2-4/9/13 Autumn Blues

It's officially autumn , the days are noticeably drawing in and time is running out for targeting Cornish blue sharks.
I had a free week before my annual holiday to France and with decent weather forecast, decided to treat myself to a few days after the toothy critters and towed the Warrior down to Falmouth for the second time this year. Joining me on this trip was piking buddy and shark virgin-Dave Wilkins.Regular sharking partner Wayne Comben was too knackered after battling with his monster Hampshire thresher.
I'd already prepared 75 litres of salted chum for this one and it proved to be a wise move indeed as the mackerel were extremely difficult to locate.
Day one saw flat calm conditions and was, to be honest, quite slow going. Three shark were brought to the boat (Dave popped his cherry) one of which was in the 70lb bracket.However, we were kept occupied by catching some huge garfish(superb shark bait)on mullet float tackle and being entertained by a variety of interesting wildlife. Two large sunfish also took a shine to our chum trail coming right up to the boat and proceeded to give us a very interesting display at close quarters by allowing gulls to pick them clean of lice. Some curious looking mackerel sized shoals of 'something' were regularly seen leaping clear of water obviously being harassed by a predator of some form, and what looked to me like barracuda, could occasionally be seen breaching. On the run home a minke whale was spotted and, highlight of the trip, a massive pod of dolphins was located and , as I slowed down to about 12kts, decided to join us for a mile or so playing in the boat wake and putting on a fine show.
Day two was in similar low wind conditions but still produced four shark-the smallest at about 40lb and again, one nice fish in the 70lb bracket.
Day three dawned with cloudy skies, some rain and up to 10kts of wind forecast to assist our drift and spread the chum trail more effectively. As on previous days, we spent some time trying to locate mackerel and although we picked some up, it was hard work and their absence is slightly worrying. Lucklily i'd taken a few frozen baits from home and, along with the excellent half garfish baits,both scad and frozen mackerel proved to be successful.
 This last day's drift took us almost 10 miles but, the chum trail didn't start to work until well into the afternoon with a good stamp of shark showing. Seven was the tally with a 70 and an 80 included,until on the very last garfish bait of the day ,a cracking of female, of over the 'ton' ,showed at the surface and then proceeded to take the closest bait and provide a fitting finale to the trip.
I've recently been using 14/0 circle hooks for these blues having got a little fed up with having to cut traces when using 'J' hooks in the past. With the barbs completely flattened, they proved to be a great success with an almost 100% hook up rate and similar results with clean lip hooking. Also,contrary to popular belief, they proved to be easily removed with a decent sized T bar at the side of the boat so I can highly recommend them for this type of small boat sharking.
On the first day at the slipway it was great to meet up with fellow WSF member Andy (Ork 520 ) who runs a charter business in his Warrior 165 'Obsession' covering the local area. We remained in contact on the 'wireless' over the three days and, if anyone fancies trying for these shark from a small boat I'd highly recommend his services as he was on the shark too. He's here; Boat Fishing in Cornwall | Specialised Charters - Tel: 07779 999125
With Dave having to leave for home I had planned to tow the Warrior up to the North coast and have another go at the porbeagles but the weather conspired against me and it wasn't going to happen.....maybe next time.

Please take the time to leave a comment or ask questions on the blog or, if you prefer, drop me an email on  completeangler@sky.com

30/8/13 A Pike Angler's Bait

My friend and fellow Sussex river pike enthusiast Lionel Mills had been on my case for a while to take him out in the boat in order to stock up his freezer with mackerel for pike bait.This evening we gave it a go but our tally of mackerel fell a long way short of Lionel's target of 100 baits. I think we managed about 10 between us although I was able to find him plenty of good sized pouting on the reefs for him to experiment with this winter.Hopefully, they'll be to the pikes' liking. By way of a consolation, this little fellah took a shine to my stinger lure-the first I've ever captured in this way. In spite of the general lack success, my crew commented that he'd really enjoyed the outing and we both enjoyed the stimulating conservation about our favourite freshwater quarry.

23/8/13 Fishing With Clive

A rare trip out with Clive who is a neighbour at the marina, and seasoned boat angler. We began our conquest vertical lure fishing on # but with little to show for our efforts.A couple of smallish bass and wrasse fell to our soft plastics but it was hard going and, as the tide turned to a favourable direction, we feathered up some mackerel for the live bait tank and headed to # with our float gear. Fish were showing on the reef and Clive did have a scorching take but sadly, it didn't produce the desired result and proved to be our only chance of the session. A difficult time of year for these bass.

20/8/13 Bass Save The Day

My initial plan today was to stay local and try once again for some bass but having told Alex, my crew for the day, about yesterday's turbot, he was keen to get down there and try to bag his first of the specie, and I was game for some further experimenting.
The 5.9m tide was however, pushing the envelope a little and we left the bank #46 , after thoroughly scanning it, having caught a bass and a plaice each but no sign of a turbo.
 I'm not entirely convinced that the size of tide was to blame as drift speed weren't that quick but it was easy to cite as a reason and talk each other into a change of tactics but, it may demand further investigation.
We'd left the harbour at 10 am and intended to stay out over the lock out which meant fishing into the early evening-my favourite bass time.
My special mark at #6 probably hadn't been disturbed all day, most of the boats taking advantage of the fine weather, looked as if they'd chosen the Kingmere area, so it was selected as a spot to drop the pick and fish some big baits as the tide began to flood.
I'd chosen to slide a live mackerel on a fixed line on one of my rods, something that Alex had not seen succeed before, and I soon had a blistering run which, after positively the finest fight I've had from any bass, produced this eight pounder.I did think , at one point, that this line stealing torpedo was a tope and was surprised to see 'silver' when it reached the boat.
Unfortunately the circle hook had settled in the gills and the fish had to be dispatched but will not go wasted and produced two very fine fillets indeed.
Some smaller bass , bream and cats fell to mackerel sections to finish off yet another successful day's fishing.

