Filming is done, driving home today, it’s been such a blast out here in Ireland

I had almost forgotten how much fun filming fishing could be when you work with a really good group of people and it then becomes the most wonderfully collaborative process. You end up working almost ridiculously long hours but you don’t even notice, it’s that kind of thing when the time just disappears, and it was so satisfying to wrap on the filming of a good wrasse session yesterday and then get to watch the filming lads catch a few fish in such a beautiful and deserted location out here in Kerry…………..

The bass fishing has actually been pretty tough with the bright and calmish conditions plus the numerous and varied filming requirements, but we worked at it and got the fish we needed to tie various Savage Gear related sequences together. We also had a good pollack session where Ben the main camera man was rolling as I was talking through fishing the new “Tequila” colour Sandeel V2 Weedless on a controlled drop and then got hit by a fish, and then we finished up yesterday with a good wrasse session. I was fishing mainly with a little Savage Gear lure which is meant for freshwater fishing but has turned out to be rather deadly for wrasse (details to come), and then as we were close to wrapping on the filming I went and hooked and landed a nice pollack as I was fishing for wrasse. What a scrap with my drag locked down completely!

I was around the corner with a couple of the filming lads when Richard here caught this beast of a wrasse. I know the fish is held out to the camera but John who took the photo said it was one of the biggest wrasse he has seen on a lure here in Kerry, and it made my day to hear from Richard as we walked back to the cars later on that he had nailed the fish on the smaller 120mm size Gravity Stick Pintail (from the Gravity Stick Mini Kit, all details next week) rigged on the 4/0 weedless hook and bumped along the bottom on one of the clever Balls Clip On leads instead of a regular Texas rig. I have wanted to try that exact setup for wrasse for a while and we did in fact film a bit of me wrasse fishing like this where I hooked and dropped a fish, but where I was fishing the wind and swell and depth of water was working against me and I needed more weight to keep me in contact with my lure. The heaviest Balls Clip On weight is 15g but to maintain contact I had to put a couple of cone leads on for a Texas rig of about 26g I think it was - pretty heavy for wrasse fishing I guess, but it worked! The Water Wolf underwater footage of wrasse chasing and hitting lures underwater is absolutely mad, none of us had any idea that there that could be so many fish going after the lures, and I would suggest that wrasse really are hunting the lures down rather than simply sitting there and smashing them as a territorial kind of thing which I have seen some anglers suggesting. When you see the footage you will understand. I will get access to all the footage and when I can I will cut some clips down and get them up to show you, it’s pretty eye-opening.

So I start the long journey home a bit later, and if all goes to plan then I should be crawling into bed at about 3am. We would usually be up at 7am to take our girls to Park Run, but my youngest girl is running the Plymouth 5km race on Sunday morning so she isn’t running tomorrow and I might get a decent kip before getting back to reality! I then have a couple of weeks at home before I hit the road again to come back to Kerry for some guiding work which I am so looking forward to. Time spent out here is a privilege and I still have to pinch myself that I can get to come to a place like Kerry and get to work with such good people and have such fun doing so. You all have a good weekend and I will see you next week…………….

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