Bait finesse a following?

Bait finesse a following?

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Bait finesse gaining a following J

 We have been busy working recently on a great many things and making changes learning new skills changing kit etc yet again but through all of this we have been finding ourselves somewhat. I have personally found a long time ago a liking for using bait cast equipment with the accuracy and power provided from the rods they lend themselves to rock fishing styles very nicely indeed. 

But what has changed? I personally started off working with baitcast gear for my hrf duties a while ago now and i have haven’t looked back i have returned to using fixed spool but wasn’t feeling it to be honest. I am not saying that baitcast set ups are the be and all for everybody but for me they work.  The upsides are:

Accuracy
Use of fluro and braided lines
Pitch and flip techniques
Feeling a bait down against the spool
Engage free spool  for a drift
compact size
Salt or freshwater uses
Modifiable to own needs
Power of the rods ( more powerful for a lower rating than many fixed spool rods)

Downsides

Costs they are often a lot more expensive for a good rod and reel
Distance when open casting for some people
Often 1 piece rods
Availability in the uk

But when looked at the ups are out weighing the downs for my uses and Mark has taken a lot of time to go through my casting and help me with my techniques. Being a lot more experienced than myself though in a recent session we were both on an equal footing. A lot of people i have spoken to are afraid of bait cast gear and the blow up’s, over runs, birds’ nests etc but with a little practice this is more often than that of a wind knot with a fixed spool rod.
I have been using braids and fluro lines on the reels for a while now and took a little of a back seat in the past 12 months but rest assured i have been fishing and catching a lot of fish.

It was a decision that i wanted to understand baitcast and all disciplines but the one that i feared the most was the bait finesse angles i have been fishing it for a long while now and made a lot of mistakes but the positives were great and i have enjoyed the journey all of the way through. Myself and mark have combined all the gear and skills we both collected over time with rods and reels ranging from 0.9-7 grams through to 7-28 at the moment covering all of our needs for the coming seasons. It has taken a long time now but it is all coming together with the current rod selection with rods from:

Nories
Megabass
Palms
Tenryu
Graphiteleader
Major Craft

The reel selection is just as varied using the:

Abu Revo LTZ AE74 Racing condition
Megabass Luvito 103
Megabass zonda hedgehog special
Daiwa Alphas ITO Ai special edition
Daiwa Certate 2506 2013  

So tackle hasn’t been an issue for a long time and the lure selection is something that i will go through over the coming months having taken a break from mentioning tackle somewhat.  But we have taken out time in trying to see what happens and what works and when for what etc in the southwest of the UK.
It is with this in mind that we went out for a purpose bait finesse session the other day @ Simpson Valley fishery in Holsworthy and had an absolute blast there one of the best sessions in a while for big fish numbers and a great chance to test some theories we had put together J

We had hatched plans weeks previously but time wasn't allowing us to get out at the same time for a prolonged period. We got together during the week to put together a list of what tackle to take for the day and put it all together.
We decided that we would work the bait finesse angle for the day but take a pair of fixed spool rods in case they were required for casting weights or wind conditions. As it happens the fixes spool rods were say there all day and not even used as the bait finesse BFS kits were covering everything we needed cast down to 2 grams with rods weighted above this weight. This in turn opened other questions that need answering in due course.

But how did the day go? We made an early start to make the hour drive and set up before the weather might turn for the worse. Arriving t the complex and sorting out fish tickets etc. Speaking with the fishery manager and discussing the needs of the fishery and tackle choices. Debarbing the lures and hooks that we were looking at using for the session.
We arrived at the lake we wanted to fish that has a good head of rainbow and blue trout as well as jack pike to around a couple of pound in weight. Mark opted for the Megabass eiger  3.5-14 gram rod with the Megabass zonda 68r hedgehog and a 5lb fluro mainline, i opted for the Palms mola BFS 3-10 gram rod with the ABU Revo LTZ ae74 with a 4lb fluro mainline.
Little did we know that there would be so suitable to lure and species choice for the day J Mark was into a small jack pike within 3 casts and his first freshwater lure caught fish in the uk. With his previous freshwater experiences being in Texas in the USA for bass fishing. The look on his face was priceless watching the rod tip bend in on the take. The rod absorbing each lunge with grace and power the Duo tetra bivvy was working its magic on the day.

Soon after this i was set up with a Duo popco sub surface popper and had a cracking take that jumped my lure losing me a good sized trout. But not dis heartened in the least i changed to a DUO Perakko 4.2 gram propeller bait and fish were hitting thick and fast on a jagged retrieve taking my first trout for the day and a couple of small jacks.

I wanted a change and put on the Breaden Minimaru something that i haven’t really played with in the past enough letting the lure settle nose down on the bottom and the fish were hitting the lure stationary on the bottom feeling every hit and suddenly it locked up solidly and a good pike had taken the lure and really wanted it badly. Stripping line off the palms and ae74 but quickly subdued and landed a quick couple of pics and released. The thing that i noticed over all with the breaden was that fish were hitting the lure when it was dead sticked i didn’t have to do anything. This was an incredible feeling of sensation through the fluro lines, the Duo lures were work down through the water column and the minimaru was stationary between a handful of lures we were covering all eventualities . It reminded me of watching a video on the minimaru when it was cast and left to sink once it is stationary it sits nose down with the rear hook very exposed giving a great hook up J

But more on the lures used in the next article as this is more of a catch report J
At this point it was about time for a coffee break sitting and discussing what’s happened and worked so far it was clear that most fish were taking a lure either OTD (on the drop) or after a jerk movement to another place akin to a baitfish moving between cover. A straight retrieve was producing fish but only deep in the water column and slowly moving akin to hard needle techniques was this merely coincidence?  Time to repeat the actions and compare the results again which we due did and the results were a mirror image of the first time.

