Xorus Patchinko

It is my favourite surface lure of all time, the Patchinko is simply a work of art when it comes to catching bass in most top water situations. It casts further and more accurately than any other lure of its size and practically works itself.

The Patchinko is a walk the dog style lure, that is a zig zag motion along the surface. This is achieved by jerking the rod to make it zig, then jerking the rod to make it zag, and all the time winding the reel. The action is made easier by the under slung connection on the head, this keeps the head up in the water and the bulbus back end of the lure, which is where the weight chamber is, makes it rear heavy and gives it true and accurate casting.

I use the Patchinko is most sea conditions, from flat milky calm, to really rough and choppy. It casts extremely well into the wind and very rarely tangles. In calm water I tend to use the lure with much more subtle actions, almost a long slide method, where you leave a second or two gap between each jerk to allow the lure to slide a bit further on each zig and zag.

In choppy water I jerk the rod quite quickly to make the lure spit water a bit like a popper, just try and make a little more commotion than the sea is. Be quite violet with it but stillnot too fast, as I find although you will catch fish even at fairly fast retrieves, you will find bigger fish with a slower retreive.

Don't forget the rod should be twitched with the wrist, not the whole arm. You make the butt of the rod bang between your ribs and fore arm. This is made much easier with fast actioned rods, and although you can use most types of spinning rod for surface work, you will tire, and will not get the best action from the lure.

Here is a video of Bob working his favourite yellow Patchinko

Here are some results of the Patchinko over the last couple of years,

The Cabot

Andy Stonehouse loves Patchinkos too!!

Bob and his beloved yellow

Me with a 7lb 12oz, I was actually not even winding the lure when the fish took it

There is no feeling like taking a bass off the surface, it truely is breathtaking and something that every angler should experience.

Still quite tough out there!

So I havnt been writing the blog much, but that doesnt mean I havnt been trying to catch fish, its just still quite tough out there. I have had a few bass, last weekend I managed six to 4lb 3oz, but to be honest I was lucky as Bob,Nelson and Neil did struggle to get one or two each.

I managed yet another decent wrasse on an Xlayer Ayu, this one didnt half scrap well as I was in fairly shallow water and had cast up between two heads and I was twitching the Xlayer back along the sand between the heads trying for a bass possibly hiding under the kelp hanging off them.

The Xlayers mounted on Xorus/Decoy heads just work a treat and we have had a few bass on wrasse on them now.

Here is that wrasse, I could catch these hard fighters alldaylong on light gear they are simple amazing fighters and pound for pound there are not many as good a fighters in our waters.

My Super Mix 240 is becoming my favourite rod ever,this little thing is impressing memore and more. Its softer tip just has so much feel in it, I am starting to be able to feel the bottom and tellthe difference between pollack,bass and wrasse that are nibbling at my soft plastics, its amazing how delicate some fish mouth bait and how other dont give you a second thought and just simply smash into your softy.

Here are some other fish that the boys have been getting recently, like I say its been hard but we dont give up easy.

He has well and truely christened his new Megabass rod with some great bass.

And Doug went out with Nelson last week and had some great fun with the wrasse and Doug even managed a cracking bass on a plug,5lb 12oz and that puts Doug in the lead at the moment in the Sinkers boat lure caught bass trophy.

My best Wrasse to date on a softy

Went out again today (you cant knock me for trying) and fished Jerseys south and west coast with my friend Paul Butel. We really did cover some ground and tried many different lures. Well after about 8 hours of plugging and vertical softy jigging we managed a few Pollack, Wrasse and Paul had a cracking Garfish of well over a pound.

So here is my PB Wrasse on a softy, I have had them to over 6lb on bait, but on a Tenryu Super Mix 240, a 50g Xorus Meastro jighead and 8" Madness Mother Worm in 50ft of water, this fish fought like a pitbull terrier all the way to the boat. Awesome.

Xlayer Ayu, fast becoming my favourite colour...

Popped out for an hour today and on my third cast had this nice 4lb 6oz. I was using a Megabass Xlayer Giant Ayu with a standard 3/0 leadhead. I am getting more confident with my soft plastics now, I am begining to feel the bottom as the lure touches it. Its a strange method to master (if you ever can!) but it is something new for me and its always good to have some other options when out there.

