Some of the gear that worked and didn’t work so well in Ireland, always interesting how different anglers and guides do things

Aside from catching up on a number of podcasts on my journey home, I got to spend the ferry crossing with a truly lovely guy who had been fishing around Dungarvan (check out Charles Nelson’s needlefish here, every time I see his new and/or modified lures they are looking even better again, they are so impressive), plus of course I really started to break down in my head all the different items of fishing tackle which were pressed into service over the course of the two guided trips. Of most interest to me though is always how a guide like John Quinlan who when the world is normal has a huge number of anglers through his door each year - because it doesn’t half force you into finding out how certain lures or techniques work the best in specific situations…………

First off though were some interesting looking Onen wading boots from the company Taimen which I believe you can only buy online from Poland. I reckon that Brexit has affected our prices of their gear coming into the UK if you choose to buy some now, but an angler in Wales has kindly been keeping me in touch with how well his Taimen Onen wading boots have been doing for some hard bass fishing. Then on our first trip one of lads had a pair of the Onen boots so I got to see them up close - they looked rather impressive, and especially for the price. They actually remind me somewhat of those awesome and annoyingly discontinued Simms Rivershed wading boots, and in due course I reckon I might take a punt and try a pair of these Taimen Onen boots for my own fishing. I really like the fact that there doesn’t seem to be much on the boots which can rust out in saltwater. As I said, I am not sure about buying from Poland post-Brexit, but the price for these Taimen Onen boots on their website is not bad at all.

It’s interesting to see John now wearing some of the Vision Koski waders for his guiding work, and because he has a spare pair he was able to sort one of lads out who was getting a very wet crotch via a leak in his own waders. Another guy put a hole in his waders when we were going over some barbed wire on the way to the most amazing pollack mark, but John is very used to this and was able to patch Dave’s waders up. I didn’t see any major gear failures on the trip but of course it’s a snapshot of a few days and our clients all fish a varying amount to each other when they are back home. What I do really enjoy is sitting around the dinner table at night and learning more about the fishing they do back home, indeed it’s those times when we all sit around and talk which I think are some of the best parts of these trips.

From my side of things with these new Savage Gear lure rods we have launched this year, it was fascinating to be able to pass rods out to any of our clients who needed them and see how they got on. You have read enough on here about the amount of work we put into these rods, but aside from my own fishing and testing and also handing out various samples to trusted friends, I have yet to spend meaningful time around other anglers fishing with “my” rods. Some of our guys come with lure rods that they obviously want to fish with, some fly and quite understandably don’t want the added expense (ripoff) of carrying a rod tube, and some lads have their own rods but fancy trying some of the stuff I had with me. I’ve got numerous Savage Gear rods here, from the very first samples through to new samples I am starting to work on, and whilst it would perhaps have been more business like to have handed out the more expensive £300 SGS8 rods to any of our lads who needed or wanted to try a rod, in fact I did what I could to steer them towards the £150 SGS5 lure rods because I think they are frigging awesome. One of our lads did actually break one of my new sample rods on the pollack one day as he was pumping and winding a fish in, and whilst he was a bit gutted to start with, I urged him not to worry for a single second because that’s the whole point of sampling fishing tackle. I need that sort of real fishing feedback to be able to report back.

Two of the lads on the first trip broke one of their own lure rods each (Japanese brand, one was angler error, one wasn’t, it happens), so to one of the lads I lent the Savage Gear SGS5 9’ 9-35g and to the other guy I lent a sample rod which is seriously freaking me out how good it is. I urged them not to hold back and I was really happy to see them loving the rods for the fishing we put them through. Of course I love a nice higher-end lure rod as much as the next tackle tart, but I’d also be completely happy to lure fish for bass with any of the three SGS5 rods for evermore.

Then on the second trip I kitted out two of the lads with a £150 SGS5 9’ 9-35g each, and another lad with the frigging awesome Savage Gear SGS5 9’6’’ 9-35g (it also makes the most fantastic “slightly lighter” surf rod). Another lad did bring a rod tube on his flight and he started off fishing with his outstanding Shimano Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g, but on day two I think it was he asked if he could try one of my rods. Because he likes a 9’6’’ rod I tried to steer him to a second SGS5 9’6’’ 9-35g I had with me, but he had his eyes on the more expensive SGS8 9’6’’ 9-35g so I rigged one up for him with his Shimano Stradic C5000XG-FL spinning reel. This was the first time I had seen one of these reels in the flesh - love the handle! - and the combination of rod and reel felt bloody lovely. I am so often messing around with different rod samples that from time to time I almost forget how much I like the original Savage Gear SGS5 and SGS8 lure rods we have developed.