We cycled through lures between 2-8 grams for the day and on the final casts decided to both clip on a duo tetra bivvy and cast 45 degrees in each direction within seconds on the second jump over a bar that was visible through the water we both hooked up! The best end we could wish for a double bait finesse hook up J We released the final pike of the day packed up and left the complex with grins like a Cheshire cat.
Having agreed that the fish landed were indeed no match for bait finesse tackle and next time to take the graphitleleader veloce and major craft volkey bait finesse rods both rated at 0.9-7 grams and test them with the same lures and much lighter again but using the same reels and lines.

I have experimented with bait finesse in the salt already and have known for some time that the heaviest rod i require is 18 grams in casting weight for the species i chase on a regular basis now, but also the lighter rods would cope with most of the species to a delightful insight in to Bait finesse in all its glory and a cracking days fishing in great company what more could you ask for? Not a lot i can tell you, we have used a boga type grip in a couple of images not normally used but to show that if you should use them then support the weight of the fish too, when weighing a single live fish i will always carry a mesh sling that takes no room in the tackle bag to protect the fish during weighing and digital scales that can be zeroed and give an accurate reading unlike the traditional boga grip. Do not hang a fish from the lip and return it this can often cause irreparable damage to the fish care is paramount i still use the same sling i used carp fishing many years ago and its going strong coast around £6 so it’s not a lot really is it guys?

I am not in the area of telling people how to fish and dictate a catch and release policy; i do indeed fish a catch and release policy unless i am fishing to eat as was the occasion with the trout on this session. Though the same care was taken with each fish and i got the chance to show mark the most effective technique to dispatch a fish with ease and speed.

Bait finesse has grown in the uk with a steady following but it has so many things that need to be tried and experimented with that time and patience will have to prevail. I have taken the Palms out with the kayak a couple of times recently and it has been a right scream especially for the lower sitting bass behind structure and small lures. But time hasn’t a allowed for a lot of this experimentations in the past few weeks and i am lining up for a lot of shore hrf and freshwater antics this season for sheer enjoyment and testing the shore based boundaries of bait finesse.

The tackle that was used on the session was the Palms Molla 3-10 grams impressions of the rod have improved over and over again, loading with a full 10 grams and wanting more but pitch and flip with a 2.5 gram lure with ease. A 3lb + trout was taking line and the rob was absorbing a turning lunge and just cushioning the 4lb line we were using like a dream. I had the chance to really work the Breaden minimaru with this rod and it was a sheer dream using the standard and deep versions. With a good pike the best of the day taking the lure dead sticked, hit after hit was forth coming through the day . The fluro mainline we used was sending through a shock through the rod tip and down the blank like an electric shock. A rod that i have truly come to appreciate in its entirety. If you want to look at the Palms rods more in-depth then you could do worse than check out www.lureheaven.com the importers of angler republic gear to the uk.
The other rod we used was the megabass Eiger 3.5-14 grams casing rod the new 2013 X7 version now i have fallen in love with this rod J this was the first outing with the rod and it performed like a dream casting well down into the lower reaches and lower again. A couple of decent fish putting a cracking bend into the rod and again absorbing line with a 5lb fluro mainline. Being the first outing for the rod i will fish it again and again before i figure a final opinion as first impressions could be misleading but as yet it was a dream though will a salt outing be different?

For the reel choices we employed the ABU Revo LTZ ae74 with the finesse spool and a few KTF (karil tuning factory) upgrades weight and cosmetic upgrades thus far. But the reel would pitch and flip or open cast everything i have checked at it thus far down to 2 grams i do feel it could go lower but not by that much with the stock bearings this will be retro fitted with hedgehog studio finesse air bearings. But this said for general bait finesse use it has fished very well and hasn’t let us down just yet and we have tried only a couple of minor over runs at present.
The megabass Zonda 68r Hedgehog bait finesse special was the other reel first proper outing and what  could i say but bloody hell!! This is some performer if the Daiwa T3 air is the ultimate reel then it has to go some to better this reel we had the brakes on around 30% and the cast control set so the spool was almost clacking the sides and it was brilliant i could not fault it with a lsightly heavier weight 8 grams it was hammering out the lures i put on a 5 gram minimaru and bang cracked it out and there wasn’t much left on the spool line wise after this.

Impressed was an understatement i can assure you, from pure cosmetics through to the spool weight and build i could not fault it at all. Though now we have been trying to test differing items against each other and long will this last and continue but also we have been playing with different lures that suit the bait finesse weight ranges. It is our intention to go through the lures in due course and photo and report each of them. Well i have to get some bits and pieces ready for the next session so until then guys