Since my last post I've been lucky to experience some incredibly fun fishing, as always it's not all been smooth sailing, but with mackerel here in vast numbers and schoolie bass plentiful, I can't remember when I last blanked, and as all fishermen know, that is a huge weight off your shoulders.
When it comes to blanking and frustration, there is one fish species that comes to mind... Mullet. They are famously difficult to catch and I would love to say I got the better of one this week, but I didn't. Though it did lead to me catching my first few bass of the year.
Thin-lipped are the much more forgiving of our two common mullet species, they don't grow as large as thick-lips but they will take spinners baited with ragworm or isome. I had heard and read that they can be quite forthcoming on this technique so had to give it a try. After asking around Facebook, a fellow angler called Adam Sharp told me there were plenty of them in Kingsbridge, he was also so sure I wouldn't catch one he wagered £100! With money like that on the table it would be rude not to try, so I finished work and drove the 45 minutes to Kingsbridge. Although the harbour looked inviting, I had my eye on a spot around the corner on a different inlet, it was shallow but absolutely stacked with fish. I don't think I've ever seen so many fish in one place, which makes my inability to catch a mullet all the more ridiculous. I was fishing a modified spinner with a 6 inch trace of fluorocarbon, with a size 12 hook, using isome as the trailer bait. Within five minutes I had a thin-lip on! I saw the flash of the fish sideways as it shook the hook, an annoying but promising start. I had numerous follows but couldn't get another. I did have 9 tiny bass though and lost about 10 more too, they were really pre-school bass, but I didn't mind, they saved the blank and were a new species for me. I knew I had to try again though for those frustrating mullet.
A couple of days later myself and Dad had a joint day off, due some Father-Son time we decided to try again in Kingsbridge. The tide was later in the day so we stopped off for some food first at the Crabshell, fully recommend that place, the fish was superb. Full and ready to go we watched the tide come in up the inlet, with fish topping everywhere. Dad was first to catch, the expected toddler bass. He lost a couple more before I got one, we caught another one each as the tide came in fast around us. I had another set-up with bread for the Thick-lips too, though as usual I couldn't get a bite from them! What had started quite promisingly had petered out a bit really, I regretted not buying some ragworm, isome was fine for bass but not for the tricky mullet. Still, as the old saying goes, 'if you're not catching, you're learning' and that couldn't be more true in this case.
My next fishing trip wasn't really a session at all, it was supposed to be my three year anniversary with Ellie. I planned a nice romantic picnic for her and intended to go to Wembury Point. She told me to take the LRF rod just in case (it's very easy to see how we've lasted three years isn't it?). I had a last minute change of mind and went to Saltram instead. After a walk and some delicious food and wine, we walked up to the salt marsh near the top of the estuary. Mullet are known to gather there and that day was no exception. At the mouth of the river there were thousands of fish at the surface, most likely small thick-lipped mullet. I had the same spinner I had used before, this time baited with Fladen Vermz (still not sold on those, even if they did catch a couple of bass). I managed to spook the shoal and unsurprisingly got no feeding reaction from them. Moving further up the tide-flooded river, the water was murkier and with no obvious signs of fish. Two casts later though I had a massive hit on my lure and a fish was on. After a couple of powerful runs it was tamed and revealed itself to be a lovely sized schoolie bass of around 2lb. I was over the moon, I don't make enough of a habit to fish for bass, and this modest fish was a new personal best! All because Ellie told me to take the rod on our date. Unfortunately she couldn't get one too to top off the day, but we headed home in good spirits nonetheless.
