Porgie and Jeff

Jeff's detailed plans and painstaking preparation with tide times and launch spots were repaid in spades with a glorious weather forecast which looked to allow us three full days of shark fishing on the North Devon Coast .
I travelled down overnight and after a few hours sleep off we went with along but beautiful run along the coast to the chosen shark grounds . We were lucky to see lots of Porpoises on the way which I always think is a good sign of prey fish being about .
Jeff has mastered the grisly business of "chum" , with the use of salted trout. Now when it comes to the actual preparation the hand mincer process has been superceeded by the industrial use of a garden mulcher , but its still a messy old business ! But rubby dubby is the key ingredient to catching Shark so the better the slick , the better the catch ! The oil from the trout is amazing , but I must admit the idea of eating a farmed trout is now not on the top of my menu list .

 

 

So we sat in the slick created by Jeff's fantastic oily concoction in the hope of a Porgie paying us a visit . But unfortunately despite the fantastic weather we did not strike lucky . However some fish were caught by other boats so ....next time lets hope the shark catch the slick trail of Jupiters Moon .

The Tinca Trail

I am a great one for lists so I set about writing a list of fishy based targets for the coming year , and one of them is a fixture which has remained unresolved for many years : a 7lb Tench.
So following on from Jeff's success last year  and Tenchfisher Club members advice I made my way with Jeff  to the local pits armed with maggots and feeders .

Using a short hooklink and a 2 oz semi fixed Drennan maggot feeder I managed to get a lot of runs but few successful hook ups. The above two weigh in at 5lbs . Its strange they look huge on the unhooking mat but pick them up and they don't ! I suppose when you are a great big oaf like me at 6ft 4 and with hands like shovels they don't stand much chance ! Jeff fished the same tactics in the next door swim and managed this lovely example .

A second trip coincided with some of the windiest weather I think I have ever fished in ! luckily the swim was very  sheltered by a hedge and trees , but I did check the trees a few times as one of them landing on you would not be a good thing !
Same tactics as before and loads of runs but again a few lost to hook pulls or non hook ups was frustrating . But the weights are going up , and the best topped the scales at 6lb12oz.

The next trip takes me to a hopefully sunny and calm North Devon coast for a spot of fishing for the elusive Porbeagle shark.

The end is in sight .....

The end of the " traditional " fishing season on March 14th is a fixed point in the year for me and I like to try and get out and fish for a few days . The recent floods were looking as though they might put paid to the fishing on the rivers but a few days of dry weather saw the floods recede and the river was back in its proper place not spilling out  all over the place . So I took the week off ....

Well the car broke down , then the parts to fix it got mixed up and suffice to say I finally made it to the river on Wednesday afternoon . I joined Jeff on one of our favourite sections of the river . But despite the lovely weather , and the river looking perfect no Pike came our way .

The next day dawned with thick fog ....

I also recently bought a new pair of bib and braces , due to an incident with a barbed wire fence . Well unfortunately the same fence leapt out and grabbed me again and ripped the new trousers ! Doh

Well anyway I finally managed to catch a Pike . An 11 lb pike grabbed my deadbait . This fish is one that I have caught before at single figure weights and is easily recognised as it has a large growth on its gills .

Despite trying very hard and moving swims I did not manage another fish all day , but it was great to be out and " doing it " !

The last day again dawned cold and foggy , so I agreed with Jeff to meet him at the very top end of the stretch , which is a long walk up river . The recent floods had caused a lot of damage to the flood banks in places , exposing the earth in some places up to half way through the bank.

Again a beautiful day but no fish . Where are the fish ?

Late Turn

With my recent change in roles at work , I am now back on a shift pattern. Part of the pattern involves some late turns . So the  perfect opportunity for a few hours fishing .

Off I went to the club lake this morning for a few hours , basically to use up the remainder of the bait from my previous trip.

I went for the same basic approach , of the long rod and a float but changed to fishing a small waggler fished " lift stye", and kept up the feed via a pole cup .

