Far From The Madding Crowd

Well, almost. I exaggerate, but this last week in August has surprised me a bit. Yes, in the usual spots it's heaving, but walk a bit and you will avoid most of The Great British Public. Damn good show too.

I'd caught a couple of tub gurnards on the bottom rods so decided to try and catch one on the light spinning gear. I cut off a couple of sabiki type feathers and baited them with a tiny bit of mackerel and worked it various ways through the water.

I'd only been fishing a few casts when I had a hit and the first gurney was on. Pretty little fish which are great fun on light gear and very aggressive. I ended up with five all around the same size. Good fun.

The following evening I got my sole, plus a plaice, some decent mackerel and some scad, all of which went on the barby for a fishy extravaganza.

Pics a bit crappy but was pleased to have those flatties in consecutive casts.

Next day was a mini species hunt which resulted in dozens of corkys and ballens, tompots, rock gobies, dragonet and at last a ballion's wrasse. Another one on the 2021 species list.

That's it for a while. Well, a few weeks anyway 😆

Win Some, Lose Some

Despite it being kid's holiday season I'm back out west, in the camper in a field five minutes from the beach for a eleven quid a night. Not bad eh ?

I was aiming to increase my species count as it's coming up to prime time now.

Tides are building, high water around dusk, just about perfect. First hour passed without any bites, then a couple of knocks that resulted in a tub gurnard. Only a litlun, but another species added.

Shoals of whitebait were being harried by predators so a light spinning rod was set up and very quickly I was catching some big mackerel and the occasional scad. Lovely.

As dusk approached I started catching dogs, pout and the inevitable, hideous, slimy turds that are strap conger. After a stream of these creatures I had a different kind of bite and as I wound in I was convinced I'd got a big sole. Twenty yards out it went solid. Snagged. Bastard !

Snapped off, cheesed off, I called it a night.

Next day I was back in glorious evening sunshine on an almost deserted beach. In southern England. In August. I'm glad people don't like walking.

First cast with a huge fillet of mackerel, hoping for a undulate or small eyed ray and within a couple minutes the rod tip pulled down and sprung back. Great start, the rod hooped over in a satisfying curve with just the odd thump on the tip in typical ray style.

As the fish appeared in the surf it had changed from a ray to a bloody great bass. Well chuffed !

Cracking fish. I think I'd swap it for a big sole though.

Down In Da Hoooodzzz

Bit of urban fishing. Not really my thing at all, but there's some monster thick lipped mullet feasting on the tasty turdy titbits.

We head to the shite pipe, in the heart the rundown city, where feral yoofs roamed unhindered by the feds. 

Actually, it's that run down there's nobody at all about and the interesting aroma from the pipe probably discourages 99.9 per cent of the population from coming within a mile of here.

There were loads of mullet about, cruising around, swirling and generally sticking two fingers up at us. I drip fed bread mash for a couple of hours but no interest whatsoever.

We did have some ridiculously small flounders though. We were hoping for a goby or anything to add to the species list.

Back to the south west in the camper on Friday, standby for some proper reports.

Can't wait.

Magnificent Muddy Marshland Mullet Magic

Should have been a red top sub editor eh ? Although I'm not really suited to it as I'm not obsessed with house prices and immigrants, coming over here, etc, etc.

Anyway, mullet. Plenty of thin lips about, I've been having short sessions fishing with Conc and Baz.

Last night Baz tried fly fishing for them for the first time. Picked a most unsuitable day, cool and windy. Very few mullet visible.

I had a nice keeper sized bass on maddies on a tiny hook, Conc had another eel( his third eely evening in a row, lucky bloke ) anď Baz pulled a rabbit out the hat ( sorry, mullet not rabbit ) in the shape of a 4lb 5oz thin lip which took his shrimp like fly as soon as it hit the surface and led him on a merry dance

Incredible fight on a light five weight rod, took him seven minutes to get in. He was well chuffed, as we all were for him. What a fish to get you off the mark.

On Sunday me and Conc fished on another cool evening. No mullet showing, so we fished slightly deeper water with popped up maddies or ragworm.

Plenty of fish about though, two good mullet for me, best one 3.5lb ish. Two mullet, a keeper bass and two eels for Conc, although he was using two rods, one of which was ludicrously over powered for fishing on a tiny river. To be fair, the bass he had lifted the rod butt off the ground as it took.

I almost forgot, I had a flounder too.....

So, some pretty decent, social fishing in the past week, really enjoyable stuff. I'm having another go tomorrow in what is forecast to be lovely weather. Can't beat the summer.

Bringing it All Back Home

First bit of looooocal fishing for ages and ages. I dug some maddies, found some mullet and started fishing at low water on a warm summer afternoon.

Plenty of mullet about, loads lined up in very fast, shallow water in the run off from a deepish pool. They looked well catchable, very active and tightly packed together.

An hour later and biteless I had a re think.

The trusty baited spinner had failed to get any interest whatsoever, as had trotting a sub surface bait over the shallows. 

I popped up a small harbour rag on a static rig and a few minutes later had a decent take resulting in a nice thin lip of around 2-2.5lb. 

I can't say they were really having it but I ended up with three thins and a one inch long bass, so a decent enough afternoon. Very enjoyable and species no 49 in the bank for 2021.

Got to catch a thick lip now. A bit more difficult but I know where and how. Just got to time it right.