Flipper
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2020
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- 278
- Reaction score
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- Location
- Devon
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
Many thanks to all those who helped in advance, much appreciated, as promised here is my holiday report. Sorry if it is too long and boring again
Saturday 1st June
Arrived and went down to our local beach for evening low tide, covered the whole beach and found a 35cm schoolie at the far end of the beach on a 32g green SG Seeker. I also caught a tiny sandeel about 2in.
Sunday 2nd June
Out on the boat with Jimmy Lemon on Awesome Fishing, started at and was blown away by the bird life, puffins, razorbills, guillemots and gulls, plus loads of types of jellyfish. We caught 3 tidy bass - biggest 55cm - on SG Sandeel lures as the tide dropped toward low tide and then the action died. It was a bright clear sunny day and the action was slow, the skipper was fab, burned fuel to move marks and search for the fish, we picked up small pollack, some wrasse and a couple of mackerel which took 40g SG sandeels
Towards the end of the day the tide started to ebb and we targeted a very specific small reef. Jimmy had a small pollack chased by a decent bass, so we went back to start the drift and I covered a slightly exposed rock with my SG sandeel. Barely 3 turns in and the light rod hooped over and I was into a decent fish. Weirdly the fish didn’t do much, it came up to the surface and started to thrash around to throw the hook, luckily the hook hold held and in another minute of so a 63cm fish was safely netted. Lovely chunky fish, it was in fine fettle, safely returned. Our attention was drawn to a tide race which had lots of bird activity so we had an exhilarating ride to get over to them. Sadly despite the huge amount of surface bait activity, there were a large number of gulls, so I couldn’t use my beloved surface lure so changed from the deeper fishing Sandeel to a metal and a tiny delta eel as a flier. There was pollack and bass attacking a big bait ball of sandeel. I had double shots of pollack and bass, plus the odd double shot of one pollack and one bass. It was incredible fishing, really most enjoyable on light gear.
Monday
I went early to a local rock mark and kept it simple, fishing with various SG seekers and searching the water column. Ended up with 4 mackerel and a schoolie. However, I had the fright of my life just after the schoolie hit, I could tell it wasn’t a big fish, but, halfway in it suddenly turned into a monster and the rod was going over at a crazy angle. For 5-10 seconds I was helpless and couldn’t do anything but just hang on to the rod. Suddenly the rod sprang back and all was normal so I started to crank it in again. Upon doing do I saw a big bow wave coming behind my schoolie, knowing what was happening from similar experiences in the past I reeled really fast and lifted the little schoolie out of the water. The bow wave raced in and came all the way to rocks before pipping his head out and snorting disgustedly at me, a big ass, unhappy seal!! The seal had grabbed the schoolie across the middle and despite leaving marks, it hadn’t punctured the fish with its teeth and was happy flapping about in my arms trying to spike me. I unhooked it and walked to a little gulley away from the seal to give it the best chance of escape on its release.
Boys went out with Joe at Catch and Cook, had an awesome time catching pollack to 3lb and bass to 4 1/2lb. I cannot recommend Joe highly enough, a real gent, so patient with them and taught them do much, he gave them an experience they will never forget.
I went down the rocks at Solva harbour mouth whilst waiting for them to come back in and caught 7 pollack to 2lb and 4 mackerel on jigs with a flier.
Tuesday
Early start down on the rocks for 04:00 and it was slow until 05:00 with only 2 mackerel caught. However, at the top of the tide I noticed fish splashing in the bay a long way out and could tell it was bass. The birds came in as well, but, still too far out to reach with surface lure or even one of my lighter SG Seekers. Gradually, they came closer, but, at maximum range for my 30g Zetz jig and the fun began! 6 bass from 45cm up to 55cm in an hour and it was awesome fun. Sometimes, I could feel the jig bouncing across the back of fish! The fish fought really hard in the oxygenated water.
In the afternoon we visited a river mouth and found 2 bass, one tiny and one 57cm, as fat as butter, the bigger one inhaled a 15g Fiish Black Eel and fought really well in the current. The 57cm was really feisty and was even trying to spike me with its flared gill plates as I was returning it, loved seeing the aggression though.
Wednesday
Another early start, I gambled that the strong - and cold - west wind would drive the numerous small sandeel into a bay where they would be disorientated and trapped. The bait might have been there, but, I should have thought about the weed, which was monstrous. It was a cold slog, but, ended up with 3 schoolies and 2 mackerel. The strong in your face wind really killed my casting, but, it did allow me to experiment with my metal collection to see which ones flew the furthest and caught the fish. Overall winner was the SG Seeker with 4 fish to the 30g green and silver one and 1 to the white 23g version, not sure if the distance was a factor, but, given the strong in my face wind it was noticeably better than the Zetz, Abu, Little Jack and Kilty. The fish seemed to hit strongest on a spin stop, which was proving to be a valuable lesson.