19/8/13 Top Turbot Teasing.

Today was a day for taking a risk, and doing some experimenting.
Perceived wisdom states that targeting turbot on a sand bank such as mark 46 should be done on a smaller tide however, whilst I agree that plaice prefer their baits to be speeding past at no more that a knot and a half, turbot may be a little different.
Wayne's lent me a stack of Boat Fishing Monthly magazines with a few articles penned which suggest that turbot don't mind faster drift speeds. I'm not a great fan of angling magazines. Usually, publications such as Sea Angler are merely tackle catalogues with low quality writing but BFM is actually a breath of fresh air and of a reasonable literary standard, so I did take a bit of notice of what was being said.
Today's tide was a 'middling' 5.6m at L.A which is usually considered too big for this sort of fishing but, with so few chances available for me to get a turbot, and with little else going on locally, I was determined to give it a try.
I'd also been put on to a 'bling' rig by Neil that had worked well for one of his clients, out fishing the other crew members on plain traces by a considerable margin.
I'd constructed my own interpretation of the rig and was eager to test it's effectiveness. In addition to the normal running leger , It comprises an additional weight in the form of a drilled bullet , followed by a bar spinner blade, a series of yellow and orange beads, and finished of with a 4/0 fixed pennel on a 12 inch hook length-the whole rig being about 4 feet in length.
Despite the size of the tide and the shallow nature of the bank, drift speeds weren't excessive -perhaps averaging 2.5 kts but, this may have been held back somewhat by a breeze blowing against the ebbing tide .
Wayne joined me for the trip and soon kicked off proceedings with a bass, and then a turbot which turned out to be his first ever of the species. Sunsequently a steady procession of five turbot took a shine to my bling rig. None of them were particularly big , 4lb maybe, but a couple were taken for eating and provided a delicious evening meal.
Over the slack water period we had a ray each -Wayne's an 11lb small eyed  which is a boat first for me, and mine a 13lb undulate to add to a very interesting day's fishing and particularly satisfying to discover something new.

11/8/13 Typical August

We do seem to struggle with the local inshore boat fishing in August and I fail to understand why. The charters are still drifting mark 13 for plaice, as well as moving slightly inshore to pick up undulates but generally, the concensus of opinion is that the fishing is a bit slow.
Neil admitted to me that he gets a bit bored with plaice but that is what the punters want, so that's what they get.
Some of my marina mates even lift their boats out for maintenance and, with generally good weather, it does make various jobs much easier.
Dave joined me for this one and it was yet again,a trip targeting bass.
We started with lures on mark 9 picking up a few pollack, ballan and cuckoo wrasse on our fiiiish minnows before trying static dead mackerel and cuttle on mark 5.
I did pick up a bass here of about 3lb but it was slow, and it was a similar state of affairs moving over to mark 6 which has been so kind to us in the past.
Bream and cat sharks did show but, once again, it was a pretty lack lustre performance and listening to the radio, the paying customers weren't having much luck either unless you were out far on a wreck somewhere.

8/8/13 Plenty Of Mackerel

But not a lot else.
 Having said that , I was fishing two live mackerel and targetting bass on mark 5.I did try some half mackerel dead baits but these were being stripped by small bream as I found out when I scaled down to a size 1 hook and mackerel strip to match.
Actually, a couple of the bream were reasonably sized but they were not what I was after.I persisted with the lives but it wasn't going to happen.
You just cannot win them all I suppose but I did come back with about sixty mackerel for shark chum so I shouldn't complain.

5/8/13 'Poached' Mullet.

A 4lb mullet caught in less than ideal circumstances from Jupiter.
I've been meaning to have a go at the mullet that live the marina, where I keep my boat, for quite sometime but have never built up the courage to do so.
Every spring they arrive in considerable numbers and seem to be there day in , day out ,swanning around the boats and pontoons with not a care in the world, and seemingly intent on winding up us anglers-particularly me.
As a long standing mullet fanatic, who does far too little mullet angling nowadays, I've found them extremely difficult to resist for over two years but, for various sound reasons, It's against the marina rules to fish among the moorings.
Alas, I could wait no longer, and egged on by my pontoon neighbour Roger, I decided to adopt 'stealth mode' and have a crack at them this evening.
This time of day is usually quiet on the moorings. The day staff have gone home, most  boaters have finished their business and are at home watching the telly (why I don't know as evening fishing at sea has so much to offer), and only the security guard (Dave on this occasion) remains. Hence, there are less people to upset.
To make the most of the flood  the boat needed turning around on its mooring so the stern faced down tide. This also gave me access to a clear patch of water which I reasoned would give me enough room to play a lively mullet without getting too near any other boats, and their line cutting under carriage.
A vegetable sack with a loaf of white, mashed  bread was set up on the side cleat of the boat and occasionally agitated to release the fine white particles, which mullet cannot resist, into 3ft of water. Tackle was a 9ft light spinning rod(short and easy to conceal) with just a hook and a couple of split shot to tension the line(tight lining), the bait suspended as close to the sack as possible and in mid water. This tactic has worked well for me in the past in similar 'urban' mullet environments and I didn't have long to wait for it to work tonight.
The key is to make the hook bait stand out by ensuring that its slightly larger than the particles leaking out of the sack. I've actually watched mullet in the lower river actively select the bigger bait samples so know first hand of its effectiveness.
Commencing fishing I kept one eye on the rod tip, and the other on the lookout for Dave.(I'll get a right telling off if he reads this)
 I peered over the side of the boat just as a  mullet swam right under the sack and a few minutes later the soft topped rod pulled over and I was in on the first cast. Actually, the first drop.

The mullet just did not know what had hit it, and was clearly totally confused. It did nothing more than wallow on the surface for a few seconds before I was able to swiftly scoop it up in my, wholly unsuitable, boat net at which point it decided to wake up. By then it was too late.
After a quick snapshot and weighing before slipping her back into the murky water , I fished on for about an hour or so. I did get one more bite, unfortunately missed,  but that was that and I managed to sneak off home with no-one the wiser to my covert operations.

