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Posted 06:46, 16 May 2012
- I think I have only run one competition on this blog before, but the time has come to run another one, and it’s principally due to the good people who are bringing the Japanese lure rod brand Major Craft into the UK. Never heard of them ? You will. Believe me, they seem to make a lure rod at almost every single price point for the kinds of fishing we do here in the UK and Ireland, and in Japan Major Craft is one of the big players when it comes to rods. The fact that I can offer one of their rods for a blog competition rather floats my boat. I have fished with the rod on offer (not the exact same rod you might be winning of course, it is not second hand !!) and, I have considered rigging the competition so that I can win it myself !! It’s a pretty special lure rod……….
- Let’s do things a bit backwards and start with the prize itself – the competition entry requirements will come a bit further down the page. The prize on offer is a Major Craft Crostage CRS-762M/S Hard Rock Game lure rod – it’s 7’6’’ long, rated to fish 7-28g with a Fast action. I believe it retails here in the UK around the £200 mark (see here), and from my own experience with this rod I reckon it represents some seriously good value for money. If you have any interest at all in bumping all manner of soft plastics around for our wrasse then I think you might find this rod to be just about perfect. Bearing in mind that I am doing my best to learn as much as I can about wrassing on plastics, I think I can pretty much understand how this Crostage Hard Rock rod was designed to work. I have fished various plastics with it and caught a bunch of (smallish) wrasse and it just feels like a totally natural extension of my arm if that makes sense. It just feels “right”. Almost scary sensitive to the point that I felt I was successfully almost teasing the more hesitant wrasse into nailing my lures by bumping the lures just away and waiting for them to hit again. Talk about electric bites through the rod. Stacks of grunt but huge amounts of finesse (me ? Yes !! I am finally finding my inner finesse, although I do still rather like blasting and cranking hard lures. It’s never too late). I have only used a few “specialist rock fishing lure rods”, but I am learning what they are designed to do and this Crostage Hard Rock is one hell of a lot of rod. There is also a lighter rated model (5-18g) that I would hazard a guess is something pretty interesting as well (see here).
- Although I see why it works so well for rock fishing with lures, I also reckon it would make a pretty awesome “do it all” lure rod if you are into rods under the 8’ mark. And lots of anglers do seem to be. I don’t kayak fish myself, but I have a hunch that this Crostage might just fit the bill on this front, plus of course from the boat. Very, very manageable. The handle is a little shorter than regular which I find perfect for fishing “rod tip up” for wrasse (where the handle ends up sitting naturally under your forearm and then stays in place when you strike a fish hard and away from sanctuary in one movement), and after a few chucks with the more regular hard lures it all feels very normal to me. This Crostage Hard Rock rod is the first Major Craft rod that I have played and fished with and I am dead impressed. As I said, if at the end of the day a potentially fictional/dubious sounding character wins this competition then you might well question whether it’s me not being able to resist the lure of this rather special rod !!
- Anyway, the competition. What do you need to do to be in with a chance of winning ? Very simple really. In no more than 100 words I would like you to tell me why lure fishing in saltwater does it for you. I don’t care what you lure fish for (in saltwater) and I don’t care how you go about describing to me how lure fishing does it for you, but the winner will be the person who inspires me the most. The angler who via their 100 words max makes my heart race faster and gets my adrenaline going because their love for the sport has come across so effectively, that will be the person who wins the rod. I am not going to ask for grammatically perfect paragraphs, but please bear in mind that if I am struggling to read and/or understand what you have written then it will not stand a chance (hint – spellcheck and no capitals for what you might think is extra emphasis !!). And flat out any use of any kind of text speak will warrant your entry null and void – you know I despise it big time. I am not asking for excessively flowery language and complex sentence structures, just good old fashioned English the way it was meant to be (m8 ?). Make me want to go out lure fishing because of what you have written…………….
- Now here is how to get your words to me (and remember, 100 words max) – I am going to ask you to get them to me in two ways, and I need you to do both just in case one method fails etc. First off, please leave your entry in the comments section at the bottom of this blog post – at the end of your entry please do this - “blah, blah, blah (your words of wisdom)” – X number of words (the exact word count please, e.g. 96 words) - submitted by Spiky Bass (your first and last names). Then please email that same entry to my email address on this Contact Me page of my website here – the subject of the email needs to read “Major Craft blog competition”. Please submit it in the same way as you have done in the comments section (word count and name) and I can then file them away and keep them safe here on my computer. Please, please make sure to put your postal address at the bottom of the email so that the rod can be sent out in case you win. But note, please do not send me any attachments (Word, PDFs etc.) – it’s only 100 words max, so please put the words within your actual email. Any attachments will render the entry null and void. Does that all make sense ? I have put a sample in the comments section of this post to help out.
