It must be at least 5 months since I had the smell of salt and seaweed in my nostrils so having dusted down my gear and cleaned and checked the boat, it was time to take advantage of two settled days and head for the Bay.
Thursday 1st July. First drop of the feathers produced a small pollack which I wisely kept in case, as was the case, the mackerel didn’t show. After an hour of searching I had only a few pollack to use for bait, better than nothing but not as good as mackerel. I headed off to the sand to try for a few rays, perhaps hoping for “a few” was being greedy. A couple of hours and drifts later, neither rod had had even a bite, not so much as a small dab or doggie. Even the resident seagull was getting impatient. Time for a different mark; a rougher spot with fish showing on the sounder. A double pater noster with pollack strip attracted a few fish; a couple of small pollack around 1.5lbs, several pouting and a female cuckoo wrasse. There were plenty of fish on the sounder but they weren’t queuing up for the bait so I headed off to another spot, an area of low rough in sand. This spot was infested with a plague of small poorcod shredding the baits, presumably safe in the absence of anything big enough to eat a poorcod! A couple more pouting showed up but this wasn’t really what I was after so off I went to another stretch of sand which has previously thrown up some good rays. But not today, three small dabs, best at 29cm but lean, along with a foul hooked weever occupied almost two hours. As I say all too often, “There’s always tomorrow”.
Back at the slip, I was just finishing making ready for the road when I heard “You’re back! Are those new wheels on the trailer?” “Indeed they are,” I replied to a man I had spoken to briefly last year, “You don’t miss much, you’d have made a great Taxman!”
Friday 2nd July. Yesterday’s tomorrow started off as a dull, grey, wet, uninspiring day. There was a pretty impressive looking boat moored in the harbour, maybe just out of range of my pocket though. I launched a bit further west today and on leaving the slip, headed west, stopping at numerous spots to try for mackerel. I passed a school of dolphins but they weren’t interested in playing. The mackerel were playing hide and seek, either they’re very good at hiding or I’m very bad at finding, perhaps both. I would have to try a few rocky spots for a pollack or two. First drop down, the rod heeled over as something substantial took a feather, not a mackerel or pollack, a few thumps suggested a cod. I was using small Joey mackerel size Sabikis so I played the fish gingerly to the surface and sure enough a nice 6lb 4oz cod was soon in the net. A 3lb coalie followed and the sounder was showing fish several yards off the bottom but also some hard on the bottom, probably more cod. Now 6lb cod are all very well but you’re not going to slice them up for bait so I moved elsewhere. At last, in 175’ of water, a single mackerel showed up. I decided to head for my chosen spot and baited up with fresh mackerel, lowering the boom and spoon rig to the bottom with a great sense of anticipation, (remember brushing your teeth on your honeymoon night?). After about 20 mins, the first bite registered but sadly it was the first of 5-6 doggies, so much for the honeymoon! One of the doggies seemed quite attached to the rod…It was now mid afternoon and the morning greyness had cleared to very warm, close and sticky conditions with not a breath of air and glass-like seas. Probably would have been perfect for that boat in the harbour to avail of full throttle. If I’d been wearing my birthday suit I would have taken it off to cool down. With no breeze and slack tides, I was getting a taste of the Doldrums from sailing ship days. There were dense swarms of jellyfish all around the boat, there can’t be much plankton left for anything else to feed on. At last, a good lunge on the rod tip announced the arrival of a ray, at just over 4lbs it wasn’t a monster thornie but very welcome nonetheless. A move to another normally productive spot gave only a few rattly bites, possibly small dabs, and a small tub gurnard who refused to display his pectoral fins for a nice photo. One last mark to try before home time, a new mark for me, but there was already a boat on it so I settled for another nearby spot, also new. Half a dozen pouting obliged along with a male cuckoo wrasse. The fishing was generally poor today so it’s probably not fair to assess the new marks on these results, another visit required! The forecast change in the weather was starting to show in the western sky so I headed in.
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