Now that John and Lynn can take clients from outside of Ireland they are back to being seriously busy with anglers who have loved what they offer for so many years now. As much as John and I do our best to keep in touch with how different lures are working for him and how he tends to ask his clients to fish them, it’s often when we actually work together on these co-guided trips that I fully get to see what he’s carrying in the bag he always carries with him - and how these lures tend to work over the many locations he takes people to. I also note that John has been using the Savage Gear Sling Shoulder Bag for a few years now as a means of carrying lures for clients to use if needs be, and whilst it’s not a bag which suits me and how I fish, I was fascinated to see that all the zips on John’s bag were like new. For sure the actual colour of his bag has faded from being out in the sunlight for hours on end, but as regards the zips, John simply hasn’t got time to go washing his gear down all the time. I have heard a few reports online of anglers with failed Savage Gear zips, but I wonder if this is with older products? John abuses his Savage Gear Sling Shoulder Bag and the zips are like new which does in fact help inform some thinking and planning I happen to be doing for potential future products.

We do ask that our clients come with their own lures if at all possible but of course we are also set up to be able to clip on various lures that we carry if required. For the many shallow, very snaggy reefs we often target I see that John is always and quite rightly carrying a fair few of the 6’’ OSP DoLive Sticks, but from my work point of view I am really pleased to see that he also carries a lot of the Gravity Stick Pulsetails in the solid white colour especially. From nearly day one of testing this lure it was obvious we had a potential bass slayer which I was happy to see rarely needed anymore than whacking out and winding it in, but what did also become apparent over the course of our trip was that the Pulsetail rigged on a jig head seriously sorts the pollack out as well. Yes, damn right I am playing around with different options now! Via my working so closely with Savage Gear it is still just about the biggest buzz possible to either hear from anglers catching on these lures, or (at last) to be able to clip one on for a client over in Ireland and see them hook bass or indeed pollack.

The Sandeel Pencil SW 90, 125 and 150 lures come from the original Line-Thru Sandeels which were developed as a “whack and crank” lure for shallow water sea trout fishing in Denmark etc., so whilst I happen to love about these simple looking lures fished exactly like that for bass - they swim really shallow - it was fascinating to see how much John likes them for swinging in current like one might with a weightless soft plastic or indeed a needlefish. At times we would be moving between the 90, 125 and 150 sizes depending on current and depth and the bait which was around, and to be perfectly honest I obsess about all three sizes too much of the time! Ten years ago I don’t think I’d have been ready as such to trust so much in lures which aren’t doing a huge amount in the water, but you know how much I trust in less is so often more these days with my bass fishing. I have to also mention how often we turn to the Savage Gear Seekers because once again they are such an easy but lethally effective bass lure which can be whacked and cranked, and as I think I mentioned the other day it was so satisfying to clip one on for one of our lads when we out pollack fishing and see him hook two or three fish straight away when fishing it more like a casting jig.

One thing that I have really taken away from that Ireland guiding trip is firstly that single hooks on the back of the Seekers I think are THE way forward - I knew this already - and secondly that single hooks on the back of the Sandeel Pencil lures are also the way forward for these slim-profile lures. John being convinced that a single hook on the back of the Sandeel Pencil gives you a bit more action than a treble aside, we all noticed how many more hits on these lures rigged with single hooks resulted in landed bass over the lures rigged with good size treble hooks which don’t result in as many landed fish. I am even more pleased now that Savage Gear listened to me when I said please can we provide good quality and big enough single hooks together with the trebles on the Sandeel Pencil SW lures. Any which I have rigged here with treble hooks are now being changed over to singles because I have gathered more than enough evidence now.

We do long days on these trips and although I knew that the under-wader gear I blogged about a while ago here was really good, it was handy to be able to confirm to myself that many hours spent in this clothing over in Ireland was just as comfortable and efficient as the more expensive Under Armour stuff. For sure I look like a bit of a tit in a pair of leggings and/or a compression top, but I don’t care and I’m wearing waders anyway. These Bestard SAR Pro Water Rescue Boots continue to hugely impress me as a pair of wading boots, but I am increasingly of the opinion that from a being on my feet point of view they are more comfortable and better suited to the multiple shorter fishing sessions I tend to do myself here at home rather than the long days we do for these guided trips when a regular pair of thicker-soled wading boots such as the Orvis Pro wading boots which I keep specifically for these trips are that bit more comfortable. Anyway, sorry that this blog post turned out to be far longer than I intended, but it all started pouring out and I didn’t want to stop! Hell, I haven’t even talked about bumping soft plastics etc. You all have a good weekend and I’ll catch up next week……………

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