Back home, knackered!, itching to go fishing
Kerry and this guiding work is more than worth the journey, but I will admit to sometimes wishing it was a bit closer when it gets to the early hours of the morning and I’m driving my Epic Berlingo on a quiet motorway and crawling into bed is calling me! I got into bed a few hours ago at 3.30am, and then my wife’s alarm for work went off at 6.30am. Who needs sleep when I’ve got a parcel of lure rods which I have never seen before to unpack and check out in my office? If you know Ireland and you love it like I do then you will understand how much of a buzz it is to spend time over there, but I love my home and family and where I live here in Cornwall - and it’s so good to be back home and start getting into the swing of things again……….
Which obviously includes going fishing as soon as I can. If I can get the right conditions then I love this time of year for bass fishing here in Cornwall, and as ever I return from a guiding trip with my head buzzing about how I might better fish some of the marks I fish around me, new lures and/or modifications and colours, different rods and reels and items of wading gear and so on and so on. With my work in fishing I do all I can to keep a very open mind and keep looking around at how other anglers here and around the world do their fishing things, but it’s also always so interesting spending time with our anglers who come out to Kerry and see how they might do certain things or the gear they are using etc.
A nice bass for Henry in some stunning water and conditions
I don’t know how many of you here might need a multi-section travel type lure rod for bass fishing, but one of our lads had a Daiwa Lateo Mobile 96M 9’6’’ 10-50g 4-piece lure rod which I believe he bought from Japan for not silly money at all. I got to have a few casts with it and it felt bloody fantastic, and I know this lad has had bass to way over 10lbs on this exact rod out in Portugal in some big seas. He was fishing regularly with 45-50g lures on the rod with no worries at all. The best travel type bass lure rod I have come across so far in the UK is that stunning HTO N70 Labrax Special Travel 9’4’’ 7-42g, but it’s not cheap, and if you needed to fish slightly heavier lures then I’d be very tempted to try and track down this Daiwa travel rod. I am sorely tempted myself.
When my Bestard SAR Pro Water Rescue Boots eventually fall apart I will buy another pair the next day because I like them that much, but the only thing I don’t really like them for is being on my feet on hard surfaces for hours and hours on end like with the guiding work. The soles are outstanding for my type of fishing but I don’t think they tend to suit really long sessions or days. This works fine for me because most of my own fishing is plenty of shorter sessions and I simply cannot fault these outstanding Bestard SAR Pro Water Rescue Boots - but this guiding work is different to my own fishing.
One of our lads on the trip has owned a pair of Taimen Onon wading boots for nearly three years now and they are still going strong. He puts them through a lot of use, and these particular Taimen wading boots look very much like an older pair of Simms wading boots which were really, really good for saltwater fishing. I am seriously tempted to order a pair off the Taimen website for use as my guiding wading boots if you like, but the only thing holding me back is that I am unsure of the right size to go for, and of course we are no longer a part of Europe so I guess the postage and import charges could be pretty hefty. I believe Taimen is a Polish company and I can’t recall ever seeing their gear for sale in UK shops which is a shame because I have heard some good stuff about their waders and wading boots and jackets over the last few years. Anybody know anymore?
We had every kind of weather under the sun out in Kerry - from glorious sunshine to lashing rain, plus everything in between apart from snow! I have worn the Savage Gear SG4 wading jacket a hell of a lot and I really like apart from the cuffs which let in a bit too much water when it’s raining. I can mitigate this a bit by wearing sweatbands around my wrist to “plug the gap” a bit, but it’s annoying when the rest of the jacket works so well.
A couple of lads we had fishing with us were wearing the Scierra X-Tech wading jacket, and after some particularly rainy days they were bone-dry and didn’t have wet sleeves at all. I don’t know how long these lads have been wearing these particular wading jackets for, but I am going to try and get hold of one and give it a bit of a thrashing (Scierra is owned by Svendsen Sport which also owns Savage Gear, it’s worth a go!). Kerry is awesome for many things, but it’s particularly good for testing out jackets and waders and wading boots and so on! Anyway, you all have a good weekend, catch up next week…………..
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