26-27/7/13 North Devon Porbeagle

I was disappointed not to be able to sample the North Devon sharking on my visit to Ilfracombe in June. The winds didn't play ball and I was unable to get out, but at least I had some fun with the Falmouth blues on the same trip. In a way, it was probably better to 'cut my teeth' on blues, especially as I hadn't ,at that time, caught a shark from my own boat.
Wayne had been carefully studying the weather reports, which would coincide with some practicable launches from Boscastle for the week-end. It looked good, so he gave me the call, and a couple of days later on the Thursday evening ,we were on our way with his 17ft Wilson Flyer 'Taryn' hooked up to the back of my VW camper, arriving at the village car park, our 'camp site' for the trip, in the early hours of the morning.
The slipway at Boscastle, if you can call it that, is not really suitable for my Warrior.The surface is broken and very uneven, the launch window, about an hour either side of HW is narrow, as is the slip itself, and it's necessary to detach the trailer from the tow vehicle to gain enough depth of water to float the boat off successfully.
'Jupiter' would quite simply be too heavy, not withstanding the fact that she is also too wide on her trailer to easily manoeuvre down the 'tight' approach road . Wayne's Wilson was ideal. Light and easy to push around we had her on the water after just a few hours sleep, and began our adventure.
Weaving our way out of the narrow, and indeed almost invisible, from the sea, harbour entrance , we were soon on our way to our chosen mark passing 'The Meachard', a  rock island that guards the harbour, and is the sole refuge from the weather should it misbehave in the  ten hour 'lock out ' period.
The huge, though docile Atlantic swells were immediately noticeable as were the extensive swarms of jellyfish in the water, possibly due to the  high temperatures we've been experiencing recently.
We soon arrived at our chosen reef -the scene of Wayne's 'monster' porbeagle capture of Spring last year and, with the pre mixed chum in the water, we began our drift in depths around 80ft.
Three whole mackerel baits were suspended under our adapted catfish, and water -ski floats, set at progressively increasing depths, relative to their distance from the boat, and a fourth mackerel was dropped directly under the hull.
It  soon became apparent that drift speeds were not what we were accustomed to on our home turf, being much slower and, as we were later to discover,  we'd chosen to fish in an area of relatively 'dead' water.
Reasoning that it would be unwise to break our chum trail, we drifted the area throughout the whole tide, still covering a distance of couple of miles, but with no sign of a shark.
A 5lb Pollack gave us a heart stopping moment by taking a shine to one of our suspended baits and several more, some put to use as hook bait,fell to our mackerel rigs but, once again, thank goodness we didn't have to rely on the 'stripey speedsters' for chum. There just weren't enough mackerel coming up.
Attempting to find the harbour entrance on the return journey was indeed interesting. It is entirely concealed from the sea and we relied heavily on the plotter trail to gain safe passage, and knowledge for the following day's run.
I think we were both quite relieved to see the boat safely back on it's trailer and securely attached to the VW, as it hadn't been that easy a retrieval. Swells in the harbour can be extremely hazardous having fetched all the way across the Atlantic ocean then suddenly being bottle necked through the narrow gap in the rocky coastline that serves as the harbour, making holding on to a boat quite difficult.
Both completely knackered, we hit our sacks at about 2200 hrs having consumed a  welcome burger and chips from the  Boscastle chippy. They'd run out of fish!
Back at the car park, I had the luxury of sleeping in my my camper but Wayne was consigned to Taryn's cabin and suffered a virtually sleepless night not helped by the fact that we'd left the boat hitched up to the van and I'm quite a fidget.
Every time I moved, the boat rocked!! I slept like a log.
Day two dawned, and a change of tactics was required.
 Wayne gave Graeme a call and he suggested we try a drift some considerable distance further up the coast where tide speeds would be faster, and therefore more favourable. He also advised us not to worry too much about breaking our chum trail but to continually drift and re-drift a reef of about a mile or two in length, much as I would do locally for bass.
 Porbeagles, unlike blue sharks, tend to be localised and, in this case , reef dwellers that are present because of the abundant food source.
It turned out to be sound advice because shortly after setting our chum trail, and commencing our first drift, Wayne had a positive take on the free lined bait fished directly under the boat.
Almost simultaneously, the clicker on one of my Penn Senators also indicated something interested in my own bait, a huge mackerel, set at about 40ft and 40 yards down tide of the boat.
Wayne momentarily connected with his fish and it was judged to be sizable but, no sooner had the battle begun, than  the line went slack.The hook had either slipped, or the fish had just dropped the bait. Of course, we'll never know which.
Back to my rod and it was evident that something was still playing tentatively with the bait. Remembering Graeme's advice on how finicky these porbeagles can be, I immediately switched the clicker off and knocked the reel out of gear, gently resting my thumb on the spool to prevent an over run and hopefully,feel the take develop.
 After what seemed like an age, but was in fact probably merely a few seconds, line was steadily pouring off the reel at a rate of knots and it was time to tighten down on the culprit.
Following a firm strike, Initially the resistance felt suggested the presence of a tope on the other end, and I remember clearly telling Wayne the same but suddenly, the fish took a strong dive and gave away it's true identity, the  U.K 50lb class rod taking on quite an impressive fighting curve.
To me as a sharking tyro , whatever was on the other end  felt BIG. No, I'll rephrase that, it felt REALLY BIG. Certainly bigger than the Falmouth blue sharks and much, much stronger.

