Mr Fish
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
- Messages
- 21,372
- Reaction score
- 74,018
- Points
- 116
- Location
- North Devon
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
It’s not been the most productive Easter weekend on the fishing front.
On Friday I joined @Christurner for what was admittedly an experimental effort in the estuary for an early gilthead bream.
I’d never actually targeted them before, although always kept saying I would, so it really was a shot in the dark.
We picked a spot with a few patches of clean ground between mussel beds and rocks, seemed prime gilt territory.
Chris had some cracking live peeler from a new supplier too.
I had a duvet malfunction and wasn’t very quick off the mark, so I messaged to say I’d meet him down there and when I arrived, he’d already had a schoolie about 1.5lb.
Encouraging anyway.
But that was it for a while. A few rattling bites that were the tell tale sign of the river’s main inhabitants, tiny bass up to about four inches long.
Eventually I broke my duck with a titchy bass about 8oz. Went to photograph it and it dropped onto the sand ?
Rather than stress it more I flipped it back into the briny and it swam off okay, thankfully.
The tide dropped, and dropped, and it became a bit awkward to fish but the flood soon started pushing up.
Chris decided to move over to a patch of sand on the ‘beach’ and I stayed on the rocks to try and fish among the features for a bit longer.
I had a better bite and managed to drop something, not huge, probably another 1lb plus basslet.
The tiny ones were ripping into the bait and decided to give up the rocks and join Chris on the beach.
As he said, it was all an experiment so worth trying a few different areas.
The beach was a bit naff, more tiny bass bites and we both said we’d more or less had enough, so knocked it on the head.
On his last cast Chris had another bass about 12oz!
Chris kindly gave me his leftover ragworm as I had a 24 hour comp Saturday/Sunday, so I said I’d try and keep them alive until then!
Saturday… wow, aching like a bastard. Comp started at 6pm, high was 7pm, low 1am.
Fishing an hour up and the ebb would be a waste of time.
Going out at 10pm for the low and staying out until 4am REALLY didn’t appeal!
Decided to get up Sunday morning and see how I felt.
Wasn’t too bad, so decided on my local (five minutes away) rock mark for a wrasse or perhaps a better huss or the elusive rockling.
The ragworm was surprisingly lively so took that with me and a float rod.
The sea really isn’t very clear yet, it didn’t look too wrassy..
Started out with spider peeler on one rod and float fished rag.
A couple of messy bites on the crab rod and tangled traces showed Mr Strap was playing at least ?
The float just wasn’t working out. There was a strong wind blowing down the valley behind me, a big swell and it’s a shallow mark, especially at low tide.
Any sort of float drift was very difficult and it kept snagging on kelp no matter how shallow it was set, so I gave it up until the flood and focused on mackerel baits on the other beachcaster for huss or rockling.
Mostly I just fed lead weights to snags until low. Did hook something on mackerel, probably a dog or small huss, which came off halfway in.
As the tide turned I had a better bite and brought in the first huss.
Didn’t weigh it but 3-4lb I guess.
The second hook of the pennell was a bit deep and there was a bit of blood, so rather than wrench it about I cut the line close to it, in the hope that might give the fish a chance.
Back out went the last half of mackerel and it wasn’t long before the second huss came in.
A bit bigger, I guesstimated about 5lb.
I tried the float again but this bloody thing made it awkward… wasn’t too bad for most of the session but the turning tide drifted the buoys in front of me.
It still wasn’t really doable with the float. After five minutes it snagged again and snapped off so gave up on the idea in disgust.
Tried a couple of big rag baits on the ledger but still had loads left at the end ?
No more bites to speak of. The spider, which is a top wrasse bait, didn’t really get touched all day.
I tell a lie. I had a strap on it that dropped off at the side. Shame ?
I’d think there probably are wrasse about now, but the murky water close in didn’t really make it prime conditions.
I had to pack up in any case, as I’d used up my tide window and needed to climb back around the rocks before I started swimming!