Took the boys down to a rock mark for the evening high tide and to be fair, our lack of knowledge and experience of the area was shown up, it was the wrong mark on a spring tide as the current made lure fishing very difficult. However, in our stubborn stupidity we persevered and caught some small pollack, a couple of ballans and a schoolie of about 52cm. My youngest got a bit peeved after an hour of battling unsuccessfully the fierce tide, so decided to put a hardback on his Jika rig instead of a lure and lob it straight down the rocks he was stood on. Two minutes later the light spinning rod was bent over in an extreme way, the battle was intense and landing was challenging, but, he successfully got a stunning big ballan in. Highlight of the evening!
Thursday
Fished an estuary mark due to the wind early morning, but, it looked dead and never produced a knock.
My wife got me another 4 hour session with Jimmy at Awesome Fishing, but, the sunny clear skies and strong wind made it a challenge. We caught pollack and bass though, mainly on the 30g white storm biscay lure. Biggest bass was probably 50cm, but, again great fun on the light lure gear.
Friday
Chill out day planned with the family, but, by mid afternoon everyone was happy to let me and two of the boys disappear to explore a new area for one last session. We hiked along the coast path looking for shelter from the freshening wind and a suitable shallow reef to give the boys the best chance of a wrasse and a bass on lures. Access down was a little tricky, but, found some a likely looking spot and made our way down. The boys excitedly headed over to the deeper water looking for wrasse and I focused on the shallow reef. The reef had razorbills working it and sure enough I foul hooked some sandeels as I retrieved my lures, so I was feeling super confident. My eldest yelled over in a funny voice, so I looked up in a panic and saw his rod bent over at a crazy angle as a big Ballan wrasse had hammered his creature bait on a texas rig, a stunning fish was soon landed. We went on to catch 4 schoolies, 12 pollack and a mackerel as the tide flooded in. Sadly, I lost the biggest fish of the day which took a seeker at range and proceeded to find snags 3 times, first two times I could just about get it out, third time it dived into the reef and I got the sickening feeling that it wasn’t coming out, sure enough I lost it. C’est la vie!
All in all a fab holiday, the bass lure fishing was superb, Jimmy Lemon was a good skipper, Joe at Catch and Cook was a fab guy and my boys enjoyed themselves immensely.
Savage gear seekers in white or green and white were the best lure overall. My Smith Dragonbait lure rods continued to excel and keep their more expensive brethren on the rod rack. The VS50’s are a delight for the rough and tough of the surf and rocks, don’t expect smoothness and great line lay, but, they just work and feel great.
The weather could have been kinder, but, we really didn’t have too much rain which would have made the rocks very tricky. Really miss Anglers Corner at Milford Haven, the owner was really friendly and helpful.
If you made it this far through my ramblings then you deserve a medal!!
Saturday 1st June
Arrived and went down to our local beach for evening low tide, covered the whole beach and found a 35cm schoolie at the far end of the beach on a 32g green SG Seeker. I also caught a tiny sandeel about 2in.
Sunday 2nd June
Out on the boat with Jimmy Lemon on Awesome Fishing, started at and was blown away by the bird life, puffins, razorbills, guillemots and gulls, plus loads of types of jellyfish. We caught 3 tidy bass - biggest 55cm - on SG Sandeel lures as the tide dropped toward low tide and then the action died. It was a bright clear sunny day and the action was slow, the skipper was fab, burned fuel to move marks and search for the fish, we picked up small pollack, some wrasse and a couple of mackerel which took 40g SG sandeels
Towards the end of the day the tide started to ebb and we targeted a very specific small reef. Jimmy had a small pollack chased by a decent bass, so we went back to start the drift and I covered a slightly exposed rock with my SG sandeel. Barely 3 turns in and the light rod hooped over and I was into a decent fish. Weirdly the fish didn’t do much, it came up to the surface and started to thrash around to throw the hook, luckily the hook hold held and in another minute of so a 63cm fish was safely netted. Lovely chunky fish, it was in fine fettle, safely returned. Our attention was drawn to a tide race which had lots of bird activity so we had an exhilarating ride to get over to them. Sadly despite the huge amount of surface bait activity, there were a large number of gulls, so I couldn’t use my beloved surface lure so changed from the deeper fishing Sandeel to a metal and a tiny delta eel as a flier. There was pollack and bass attacking a big bait ball of sandeel. I had double shots of pollack and bass, plus the odd double shot of one pollack and one bass. It was incredible fishing, really most enjoyable on light gear.Monday
I went early to a local rock mark and kept it simple, fishing with various SG seekers and searching the water column. Ended up with 4 mackerel and a schoolie. However, I had the fright of my life just after the schoolie hit, I could tell it wasn’t a big fish, but, halfway in it suddenly turned into a monster and the rod was going over at a crazy angle. For 5-10 seconds I was helpless and couldn’t do anything but just hang on to the rod. Suddenly the rod sprang back and all was normal so I started to crank it in again. Upon doing do I saw a big bow wave coming behind my schoolie, knowing what was happening from similar experiences in the past I reeled really fast and lifted the little schoolie out of the water. The bow wave raced in and came all the way to rocks before pipping his head out and snorting disgustedly at me, a big ass, unhappy seal!! The seal had grabbed the schoolie across the middle and despite leaving marks, it hadn’t punctured the fish with its teeth and was happy flapping about in my arms trying to spike me. I unhooked it and walked to a little gulley away from the seal to give it the best chance of escape on its release.
