Mr Fish
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
- Messages
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- Location
- North Devon
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
WARNING: Dodgy pictures of the Fishmeister in dodgy shorts below! ?
Sorry, slightly belated report as just haven’t seemed to have found the time for a few days.
Sunday was my club’s daytime comp and I REALLY wanted to finally have a good crack at the North Cornwall wrasse.
You may recall my last two attempts weren’t very successful! The first one I couldn’t even get down to the mark, the second time the ground was more shallow than I expected and not really weedy wrasse territory at all, with only one small wrasse to show for it.
Now I KNOW there are loads of good wrasse marks in North Cornwall, but there’s also a lot of high cliffs and the two issues I’ve found are being able to actually find somewhere to park and also, actually finding a way down to the marks.
Anyway, after exchanging several messages with Dave @The Third Earl on here, he kindly gave me some good information and detailed directions to a few marks, so on Sunday I picked one.
In an ideal world you’d always like to check out a mark before actually fishing it, but it’s fun sometimes to try somewhere with no preconceptions as everything is fresh and new, you can’t beat that anticipation of just not knowing what you’ll find.
Not to mention finding the time to go and look at these spots…
It being silly season, I knew really I’d have to leave at silly o clock to beat the grockle traffic and so the alarm was set for 4am.
I actually fell out at 4.25 but a mad rush around saw me on the road at 5.15, which wasn’t TOO bad.
A lovely blast down the A39 with barely anyone I needed to overtake, and I was setting off from the car park at 7am just as the sun was starting to peek over the hills.
As Dave had warned/promised, the mark was a bit of a climb down but really wasn’t actually too bad as long as you carefully picked your way down the steps of Cornish granite. Or whatever it was!
A quick recce from above and I felt the right hand side seemed to look more wrassy, so I started there first.
Bait was spider crab peeler. Most of it had seen the freezer once or twice but in my experience wrasse aren’t too fussy and I really needed to use up some of the poorer stuff.
I’d also packed some normal peeler, or thought I had until I got there and realised that bag was still in the freezer at home ?
Still, I had a fair bit of spider and even a small one will make two wrasse baits.
To start, it was slow. I had a modest sort of bite that although enthusiastic was probably just a small wrasse. I missed it.
While the baits were soaking I did a bit of a recce and decided as the tide rose, I’d need to move around to the front of the mark.
So began moving stuff around and then when I went to bring in one of the rods, hello! Fish on! Not a bad fish either and it fought well as I bullied it to the surface.
Not a bad start and at 3lb 3, big enough to weigh in for the comp. Ie photograph and photograph the fish on the scales in a sling, then put it back.
Err… excuse the shorts! ???
They’re just old swimming shorts so if I get wet, I don’t care, plus if I’m going to get a tan, I want to tan the leg, not three inches of it, which is what you seem to get with modern ‘shorts’.
Anyway…
I moved around to the front of the mark and tbh the shape of the rocks made it awkward, but nonetheless I had three good bites - and missed three good bites ? - in fairly quick succession.
I was on the ball for bite number four and struck into… a lively strap ??
????
In between all this I rigged up my float rod (well, actually a Tidewater flattie rod, but I’d found it a bit too soft for estuary work so it became my float rod) with two mackerel feathers and a 3oz weight.
Really I wanted fresh mackerel for float fishing but also, the two feathers made it legal for the comp (once I’d reeled in one bottom rod) and a jumbo mackerel wouldn’t hurt my chances either!
I did a bit of that with no mackie, but was starting to get splashed by the spray.
I cared not a bit if I got wet, but the gear and my phone was another matter, so I moved everything higher and opted to fish the left of the mark, which also looked wrassy.
I went back to feathering and had two mackerel in three minutes. They were medium at best but a good size for bait.
As I was dropping them into a rock pool behind me, I saw the wrasse rod going, so rushed back to that and landed a 2lb 6 fish. Not huge, but encouraging…
Back to mackereling and had one more, then nothing for a few casts so gave up on that.
I had what I wanted for fresh bait anyway.
I put one bottom rod out with squid strip on the off chance there might be bream or even triggers about, but that was coming back pristine, not even slightly nibbled.
Well, no worries, I’d try the float, now I had some mackerel for bait.
I drifted it at a 12-15 foot depth around where I’d hooked the mackie, but didn’t get a touch.