I can only describe the fight as 'dogged'. Not a fast moving creature but ,I got the impression that this fish really did not want to submit and indeed, during the battle which lasted about 45 minutes I had the wind on leader on the reel, and the shark up to the boat on three separate occasions before she was even showing the first signs of tiring.
 Each dive was a battle of wills, with me applying as much pressure as I dare and,  my back, would take.
Eventually I persuaded her to the surface, but the dual was far from over.
 She simply could not, in typical female fashion, decide which side of the boat she preferred,  taking me under the hull and nail bitingly close to the outboard prop on several occasions, until we eventually decided to lift the engine to prevent a catastrophe occurring.
Finally she tired enough for Wayne to be able to safely grab the trace with gloved hand , restrain her for a few seconds on the surface with film camera running, whilst I slackened off the clutch, just in case , and feast my eyes on the fish.
 In stark contrast to the 'pretty' and sleek blue shark, what confronted me was an  aggressive looking creature with a portly body, and a short stumpy snout incorporating a huge inky jet black seemingly staring eye, and a ragged set of teeth to match.
 A real powerhouse  of a fish clearly, a close relative of the infamous 'great white' shark. She was quite literally, breath taking and sadly, the pictures do her no favours.
There was absolutely no way this one was coming on board and, with the hook clearly inside the mouth, once she was judged to be recovered, it was decided to snip the trace cleanly with wire cutters and set her free.

Watching her kick her tail strongly, and disappear safely to the depths in the gin clear water is an image that will remain permanently engraved in my minds eye- a fantastic fishing moment indeed.
I've caught bigger (bronze whaler) shark from a Namibian beach but, as with the blue shark in June, this porbeagle meant so much more. All the research, preparation and effort that Wayne and me have put in to these trips with our own boats came to fruition once again.
Estimated at 150lb, in the grand scheme of things not a particularly big shark but, It was plenty big enough to give me a run for my money. I beat it, but it beat me up a bit in the process.
 Quite how Wayne coped with last spring's porbeagle of at least three times the size , I'll never know. All I can say is; 'the man's a hero'.
For the rest of that day we continued to drift the mark and must have completed a dozen or so runs. Although I didn't admit it to Wayne at the time, I was desperate for him to get his own shark but it just wasn't to be.
 The only other shark encounter we had was when a porbeagle followed and grabbed a hooked tope of about 20lb on Wayne's rod only letting go about 20ft below the surface.
The tope did indeed, prove to be a nuisance and we lost count of how many we caught and they weren't all pack fish. Wayne caught one of about 30lb, a decent fish back home, but not what we'd come for.
As the day progressed, our precious supplies of pre -made chum thawed , and dispersed too quickly out of the bucket for our liking. We tried hard to supplement the mix with chopped mackerel, but they proved more than difficult to locate and catch and, by late afternoon ,we'd run out completely and our chances of seeing another shark were severely curtailed.
Nearly ten hours after catching that porbeagle, it was time to head for home, the Flyer living up to it's name by skimming effortlessly across a flat calm sea punctuated by the gentle rolling swells, and the odd porpoise with calf in tow. What an atmosphere.
Having become experts over night, the approach to the harbour, and recovery of the boat were successfully negotiated without incident this time around, and we set off for the 200 plus mile drive home into the small hours of the night ,armed with a great deal more knowledge that we'd had 48 hours previously.
We will be back....and, we don't need a bigger boat!

 

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22/7/13 Just Mackerel

A disappointing trip this one in search of bass. I'd heard a few had been caught on baits on the reefs at #6 so decided to have a crack myself starting at #17, which isn't actually that gnarly, and finishing up at #6 itself, joining Ted in his Orkney.
Plenty of mackerel but unfortunately no bass despite working my live baits quite hard.
You can't win 'em all.

18/7/13 Turbot and Brill

On our last tope run together , Steve and me had discussed the possibility of catching turbot, and brill 46 from our local sandbanks.These highly prized fish are relatively rare, and require a methodical approach but, after the recent hectic tope fishing I've been experiencing, I was ready for something a little different.
Although Steve hasn't caught that many local turbot, he does have some recent experience gathered at other venues including the famous Shambles Bank at Weymouth (On the Warrior travel list), and this valuable knowledge would be put to use on mark 46.
The plan was to thoroughly scan the bank with our drifts, noting speeds etc , patiently wait and see what would happen, and try not to get distracted by moving locations.
Baits were either thin strips of fresh mackerel, or sandeel, live or strip which we'd managed to 'sabiki' up on the bank and keep live in the bait tank. This was actually a first for me and despite their diminutive size, I actually found their catching quite absorbing in itself.
Two Turbot and two Brill came to Steve's baits-fish of about 3-41/2lb and a great success.I ,on the other hand , managed a plaice on mackerel strip and ended with a plump little bass on the live sandeel so will have to return on the next set of neaps to try again for the target species.
The bank at #46 actually turned out to be a series of banks and showed up as 'waves' on the plotter which was very interesting indeed.

17/7/13 Fifty More Tope......

.......and an undulate ray.
I've been promising my piking buddy Dave a tope trip for some time but trying to pin the man down has been difficult, to say the least. But today, with the perfect combination of a small tide and flat calm conditions, I succeeded in persuading him to take time off work and join me for a run down west to fish mark 41
Mackerel were thin on the ground but, of a good size and we soon amassed enough for the day. Bites came virtually from the off but, the perpetrators were rarely more than ten pounds in weight. Great fun, to be sure, and Dave really enjoyed the action but I wanted to seek out some bigger tope.
We did have a brief move to the wreck near mark 42 but, once the tope had picked up the scent of our baits, they again turned out to be 'packers'.
Returning to a sloping bank close by our original location produced more of the same and by the end of the session we'd bagged around fifty, with this bonus 12lb undulate thrown in for good measure.
I've been told that these pack tope tend to take over the marks as the season progresses but Neil, who was fishing over on mark 21 did pick up a handful of better sized fish for his clients so, perhaps those 'bigguns' are not quite off the agenda yet.

14/7/13 Diary Of An Average Angler's Wife.