Boys went out with Joe at Catch and Cook, had an awesome time catching pollack to 3lb and bass to 4 1/2lb. I cannot recommend Joe highly enough, a real gent, so patient with them and taught them do much, he gave them an experience they will never forget.
I went down the rocks at Solva harbour mouth whilst waiting for them to come back in and caught 7 pollack to 2lb and 4 mackerel on jigs with a flier.
Tuesday
Early start down on the rocks for 04:00 and it was slow until 05:00 with only 2 mackerel caught. However, at the top of the tide I noticed fish splashing in the bay a long way out and could tell it was bass. The birds came in as well, but, still too far out to reach with surface lure or even one of my lighter SG Seekers. Gradually, they came closer, but, at maximum range for my 30g Zetz jig and the fun began! 6 bass from 45cm up to 55cm in an hour and it was awesome fun. Sometimes, I could feel the jig bouncing across the back of fish! The fish fought really hard in the oxygenated water.
In the afternoon we visited a river mouth and found 2 bass, one tiny and one 57cm, as fat as butter, the bigger one inhaled a 15g Fiish Black Eel and fought really well in the current. The 57cm was really feisty and was even trying to spike me with its flared gill plates as I was returning it, loved seeing the aggression though.
Wednesday
Another early start, I gambled that the strong - and cold - west wind would drive the numerous small sandeel into a bay where they would be disorientated and trapped. The bait might have been there, but, I should have thought about the weed, which was monstrous. It was a cold slog, but, ended up with 3 schoolies and 2 mackerel. The strong in your face wind really killed my casting, but, it did allow me to experiment with my metal collection to see which ones flew the furthest and caught the fish. Overall winner was the SG Seeker with 4 fish to the 30g green and silver one and 1 to the white 23g version, not sure if the distance was a factor, but, given the strong in my face wind it was noticeably better than the Zetz, Abu, Little Jack and Kilty. The fish seemed to hit strongest on a spin stop, which was proving to be a valuable lesson.
Took the boys down to a rock mark for the evening high tide and to be fair, our lack of knowledge and experience of the area was shown up, it was the wrong mark on a spring tide as the current made lure fishing very difficult. However, in our stubborn stupidity we persevered and caught some small pollack, a couple of ballans and a schoolie of about 52cm. My youngest got a bit peeved after an hour of battling unsuccessfully the fierce tide, so decided to put a hardback on his Jika rig instead of a lure and lob it straight down the rocks he was stood on. Two minutes later the light spinning rod was bent over in an extreme way, the battle was intense and landing was challenging, but, he successfully got a stunning big ballan in. Highlight of the evening!
Thursday
Fished an estuary mark due to the wind early morning, but, it looked dead and never produced a knock.
My wife got me another 4 hour session with Jimmy at Awesome Fishing, but, the sunny clear skies and strong wind made it a challenge. We caught pollack and bass though, mainly on the 30g white storm biscay lure. Biggest bass was probably 50cm, but, again great fun on the light lure gear.
Friday
Chill out day planned with the family, but, by mid afternoon everyone was happy to let me and two of the boys disappear to explore a new area for one last session. We hiked along the coast path looking for shelter from the freshening wind and a suitable shallow reef to give the boys the best chance of a wrasse and a bass on lures. Access down was a little tricky, but, found some a likely looking spot and made our way down. The boys excitedly headed over to the deeper water looking for wrasse and I focused on the shallow reef. The reef had razorbills working it and sure enough I foul hooked some sandeels as I retrieved my lures, so I was feeling super confident. My eldest yelled over in a funny voice, so I looked up in a panic and saw his rod bent over at a crazy angle as a big Ballan wrasse had hammered his creature bait on a texas rig, a stunning fish was soon landed. We went on to catch 4 schoolies, 12 pollack and a mackerel as the tide flooded in. Sadly, I lost the biggest fish of the day which took a seeker at range and proceeded to find snags 3 times, first two times I could just about get it out, third time it dived into the reef and I got the sickening feeling that it wasn’t coming out, sure enough I lost it. C’est la vie!
All in all a fab holiday, the bass lure fishing was superb, Jimmy Lemon was a good skipper, Joe at Catch and Cook was a fab guy and my boys enjoyed themselves immensely.
Savage gear seekers in white or green and white were the best lure overall. My Smith Dragonbait lure rods continued to excel and keep their more expensive brethren on the rod rack. The VS50’s are a delight for the rough and tough of the surf and rocks, don’t expect smoothness and great line lay, but, they just work and feel great.
The weather could have been kinder, but, we really didn’t have too much rain which would have made the rocks very tricky. Really miss Anglers Corner at Milford Haven, the owner was really friendly and helpful.
If you made it this far through my ramblings then you deserve a medal!!