All through the week it had been obvious the mackerel were back in large numbers, social media was alive with talk of them. So on Saturday, myself and Robbie went after them on Mount Batten Pier. I can only say it was crazy. Fish surfacing everywhere and sets of feathers being flown in their direction frantically. I have never seen fishing like it, the majority of it was good natured though and I didn't see many people abusing the fish too much. I started off on feathers but found them to be too effective. I only wanted a couple of fish for bait, so catching six at a time on unsportingly huge rods was not my idea of fun. I quickly changed over to my LRF set up though and proceeded to catch a fish a cast on my favourite HTO Shore Jig. They are immense fighters for their size and it was great fun, but with fishing so easy it quickly became a little monotonous, so we left. Ellie was at home and really wanted to catch one too, so I dropped Robbie home and picked her up. We got there to find, with the tide higher, the mackerel were pushing the baitfish up against the pier wall and it was an incredible sight, all it needed was an Attenborough narration to make it perfect. Ellie quickly caught her mackerel and we headed home away from the chaos. It inspired me to write a short article about the good and bad side of the mackerel 'rush' on Fishing Tails, have a look here -
http://www.fishingtails.co.uk/the-mackerel-rush-the-good-the-great-the-ugly/
After all the excitement and fun of the sea fishing, I felt compelled to even it up and catch some freshwater species that were on my list. Bream and tench being my desired targets. I had caught both species before at Trewandra Coarse Fishery near Landrake, Cornwall, but hadn't fished it for over a year, so that was where I headed. It's a lovely little lake, well established now and with a great head of carp to 25lb, it also boasts some huge roach (to over 3lb) and tench (to over 6lb). You pay at an honesty box in the car park and quite often you are the only angler there. This time though there were two others fishing it, a chap who was after the carp and a father with his daughter and son, fishing for the carp too on the other side of the lake. I wasn't interested in the carp. I really desired a decent tench but knew they would be difficult. I had two set ups to try during the day, a simple float rig - plummeted correctly so the bait rested just on the bottom - and a small 'bolt-rig' with luncheon meat on a hair. On the bolt rig I soon had numerous hard fighting roach/bream hybrids, so many in fact that I wondered if I would ever catch a true bream! It was on my float set-up that I eventually had my bream - all weight and zero fight, just what I was looking for. With that one off my list I really wanted that tench, but all I could seem to catch was hybrids, bream and roach, superb fishing to be honest and in a couple of hours I probably caught over 20lb of fish, yet not a single tench. I didn't have a huge amount of time to fish either and soon I had to head home. I will have to return at an earlier time for those tincas.
Olly and Shane managed to get out over the last week too, catching Mackerel, with Shane also getting his first ever Corkwring Wrasse, Shanny and Giant Goby, which boosted his total considerably. Not bad going at all for them.
Totals after that are:
Ben - 35 Species - Perch, Roach, Gudgeon, Rudd, Bream/Roach hybrid, Mirror Carp, Pike, Rainbow Trout, Common Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Tompot Blenny, Ballan Wrasse, Rock Goby, Common Carp, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Pollock, Goldsinny Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Golden Orfe, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench, Crucian Carp, Sand Smelt, Giant Goby, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Lesser-Spotted Dogfish, Bull Huss, European Eel, Topknot, Common Minnow, Three Spined Stickleback, Sea Bass, Mackerel & Bronze Bream
Olly - 25 Species - Perch, Rainbow Trout, Pike, Rudd, Roach, Mirror Carp, Common Carp, Pollock, Ballan Wrasse, Goldsinny Wrasse, Common Blenny, Shore Rockling, Corkwring Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench, Sea Bass, Giant Goby, Bull Huss, Gudgeon, Crucian Carp, European Eel, Ghost Carp, Poor Cod & Mackerel
Ellie - 24 Species - Golden Rudd, Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Perch, Pike, Corkwring Wrasse, Pollock, Mirror Carp, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Tompot Blenny, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Ballan Wrasse, Common Blenny, Golden Tench, Golden Orfe, Bronze Bream, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Giant Goby, Bull Huss, Three Spined Stickleback & Mackerel
Will - 14 Species - Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Pike, Tompot Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Common Goby, Ballan Wrasse, Dogfish, Golden Rudd, Golden Tench & Golden Orfe
Shane - 14 Species - Rudd, Roach/Bream Hybrid, Crucian Carp, Pollock, Shore Rockling, Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Roach, Bull Huss, Lesser-Spotted Dogfish, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Blenny, Mackerel & Giant Goby
Robbie - 13 Species - Perch, Mirror Carp, Roach, Rudd, Eel, Ballan Wrasse, Topknot, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Pollock & Mackerel
Head over to www.fishingtails.co.uk for quality articles and fishing reports.