Not the most productive session but a couple of fish I guess.
If you’re still awake, have another read and I promise, no insomnia tonight!
On Friday I joined @Christurner for what was admittedly an experimental effort in the estuary for an early gilthead bream.
I’d never actually targeted them before, although always kept saying I would, so it really was a shot in the dark.
We picked a spot with a few patches of clean ground between mussel beds and rocks, seemed prime gilt territory.
Chris had some cracking live peeler from a new supplier too.
I had a duvet malfunction and wasn’t very quick off the mark, so I messaged to say I’d meet him down there and when I arrived, he’d already had a schoolie about 1.5lb.
Encouraging anyway.
But that was it for a while. A few rattling bites that were the tell tale sign of the river’s main inhabitants, tiny bass up to about four inches long.
Eventually I broke my duck with a titchy bass about 8oz. Went to photograph it and it dropped onto the sand ?
Rather than stress it more I flipped it back into the briny and it swam off okay, thankfully.
The tide dropped, and dropped, and it became a bit awkward to fish but the flood soon started pushing up.
Chris decided to move over to a patch of sand on the ‘beach’ and I stayed on the rocks to try and fish among the features for a bit longer.
I had a better bite and managed to drop something, not huge, probably another 1lb plus basslet.
The tiny ones were ripping into the bait and decided to give up the rocks and join Chris on the beach.
As he said, it was all an experiment so worth trying a few different areas.
The beach was a bit naff, more tiny bass bites and we both said we’d more or less had enough, so knocked it on the head.
On his last cast Chris had another bass about 12oz!
Chris kindly gave me his leftover ragworm as I had a 24 hour comp Saturday/Sunday, so I said I’d try and keep them alive until then!
Saturday… wow, aching like a bastard. Comp started at 6pm, high was 7pm, low 1am.
Fishing an hour up and the ebb would be a waste of time.
Going out at 10pm for the low and staying out until 4am REALLY didn’t appeal!
Decided to get up Sunday morning and see how I felt.
Wasn’t too bad, so decided on my local (five minutes away) rock mark for a wrasse or perhaps a better huss or the elusive rockling.
The ragworm was surprisingly lively so took that with me and a float rod.
The sea really isn’t very clear yet, it didn’t look too wrassy..
Started out with spider peeler on one rod and float fished rag.
A couple of messy bites on the crab rod and tangled traces showed Mr Strap was playing at least ?
The float just wasn’t working out. There was a strong wind blowing down the valley behind me, a big swell and it’s a shallow mark, especially at low tide.
Any sort of float drift was very difficult and it kept snagging on kelp no matter how shallow it was set, so I gave it up until the flood and focused on mackerel baits on the other beachcaster for huss or rockling.
Mostly I just fed lead weights to snags until low. Did hook something on mackerel, probably a dog or small huss, which came off halfway in.
As the tide turned I had a better bite and brought in the first huss.
Didn’t weigh it but 3-4lb I guess.
The second hook of the pennell was a bit deep and there was a bit of blood, so rather than wrench it about I cut the line close to it, in the hope that might give the fish a chance.
Back out went the last half of mackerel and it wasn’t long before the second huss came in.
A bit bigger, I guesstimated about 5lb.
I tried the float again but this bloody thing made it awkward… wasn’t too bad for most of the session but the turning tide drifted the buoys in front of me.
It still wasn’t really doable with the float. After five minutes it snagged again and snapped off so gave up on the idea in disgust.
Tried a couple of big rag baits on the ledger but still had loads left at the end ?
No more bites to speak of. The spider, which is a top wrasse bait, didn’t really get touched all day.
I tell a lie. I had a strap on it that dropped off at the side. Shame ?
I’d think there probably are wrasse about now, but the murky water close in didn’t really make it prime conditions.
I had to pack up in any case, as I’d used up my tide window and needed to climb back around the rocks before I started swimming!
Not the most productive session but a couple of fish I guess.
If you’re still awake, have another read and I promise, no insomnia tonight!