I would like to report that I bagged up but sadly no ! I did get loads of bites , mostly un-hittable and lost a decent fish , but I did catch a few bream . They were not much bigger than the worm I was using for bait ! In fact the bites I was getting might have been the " snake " lobworm taking the float for a ride !

Next time out its back to the leger set up for the perch . However the rivers are looking good for next week so you never know I might get out pike fishing .

Alderwood.....outfished again by the Carp Guru

A mid week day off , so a perfect chance to try again for a big perch . Taking the advice of a living legend when it comes to perch ,( Gary) , we agreed that Alderwood pond might be a good option . it has a great reputation with fish to 5lbs , and Gaz has had them to nearly 4lbs from here .

Now Gary is a master when it comes to these small commercial type fisheries and outscores all comers , so much so that it gets embarassing fishing with him as he " bags up " . I wont give up all of his secrets but one of them is the now infamous " Ringers " white shellfish boily . Using this Gary has landed more specimen Perch than anyone I know . His list of 3lbers is long and from a varied selection of waters too .

So not being one to follow fashion ( queue the Kinks ) I took the following : ( I would have included some nice prawns in my bait tray but forgot to take them ! doh !)

 

I also wanted to try out the " long" rod , so my plan was to fish a pole float on my 17ft Preston Innovations float rod presenting a worm section and red maggot combo , while feeding via  a pole cup with red maggots and small pellets soaked in the dreadful  red peril . Sounds great so what perch could resist ?
Perfect bait presentation via the pole cup .

 

Oh and by the way tucked into my bait bucket .....yes you have guessed !

Well true to form Gaz caught 4 carp ( 4 more than everyone else on the lake !) and a raft of decent roach on the ubiquitous white boily and the little red interloper ( I will keep that one hushed up Gaz don't panic !)

 

Well ...I managed a few decent roach and rudd but no Perch . Oh and yes I did swap at the end and went onto the white boily approach which resulted in my float diving about like a thing possessed but no positive takes .

The pole float might not be the best option for next time  as I was plagued with dips and bobs on the float with no result . Next time I will follow Gaz the Carp guru and go with what ever he does as it obviously works .

Outfished by the master !

But sometimes its just nice being there .....fishing is  a good excuse for getting out,  and just being there !

Boat Trip

A break in the weather looked good for a boat trip with Jeff on " Jupiter's Moon " for Saturday so  off we went . The tide was a very large one at 6.1m so many of the marks were not likely to be fishable, so Jeff picked a mark where we could target conger over the slack period of the tide.

A smorgas board of delight was prepared with cuttle and squid as the main course for the conger .

The tide run was very harsh so we had to use a pound of lead to hold .

We were getting pretty immediate bites but from small fish which were stripping the baits . I managed to get one solid bite from a conger and a small fish of about 10lbs was brought quickly to the boat .

Jeff decided on a move to a mark on rough ground inshore , so off we went . We again fished with big squid and cuttle baits in the hope of a conger . I managed to secure the only bite and brought in a nice thornback ray close to double figures .

 I am always amazed at the number of spines on a ray , and the remarkable dentistry , which is not the place to leave your finger for too long !

With the wind beginning to increase and the sea beginning to move to its rythmn we left to return to port . the river mouth was an interesting experience with the tide , wind and increased flood water in the river .

Repeats .....same again please !

I had planned to go Perch fishing today but work got in the way again . Shame because it was a lovely day . Roll on the weekend ! You never know the rivers might be up for a visit .

I am still going through old pictures and found these two :

Believe it or not this is the same fish . She weighed 17lbs ( I'm honest as well as she weighed the same both times !) and was caught twice in about 2 hours within 20 yards . Obviously hungry !
This is not the first time I have had a repeat capture . My record is the same small Pike of about 6lbs caught 5 times in th space of 30 minutes . I felt sorry for him and fed him a couple of smelt and moved on !