As always, thanks for reading.
When it comes to blanking and frustration, there is one fish species that comes to mind... Mullet. They are famously difficult to catch and I would love to say I got the better of one this week, but I didn't. Though it did lead to me catching my first few bass of the year.
Thin-lipped are the much more forgiving of our two common mullet species, they don't grow as large as thick-lips but they will take spinners baited with ragworm or isome. I had heard and read that they can be quite forthcoming on this technique so had to give it a try. After asking around Facebook, a fellow angler called Adam Sharp told me there were plenty of them in Kingsbridge, he was also so sure I wouldn't catch one he wagered £100! With money like that on the table it would be rude not to try, so I finished work and drove the 45 minutes to Kingsbridge. Although the harbour looked inviting, I had my eye on a spot around the corner on a different inlet, it was shallow but absolutely stacked with fish. I don't think I've ever seen so many fish in one place, which makes my inability to catch a mullet all the more ridiculous. I was fishing a modified spinner with a 6 inch trace of fluorocarbon, with a size 12 hook, using isome as the trailer bait. Within five minutes I had a thin-lip on! I saw the flash of the fish sideways as it shook the hook, an annoying but promising start. I had numerous follows but couldn't get another. I did have 9 tiny bass though and lost about 10 more too, they were really pre-school bass, but I didn't mind, they saved the blank and were a new species for me. I knew I had to try again though for those frustrating mullet.
A couple of days later myself and Dad had a joint day off, due some Father-Son time we decided to try again in Kingsbridge. The tide was later in the day so we stopped off for some food first at the Crabshell, fully recommend that place, the fish was superb. Full and ready to go we watched the tide come in up the inlet, with fish topping everywhere. Dad was first to catch, the expected toddler bass. He lost a couple more before I got one, we caught another one each as the tide came in fast around us. I had another set-up with bread for the Thick-lips too, though as usual I couldn't get a bite from them! What had started quite promisingly had petered out a bit really, I regretted not buying some ragworm, isome was fine for bass but not for the tricky mullet. Still, as the old saying goes, 'if you're not catching, you're learning' and that couldn't be more true in this case.
My next fishing trip wasn't really a session at all, it was supposed to be my three year anniversary with Ellie. I planned a nice romantic picnic for her and intended to go to Wembury Point. She told me to take the LRF rod just in case (it's very easy to see how we've lasted three years isn't it?). I had a last minute change of mind and went to Saltram instead. After a walk and some delicious food and wine, we walked up to the salt marsh near the top of the estuary. Mullet are known to gather there and that day was no exception. At the mouth of the river there were thousands of fish at the surface, most likely small thick-lipped mullet. I had the same spinner I had used before, this time baited with Fladen Vermz (still not sold on those, even if they did catch a couple of bass). I managed to spook the shoal and unsurprisingly got no feeding reaction from them. Moving further up the tide-flooded river, the water was murkier and with no obvious signs of fish. Two casts later though I had a massive hit on my lure and a fish was on. After a couple of powerful runs it was tamed and revealed itself to be a lovely sized schoolie bass of around 2lb. I was over the moon, I don't make enough of a habit to fish for bass, and this modest fish was a new personal best! All because Ellie told me to take the rod on our date. Unfortunately she couldn't get one too to top off the day, but we headed home in good spirits nonetheless.