Took the Missus out fishing with me today-her first trip out in the Warrior and, her first proper attempt at boat fishing. We did try a bream trip in Scooby 2 but, she began to feel a little sea sick at anchor so this time, I was all too aware of the importance of 'getting it right'.
Taking a beginner boat fishing can be a nerve wracking task, especially if that person is worried about feeling ill. I HAD to find fish in order to keep her busy enough  to avoid feeling sick,and to make it an enjoyable occasion so she'd want to go again. A tall order.
Bream would have been most people's first choice but , they haven't been that obliging this year.
The charter boats are concentrating on the plaice fishing at the moment because of this, to entertain their crews. I was after something a little more exciting.
Pack tope on the 'half way' was the choice. They scrap hard,especially on a lighter rod, look nice,are not tiddlers, and are generally good fun to catch. Plus, on this mark, there is always a chance of a BIG tope as I found out two years ago or, some nice ray which have also put in an appearance on previous sorties.
The mackerel were obliging which kicked us off on the right foot and Jan enjoyed the 'action' straight away. I did try and swiftly get them in the cooler after despatching, and away from sensitive eyes although this didn't seem to be too much of an issue.
Once at anchor, the fishing was so lively she didn't have time to think about sea sickness. A constant procession of 'packers' up to double figures along with the inevitable catsharks (my new name for doggies which I much prefer)and finally this 14lb undulate to really test her skills.
She did exceeding well and i'm proud of her, quickly mastering casting,hitting the bites on the circle hooks and enjoying every minute.
We had about three hours fishing , which was just about right, and left the mark with them still biting....I even let her drive the boat home.

10-11/7/13 Struggling.

I cannot complain. I've had some extremely exciting fishing of late and have been very lucky with my catches but, sooner or later, something had to give.
The first day i set aside for a solo trip to try for a bass. Usually, I prefer to tackle bass alone, mainly because it takes a lot of patience and I'm a long way from getting anywhere near consistently catching the buggers. Drifting live mackerel was the method of choice and despite easily finding enough good baits to fill the tank along with a pollack which very nearly joined them, I failed miserably on the chosen target.
Now, Its likely that I may have scared any resident bass on the reef away by motoring, unintentionally of course, over the shoal.
Neil turned up later in the afternoon to drift for bass with lures and, if anyone could find them, he could......but he failed too.
I took Dave Nevatt with me on the second day starting at Smooth hound bank, but there were no smoothounds.Moving over in between the 'two fingers' which, despite being highly recommended as a ray mark,didn't produce rays, trying Phil's mark which did give us a thornback and ending up North of the 'stick' which gave us an undulate and some bait nicking bream. Dogs and a hound did show up, as well as a gurnard for Dave but,despite catching quite a few species and getting constant bites, the fishing wasn't brilliant.

9/7/13 Local Sharking

Following on from the success of our shark adventure to Cornwall, Wayne and me have now set our sights on local shark.It'll be a tall order but, we have been doing our research.
On my own patch east of the Selsey peninsula i've gathered several reports of thresher sightings and hook ups by Littlehampton skippers.Neil has had encounters and Steve Wells has also tangled with the specie. Unfortunately, I've not as yet found anyone in recent years who has successfully managed to bring one to the side of the boat.
Wayne has also picked up a good deal of reliable information about his side of Selsey and of course,the patch encompasses the Isle Of Wight which has a rich shark fishing heritage.Nowadays , there are less shark about generally but, we still feel its worth putting the time and effort into the task and, if we see a shark one day..............
I've recently heard of a Littlehampton crew that spent several days fishing a considerable distance South West of the island and scoring with a handful of porbeagles to 350lb interestingly, most caught in darkness. On the day we tried for a shark ourselves, a Langstone charter was reputed to have caught a 140lb 'porgie' quite by accident from 'our' tope grounds so, it would appear that, we do indeed, have a chance.
Quite how we would handle anthing bigger than my big Falmouth blue inside our tiny boats is anybody's guess , so I suspect that future shark captures may involve 'touching trace' and releasing at the side .
Wayne has a very tidy 17ft Wilson Flyer 'Taryn' (named after his daughter) which he keeps at the Eastney Cruisers Association- a very impressive set up with some superb facilities for small boat users and at a fraction of the cost of my own boating expenses. We met up for an early morning start running 'Taryn' down the excellent club slipway into the Eastney/Hayling channel and set off in near perfect sea conditions to an area some 20 miles off recommended to Wayne by commercial fisherman Ted Legge.
With the chum 'down' the mackerel soon appeared so , after gathering our hook bait supply , we set our shark lines at the usual prescribed distances,and began our drift. Initially, we were taken eastwards on the flood then inscribed a huge clockwise arc on the plotter taking us close on 25 miles off for the ebb tide which we continued to follow until the second slack and the end of the fishing.
Unfortunately just one slice of action to report when Wayne's bait was 'nibbled' for about a mile before a steady run ensued but, we failed to connect.Speaking to Graeme Pullen, its possible that it may have been a tentative thresher teasing us but,of course, we'll never know.
No shark, granted but, a highly enjoyable start to our campaign with another piece of the jig saw in place.We will return.

5/7/13 Fifty Tope.

 49lb 'Soupfin Shark'

With small tides(4.8m) and perfect weather  I went in search of tope again, this time, taking my mate Simon along for the ride. Starting at 0700 gave us a full days fishing on the usual mark and even the mackerel were plentiful finding them in good numbers just beyond the Owers reef.
The tope kicked off from the start although most of them were smaller pack fish.
However, a few bigger fish began to show up as the day progressed. At one stage, we both had fish on at once. Mine hit the surface first and, wanting to give Simon a good look at her, especially as he'd not seen a tope quite as big before, I held it on the surface whilst he dealt with his fish.
Unfortunately, this was a mistake. The tope, probably a mid thirty, gave a hard kick and snapped my precious 30lb class Suveran clean in two.
The leader must have chafed against the break because that parted too but luckily I managed to hold on to it and successfully T bar the fish free.
Soon after came the biggest fish of the day again to my rod, a tidy fish weighed in at 49lb and still the tope came.
In the end it became a numbers game as we passed 30, then 40 and finally reached the 50 mark before calling it  a day. Once again the fresh mackerel ran out and some back up frozen continued to do the business.
Fantastic fishing and Simon loved every minute of it.

