Tope - A short video

I'd totally forgotten about this footage. There were reasons for this....

Firstly, when 'videoing' the first two fish I caught that day I’d inadvertently  had my head cam in camera mode, that resulted in two photos of my hand . Secondly, I thought the camera was pointing too high when I viewed the footage last Easter so I gave it a good ignoring. I came across it during the week and decided to do something with it. It's not great, but it's fishing

The original trip report can be found here 

Anyway, here’s the video.

 

Wales 2010

A steady session…

It’d started raining on Sunday and by Wednesday it was still raining. It wasn’t just that though, it’s also been blustery, so basically it’d been a miserable few days.

I rechecked the weather forecast on Wednesday and there was a definite weather window showing for a few hours starting around midday Thursday. I was still buzzing after my last trip so I was eager to get out again and wet a line. I arranged to take Thursday off and booked some bait from Steve at West Coast Angling in Watchet. The bait and service there is first class, I’d highly recommend dropping by.

I met up with Jim just after lunch and we were rigged and launched by around 2:30pm. High water was around 6pm, so allowing for a thirty minute paddle it still left us about three hours of the flood tide to fish. We were hoping to fish the ebb for a couple of hours, though with the tides over 11m the current would be the limiting factor. The wind was a blustery easterly and the water was quite choppy with an underlying swell, though still very fishable.

The end tackle was my normal setup for this area, a three foot 6/0 pennel rig made from 80lb monofilament. As much as it is possible to knot 80lb mono, I tend to crimp my traces as it still allows me to thread worms onto the line without bursting them. It’s also stronger and more reliable as knotted heavy mono can slip. Baits were single squid pushed up the hook, held in place with the top hook, with 2-3 lugworm slipped on below.

Initial water depth was around 9m. The water temperature was pushing towards six degrees and the tide was running hard. It was only minutes before the first bites appeared and for the next two hours a steady string of codling between 1-5lb came to the kayak.

As the tide eased off I’d managed about 12 codling as well a couple of fish dropped on the retrieve. The dogfish were making a show, no real complaints as I’ve not caught one in a while. Hopefully they won’t grow into plague proportions as the season progresses.

 

As the tide slackened the expected flurry of whiting activity failed to materialise, though the conger did begin to show. The first couple were small fish, though I baited up with a codling of about a pound with a single fillet removed. This proved quite successful bringing a couple of nice sized eels to the kayak.

The other rod was still baited with squid and lugworm and it was registering a gentle tap, a sure sign of a conger eel. I tightened up and the rod bent hard over, for 2-3 seconds I thought I’d snagged the bottom. Though I felt the bump of a fish and then line started stripping from the reel as a good pace. I tweaked the drag though it made no difference. Settling into my seat I applied steady pressure as the fish ran hard, perhaps for 20-30 yards… then it was gone. Reeling in resulted in a comedy moment as a small codling of around 8oz was hanging on the hook. Clearly it’d been hooked earlier and had attracted a passing conger eel. I was rather disappointed as it had clearly been a cracking fish.

Still, fresh baits on and lines down. Small eels kept me busy during the slack water period.

 

As the tide began to ebb the fishing went off the boil with only the odd bite here and there. I picked up a couple of small codling though it was pretty poor to be honest. The tide began to ebb hard and as expected was fairly fierce, pulling the anchor buoy under the surface. Weights were increased from 8oz to 12oz in order to hold bottom. About two hours into the flood one rod bent over, though it was a dead weight and was clearly weed. This extra drag caused my anchor to pull and I began to drift. I cleared the weed and tried to reset anchor, letting out my remaining warp in the hope of catching bottom, though it was all in vain. Jim was clearly having similar issues so we decided to call it a day.

 

By this time the wind had eased considerably so with a steady swell behind us, and the ebbing tide to push us along, we headed back at a steady 5mph with next to no effort. Back at the slipway the catch was cleaned, again most of the fish were packed full of small crab. Jim hadn’t faired so well, though he had managed a codling and a thornback ray.

No complaints from me, despite the initial choppy conditions the weather improved throughout the session and there was a steady stream of fish coming to the kayak. Roll on the next session.

A night to remember !

It’d been an incredibly busy week at work. I’d planned a stopover in Wales to allow a couple of folk to plough up the countryside with 0.50 calibre machine guns. The trip was due to commence on Wednesday evening, though poor weather saw it pushed to Thursday morning. I arrived at work early the next day only to find out that it was cancelled again, this time for good. Needless to say I wasn’t too impressed.