I changed the depth to 3-4 foot for garfish and within two minutes I had a gar leaping beside my float, a sure sign he was hooked.
Unfortunately he wasn’t huge so no good for the comp, but I rate them highly as bait so in the cool bag he went.
Within seconds of casting out I had another, but this one was even smaller.
I’d ideally have put it back but it was badly hooked, so also in the cool bag it went.
I had a couple more drifts with the float but tbh I don’t like catching too many gars because they tend to be deep hooked and although I’ll happily take a couple for bait, that’s about my limit.
So put the float rod away. The wind was really getting up and I kept eyeing up a dip in the rocks below me, over a really weedy deep drop off.
It screamed wrasse and by moving down I should be out of the wind too.
I was - it was also a real sun trap and probably the reason I ended the afternoon looking like a lobster!
Nothing much happened for a while. I had another strap and several small bites that looked like eels too, tbh.
Oh, and a spiny starfish thing…
I was debating when to leave. It was HOT and I’d really had enough sun, plus I was looking longingly at getting into the sea, but it didn’t really seem wise off barnacle covered rocks at an exposed location and with who knew what currents or dangers.
I was down to my last, very large spider, and figured that would give several baits so I’d use that up, then head home.
Well, sometimes the best is saved until last, because then one rod screamed off and I struck into a better fish.
At my feet it didn’t look more than 3 but when I swung it up to beach it, ooh, this is heavier than that!
It went 4lb and half an ounce. The picture doesn’t really do it justice - not too long but very chunky.
I had a couple of baits left and it wasn’t long before I had another cracking bite. This fish was just on, or under, 3, and I put it back quickly without worrying about a picture.
That was about it for me. The bait was all but gone and it was still a fair hike back to the car park, so I knocked it on the head.
Driving back and melting with a case of moderate sunburn, all I could really think of was cool waters, so I took the Bude coastal route, parked up at Widemouth Bay, threaded my way through the dogs and grockles and sat down in the sea for 15 minutes, bliss!
Definitely a mark I’d fish again and thank you to Dave for the brilliant info.
Edit: I came first and third in the comp too, as Tat has just reminded me!
Quite surprised nothing better than an 89% fish was weighed in, but I’ll take it!
Sorry, slightly belated report as just haven’t seemed to have found the time for a few days.
Sunday was my club’s daytime comp and I REALLY wanted to finally have a good crack at the North Cornwall wrasse.
You may recall my last two attempts weren’t very successful! The first one I couldn’t even get down to the mark, the second time the ground was more shallow than I expected and not really weedy wrasse territory at all, with only one small wrasse to show for it.
Now I KNOW there are loads of good wrasse marks in North Cornwall, but there’s also a lot of high cliffs and the two issues I’ve found are being able to actually find somewhere to park and also, actually finding a way down to the marks.
Anyway, after exchanging several messages with Dave @The Third Earl on here, he kindly gave me some good information and detailed directions to a few marks, so on Sunday I picked one.
In an ideal world you’d always like to check out a mark before actually fishing it, but it’s fun sometimes to try somewhere with no preconceptions as everything is fresh and new, you can’t beat that anticipation of just not knowing what you’ll find.
Not to mention finding the time to go and look at these spots…
It being silly season, I knew really I’d have to leave at silly o clock to beat the grockle traffic and so the alarm was set for 4am.
I actually fell out at 4.25 but a mad rush around saw me on the road at 5.15, which wasn’t TOO bad.
A lovely blast down the A39 with barely anyone I needed to overtake, and I was setting off from the car park at 7am just as the sun was starting to peek over the hills.
As Dave had warned/promised, the mark was a bit of a climb down but really wasn’t actually too bad as long as you carefully picked your way down the steps of Cornish granite. Or whatever it was!
A quick recce from above and I felt the right hand side seemed to look more wrassy, so I started there first.
Bait was spider crab peeler. Most of it had seen the freezer once or twice but in my experience wrasse aren’t too fussy and I really needed to use up some of the poorer stuff.
I’d also packed some normal peeler, or thought I had until I got there and realised that bag was still in the freezer at home ?
Still, I had a fair bit of spider and even a small one will make two wrasse baits.
To start, it was slow. I had a modest sort of bite that although enthusiastic was probably just a small wrasse. I missed it.