I'm currently reading 'Sharks In British Seas' by  Richard Pierce which I highly recommend to anyone interested in all species of shark and in which the tope, is also known as a ' soupfin shark'. A rather more interesting name for the specie but one also, that gives us a clue to its unsavoury use as a luxury food source.

3/7/13 Mullet Fix.

Mullet lie at the roots of my fishing. Well actually, that's not strictly true . I fished very keenly as a teenager ,mostly for coarse fish, but it was mullet fishing that kicked off my 'renaissance' period when I rediscovered fishing at the turn of the century having 'let it go' for over twenty years.
What on earth did I do with my time, I ask myself.
Mullet fishing will, I suspect, always be there. It's simple, eminently affordable and endlessly challenging and I have a deep affection for it. If , for whatever reason, I have to one day give up the boat, or can't get up the river for a pike, I 'm pretty sure I will be able to go mulleting.
Fish have been showing under my boat in the marina for some time although, I assume due to low spring temperatures, they were late turning up this year. For various reasons, I won't target these marina mullet at the present time, even though they seem to be of a very good size, preferring instead the peace and quiet of the open river.
Generally, when fishing the main river I prefer to wait for low water. It makes a lot of sense to me that the huge reduction in water volume at this state of tide increases chances of locating them.
Picking one of my favourite stretches, they were quite easy to spot, and I tried my usual trick of trotting a float downstream to any likely candidates.
It didn't take long for a bit of interest to be shown but the first proper bite was missed completely. For some inexplicable reason, I watched the float disappear completely and failed to react at all. Senior moment.???
A few minutes passed and when the bite registered, on this occasion, I did the right thing and a scrappy two pounder was soon beached-my first of the season.The feisty little fellah kept fighting on the bank and needed pinning down for a pic.
Usually, the flow starts to tail off a couple of hours after low tide at the river entrance. On a big tide the river rises, but still flows towards the sea-a curious phenomenon. Today, being a small tide the 'slack water' period was prolonged and, although the mullet require a more sensitive approach at this time with the float shotted down to reduce its buoyancy, they do seem to feed well. I can't always guarantee a fish, but it's on the cards.
The river is so still, it's akin to fishing a lake.
A couple of nibbles ensued followed by a positive take and ,'bang' another fish was 'on'.
A fat three pounder this time in sparkling condition-a welcome sight.
I fished on hoping for the hat-trick but once the tide began its flood the fish just switched off the feed which is consistent with what I've always found at this spot.
Good fun.

30/6/13 Fishing With Bri'

Brian's a good mate of mine, and a neighbour at the marina. We seem to have similar ideas about fishing probably because we both come from a coarse fishing background. Brian's playground was formerly the River Arun where he's had considerable success in the field of match angling.
I've only been back from Cornwall a day, and that day was spent cleaning up the boat and getting her back on the mooring. With the weather set fair for the morning, it was rude not to go fishing although, after the intensity of the sharking, I fancied something a little more relaxing.
Although clear just outside the harbour, the weather soon turned foggy and the temperature dropped enough for me to don my floatation suit jacket.
Shorts and crocs on the bottom half of course.
Initially, we headed to the Pine wreck but the only thing that showed the remotest interest in our shads and sidewinders were pout.
A dive boat appeared out of the murk, and that was our signal to up sticks and move on although, they were polite enough to ask if they would be disturbing us which is unusual and considerate.
I wanted to show Brian my 'half way' mark and see if there were any tope and hounds about but before that, we needed some mackerel.
It didn't take long to collect enough for hook bait and in amongst them a lone sardine turned up. A first for me that tasted absolutely spectacular grilled on toast for the following day's lunch.
We settled on the mark just as the tide started to make and a steady stream of pack tope came to the boat along with a nice double figure hound for Bri, which were great fun as we'd both downsized to 6-12lb outfits to make the most of the sport.
Brian was really enjoying himself.
This mark has produced a BIG tope for me-about two years ago, so I felt there was always a chanc e of something special turning up.
The wind speed increased dramatically as the afternoon progressed (it was forecasted)and with a bumpy sea, came some anchoring problems. On three occasions my anchor was tripped and despite paying out extra line, on a fourth occasion the anchor actually lifted, I suspect assisted by the Alderney buoy and the fact that the sea bed was probably quite soft.
I wasn't the only boat suffering. Several boats on the radio were experiencing similar difficulties. When the spring clip holding the buoy to the ring accidentally opened, and we had to manually haul the anchor before chasing the buoy down tide, we called it a day and headed for home at a steady 14 kts.We'd had a good bag of tope anyway.
A rogue wave, caught broadside just outside the river entrance caused Jupiter to heel at quite an alarming angle but, the  boat could handle it despite both of us giving each other one of those simultaneous 'looks' as one does.
A thoroughly enjoyable days fishing with good company.

25/6/13-26/6/13 Shark Adventure.

After several months of planning and research I've finally been able to go shark fishing in Jupiter....