If that wasn’t bad enough I ended up spending the rest of the day with a numb bum enduring a bundle of incredibly boring lectures. When the day finally came to a close I was soon looking inside the fridge, making a grab for a lonely looking beer. Sitting down I flicked through the TV channels and decided that there were far better ways to spend an evening.

A quick check of the weather and tides showed it was doable if the traffic was on my side. One phone call later to West Coast Angling in Watchet and the bait was booked and left in a shadowy corner for out of hours collection. The road trip went smoothly, though a detour past the local chip shop proved to be a necessity!. I was soon rigged and launched around 7pm. Despite the calm water there was a steady set of small breakers which came over the hatch on the way out.

The paddle out was a couple of miles, though with the tide I was pushing along at around 5mph. Mark 023 was the chosen mark. I’d not fished this mark, though I’d paddled over it on the last trip and noticed a few boulders showing, it looked like a rough patch of ground.

  

Baits went down about 7:30pm and I just sat back and enjoyed the evening. There was a light SSW wind which came an went, causing the water surface to be a mirror one moment and tightly rippled the next. Needless to say it was pretty dark out there!, the cloud cover was thick and a light drizzle made a show from time to time. The lights of Watchet were over a mile away (shown below), the glow from Cardiff was clearly visible despite being twenty miles away. It really was a cracking evening.

There’s no shipping to speak of on the southern side of the Channel, though I’m sure that more exists on the northern side travelling to Cardiff and Newport.

The action started within minutes and it was clear that codling were the culprit from the nature of the bites. I missed the first four to five bites, I then proceeded to drop a reasonable fish halfway to the surface. A little frustrated, I re-baited with lugworm and squid on 6/0 pennel rigs and sent them back down to the bottom. The ground was quite snaggy, different from what I’ve experience before despite fishing close by. On more than one occasion I reeled in small rocks the size of a grapefruit.

There was another good bite and after allowing it develop for a few moments and tightened up into it. It was a heavy fish and line was being stripped from the reel at a steady pace. After a couple of minutes I added a little more drag pressure and started to bring the fish up from the depths. The fish took several long plunges downwards, though I just bided my time trying not to be too over eager to see the fish and risk the chance of losing it as a result. It finally broke surface right next to the kayak. It was big and I just prayed that it wouldn’t slip the hook. I grabbed the gaff and secured the fish, dragging it onto my lap. It was a beauty!. First job was to secure it to the kayak, it was going nowhere.

Once safe and secure I grabbed my scales and weighed it in. It was registering a couple of ounces either side of 29lb!!, I was absolutely chuffed.

I quickly re-baited and went after some more fish. I was in again within minutes and it was another big fish. It fought well in the running tide, though not quite as good as the previous battle. When the fish surfaced it was clearly a good size. The gaff was back in action again and a moment later it was lying across my lap. I weighed it in and it showed 14 ½ lb on the scales.

I just couldn’t believe how good the fishing session was going. I lashed it to the other cod and placed them in the tankwell area. At this point a bigger kayak would have been appreciated.

A few more codling came the kayak, varying from 1-4lb. I didn’t keep anymore for obvious reasons, though I kept on fishing just to enjoy the sport and the evening itself. I was tempted to feed the big cod up to try and get it over 30lb !

As the tide eased I found myself into yet another good fish with line being stripped from the reel at a rather rapid rate. I took a minute or two to actually get control of the fish, though once it had quietened down I tightened the drag a little a bought it towards the surface. I really thought that it was another big cod, so I quite surprised to see a nice sized conger eel rolling on the surface. I’d put it around 25-30lb though I didn’t lift it from the water as the kayak already had enough additional weight.

I soon found myself into another and even bigger eel. It came alongside the kayak and I was trying to position it for a decent photograph. In the blink of an eye the trace became entangled in the paddle leash that was hanging over the side of the kayak. This was really bad news and I lost all control of the fish. It was lunging and spinning against the paddle leash so I made for the scissors to cut it loose. I was saved the trouble when it slipped the hook and disappeared back into the muddy water.

Another two good sized eels and a smaller fish into single figures came to the kayak within an hour, it really was top sport.

The eels happily took the baits intended for the cod, though I also live baited a small codling which picked up a nice eel within moments of being dropped. This is clearly the preferred method should live bait be available.

There was a mad 20 minutes of whiting activity, very similar to my previous trip. A small whiting is also an excellent conger bait, highly recommended in this area.

