South West Blankety blank 😢

[Si-fly]

Hi all, well it happened the dreaded blank!...in fact 2 in a row....7 hours of motionless rods and untouched baits ....not much fun, to the point I actually left early both sessions (unheard of that for me!)

So a very poor month, just a few rays early on
And If anyone is thinking of coming over, I'd bring some worm and go for codling....that seems to be all that's showing on my local beaches, probably until this weather warms up a bit I reckon.

Well that was upto yesterday, when I decided I'd had enough of blanking local, and planned a trip to Plymouth... surely I couldn't blank on the little rod .....nah.

A quick message to a couple of lads on here, and I had a bit of company arranged ...cheers John
Anyway I arrived to a lovely sunny view of Elphinstone car park, and a couple of locals catching mackerel....nice.

John soon arrived with some worm he picked up on route, and our session began.
Nothing...um....dead for a bit, then a few bites and my first fish a nice Tompot.

Think the next fish was a bit of a surprise, fishing deep on the bottom a little rattle produced a lovely 2 spot goby


Next out was one of my targets, a rockgoby needed for a comp, as since April I've forgotten to get one on the correct card !!

Then a few micro wrasse appeared, and we decided to move towards Sutton harbour, stopping at a spot John fancied for a goby or 2.


It looked dead here, and I hadn't felt any bites, when John suddenly thought he could see fish going for his bait ....and he was right ...tiny gobys were all around it....strange how once you see a fish you can then see more!
I dropped my bait down on a sand patch and looked hard through the ripples, and sure enough tiny gobys started to move closer, appearing from nowhere.
One started to flip about so I lifted the rod , and a small common was hooked


Next an even smaller painted....and with that I moved again and went looking for a shanny...no shanny, so off we went again.


John had the fish of the day here , a lovely Tub gurnard....well done mate, target achieved
Time for another move, and this time lots of bites, a deeper section which seemed full of Goldsinny wrasse ...loads of them....I was hoping for a black goby, but so many Goldsinny, I don't think they stood a chance


With darkness, more wrasse and a few pout arrived. John also got his 2nd target here a pout.

Time to move, go look for a flounder, and my main target a herring. Straight away we saw 2 good size fish, but no joy....they motored away almost instantly the second our small leads landed near them.
So onto the herring...loads suddenly appeared and I think 2nd cast I hooked one and disaster... swinging it up the wall it flipped and came off ....gutted!
Oh well plenty more out there, fish were everywhere, won't take long to get another I thought....how wrong was I....never got another bite ...bugger!

John left me flogging the water at this point and went home....cheers John enjoyed your company

After a bit the fish moved off out of range and I gave up and went back to the van, had a coffee, then drove to the final spot of the day....the herring banker...where I failed last trip down!

I arrived and a lad there already said he had caught a few....nice ...out went my small lure....nothing....out went some small feathers....nothing....not again I thought.

The lad offered some advice, try a sented lure he said, that's what he caught on earlier.

I had a rummage in my bag and out came some tiny paddletail lures...forgot I'd bought them tbh, but I put one on and chucked it out....nothing....2nd cast ...bang a herring... wow... gently lifting it over the wall....it fell off....I wasn't happy!

Out it went again and after a few more chucks another hit and this time I swung it up ...held my breath and over it came ...ah you bugger , got you at last .I had a few more casts, chatted with the lad and his mate, dropped another fish, and called it a night.

At last a few fish...roll on Feb....I'm away in the sun

 

[Tatunka joe]

100 percent agree January has been a mare for me aswell on the fishing front but nice bit of fiddleing there si did the 2 spot take a double squid bait and when you say jhon do you mean Mitchell or an imposter

 

[John Mitchell]

It was a great afternoon/evening out with the master , he was catching fish after fish on rag and I struggled, then as dusk approached the lures started to work and I started catching fish , I think si had 8 spieces and I had 6 , and the vast shoal of herring were frustrating to say the least , glad you got one from the mark I said mate

 

[J Richards]

Great report as always mate. Awsome pics aswel

 

[Si-fly]

It was a great afternoon/evening out with the master , he was catching fish after fish on rag and I struggled, then as dusk approached the lures started to work and I started catching fish , I think si had 8 spieces and I had 6 , and the vast shoal of herring were frustrating to say the least , glad you got one from the mark I said mate

It was a slow, but fun afternoon, just a shame it's a 95 minute drive each way with no traffic for me!

Counting the pics...looks like I had 10 species out, could possibly have got a mackerel and yting if I had tried, but went down with targets being herring, Rock goby and a shanny....happy with 2, means I'll just have to come down again for the shanny... Exmouth or Brixham probably....or maybe Poole...as do need a Turbot

Bait definitely catches a lot more fish than the plastic stuff John was using....but he did have a lovely Tub...so it definitely has its place and is a good backup option if like me your happy to use proper bait

 

[Trampster]

Well done both of you - good mix of species there.

I was thinking I would have popped down if I'd known you were about, but I've got vehicle problems so wouldn't have been able to anyway. Next time I hope.

 

[chesilpete]

Blanks...... its gotta happen, catching a bag of pin ting, rockling, dogs n pout is sometimes worse in my opinion.
A honourable blank...... nowt wrong with that.

 

[Si-fly]

Blanks...... its gotta happen, catching a bag of pin ting, rockling, dogs n pout is sometimes worse in my opinion.
A honourable blank...... nowt wrong with that.

I agree, glad we don't get all those pests up here, dogs and straps are enough

I probably could have caught if I went and got some worm, a couple of small codling maybe, but for ease it was just squid/bluey baits....big or bust....and bust it was

Now the LRF I find different, it's more a species challenge, and much more of a social thing.... definitely great fun on it's day, and a good way to meet other anglers and have a chin wag

 

[Mr Fish]

Top fiddling Si! Enough there for a fish finger sandwich I reckon!

 

[Si-fly]

Top fiddling Si! Enough there for a fish finger sandwich I reckon!

That may be pushing it Mr Fish

 

[chesilpete]

I agree, glad we don't get all those pests up here, dogs and straps are enough

I probably could have caught if I went and got some worm, a couple of small codling maybe, but for ease it was just squid/bluey baits....big or bust....and bust it was

Now the LRF I find different, it's more a species challenge, and much more of a social thing.... definitely great fun on it's day, and a good way to meet other anglers and have a chin wag

its all bait to me Si!

 

[bananas]

Another great report and pics mate, well done on a good session there, them fish do like a nice bit a rag

 

[Si-fly]

Another great report and pics mate, well done on a good session there, them fish do like a nice bit a rag

Don't think you can beat a bit of fresh bait

If I lived closer, then I would probably use plastic more, but as I'm down only a handful of times a year to try and get comp fish, I feel I need to use what works for me....I'm still not confident in plastic to catch what I need in a short amount of time.....shame really as it a pain sourcing worm at short notice for me .

 

[bananas]

Don't think you can beat a bit of fresh bait

If I lived closer, then I would probably use plastic more, but as I'm down only a handful of times a year to try and get comp fish, I feel I need to use what works for me....I'm still not confident in plastic to catch what I need in a short amount of time.....shame really as it a pain sourcing worm at short notice for me .

I getting used to the plastic it bit more, but catches are down definitely, tho species are doing ok. be nice to get back to rag and a lump a lead fishing.

 

[Wolf]

Nice catches great piccys and write up

 

[Goateeblank]

Great selection of minis there. I would be well happy with those. Good going guys.