Happy New Gear.

With one fishing trip to the Mediterranean later this year already booked and a couple of holidays there also in the pipeline I decided that rather than pay the various airline's excessive sports equipment fees I would instead invest in a travel rod. With my favourite style of fishing being ultra light I decided to treat myself to a Graphiteleader Finezza Compatto. Prices in the UK for these are, to be brutally frank, a rip off so I opted instead to import one from Japan. Unfortunately the only retailer I found who had one in stock doesn't sell internationally but lucky for me I found White Rabbit Express, a forwarding service who help shoppers all over the world purchase products from Japan by ordering them for you and then sending them on to you. Anyway, to cut a long story short my new rod arrived a few days ago and having saved myself a considerable amount of money I was very pleased with my first experience of ordering tackle from Japan and was keen to get out and try my new rod. Work and the weather had other ideas however and in the end I decided to go out on Sunday night in the howling wind, heading down to Dunbar Harbour to hopefully find a bit of shelter and try out the new rod on the most obliging resident coalfish. When I arrived the water in the harbour was quite coloured and because of the wind I opted to fish a drop shot rig. A red Gulp! Angleworm on a #8 Sabpolo Wormer hook soon did the trick.

My first fish of 2014 and my first fish on my new ultra light rod.

Bites were not as frequent as they normally are. Obviously due to the coloured up water but I caught a few more fish before my mate Nick who lives nearby popped down with his dog to say hello. We had a quick chat and shortly after he left the wind picked up and the rain came on so after a couple more fish I decided to head home pleased with how the short session had went. The rod performed pretty much as expected really. Very sensitive and being very light it was very comfortable to use. Any concerns I had were quickly dismissed and after a few casts I forgot it was a five piece travel rod. It has a nice action with no flat spots at the joins and it has a bit of power lower down to help land bigger fish. It has a very short handle which I did find a little odd and that will take a bit of getting used to but otherwise the rod is lovely. I'm really looking forward to using it again and I think I'll go torment some blennies and long spined sea scorpions with it.

Tight lines, Scott.