It was high water just before 11pm and the SSW wind freshened up considerably with white horses starting to appear around the kayak. I decided to play it safe, so I pulled anchor commenced the paddle back. This turned out to be a good decision as the weather continued to degrade and plenty of waves were breaking over the hatch. With little ebb tide and the waves and wind against me, it was a much slower paddle home, at times I was struggling to make 3mph.

It was around midnight when I hit land and I took the opportunity to re-weigh the fish.

They been out of the water for 3-4 hours and had lost a little weight, that was also partly due to the copious mess they left in the tankwell!…. it didn’t smell to clever neither. The big cod weighed in at 28lb 1oz and the smaller fish came in at 14lb 3oz.

A quick check of the stomach contents gave a clear indication as to what the cod were eating… crab, and lots of it.

What can I say?, an utterly cracking result. I managed around 130lb of fish in just over four hours of fishing. I’m already itching to get afloat again, though as I didn’t get to bed until 3:30am this morning it’ll have to wait a wee while.

Bristol Channel – Bagging up

The last couple of weeks has been pretty poor weather wise with firm north easterly winds being the norm. They finally swung about to a lighter south westerly breeze on Sunday. I was unable to hit the water that day, though I made plans for the Monday and a day off was duly booked.

I’d managed to book a pound of fresh lugworm from the tackle shop in Watchet. High water was 5pm and despite running a little late, I was on the beach ready to launch shortly after 1pm.

Conditions were just about ideal, not too far from millpond conditions, though these were actually achieved later in the day. I paddled straight out into deeper water until I found a good run of tide before turning and paddling eastwards for almost two miles. I was anchored up about a mile offshore with baits in the water by 2pm. Baits for the day were either lugworm and squid or mackerel and squid, both mounted on a 6/0 pennel rig.

  

The first 20-30 minutes were fairly quiet with only the odd knock here and there. The codling finally started to appear, all a reasonable size, and with a running tide it was good sport.

The sport continued through the flood and the action was pretty much non-stop. At times there were bites on both rods which made for pretty exciting fishing !

The mackeral/squid combo was working well and resulted in four thornback rays coming being picked up during the flood tide. They were a decent size, the best fishing pushing double figures. They fought well in the running tide, at one point I was convinced I was into a double figure cod, though this hope was quashed when the fish surfaced.

 

 

It was pretty chilly despite the sun making a show from time to time. The prevailing wind eased off completely at times giving an oil slick appearance to the water surface. When I launched the air temperature was 1˚C and it never got above that throughout the session. In fact it dropped well below zero as the sun dropped behind the hills.

As high water neared the sport eased off, no real surprises there. I was still picking up the odd fish even at slack water which was a little surprising, though I was hardly complaining.

As the sun set the tide turned, it was a time to enjoy the best that mother nature has to offer. I do love a good sunset..  it was also time to light up as dusk approached rapidly.

 

Once the tide tuned onto the ebb the fishing picked up once more, though the codling were taking a back seat as the whiting were hitting the baits hard. I took five fish within ten minutes, though as soon as they’d appeared they were gone.

 

The tide was ebbing hard, for a time there was standing waves next to the kayak. On the flood I was using 8oz of weight to hold bottom, though the ebb saw me going to 12oz, though I was soon onto a 1lb of lead. The tide was quite fierce, debris on the surface of the water was taking roughly two seconds to pass by the length of the kayak. The anchor was holding and I was happy to stay put !.

The fishing didn’t amount to much on the ebb. I was getting the odd hard bite, though it rarely developed into anything. I did manage three codling post the whiting fest, though they was smaller fish than what I picked up on the flood tide.

I fished three hours of the ebb tide, finally raising anchor at 8pm, paddled back with the tide. Despite a very leisurely paddle I was still averaging over 5mph. I hit the beach around 8:30pm and cleaned my catch. The codling contained small edible crab which seems to be the norm for these parts, though one codling was stuffed with whitebait. When I reached the car it was showing –3˚C… and it felt it !

It really was a cracking session, one of the most enjoyable in a long time. The fishing was excellent, I managed around twenty codling from 2-5lb, four rays and a few whiting. Though it wasn’t the fishing, it was the weather, the time of day and the atmosphere out there that made the session so enjoyable. I’d like to hit the water again tomorrow, perhaps I will, though the weather is due to pick up.. I’ll have to wait and see what the morning brings.