It all started last winter when I discovered information about a huge porbeagle shark that had been caught on the North Devon coast from a 17ft Wilson Flyer dinghy. Angling journalist Graeme Pullen was the skipper, and Hampshire small boat enhusiast Wayne Comben was the man who had the pleasure of bringing the 'monster' to the side of the boat.It was his first shark trip!
Most anglers seeking shark will use a charter boat where pretty much everything is done for you by the skipper and you rely on their knowledge and experience but, to catch shark from a small trailered dinghy off your own back is, in my opinion , quite an achievement and something I was eager to attempt  myself.
I managed to contact Wayne directly, we exchanged several emails discussing tackle , tactics etc and  agreed to do a trip together sometime.
I  read everything I could on the subject, finding books from the early sixties and seventies that are still useful to the present day shark tyro, as well as a wealth of information on the internet. However, apart from G.P there  appears to be few anglers who have attempted shark fishing from a  small boat.
Initially, I was interested in trying for the Devon porbeagles and using the WSF forum to research, eventually met up with Nick (Mr Pix) in Ilfracombe. We've since become good mates , I've had a run out in his own boat moored in 'Combe' harbour and it was his suggestion that I approach the 'porgie' grounds from his home port which also happens to be where my son Jack lives.
I had researched various launch points for this relatively isolated stretch of coastline, but they all proved to be unsuitable so I decided to go with Nick's advice if possible, though I did at this stage, have a preference to 'cut my teeth' on some blue sharks first, and build up my experience gradually.
Other preparations for this trip included the gathering of suitable equipment. I managed to track down a matching pair of  new old stock left hand wind U.S built Penn 4/0 Senators and teamed them up with some inexpensive U.K class 50lb rods. The reels were loaded with 300yds of 80lb spectra braid with a 200yd 'top shot' of 50lb mono.
Alain Storey, also a WSF find, made up the excellent traces as I don't yet possess the required tools for the task.
10/0 Mustad  hooks were crimped to 6ft of 350lb wire and attached by the biggest link swivel I've ever seen in my life. A 20ft (wind-on the reel) rubbing leader of 400lb strain was employed, and two huge sliding catfish floats were adapted for the task by attaching a run clip to the float body using cable ties.
This would enable the floats to be set at the required depth by trapping the main line in the run clip.Once a shark took, and the line tightened sufficiently to release from the clip, the float would slide all the way down to the bottom swivel-about 6ft from the hook.
This gear is probably a little 'over gunned' for blue shark and 30lb class kit would suffice however, I wanted a fighting chance should a bigger shark take a shine to my baits and during my research I found that there was always a chance of this happening, albeit a slim one.
A kidney harness and butt pad were also added to the list along with a massive 120 litre cool box used to transport the pre-made rubby dubby.
Partly because we were unsure of the availability of mackerel but also due to it's undoubted effectiveness, the chum mix was made up of waste trout sourced from my local trout fishery In Sussex.These discards would have simply been buried so it was a satisfying, if  slightly unpleasant experience to make the stuff from a recipe provided by Graeme.
The trout flesh and guts etc were minced using one of those cast iron table top devices that everybody's Mum  had in the 60's and 70's, blended with bran which soaked up the not inconsiderable quantity of oil that these pellet fed trout are comprised of, and then frozen into 3.5 litre food containers, creating a conveniently sized 'block'.I finished with ten of these, and a 15litre bucket which contained all the carcasses, heads skin, etc-also covered in bran to soak up any remaining oil and frozen. Nothing was wasted.
If I'm honest, knowing what I now know, i'd be reluctant to eat one of these fishery trout.
 It took me nearly a day to process the whole lot in the garden at home a few weeks ago but, it was to be worth the effort.
The plan was to spend a week camping with the boat in the south-west starting at Ilfracombe on the North Devon coast ,meet up with my son Jack who lives there, and my daughter Grace who ,on the 25th would be celebrating her 21st birthday, and possibly get a trip out with Nick and Jack whilst I was there.
Following on from that, I would head to the south coast of Cornwall and meet Wayne at Falmouth.
It was a 'loose' plan and very much depended on the weather behaving but I began the trip in a philosophical mood and would simply wait and see what the 'wind gods' had in store for me.
For the first three days In Devon, fishing was completely out of the question-there was simply too much wind.I spent the time just hangin' with my kids,  and Nick turned up at the camp site for a chat and to check out Jupiter.

I needed a decent high pressure weather system with at least a couple of days of settled calm weather to attempt the 30 mile run down the coast from Ilfracombe to the porbeagle grounds...and it just wasn't going to happen. I expected as much before I left Sussex but also hoped for a more localised run out for tope with Nick but, high winds a rough seas put paid to that also.
Grace and me had spent a terrific 'day 3' walking the coast path together, checking out likely swims, and although 'day 4 ' was her birthday, she would be spending it with other family members so, sent me on my way.
She's a 'Top girl' my daughter, who fully understands her dad.
The weather for 'day 4' was looking promising with light winds so, a quick phone call was made to Wayne, and the boat hitched up for the 100 mile drive south arriving at Perranarworthal camp site just as darkness fell. We would be shark fishing in the morning!
A ten minute run from the camp site, the public slipway at Mylor is an absolute dream location to launch a boat . Shallow, sheltered, available at all states of the tide and with a convenient mooring pontoon and secure, cheap parking for van and trailer ,it's one of the finest I've seen.

Heading out of the huge natural harbour  we motored in a south easterly direction until we hit the 40 fathom line approximately 15 miles off shore to begin our drift.
 This piece of advice was provided by local commercial fisherman,  Frank Vinnecombe who, along with his brother Robin ran a couple of  charter boats back in the 60s and 70s -the heyday of Cornwall shark angling.
Friends who use shark boats in neighbouring Looe tell me that they run a similar distance and depth so, there must be something to it.
We were a little concerned about whether or not we'd find mackerel for hook bait, especially as locally, the commercial fisherman had reported a shortage in recent years with a worsening situation.In Sussex,at the present time, they can be extremely tricky to locate.
 We needn't have worried.With the chum bucket in play,the mackerel were soon attracted, our sets of feathers were full almost immediately and we soon amassed a box full for baits, albeit of quite a small size.
 Once we'd had enough mackerel, the sharks rods were made ready.The four floats were set at varying depths from 10 to 40 ft , the shallowest being the closest to the boat, getting deeper further down tide. In this way, we attempted to set the baits within the chum trail which slowly sank as it drifted away from its source at the boat.