- The competition will run until Friday 15th June which happens to be the last day of the bass close season in Ireland, and sometime during the week starting Monday 18th June I will announce the winner. Please rest assured that your emails/postal addresses that you send me as entries will be going nowhere else but my Inbox (apart from the winner’s address which of course will go to Nice Fish for the prize to be sent out), and I would ask that no journalists/writers enter the competition. By entering you are accepting that I will of course post the winning entry up on my blog (obviously !!), and from time to time during the competition I might publish a few entries up on the blog that have really got me going. I hope this all makes sense. Go for it and I can’t wait to read your ramblings !! My thanks to Nice Fish for putting such an awesome prize up.
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Posted 09:23, 14 May 2012
- How times have changed for me. For years I bought and fished with multipliers like it was going out of fashion, indeed you should see the collection of various SLOSH 20s and 30s I have here – I even have a pair of the older, original SLOSH 20 and 30 reels where you could replace the frame screws with countersunk stainless steel ones and they are as tough as old boots. Spinning reels for me back then were used principally for my mullet fishing and were viewed as not much more than an add-on to my “real” reels – much like spinning rods compared to beachcasters. Now though and I look at fishing reels the other way round – whilst I will always have the multipliers here, it’s the spinning reels that really get me going these days, and yes, I do like messing around with different ones to see what’s out there for the money.
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- For a while now it seems to have been the outstanding Shimano Rarenium that has been the must-have spinning reel at around the “just over the £150” mark and I see loads of them out and about – I also hear of very little going wrong with them, indeed with what we put then through near and sometimes in saltwater I think some modern reels are marvels of modern technology. The Rareniums are class bits of kit, but how about this new Daiwa Theory spinning reel that I must presume has been priced to compete with the Rarenium ? I have been using and thoroughly abusing one now for a while and I am that impressed with it that I have to ask the question – is this new Daiwa Theory simply too good to be true ? Compared to what I used to spend on spinning reels the princely sum of £170 for a reel like this is a fortune, but with what I know these days I reckon this not insignificant amount of money represents outstanding value for money. By no means is every single lure angler able to or even prepared to spend north of £150 on a spinning reel, but the simple fact is that these days if you look around and buy wisely you can get some incredible products for the dosh, and with my own experiences of this new Theory I reckon it’s pure class………..
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- I don’t know this for a fact, but I presume the Daiwa Theory that we are seeing here in the UK is a renamed Daiwa Freams – I might well be wrong, but they sure look pretty similar to me, and instead of me trying to waffle on about technical specs that don’t remotely interest me, take a look here for a load of info on the Daiwa Freams/Theory. I have to guess that this new Oil Seal is a cheaper version of the Mag Seal found in the Caldia (sublime) and the Certate (desire !!), but with what I have been putting the Theory through it seems to work just fine. In the UK we can get this new Theory in 2500, 3000 and 4000 sizes – I have been fishing with the little 2500 size, but my friend Ger Carey over in Ireland has been fishing with the 3000 size since it came out in the UK and he’s loving it. I will keep you posted because if there is one lure angler out there who will find a weakness in a reel it’s Ger. He fishes a lot. I mean a serious amount, plus he catches a mere bass or two along the way !!
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- It’s almost pointless telling you how smooth this new Daiwa Theory is to fish with, because you know as well as I do that spinning reels around this price from the likes of Daiwa and Shimano are sublime to use. I fish with a very tight drag and I don’t like giving bass much if any line if I can help it, but yes, line comes off just as easily as you like if needs be. Some reels feel right in my hands and some don’t, and from the off this Theory just felt about as perfect a reel as I have picked up. Close your eyes and I swear it could almost be a Certate. Seriously. The line lay is very good and I love the fact that a spare spool comes in the box. I always, always take a spare spool loaded up with braid when I go out fishing. I don’t tend to suffer from wind knots but you just never know when it might all go a bit wrong, and having a spare spool ready to go could be vital. It can also be useful to carry a couple of different kinds of line or breaking strains. And yes, it drives me mad that the really high-end spinning reels don’t come with spare spools as standard.
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- I can usually find something about an item of fishing gear that I don’t like/get or would like to change, but try as I might I can’t find one single thing about this new Daiwa Theory that niggles me. As much as I love the handle shape on the Luvias 3000 for example, I am really liking the handle on the Theory. I can’t tell you whether the reel is going to last and become a classic like the Shimano Rarenium, but my gut is that this Daiwa Theory is pure class and I guess that if you are looking for a new spinning reel at around the “just over the £150 mark but well below £200” then I guess there’s a new kid in town. Too good to be true ? I don’t reckon so………….
