Mr Fish
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
- Messages
- 21,323
- Reaction score
- 73,855
- Points
- 116
- Location
- North Devon
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
Not been out for awhile, had lots going on, most of it not good, but the lure of fishing is starting to reassert itself finally.
Saturday’s plan had been a boat trip with some off here but unfortunately it was cancelled due to the forecast.
Peetty sure we could have gone in the end, but hey ho, that’s boat fishing.
So my mate Chris and I decided to try a North Devon codling mark which I hoped would throw up a couple.
I haven’t fished there for a few years but it normally produced a couple of codling more often than not - albeit not huge, 2-3lb tends to be the average stamp, although there was one red letter night with fish up to 7lb.
High tide 9pm, fairly small tide, perfect for there as the flow does rip through.
Peeler is really the only bait, simply because it’s crab infested and nothing else lasts very long. However they will take worm so we supplemented our meagre crab stocks with some frozen blacks.
We got there and set up and I was seized by a pleasure at being back on this mark after so long. It really is somewhere that I enjoy fishing.
And you get some awesome views, with the moonlight on the river.
We saw no activity up to high and I must admit my crab wasn’t great. Half of it was just about okay, the other half, I discovered, looked like it had spent 2,000 years in an Egyptian tomb.
At high I began to lash a black lug to the less than great crab in the hope it might add to the scent trail.
This soon resulted in a rattling bite and we watched as I brought a modest fish to the surface, before it dropped off. ??
Chris identified a whiting and I pointed out that it needed amazing angling skill to bring it in even that far when the trace had been such a tangled mess ?
Well, he soon showed me how it was done and landed another whiting, again on worm, but this was a good eating size at around a pound.
He went on to land two more, including another keeper.
Funnily enough, although the mark does produce whiting I've only ever seen the odd smaller one, but there was a better stamp out there last night.
I went back to persevering with the peeler baits, to use it up but also in the hope of picking up a codling on the ebb.
That wasn’t to be and we packed up. It was quite surprising to see frost on the grass as we walked back. I’d been wearing my floatation suit jacket open all night because I hadn’t really felt all that chilly, but when we got back to the cars the temp said -1, not what I’d expected.
Anyway, it was good to get out for a short session and to revisit a mark I hadn’t seen for ages.
We’ll definitely be back!
Saturday’s plan had been a boat trip with some off here but unfortunately it was cancelled due to the forecast.
Peetty sure we could have gone in the end, but hey ho, that’s boat fishing.So my mate Chris and I decided to try a North Devon codling mark which I hoped would throw up a couple.
I haven’t fished there for a few years but it normally produced a couple of codling more often than not - albeit not huge, 2-3lb tends to be the average stamp, although there was one red letter night with fish up to 7lb.
High tide 9pm, fairly small tide, perfect for there as the flow does rip through.
Peeler is really the only bait, simply because it’s crab infested and nothing else lasts very long. However they will take worm so we supplemented our meagre crab stocks with some frozen blacks.
We got there and set up and I was seized by a pleasure at being back on this mark after so long. It really is somewhere that I enjoy fishing.
And you get some awesome views, with the moonlight on the river.
We saw no activity up to high and I must admit my crab wasn’t great. Half of it was just about okay, the other half, I discovered, looked like it had spent 2,000 years in an Egyptian tomb.
At high I began to lash a black lug to the less than great crab in the hope it might add to the scent trail.
This soon resulted in a rattling bite and we watched as I brought a modest fish to the surface, before it dropped off. ??
Chris identified a whiting and I pointed out that it needed amazing angling skill to bring it in even that far when the trace had been such a tangled mess ?
Well, he soon showed me how it was done and landed another whiting, again on worm, but this was a good eating size at around a pound.
He went on to land two more, including another keeper.
Funnily enough, although the mark does produce whiting I've only ever seen the odd smaller one, but there was a better stamp out there last night.
I went back to persevering with the peeler baits, to use it up but also in the hope of picking up a codling on the ebb.
That wasn’t to be and we packed up. It was quite surprising to see frost on the grass as we walked back. I’d been wearing my floatation suit jacket open all night because I hadn’t really felt all that chilly, but when we got back to the cars the temp said -1, not what I’d expected.
Anyway, it was good to get out for a short session and to revisit a mark I hadn’t seen for ages.
We’ll definitely be back!
