Further Afield…Pollacks to Bovisand 09.07.2011

On occasion a bit of work can be tied in with a bit of pleasure and this weekend was one of them. It all started with a loaded van and a run down the M11…

…July 9th and 10th was intended to be the Flying Legends Air Show at Duxford, a return after five years and a long story but I’d had to change plans the day that I was going to book my tickets. It was very much like kayak angling for me in that I had friends around the country that I’d meet up with and enjoy a great weekend watching the flying and taking photographs. Some years I’d also be in the company of a very special group of friends, ex-pilots and ground crew from 609 (West Riding) Squadron who’d flown Spitfires and Typhoons operationally during the war; sadly their numbers have thinned out greatly in the intervening years since I last spent time amongst them. But hey, I was passing, Richi had needed to cancel his day off and I figured I could meet up with some of my old buddies on the way through for a couple of hours. It was good and apart from the old mates I got to see some aircraft I’d never seen (P38 Lightning, Razorback P47 Thunderbolt) and a load of new paint schemes. Historic aviation is an old love that might just have been rekindled…but I digress.

I jumped back in the van, dropped some kayaks near Southampton and went to pick Richi up to give him the fright of his life with my driving as we set off for Torquay and a Premier Inn. I reckon this is the premier Premier Inn! Right on the bay and with a sea view…I toyed with the idea of launching but it was 11 now and we had to meet Chris in the morning.

A quick transfer of yaks and gear to his van and it was straight to Tesco for breakfast before heading off via a tackle shop in Plymouth to some rocky bit of headland near Fort Bovisands. Here we unloaded, kitted up and passed the yaks down to the ‘beach’.



It was blowing a bit and the launch, different to what I’m used to, looked decidedly interesting. It was too, with me having to time my forward motion with waves covering bits of rock. No dramas though and we all headed off, past Shag Rock and round the corner.



I had a Rapala Sliver and a Magnum CD9 out for a bit but they didn’t seem to be doing much so with Chris going in the lead with a Pollack I started flinging my Dexter out. I was using my 20 year old Shimano Bantam Crestfire, the first baitcaster I ever saw, as my spinning reel has seized solid. A freshwater reel, they told me, and they were right! Still, the Crestfire soon had me the first of my Pollack. I don’t see them at home so I was chuffed.



Chris was clearly impressed with our Scuppers…



…not that his Hobie wasn’t coping…



Then Richi spied the horizon, between waves…



It’s nice to see a retailer who knows how to walk the walk. Chris in action:









Walking the walk is one thing though, outfishing me is quite less nice so I went to see Richi. He’d gone to the top of the hill:



He was bait fishing at anchor but had only had a wrasse so far.


I suspect he may have missed some bites:







Anyway, we headed for the Mew Stone.





While the others landed I caught another pair of Pollack, one on the troll and one on the cast…



…and then headed in for a spot of dinner – a Mars bar, 3 Red Band and a bottle of water. There was something really special about sitting on the rocks on a deserted bit of rock in the middle of the sea that I really enjoyed. It’s a bit bland here in East Anglia in that respect.



We sat and talked shit for half an hour before relaunching and trying our hands hand at bait fishing in the lee.






I couldn’t get a touch so unclipped from the handy yellow buoy and went off after the Pollack again, catching a few more on a redhead Sliver. Chris meanwhile hit his second bass:









I brought my total up to eleven and then started to look where I could get ashore, the water being lower now…





It was an issue but I found a gap.

Yeah. Bloody right. Through the gap then picked up, slammed down on a submerged bit of reef and a quick brace before I was floated off again on the next wave…it was close and I imagine it would have been a tad painful as well as costly had I not been lucky.

Then Chris made his way in, Richi having already landed before me.



Back on dry land after eight hours or so…it was time to carry the yaks up over the jagged rock and up the small cliff so we could go get a beer. Hard work in an exciting and lively sea and we’d caught some fish (all of which survived). Brilliant day on the water, that. That’s what it’s all about! I only spent twenty minutes gouge-filling on my return home ;D



Up the next morning and it was beautiful. The sea outside was flat. So we headed for Totnes for the demo, arriving in good time. Out came the demo yaks and we waited all of five minutes before the first prospective paddler came up and then it started to get busy enough for us with people coming to see, talk and paddle fishing kayaks, see and paddle recreational kayaks and generally get the advice and experience that would help inform their decision. Most pleasurable for me was a gentleman who’d seen the Angling Trust mention Kayak Fishing and had decided it might be the next thing to try after float tubing. Trident 13, Prowler 4.1, Elite 4.5 and then back again with different seats. Loads of advice and chat with three of us and his choice was finally arrived at (Elite) once a solution for single loading was worked out (Thule outrigger bars). That gives me satisfaction, knowing that he had the opportunity to make the right decision in the right way. Of course, the other pleasure is the visitors! Donk, who I’d stood up the night before popped along as did Pugwash, Mullet Catcher (I think) and someone else…then just as it got quiet I heard ‘Mark’ behind me, turned around and saw someone I was hoping I’d see (if only to break out the home made biltong!). Hennie had popped by and a great chat was had that lasted until the vans were loaded and we were off. Kayaking, fishing, kayak fishing, South Africa, KP Scarborough reels, Couta, Kingies, yellowtail… great to finally catch up mate! Then, with a farewell to Old Duffer, Old Codger and Chris the two of us headed east. Yeah, I liked that weekend.

Veggie Food...03/07/2011

Up at 5...where to go? Swan? Power station? Ness Point? Well, the Swan is a great after-work venue and even though the tide was right I decided to give it a rest - shortage of the right lures notwithstanding! Power Station was just too far to bother with and being at the end of the road from work it would seem wrong. Ness Point it was then so I drove to the becah by my house so as not to wake anyone and unloaded. It was bright already, warm already and the sea was lovely.



