That is jumping forwards though. First off I had to get the new vehicle to deliver down south where I would be reunited with my darling Transporter van, needed to tow the demo trailer down to Exeter. The van had been with our rep while I had his Peugeot 407. Lovely car that – a French ride is usually worthwhile and their motor industry isn’t bad either. The Peugeot, however, had been temporarily replaced with a Peugeot Partner.
6am and I was off, navigated by my Geonav Gypsy. I’ll say no more on that because we distribute them. After the swap I set course for Exmouth. It was hoped that fishing might be in order that evening but following coffee, jet washing the demo trailer (and every other customer at Shell) and a recce to Budleigh it was decided that perhaps some yak surfing might be fun but as more anglers arrived on the shoreline and took the best surf breaks we decided instead to wait for Simon before returning to Johns to eat and drink, via Tesco where the required provisions were obtained.
Up early and over to Exeter after a ‘John Breakfast’ I got the van ready to display and spent the day in the fresh air talking fishfinders, chartplotters, kayaks and paddles. Team Dorado was spied at one point, still suffering…
But the day passed quickly and pleasantly and I had the opportunity of meeting several forum members – I hope I was of some use to you! Then it was time to pack up, hitch up and head to the supermarket for some fresh mackerel as bait. Fresh being way too rancid for human consumption and marginal for fish bait to say the least! I had the first inkling of ‘one of those nights’ at this point as the supermarket proved difficult to find…but eventually I had my bait and was at the carpark where I joined John, Simon Cambornecaperpilot and Gormo.
Dressed, tackled up and having phoned my daughters I made the 100 yard walk to the inlet with the yak on my shoulder. I launched into the inlet and promptly drifted straight out to the middle minus my paddle. Second warning…thankfully Adam retrieved it to save me getting my boots muddy! We then watched the trolley-tart…
Then it was time to head out through the run into the sea. Conditions had looked choppy but doable from the beach, certainly within my envelope and I followed Gormo down towards the opening.
The run looked tricky – there was a lot of swirling and clapotis from the cliff face but I watched fro a few minutes and then started on my breakout…dead centre to go out…I was promptly caught in current and pushed sideways towards the cliff and without much space back-paddled, getting out of the current and into an eddy having only scraped one rod tip. Third warning. Try again, stay wide and with my paddle hitting the shingle between swells I broke out and threaded my way through the breaks that showed the location of the rocks. There was a good 4 knots streaming in and this was straight out into a force 4 with loads of chop. It was exhilarating and fun but above all something different as I’m used to going straight out from shallow sandy beaches with no features. The photographs never quite capture it…
I paddled about for ten minutes then decided that I wasn’t going to get through to calmer water and so called John up to tell him not to come out – I was intending to come in. Camborne answered to say John was already on his way out and I spotted him…ah well, wait for his arrival.
He soon turned up and called over to say it was pretty nasty and no way were we going to anchor or fish. He agreed and started to look for a safe way in, me following maybe 50 yards behind. A few minutes later and I saw it coming…a set was rolling in and the smaller ones were hitting a reef…the big one came and I turned head on into it but knew straight away I was not going to make it without a lot of luck…luck turned to a rhyming word as, wrong place wrong time, the crest broke on my bow while I was trying to climb over it, leaning well forward and trying to get a purchase on the back of the wave and before I knew it the foam that raced down the top of the yak had picked me up and pushed me backwards over the seat (collapsing it), between my rods, over the tankwell and down into the water for my first wipeout when not surfing. Devoid of photographic evidence, here is an artist’s impression!
I surfaced, paddle in hand (unleashed) and started to swim to the yak, 50 yards or so away and capsized. John came as close as he could and I fished around, retrieving one rod from the flushmount, the other being out of reach in Davy Jones’ Locker…I wanted to pass it to John and called him in, he refused saying it was dangerous – what I didn’t know was that there was a bunch of white water behind me and so John waited until I drifted into him and then took it, absolutely the correct decision on John's part. This left me free to right the yak, stow the paddle and clamber back in. John was asking if I was alright and of course I was – having done so many self rescues in all conditions and having played so much on the Yak Board I am used to being in the water and the practice certainly paid off – calm, rational and instinctive when it finally did happen. I then retried my rod from him and stowed it in the Rod Pod. Thanks for hanging around mate because I might not have been okay. Later he told me that he turned around and saw the yak go vertical in the air and though to himself ‘he’s off’. Dorado was now sprinting out and was soon on scene too – thanks Simon.