All through the week it had been obvious the mackerel were back in large numbers, social media was alive with talk of them. So on Saturday, myself and Robbie went after them on Mount Batten Pier. I can only say it was crazy. Fish surfacing everywhere and sets of feathers being flown in their direction frantically. I have never seen fishing like it, the majority of it was good natured though and I didn't see many people abusing the fish too much. I started off on feathers but found them to be too effective. I only wanted a couple of fish for bait, so catching six at a time on unsportingly huge rods was not my idea of fun. I quickly changed over to my LRF set up though and proceeded to catch a fish a cast on my favourite HTO Shore Jig. They are immense fighters for their size and it was great fun, but with fishing so easy it quickly became a little monotonous, so we left. Ellie was at home and really wanted to catch one too, so I dropped Robbie home and picked her up. We got there to find, with the tide higher, the mackerel were pushing the baitfish up against the pier wall and it was an incredible sight, all it needed was an Attenborough narration to make it perfect. Ellie quickly caught her mackerel and we headed home away from the chaos. It inspired me to write a short article about the good and bad side of the mackerel 'rush' on Fishing Tails, have a look here -
http://www.fishingtails.co.uk/the-mackerel-rush-the-good-the-great-the-ugly/
After all the excitement and fun of the sea fishing, I felt compelled to even it up and catch some freshwater species that were on my list. Bream and tench being my desired targets. I had caught both species before at Trewandra Coarse Fishery near Landrake, Cornwall, but hadn't fished it for over a year, so that was where I headed. It's a lovely little lake, well established now and with a great head of carp to 25lb, it also boasts some huge roach (to over 3lb) and tench (to over 6lb). You pay at an honesty box in the car park and quite often you are the only angler there. This time though there were two others fishing it, a chap who was after the carp and a father with his daughter and son, fishing for the carp too on the other side of the lake. I wasn't interested in the carp. I really desired a decent tench but knew they would be difficult. I had two set ups to try during the day, a simple float rig - plummeted correctly so the bait rested just on the bottom - and a small 'bolt-rig' with luncheon meat on a hair. On the bolt rig I soon had numerous hard fighting roach/bream hybrids, so many in fact that I wondered if I would ever catch a true bream! It was on my float set-up that I eventually had my bream - all weight and zero fight, just what I was looking for. With that one off my list I really wanted that tench, but all I could seem to catch was hybrids, bream and roach, superb fishing to be honest and in a couple of hours I probably caught over 20lb of fish, yet not a single tench. I didn't have a huge amount of time to fish either and soon I had to head home. I will have to return at an earlier time for those tincas.
Olly and Shane managed to get out over the last week too, catching Mackerel, with Shane also getting his first ever Corkwring Wrasse, Shanny and Giant Goby, which boosted his total considerably. Not bad going at all for them.
Totals after that are:
Ben - 35 Species - Perch, Roach, Gudgeon, Rudd, Bream/Roach hybrid, Mirror Carp, Pike, Rainbow Trout, Common Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Tompot Blenny, Ballan Wrasse, Rock Goby, Common Carp, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Pollock, Goldsinny Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Golden Orfe, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench, Crucian Carp, Sand Smelt, Giant Goby, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Lesser-Spotted Dogfish, Bull Huss, European Eel, Topknot, Common Minnow, Three Spined Stickleback, Sea Bass, Mackerel & Bronze Bream
Olly - 25 Species - Perch, Rainbow Trout, Pike, Rudd, Roach, Mirror Carp, Common Carp, Pollock, Ballan Wrasse, Goldsinny Wrasse, Common Blenny, Shore Rockling, Corkwring Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench, Sea Bass, Giant Goby, Bull Huss, Gudgeon, Crucian Carp, European Eel, Ghost Carp, Poor Cod & Mackerel
Ellie - 24 Species - Golden Rudd, Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Perch, Pike, Corkwring Wrasse, Pollock, Mirror Carp, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Tompot Blenny, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Ballan Wrasse, Common Blenny, Golden Tench, Golden Orfe, Bronze Bream, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Giant Goby, Bull Huss, Three Spined Stickleback & Mackerel
Will - 14 Species - Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Pike, Tompot Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Common Goby, Ballan Wrasse, Dogfish, Golden Rudd, Golden Tench & Golden Orfe
Shane - 14 Species - Rudd, Roach/Bream Hybrid, Crucian Carp, Pollock, Shore Rockling, Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Roach, Bull Huss, Lesser-Spotted Dogfish, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Blenny, Mackerel & Giant Goby
Robbie - 13 Species - Perch, Mirror Carp, Roach, Rudd, Eel, Ballan Wrasse, Topknot, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Pollock & Mackerel
Head over to www.fishingtails.co.uk for quality articles and fishing reports.
As always, thanks for reading.
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