Greets :)

[Moogie]

Hi all!

I've just joined up and thought I ought to introduce myself :)

Is this where I should stand up and say, "Hi, I'm Moogie, and I'm a fishaholic"?

What can I say? When I was about 6 years old I started fishing with my dad - mostly a bit of spinning and ledgering off Ferry Bridge at Wyke Regis in Weymouth but occasionally a bit of fresh water fishing when we holidayed in Dartmoor.

At some point that I'm sure we all got to, it wasn't "cool" to go fishing with my dad anymore. I stopped.

That is until my relationship broke down a few years ago now and I found myself in the company of a childhood sweetheart who happened to have taken up fishing after a long spell without it. When I found out he fished, I hunted my old rod out from my parents cellar and got out with him off the cliffs at Portland Bill. A wrasse or two later and I was keen to get back into the sport.

Almost 3 years on I find myself with the following setups (I give all my rods names, and these are noted!)

My original 6' Silstar Spinning Rod (20+ years old!) with ancient Abu Cardinal
Little Stik: 6' Ugly Stik spinning combo
Ugly Jim: 9' Ugly Stik Gold spinning rod and Abu Cardinal 104RD
Flicky Stik: 8'6" Ugly Stik 6/7wt Fly Rod with Redington RedFly2 reel
Little Brother: 7'6" Abu Phazer 12lb Boat Road & Penn Multiplier
Little Wonder: 12' Abu Phazer Beachcaster & Abu 177 reel
Spaceboy (aka AnyStick): 13' Anyfish Anywhere 6&Bait (which I use with the above reel)

And I'm not ashamed to say I use my 6' Ugly the most. She is an absolute dream and is great fun for the macky and small shoalie bass which are so easy to find around here. She's also very handy for wading, as she's so small and easy to maneuvre. She's had bass of up to 2lb and been absolutely fine with them - really fun fights there. And don't think she's a close range rod either - she may only go 15 yards or so with a 3g mepps on, but a 15g lure can go up to 70 yards when you know how to treat her right :) And all that with the cheap UglySpin reel she came with. I love her! I've even started to make my own lures for her, nothing very special but I have caught on a few

Spinning is without a doubt my favourite fishing, and my lure of choice is the tasmanian devil, which I first encountered on a fishing holiday in Ireland last year.

My ultimate goal is to one day have a monster pike. I've not had any pike at all yet, but hope to get out and about for them more when my other half and I have our own transport. Radipole Lake is the only venue I can easily get to which allegedly has pike - but I've yet to pull anything at all out of it!

My fly gear is as yet unused, there's so much more fishing I want to do before I get into this side of the sport. My other half has been totally consumed by the fly and I don't want to find myself sucked into it to the exclusion of all other fishing just yet. I just had to buy the rod when I found the Ugly fly rod online in the USA. I do love Uglies!

My beachcasting leaves a lot to be desired unfortunately and I'm known to outcast my 12 & 13 foot rods with Ugly Jim. They're just so big and unwieldy. I certainly get on better with Spaceboy than Little Wonder - I haven't fished with her for over a year now but hope to pick her up again sometime and try her with 3-4oz, she just doesn't seem to cope well with more even though she's rated for up to 8oz. I've taken recently to beach fishing with Ugly Jim as long as it's not too rough out. Actually, the reason I signed up here was because I've been looking for a slightly longer, heavier duty Ugly Stik to see if I get on better with that than my beachcasters. I spotted a fellow here was offering his 10' Ugly Pier/Beach rod for sale and have contacted him in the hope it's still available. It's just what I was looking for but nowhere else has it.

But I digress!

My boat road is sadly also unfished. I got him last year in May but both my friends who have boats have been out of the water since then fixing things up - so I've not had the chance to try her out. Bit scared about trying a multiplier but at least it's not really for casting, and it has a line layer.

My childhood rod still gets occasional use when younger family members visit and want to have a tiddler bash as we call it :)

Oops, I seem to have gone on at some length and I realise I've not so much introduced myself as my rods! Shows how much I love them I guess :)

What can I say about my fishing then?
Well, I've not had much in the way of range of species or big fish, but I can certainly say that with each season I'm improving and this year I've certainly had a good few fish. I just hope I can pull something decent off Chesil this year despite my poor abilities with a beachcaster!


I'm quite fortunate to live in Weymouth as we have some great sea spots around here - you can usually find me around the Fleet, Portland Harbour, Preston or Chesil beach, also a certain local cove I shan't mention as it's being really overfished this year Me and my other half try to get out most nights but at least manage 4-5 sessions a week.


Here's a few pictures of some of my fish - not a great collection of pics and some more to be added - but here I am with my scaley friends:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/al...8&id=712216524

Also vaguely related - I made my other half an Undulate Ray cake for his birthday this year:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/ph...3&id=712216524
of which I am quite proud



Not much else to say I guess, but hello and thanks for these forums :)

[fishypaul]

hi moogie welcome to the forum,love the cake

[Norfolkboy]

Welcome to the forum

That cake looks awesome!

[Bluesbro]

Welcome to the forum!!!! Thats one hell of a cake you made there!!! Oh and i like the bass's too

Tight Lines

Joe

[Moogie]

Thanks for the welcome everyone, and for your help Bluesbro! I intend to try out those casting tips when we have a beach session this weekend.

Glad you all like the cake, it was quite a project! I wanted to make him a Smoothound, but that would have been too difficult ;)