make the lure you need a few things, Obviously pic your favourite lure. But I would pick an expensive one as there's not much point making cheap lures as the effort and materials will out way the cost.
So I dug out a top notch lure that catches bass very well, it has a great action hasn't let me down yet.
Wright you got your lure now you need some thing to make a mould.
I got some bricoleurre mould paste. [I have no connection or received any discount for mentioning them]

But this stuff is really excellent but is far from cheap. It is E30.00 per kilo. But you get a good few moulds from it depending on the size of the lure.

 

What is it.

Well the lads that sell it tell me it is a type of heat proof silicone/cement.

It doesn't go hard until you mix the activator trough it.

But once you do you need to work fast as it goes off very quickly. After 15 mins it is solid.

 

So where to start.

First off is to either get a small box or make one.

So you got your tub you fill the tub minus the activator so you know how much paste to mix so you don't waste anything. Then you mix it with the activator fully. So quickly get it in the mould case and press the lure half way into the paste as you are making 2 halves. Once it has hardened tidy the mould surface and cut 2 decent notches out of each side, so they are easy lined up when finished.

 Then simply once the paste has hardened take the first half out of the mould case and refill it with more paste.

Before you make up the second half you must lightly grease the face of the first half so they 2 halves don't stick together.

Again simply press the first half onto the soft paste mixed with activator, and allow to set.

 

If all goes well.

If all goes well you should end up with something like this.

As you can see my effort wasn't perfect but it worked well.

 

What next.

Well you hopefully have you mould now and the next item you need is a 2 part plastic resin.

You cam get this from most lure making sites. It is also about E26.00 for the 2 bottles. You get a lot of lures from the 2 bottles.

First you need to very accurately bend the wire frame to match the hook mounting points. I used a

good galvanised wire. It was roughly 1.5g heavier than the wire used in the original lure.

Plus this lure has a counter weight ball bearing inside of close to 3g so I added about 2g of weight to the end of the wire above the forward hook position.

To try and get it as close as possible to the original I weighted it minus the trebles and it weighted 17g. So that was handy I weight out the 2 parts of the mix and weighted out 19g of plastic resin as I was assuming it would be very difficult to get the same even layer to the body.

With that the mix was poured into the mould.

At this point I realised I should have worn gloves.

I am an impatient sod so I just held the mould and poured the 19g of resin into the mould and about 15g poured out the bottom all over my hands lol.

 

I quickly mixed more and as the first mix had just about blocked the leaky spots I poured it in again and began the process of moving the mould about to spread the resin evenly about the mould.

It will take about 30mins for it to cure and another hour to be fully hardened.

This was the first attempt, I was quiet pleased.

The copy and original side by side. A slight trim and it was done.

I did this a few more times and I ended with 3 lures. But I wore gloves and wrapped the mould in duck tape and I had no leaks or spills.

I gave them a basic spraying and down I went to test them. The results one was perfect, one run to the side and one the counter weight came loose and was in the back of the lure. They where easy enough sorted and I expect them to do well.

 

Articulated jig head.

Recently I was at an angling show in France and there where numerous lures being drown all around the place, but there was one lure that caught my attention was a jig head that had a fantastic action.

It not only had great swimming action it also wobbled brilliantly as well.

But they where terrible money. 2 jig heads where near E5.00 and the soft bodies where E9.00 for 3.

For me that was way over the top and where I fish I could go trough at least 3 bodies a day with Pollock and other fish smashing them.

So I just bought 2 packs one of each size and as above I made a mould.

 

 

Not as good as I hoped.

I made a dozen of them and they looked very well. I then tried them out down the pier with a standard shad and they had very little action. I got the original out and tried that and it was the same.

It seems they need the shad body that is made for them. They still do the job but don't have the action that hooked me at the show.

 

Not giving up yet.

I was mulling over in my head about trying the head of the lure above for a jig head to get some more action in the lures but I doubted it would work as I believed the buoyancy  of the lures body was partly responsible for the lures action.

But later while on face book chatting, John Griffin asked me to try the lures head as a jig head. So I thought to hell with it and gave it a try.

 

How to start.

It is a lot easier to make the jig head mould. I just made a top section of the lure so I could make a mould of the head. So 12g of resin was poured into the mould and left on its head to get a solid head.

You do the same process to make the mould of the head as you did with the lure mould.

So here is the head and that's the mould in the back ground I made from it.

I was quiet pleased with it and ready for the lead.

 

 

So this mould that took 12g of plastic to make now makes a 66g lead head.

I like to fish as light as possible so I cut the plastic head tight behind the gills and made another mould to make a lighter jig head mould.

 

It also came out well and the new smaller jig head when made weighted 43g.

I would like another lighter one but I was afraid I would loose any action if there was any.

 

The trial.

So again down to the pier to try the out and I was doubtful they would work but it was worth a shot.

I used the same shad I tried on the other jig heads.

I tried the heavy one first and to say they worked well was an under statement. They had superb action and I was delighted.

Again the lighter one was tried with the same shad and again the action was superb. The heavy ones I have them ready for the tope, cod, ling and deep Pollock.

The lighter ones will be used for bass, Pollock, sea trout and I will trial them with mackerel strip for turbot and rays.

 

Safety note.

Be careful with these moulds when opening the mould. As the lead does not set as quick as it does in metal moulds. Also they need to cool a bit after about 5 or 6 jigs as they get very hot and damage easier.

 

To recap.

So that's what I was at for a few evenings. I hope it helps you make your mind up whether to try yourself or save your money and buy the originals.

I will say the lure is difficult but its fun to try them and if they catch as they should it would be well worth it.

The jig heads look fantastic in the water and I think they will be the star of the lure fishing this year.

Thanks for reading

Cracking day afloat off Inishowen co.Donegal

Hi all.
Thankfully the old weather gods where kind to us and myself and 3 lads from Belfast Brian, Mike and Brendan.
I woke up to a bitter frosty morning but it the sun was shining and there was hardly a breeze out.
So the warm layers where grabbed and out the road I went to meet the lads along the way.

Mike was having car trouble so I brought the trident along. Here they are side by side. Stealth profisha 525 and a trident 13.

 

Thankfully we landed to a fine flat sea and a glorious sun burning off the frost.
There was no need for the warm gear at this stage it was like a summers day.
 With out any fuss out we went in search of coalies for bait.

The coalies where no where to be found, So we cracked on to our mark with what frozen bait we had.
No pic of Brendan as he was still retrieving his line he ran off lol.
It was fantastic out there and it was one of the few times it was proper warm out there.

What a day even with very little fishy action it was great to be out.
But we gave the big flat lads a try even though we where on a different mark, and this was my weapon of choice. One of a few brutes of mackerel I got at the end of last year.

 

Thankfully after the rod got a decent rattle and this small ling made a very welcome appearance.

But that was it for a long while for me Brian managed a single string of 4 fine coalies and that was it for about 2hrs. Until this lad devoured my baits. A fine rockling and again I was glad to see him.

So with that the glorious day a float came to and end, and although the fishing was quiet it was great to be out.