TOP LRF GEAR
Our Tronix pro-staffer, Jake Schogler reveals his best gear for light rock fishing
The best tackle for light rock fishing.
With 2019 out the way, I felt it was time to give a review of the LRF tackle I have used to get through the year. As a sponsored angler, I get to use a lot of tackle items, but not all make it through to my everyday arsenal. However, these following bits of kit are crucial to the way I fish. They have stood the test of time – hard fishing and limited maintenance – and have come through with flying colours.
FAVOURITE RODS
For my LRF, I use solid tip and tube tip rods. The solid tip is great when I need to see when a fish has taken the lure because its fine tip gives great bite indication. The solid tip is better for feeling a bite, and likewise the surrounding underwater terrain that you are fishing over.
Both styles of rod are capable of being very sensitive, especially when paired with braid, but I use them for specific tasks. The solid tip is great for detecting subtle bites, like early-season wrasse when dropshotting, and have the added ability to allow the fish to suck in the lure on a semi-tight line and feel no resistance from the rod. This means that even though the bite may be subtle, the fish will have taken the lure fully into its mouth, which requires just a flick of the wrist to set the hook.
I use my tubular tipped rod in deeper water when I am dropshotting, especially when fishing vertically using 10g dropshot leads. I also use it for working small crankbaits, Metals and jerkbaits.
Hart Bloody Rock and Street Solid Tip
This has been my go-to solid tip rod for more than a year and has landed me many fish. I use this as my main finesse wrasse fishing tool.
Although it has a lower casting range than the HTO Urban Finesse (the rod is rated 1-8g), it is a bit stiffer in the blank below the solid tip. This gives me the ability to hit and then pump the wrasse up above the snag zone. I can then hold the fish in this zone and allow it to wear itself out against the rod.
It has quality Fuji K guides and a Fuji TVSK/VSS reel seat. The rod has a very
smooth minimalist butt and reel seat with carbon fibre detailing. Unlike the Urban Finesse, it does not have a soft-touch grip and can feel almost slippy above the EVA palm grip, especially when your hands are wet. Despite this, I haven’t lost grip of the rod yet, but I do find the HTO grip a little more comfortable.
This rod has been heavily used over the year for everything from float tubing to wading, as well as getting clattered about on the rocks.
It has proved to be a tough LRF rod and shows little sign of wear. It is a mid-priced rod with an RRP of around £125, but you do get a well-made, technically advanced and very versatile rod for the money.
HTO Urban Finesse Tube Tip
I have been using the 2-12g version of this rod and it has been very reliable. It retails at under £45 and has K-style spinning guides that help cut out wind knots, a skinny crisp blank and a very minimalist skeleton reel seat giving maximum access to the blank.
It has proved very sensitive, tough and reliable. The action is fast, but it has a softer playing action than the previous tube tip from HTO, the Hyper Sniper or the Rockfish T.
Although rated to 12g, it works well at the bottom of its casting range and I have used it with plastics rigged on tiny jigheads and with 2g metals.
The Urban Finesse has a comfortable reel seat with a soft-touch finish, which helps maintain grip even with wet hands. I have been impressed with what the rod can do, ranging from big wrasse off the float tube to bass off the rocks. It really is a great tube tip LRF rod and feels like an awful lot of rod for under £50.
Hart Bloody Ika 81
This rod has been a bit of a revelation and covers the crossover area where LRF meets HRF.
It is rated from 2-12g and is a solid tipped rod. I use it for working soft plastics on jighead rigs for bass , wrasse and codling. Originally designed for squid fishing, as a result it has a progressive action. The action is still fast enough to jerk and move lures, but it is when a fish is hooked that the progressive curve of the rod really comes into its own.
This Hart rod has a very quick recovery and also boasts a solid tip, which is perfect for seeing the very subtle bites that can happen as the lure is falling through the water column. It is also great for allowing a bass to suck up a deadsticked lure with minimum resistance, which results in a confident bite.
Although I own some very specialist bass rods, this rod has become my favourite, especially for fishing plastic stick baits, because it is very sensitive and the playing action is so kind to lighter line.
The rod bends right through the blank when you have a fish on, and this progressive curve helps cushion the fight, especially with bass that tend to come to the surface and fight high up.
As I am mainly using plastics rigged on jigheads for them, cushioning that hookhold on light braid is imperative when trying to play and land the fish as quickly as possible.
Again, like others in the Hart Bloody series, it comes with Fuji K guides and a special Fuji VSS/TVSK reel seat. It retails at around £120.
BEST BRAID
With all my fishing based around the ability to feel changes in substrate, lure movement and bites from fish, braid is the only option. Not only does it have to be braid, but also it has to be top-quality stuff, with an accurate breaking strain and PE measurement.
Over the years I have found the Japanese manufactured braids to be of the standard I require. Brands such as YGK, Daiwa, Sunline and Duel all produce good braid.
For years I have used YGK and Sunline for my lure fishing needs. Last Year HTO gave us the Nebula range and I have been using it ever since.
Nebula is almost indistinguishable from
YGK. I spooled up with the PE0.6 in four strand, PE 0.8 in eight strand, and PE0.12 in eight strand and have been really satisfied with how they performed.
My only criticism is the colour can fade with use, but this is true of all the braids I have used. It is a completely different line to the first generation HTO Rockfish lines, which I couldn’t get along with because they did not match the quality Japanese lines.
The new Nebula braid is fantastic and I couldn’t tell the difference switching from YGK to this braid. What’s even more welcome is that it retails at under £20 per spool, which is great value for such a high-performing bit of tackle.
LURE CHOICES
As far as lures go, my top-performing metal has been the 18g Hart Bony. With countless catches and multiple species to its name, I always make sure I have a few with me for an LRF session.
My top HRF soft plastic has been the Schlugg. As I designed it, I am very confident in knowing how to work it for multiple species.
Being biased about this lure, I think it is great and it really works well for me!
There has never been a year where I haven’t done brilliantly on Gulp! sandworm. This scented lure has been the mainstay of my fishing for wrasse, flounders and winter cod. It is my number one LRF lure because it is versatile and seems to out-fish Isome in colder water. Needless to say, I will be stocking up on Gulp! for the coming LRF cod campaign. ■