The chum trail must be continuous otherwise the homing shark may break off from the scent and never find the baits. It seemed to work very well-a distinctive oil slick being quite apparent on the surface of the sea...we sat back in our comfy chairs and waited...................
I suppose it took a couple of hours before the clicker on Wayne's TLD sang it's merry tune, and the 'Pompey Shark' bent into the first fish of the session. A very entertaining tussle ensued and, when the blue shark came into view, I'll admit to having my breath taken away somewhat.
 An incredibly elegant fish with a long streamlined snout, huge 'winged' pectorals,  a deep steely cobalt blue back, a bright pearly white underbelly and, of course, those teeth.A mightily impressive beast which Wayne estimated at about 75lb and cleanly released at the side of the boat.
I was elated. All the preparation and planning had paid off. A 'proper' shark caught from my own boat!!
Next , it was one of my Penns that burst into life and I had my first ever taste of being connected to a proper shark. Not a particularly prolonged fight, it has to be said, but the diving runs were very impressive and it was necessary to thoroughly tire this one out as it was coming on board for a photograph.

Once Wayne had a firm grip on the trace with gloved hand, my rod was securely propped in a rod holder with the reel drag fully loosened off. The other three rods had been reeled in and stowed out of the way under the cuddy and the deck had been pretty much cleared of anything that could get in the way.
Working together with one swift motion, we lifted the shark on board and I straddled the fish in an attempt to settle her down. With the hook removed I could just about drape her across my knees for the photo session before she was unceremoniously 'heaved' once again, over the gunwale. None the worse for her experience, she immediately kicked off  and dived into the depths, seemingly annoyed.

 What a sight for sore eyes.
I've caught bigger sharks from a beach in Africa but no fish, by a long shot, has  been so satisfying to catch. That shark was, at that point, the pinnacle of my angling career.
Wayne's next fish was about 60lb and was quickly followed by another take on one of my 'red' reels. This  fish felt considerably heavier than my previous, and gave a much stronger fight with deeper, more prolonged soundings.
Eventually with the leader on the reel, we could see that this was a much bigger shark and, at first I was reluctant to bring my prize on board. Wayne managed to talk me into it having experienced a similar sized fish on Graeme's boat and, with hindsight, I'm so glad he did.
The pictures speak for themselves. The fishes snout rested between my two seats and the tip of the tail  ended up much higher that the rod rail despite the body being 'snaked' across the deck. She made the Warrior feel very small indeed. I later estimated her at  94 inches, and Wayne reckoned she was a three figure fish  -I'll never know for sure but don't care in the slightest. It was a huge fish to bring aboard my little boat.

Wayne finished the session with the fifth shark of the day and we returned to port having had a superb day's sport ands grinning like Cheshire cats........what a day.
Shortly before leaving for home we spied a couple of sunfish cruising slowly about ten yards away from the boat displaying their distinctive  fin?????
We did try to follow and Wayne put out a bait but with no luck. An incredible sight to end the session.Happy 21st Birthday Grace!

Day 5 and we were blessed with an even calmer sea and slower drift speed, and this may have contributed to the sharks being a bit slower to find our chum trail. I think it was afternoon before Wayne took the first shark-another good fish in the 70lb bracket.

This was later followed by a spell of bad luck on my part.
We'd seen sharks nudging the floats-apparently they're attracted to the colour -yellow. I hooked into a shark and felt a strong dive immediately and then it all went slack! The 400lb rubbing leader had been bitten clean through.
Obviously before taking the bait, and whilst investigating the float, the shark had tangled the rubbing trace in its teeth and severed the leader when tension was applied.
 Interestingly, the two fish that were brought on board showed some 'teething ' problems by biting both my deck brush (also yellow) and , rather less amusing, getting a good toothy grip on one of the fuel tank filler caps. He soon let go probably disliking the taste of petrol but took a few brush bristles with him.By way of compensation, we later found a couple of teeth left inside the boat which we kept as trophies.

Shortly afterwards a shark again picked up my bait, and then....... proceeded to drop it. Bugger! Second chance missed.
Whether it was the same shark, or there were a few in our 'swim', we're not sure but almost immediately, Wayne's neighbouring float took off at a pace ,the shark was firmly hooked and my crew settled down to play his fish.
I managed to clear two of the rods away before noticing my remaining rod buck violently, the 'Senator' scream loudly, and yet another shark had taken my bait. We had two on at once In  something of a feeding frenzy.
Laughing at the situation, we managed to keep our sharks well apart. I let mine run  away from the boat to keep it clear of Wayne's fish however, there were some slightly tense moments as my shark decided to swim towards the boat thankfully,  changing its mind before coming into harms way.
Wayne managed to 'trace' his fish and quickly release it-another good sized shark of 70 plus before helping me deal with mine, a bigger specimen in the 80lb range, which was also cleanly 'T' barred at the side of the boat.

We'd also briefly glimpsed shark swimming under the boat obviously picking up the source of our chum trail so it actually turned into quite an exciting afternoon's fishing.Eventually with the wind picking up, we decided to call it a day.
Back at the slipway and we met with a local bass guide who was actually quite surprised by our stories of local shark, and despite the excellent weather conditions we saw very few other boats 'out there'.
Day 6 and the good weather had started to break.
 We could have tried our luck at the 'Manacles' and have been sheltered somewhat , the mark being in the lee of some high ground but, instead we stayed at the campsite and talked fishing before taking a short trip into the village for a pasty lunch.
It proved to be the correct decision as the wind picked up considerably in the afternoon.
Wayne wanted to call on Frank Vinnecombe who still has a boat in the harbour, and a fish shop in Mylor Bridge despite being nearly ninety years young.

 

Although Frank wasn't at home we eventually bumped into him by chance, and were able to personally thank him for his tips on location.

This has probably been my longest blog entry and fittingly so, as it's most definitely been the most satisfying and exciting fishing I've ever experienced. Everything worked as it should and the boat behaved impeccably both on the water, and behind my camper van.
In the end,all the preparation, investigation and planning paid off, and we were lucky to pick up a fish or two.I'm already thinking about the next trip!