I had one on friday morning too, a bit smaller, about 3lb, that was on a Megabass Xlayer Original in Ayu.

And my mate Alex from London was over for the weekend on his stag party. He managed to wiggle out a bass on a Megabass Xlayer in White, a nice little scrapperof about 2lb which made the groom to be very happy.

These Xlayers are starting to do some damage, and on my new Tenryu Super Mix 240 they went very well indeed. The softer tip of the Super Mix is lovely when its bent double and the power in the butt section is amazing for stopping and turning the bass in their tracks.

I am looking forward to hooking a monster on it, in fact I cant wait to see what this little rod does in such a situation.
And Nelson was happy, his ship was in the harbour so he went aboard to check if all was ship shape.....

A good start to the season

I went out yesterday with Bob and Paul, we knew it would be hard as the tide was so small, only about 23ft or something ridiculous like that. Still, we went out west and tried a few soft plastics, after rigging them all up through the winter I am determined to catch some bass this year on them. Its working out how to twitch and retrieve them with confidence that is bugging me at the moment, but I will work it out.

So anyway, it didnt take too long and Bob hooked into a small wrasse of a couple of pound.

The fishing was slow but we knew it would be, and to be honest it was good to see how Paul fishes as he is a bit of a legend at this lark. He showed us some new reefs and I watched him sneakily to see how he retrieves, I havnt been doing it that wrong really, but making sure you keep contact and try to work out where the bottom is at all times is a big part of it.

We were getting small plucks from something whilst drifting an area and were not sure if it was pollack or cuttlefish having a go, so Paul put on a "stinger" that he had showed me how to rig a few weeks ago. This did the trick and we found the culprits were small pollack. This proves that Pauls stinger trick does the job.

A little while after we tried one more reef before heading home. Up until now we had been vertically jigging our softies but we went to a big reef system that was just covered with water and cast our softies at it, letting them fall to the bottom(about 15ft or so) and jig them back towards us. First drift and Paul hooked his first bass of the season, a little hard fighter of about 2lb.

Next drift and Bob hooked his first of 2009, another little cracker of about the same size. Both these bass took a Megabass Spindle Worm on 30g articulated jigheads. The Spindle Worm is a great softy as it takes no tide or movement to work that little paddle tail, it just comes to life insantly in the water.

A couple more small fish rounded off a great day. Small tides can produce fish if you are willing to get out and be a bit diverse. Softies are fun, its new to me and I like the challenge, although I cant wait to be catching on plugs again soon.

Garfish

Its that time of year again, spring, the Jersey royals are all ready to be picked, swallows are arriving and the smelly long nose snipe are being caught. I love fishing for them with a float rod and a strip of garfish or mackerel, known locally as a "fionk". A simple sliding float set up works best, with your bait set from anywhere from 20ft deep to right up near the surface at about 3ft or less. I do find the early ones are a bit deeper than in the height of summer but you should still get one at about 10ft deep. A hook of about a size 6 or 4 is ideal and I tend to use a a flourocarbon hook length of anything from 6lb to 10lb. If you keep everything as light as possible these fast little fish can really give a good account for their size. I like a softish action 10ft rod or even a 1.75lb test curve carp rod, but an old style floppy cheap spinning rod is ideal really.

I had this one last week on my boat, it was 1lb 2oz, I caught it on a little Megabass lure that I had just had my first bass of the year on of about 1lb 8oz or so.


This week saw the boat caught Jersey Garfish record go too. This fine specimen was 2lb 4oz, it was so thick and will take some beating.

It is a shame that garfish don't like being handled much, I do think they do not survive very well once handled so you are best to either not handle them at all and cut the line over the side, or keep them for bait or even to eat.

Big bass at St Helier harbour

I have just seen a monster bass landed down the harbour. Julian "Spike" Wright has just landed a 16lb bass on a live pouting from the harbour wall. What a lovely fish, it looked bigger than 16lb to me, and Spike agreed he should go get it weighed officially tomorrow morning.