Then it was time to find a path in. With the sea as confused as it was this was not easy and so I took things nice and steady, bracing, correcting, turning and scanning the water. Then another wave came up that turned me from my course to point my nose straight in. It was rougher here and I wasn’t going to turn against it and started to head in from there keeping a very sharp lookout…and thankfully my luck held. I came across the term ‘boomer’ last night in a book – that’s when a decent wave comes in on a rock sucking the water back and exposing it before it breaks on top in a big explosion of foam…one of these occurred just ahead and to my right and as the water poured back over the rock I passed it – imagine if I’d been that bit quicker and this bit further across…and John had the same a bit later himself. Without further drama I finished the paddle into the beach and landed cleanly on the shingle spit, Gormo rushing down to grab me or the yak if needed. Cheers! We then waited for the other two to come in – and they did it in style!
Debrief, piss-taking, nicotine and Dorado heading out again for a play followed before we headed back up the inlet to the vehicles
We got ourselves sorted out and loaded up ready to go back to Johns for drink and food. At least that was the plan. My last bit of misfortune was still to come though as the van door half closed itself with my keys in when I’d got the yak straps. It wasn’t my night and there followed a long wait for the RAC technician to drive over from Cornwall…
All’s well that ends well and after our return, food and drink it was time to get my head down ready for the mornings fishing…down to one rod but with the rest of my gear still thankfully safe.
05:00 and the alarm goes off. I couldn’t get up, not yet…ten more minutes and then I managed to drag myself off the sofa and into my gear. A coffee and then away in the van down to Budleigh. John was up but Simon wasn’t. I arrived in the car park to meet Manrock and Justin69 who were pretty much ready to launch having been there on time (I was ten minutes late). A quick chat and I carried the yak down to the beach – Trident 11 this time, the first time I’d tried it on the sea.
I anchored up and cast out some mackerel fillet hoping for doggies, as promised to my daughters. Manrock and Justin were both a few hundred yards away and the first in was Justin, with Mackerel. He stayed there for a while, I up anchored a couple of times and then he wandered by in his Malibu X13, the deep red looking gorgeous in the sunlight.
Then a twitch…and another…one more whilst the rod was in my hand and then I struck…unlike Christchurch a few weeks before I had very little fight as the Dogfish came to the surface…
It had taken a while but I’d finally broken the blank and had something to keep my children happy – as was I as I find them delightful looking fish. I then changed over to feathers (thanks Justin, I’d left mine in the van and he’d come to the rescue). I joined the others further out.
It was around this time that some more yaks arrived on the water – apart from Skate I didn’t get the other names. I think in total there were eight of us on the water at one point, with a tandem SOT and some SINKs also appearing here and there throughout the morning.
Eventually :D John and Simon arrived and came out to join us before wandering off in search of fish…I was still avoiding the mackerel and kept changing between feathers and bait, missing another doggie bite before Justin wandered over again – having had 17 mackies by now! If I didn’t like him I’d have hated him ;)
We’d both run low on time now and so I changed back to feathers, paddled further out again to the main bunch of people (one of whom had had a bass) and started to drift, jigging the feathers near the bottom where I heard the mackerel were being picked up. After a while I felt the feathers getting it but couldn’t pick anything up…and then yes, I had something on. It felt like a mackerel but a small one…and then up came a new species for me…a sandeel
Well, I was happy with that and soon had a hook on the end of my line to which this was attached and freelined as I paddled and drifted around the bay, heading over to the reef and rocks where I’d come a cropper the night before.
It was just seaward of this one where I’d come off according to John.
Ouch! It could have been pretty nasty. I carried on fishing for a while and then reluctantly headed in.
We got the yaks over to the car park and de-rigged, got changed and then it was time for me to wander home, 350 miles away. It may not have been productive and I may have had a few disasters but it was certainly a fun weekend and I had enjoyed the company of some forum members I’d not met before...I do love my job :D
John, Helen, thank you for your generous hospitality, Simon thank you for your assistance and good humour, Justin thank you for your company and to all the others I met over the weekend, it was my pleasure - see you again!
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