A Windy window?...14/05/2013

A Windy window?...14/05/2013 It’s just after 2pm and I really shouldn’t be sitting here watching Jeremy Wade fishing on the TV. No, I should still be out there myself, fishing. I would have been too, if things hadn’t started to get quite so hairy… Things were going really well last week, loads of fun with dogs, hounds and my first ray of the year, porpoises around me and good seas but then it changed. Two days unable to launch and a third where I dropped anchor, got held at ninety degrees to the tide by the wind and had to pull up and head back in before ‘d even dropped a bait over the side. Then I was back on shift for a few nights and unable to join in the bonanza that was the weekend with local boats pulling in bass to 9lb, rays to 12lb, smoothounds to 5lb and dogs almost the same size. It didn’t look like I’d be getting out this week either with the wind forecast to be too strong. To make matters even worse, after telling my wife about these catches she asked if they sold fish…thanks for that! I got kind of lucky though this morning, in a roundabout, theoretical kind of way. I bought a pair of waterproof camcorders last week to add to the Oregon Scientific headcam I have on the bow, the GE on the rod butt and the Olympus compact I carry. The idea is to mount one to shoot down into the cockpit over my shoulder and one on the bow to shoot into the cockpit and get a bit more variety in my videos. Anyway, I decided to go and have a fiddle with them and get some stock footage from the beach for a major project after dropping my daughters at school. The beach anglers were out in force and, despite the forecast and the wind the sea looked perfectly fishable. A low rolling swell but no white water at all it just said “come to me”. So I checked on my phone, high tide just before 1pm…ideal for an 11am launch to get the last couple of hours of the flood, the slack and the start of the ebb. Prime time, thornback and smoothound time! I parked up across the road from the ramp down to the beach and started putting things together. I only needed squid for bait today (unwashed of course) but had brought a mackerel and a herring from the freezer just in case. The wind dictated a drysuit rather than the bib and brace I’d swapped over to a few weeks ago after the weather improved so I zipped myself in and immediately felt bulky; by the time I reached the shoreline I was sweating. The water was right up and the shingle drops steeply here now after recent storms and the kayak nearly launched itself while I was fitting the overhead camera. But no! A problem! It shipped with a 4gb card and worked fine but I decided to get 16gb ones for them both…like a fool I’d not tested them prior to setting off and now the camera was all dressed up with nowhere to go. Oh well. I launched with it in place and paddled straight out to sea a few hundred yards – heading for mark 16 on my GPS, a patch of rough ground and clay in 35ft of water. Down went my anchor and I sat there with my nose pointing straight down tide. Rod one, 2/0 pennel and a running leger, whole small loligo squid and a 6oz grip lead. Rod two, a 2/0 wishbone on a running leger, loligo on one hook, a belly strip of herring on the other again with a grip lead. One to the left, one to the right. Well it’s been a whole five minutes without a bi…oh hello, what was that…yep, a tap or two…pick up the rod, take up the little bit of slack, feel and wait…shake…strike, yes! Fish on, a good fish too, a good pull and shaking, rod bending over nicely… Oooh yes, this is brilliant, just got here and ‘ve got a keeper…oh…no I haven’t. Line’s gone light, it’s dropped off. Dammit. I change the squid and chuck it back out again. These Maxximus IM7’s are lovely, really sporty but at 12lb class and the flex you see on the cast can they actually have any power? Another five minutes passes and the sea is starting to build with the wind. I get blown side on to the waves a few times and it drags my lines about a bit; it’s difficult to keep them tight at times. I notice a twitch and knock but do nothing as it doesn’t reoccur. A couple of minutes pass and I pick the rod up to tighten things up again when the present gust passes… now bear in mind that it was a force 2-3 wsw when I left the house and southwesterly when I launched, force 3. It’s gone more southerly now and seems to be a definite 3 with lengthy ‘gusts’ that are probably in the region of a 4-5…not funny as I‘m not in the safest of situations now, being regularly beam on to 3ft+ short swells, some broken. So the rod is now in my hands and I wind to the bait. It feels heavy. Very heavy. Not solid and unmoving like the ground though it’s not running like a big bass or smoothie, not nodding like a cod…I’m convinced I’m hooked into something and something that is not only pretty large but also doesn’t really care that I’m up here. Is it the bottom? It can’t be as I make progress over the next few minutes. Reasonable but slow progress. I pump, I tighten my drag, I lift and hold, I tighten my drag, I pump and wind and put my thumb on the spool because it’s still taking line and I try to bully it up to the surface. I try to bully it and, with my finger on the spool a large wave rolls under me, lifting me 3ft with everything locked down to the maximum and I shoot back in my seat as the 20lb braid parts. Damn, damn, damn. If this was indeed a fish and the large ray I suspect it would have been an album shot for sure but no, I have to tie on another trace and dig out another lead. Things aren’t going well. Well carry on for another hour and the sea and wind continue to pick up. I’m sitting beam on to the waves and at ninety degrees to the tidal flow so am having to pay attention somewhat – it’s not relaxing and I can’t often see the bites…frankly it’s just no fun anymore. I can’t go in without a fish though. I keep trying. It’s a 6 now, gusting 7-8 as it turns out when I check after I go home. Fortunately the direction and the fact it’s quite a young wind means it’s not so bad in this spot but it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better… Finally I see another tap, I strike into it on the second mouthful. Jaws has returned. Cleanly hooked, a quick kiss on the snout and away the little boy goes. A starry saves me from the blank. I rebait and manage another half an hour before deciding that I really am wasting my time and things aren’t going to improve today. That’s all there is to it and so I grab my anchor reel, shuttle things forward and start to haul before setting off for the shore… So ten minutes later I sat on the stones thinking about things, reviewing it all. I suppose I COULD have stayed at home doing nothing… Twenty four hours later and it’s a force nine, I’ve been woken time and again through the night by the wind in the trees and the sea is a real mess. What concerns me most though is the state of my freezer, the last of the bass fillets has been defrosted for lunch having waited patiently since September. I need clear sea and no wind.