While the baits were soaking I did a bit of a recce and decided as the tide rose, I’d need to move around to the front of the mark.
So began moving stuff around and then when I went to bring in one of the rods, hello! Fish on! Not a bad fish either and it fought well as I bullied it to the surface.
Not a bad start and at 3lb 3, big enough to weigh in for the comp. Ie photograph and photograph the fish on the scales in a sling, then put it back.
Err… excuse the shorts! ???
They’re just old swimming shorts so if I get wet, I don’t care, plus if I’m going to get a tan, I want to tan the leg, not three inches of it, which is what you seem to get with modern ‘shorts’.
Anyway…
I moved around to the front of the mark and tbh the shape of the rocks made it awkward, but nonetheless I had three good bites - and missed three good bites ? - in fairly quick succession.
I was on the ball for bite number four and struck into… a lively strap ??
????In between all this I rigged up my float rod (well, actually a Tidewater flattie rod, but I’d found it a bit too soft for estuary work so it became my float rod) with two mackerel feathers and a 3oz weight.
Really I wanted fresh mackerel for float fishing but also, the two feathers made it legal for the comp (once I’d reeled in one bottom rod) and a jumbo mackerel wouldn’t hurt my chances either!
I did a bit of that with no mackie, but was starting to get splashed by the spray.
I cared not a bit if I got wet, but the gear and my phone was another matter, so I moved everything higher and opted to fish the left of the mark, which also looked wrassy.
I went back to feathering and had two mackerel in three minutes. They were medium at best but a good size for bait.
As I was dropping them into a rock pool behind me, I saw the wrasse rod going, so rushed back to that and landed a 2lb 6 fish. Not huge, but encouraging…
Back to mackereling and had one more, then nothing for a few casts so gave up on that.
I had what I wanted for fresh bait anyway.
I put one bottom rod out with squid strip on the off chance there might be bream or even triggers about, but that was coming back pristine, not even slightly nibbled.
Well, no worries, I’d try the float, now I had some mackerel for bait.
I drifted it at a 12-15 foot depth around where I’d hooked the mackie, but didn’t get a touch.
I changed the depth to 3-4 foot for garfish and within two minutes I had a gar leaping beside my float, a sure sign he was hooked.
Unfortunately he wasn’t huge so no good for the comp, but I rate them highly as bait so in the cool bag he went.
Within seconds of casting out I had another, but this one was even smaller.
I’d ideally have put it back but it was badly hooked, so also in the cool bag it went.
I had a couple more drifts with the float but tbh I don’t like catching too many gars because they tend to be deep hooked and although I’ll happily take a couple for bait, that’s about my limit.
So put the float rod away. The wind was really getting up and I kept eyeing up a dip in the rocks below me, over a really weedy deep drop off.
It screamed wrasse and by moving down I should be out of the wind too.
I was - it was also a real sun trap and probably the reason I ended the afternoon looking like a lobster!
Nothing much happened for a while. I had another strap and several small bites that looked like eels too, tbh.
Oh, and a spiny starfish thing…
I was debating when to leave. It was HOT and I’d really had enough sun, plus I was looking longingly at getting into the sea, but it didn’t really seem wise off barnacle covered rocks at an exposed location and with who knew what currents or dangers.
I was down to my last, very large spider, and figured that would give several baits so I’d use that up, then head home.
Well, sometimes the best is saved until last, because then one rod screamed off and I struck into a better fish.
At my feet it didn’t look more than 3 but when I swung it up to beach it, ooh, this is heavier than that!
It went 4lb and half an ounce. The picture doesn’t really do it justice - not too long but very chunky.
I had a couple of baits left and it wasn’t long before I had another cracking bite. This fish was just on, or under, 3, and I put it back quickly without worrying about a picture.
That was about it for me. The bait was all but gone and it was still a fair hike back to the car park, so I knocked it on the head.
Driving back and melting with a case of moderate sunburn, all I could really think of was cool waters, so I took the Bude coastal route, parked up at Widemouth Bay, threaded my way through the dogs and grockles and sat down in the sea for 15 minutes, bliss!
Definitely a mark I’d fish again and thank you to Dave for the brilliant info.
Edit: I came first and third in the comp too, as Tat has just reminded me!
Quite surprised nothing better than an 89% fish was weighed in, but I’ll take it!
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