- Yesterday was a pretty big day for me – I took our puppy Storm out for her first fishing trip on the rocks. She’s been to the beach enough times and I know she can swim perfectly well (she has been “encouraged” to go in the sea and various rock pools a few times), but the time had come to get her out fishing with me to see how she might do. I had forgotten what having a puppy was like after I got so used to how Jess was as an adult for so many years, but Storm is doing brilliantly and she just loves my girls to bits – and they love having her and being with a puppy as she grows up. I do the bulk of the training but then they all chip in when needs be. Talk about energy, but then as a family we have always been used to going on loads of decent walks, indeed my girls I reckon walk faster and further than most adults. Aside from catching a bunch of smallish wrasse yesterday on the soft plastics, I was over the moon at how good Storm was on the rocks. My new fishing dog. As an aside, what on earth is up with this weather ? I put suncream on yesterday to go out fishing yet this morning it’s back to rain and cold. Early summer ? Drought ? Never a dull day when it comes to the weather here in good old Blighty !!
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Posted 09:16, 11 May 2012
- Sometimes the bass fishing in Ireland is so good that I keep looking around the rocks and beaches to check that there really aren’t thousands of other anglers out and about enjoying it. When their fishing for bass fires I would have no hesitation in classing it as world class sport fishery, indeed if you gave me but one more day to fish in my life then I would choose lure fishing for bass in Ireland. Simple really. But we all know that from time to time fishing is going to give you a good old fashioned kicking, and that’s what I got this week. The last few years in southern Ireland have seen close to mad bass fishing before their close season, and although the fishing had been firing a while back with that warmer weather we all had, I have to conclude that this long spell of abnormally cold weather has had a serious effect on it all. On the flip side though it’s going to fire sometime soon, and I dread to think how many fish are going to pour inshore. One again though it drives home to me how the “art” of weather forecasting continues to me to seem like a best guess “science” - and of course that no year is ever remotely the same as the last when it comes to the weather. Thermal Buffs and hats in May ?
- For all the local knowledge that I am lucky enough to be able to tap into, and indeed for all that I have learnt and continue to learn about the coastline, when you don’t live in an area and therefore have to book fishing/photography trips away, you can do no more than go on the right tides at the right time of year and simply cross fingers that the weather and conditions behave a bit. It’s no different to booking a trip to the remote Seychelles or the wilds of British Columbia. When it all comes together I continue to be amazed at what Ireland has to offer the saltwater angler, but that’s just it. You live for those times when it does all come together and fires like I know Ireland can. And when the fishing is tough then all it does is make me want to head back over there even more, and because I know how good it can be.
- Sometimes I think that anglers might read this blog or perhaps my articles in Sea Angler and come to the conclusion that I am on the secret payroll of the Irish tourist board – yes, I rave about Ireland, and yes, I love the country and its fishing with a passion bordering on a serious obsession, but at the end of the day I can’t help loving what I do and the places I am lucky enough to experience (not forgetting the people that I get to meet, fish with, work around, and in some cases get to call my friends). If I can translate this across to other anglers then I feel that I am doing my job and giving something back to the sport that so drives us all. I don’t have to go to Ireland. I choose to because I want to. I need to for my own well-being and for my work. I live for my fishing/photography time in Ireland and if my passion for the place in any way rubs off on you then I hope you will one day get to experience some fishing that blows your mind and leaves you’re a gibbering wreck that wants for nothing more than to get back over as soon as possible.
- Over time I will put some information up here about some of the different bits of gear I/we used on the trip and indeed for my own fishing back home. Some of the stuff I am coming across these days makes me wonder how on earth it’s possible to get better gear for the money. A few rods and reels lately have left a big impression on me and I just love the fact that it is more than feasible to lay one’s hands on “proper” gear for lure fishing for sensible money – and the fact that this “proper” gear really is out and out “proper” lure fishing tackle surely has to have a positive impact on the increasing numbers of anglers who are finding their way into the joys of chucking lures. Expensive shiny gear is just great, but at the end of the day we need to see gear at all kinds of prices. But do you know what almost broke me the most on this trip ? I like to think that I am pretty much “up” on some of the different lure colours that can and do work, but then the Irish lads I know start showing me some of the colours that have been working well for them and it leaves me weak at the knees !! Should I feel good that I perhaps don’t have as bad a problem as I thought I might, or should I be berating myself for not having some of those colours myself ? At least I can talk myself into believing that I don’t have a serious problem with lure fishing tackle. The power of positive thinking – or is that the power of being able to con oneself ?