I headed north, past the harbour entrance and on to Gulliver. sadly the water was pretty murky.



Not only that, even though there was no wind theree was a good couple of foot swell at the wrong angle which was hititng the rocks and rebounding and being low water I couldn't risk getting as close as I needed to be here due to the proximity to random boulders that have shifted from the wall.



So i went in. I decided that a paddle around to Hamilton Dock to look at the fishing boats was in order and got passed by a fishing boat or two.





Then it was down towards Lake Lothing seeing as the girls wouldn't be awake yet and I may as well make bacon and eggs for three. They're so thoughtful here...



I stopped by Asda and watched the mullet cruise past then headed back to sea again.



Back home it was breakfast and then the girls and I went to the pier with the saved heads and guts from my bass - we were after prawns in the drop nets. We managed the grand total of nine but had a giggle anyway. We had nearly as many starfish!

Back for lunch and then off to the beach to meet our friends at 2:30. Jonas had his Kea and I took the Yakboard. The intention was for me to paddle down in the Necky (1.5 mile I guess) with Eloise in Jonas' Kea or perhaps the Yahoo (her Kea being ten miles away). We decided in the end that she'd take the Scupper, she's nearly nine and a good paddler so it would be a bit of a test to see if she's as good as I suspect (I'd have a towline if needed anyway). Then I looked at the tides and noticed they were exactly wrong. Hey Ho! So we'd just play then:





















Great fun was had even in the small waves and Abigail had a couple of surfs in my lap too. The only thing is I had no fresh fish to eat and so the barbecue at our friends consisted of pepper/onion/halloumi skewers, nut cutlets and vege quarterpounders along with some Linda McCartney sausgaes (which tasted 99% like pork sausages. they only differed in being devoid of 1% meat content I gues ;D ). It didn't matter, i've had a great weekend ;D

Four Years On…01/07/2011

Yeah, that’d be about right. The summer of 2007. I can’t find the original reports if there was one but I remember it well. My brother came over for dinner and by now I had a pair of Prowler 15’s. He had five Frenzy’s so was not unused to paddling but he didn’t really go on the sea and hadn’t done any fishing in years really. Anyway, I’d talked him into coming out off Lowestoft for an evening session, tied off my bow and filled to the gunwhales with my legendary home-made spaghetti Bolognese. To cut a long story short it was bumpy, he felt a bit shitty, we caught bugger all and paddled back against the tide. Hmm. My memory is fonder than his ;D





Fast forward…it’s 2011 and I have avoided doing any overtime until the end of Friday…I’ve had a great time out midweek with bass and a seal and I’ve invited him along to finish the week on the water; he’s only gone and agreed hasn’t he! It was only later in the day that he started to remember and started to shit himself ;D Tough. I loaded the P15 on the roofbars as well and set off with three boats through the traffic.

I arrived on the road above the wreck and swore. It was choppy, from the wind, and the water was coloured up. I suspected fishing would be difficult. With time to wait before Carl arrived I got both yaks rigged up and down to the beach. The temptation was, of course, too much so I left one on the beach and went fishing ;D

Nothing.

Nada.

Rien.

It was clear I’d persuaded him to drive all that way for bugger all. I was flinging the last of my trusty Dexter Wedges out at all angles over the wreck – by the semi-exposed boiler, by the tallest piling, by some of the shorter ones, between those places…not a touch. I chucked it right down towards the end piling and let it sink. Reeled it in a bit and then bam! Fish on. Not huge and struggling against the tide but still giving a good account of itself a 38cm bass came aboard. That was tea sorted at least, though I’d need a decent amount of chips for two ;D I carried on, a bit more heart in it now, but it’d gone dead. No sign of Carl yet either.

Ten minutes later and in the same spot Bam! This one was bigger. This one was staying down. It was heavy, it was against the tide, it was strong and it was pulling, nodding and running; diving too and it took line. I got my net out for the first time this year ;D

Up it came finally and was into the net without even a proper view of it…a beauty. 51cm, 3lb. Good, chips are too bloody greasy, I could do this with salad instead ;D Then I saw someone approach the Prowler and start digging round – then wave. He’d arrived so I unclipped and paddled in. He’d seen it from afar and the landlubber’s term of ‘****ing hell mark’ followed as he dived into the set of Sidewinders I’d left for him to use.

I launched him and then followed. I clipped him off to a buoy on the inshore side and we started banging lures out towards the wreck while shouting across the water to each other in conversation ;D He seemed to be quite happy and was soon into the swing of things.



When I say into the swing of things I mean into the swing of things.



36cm bang on, his first bass, first yak fish and first yak caught meal. That meant we could have a fish apiece and I could keep the biggie for a family meal. Perfect result. My Dexter had lost its mojo now and that fell to a white with orange stripes Williamson lure, a tuna lure. I knew it’d have its day but I’d yet to take a fish on it – colour and shape were ‘right’. I’d put that on for him as he’d need the weight to cast and sink in that wind and tide run with the rod I had available…and now I knew it worked.

http://www.williamsonlures.com/products/lipless_lures.php

Then the wreck ate it.

It ate my last two shads too, both of us leaving one in the structure.

I gave him my rod with my last Dexter and went for a troll but the current was too fast to troll downtide and uptide wasn’t worth the effort so we headed in for a nice, dry landing.



They didn’t half roast up a treat.



(Slashed, drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper laid on a bed of olive oil, parsley, red chilli, red pepper, thyme and lemon juice. 220 degrees for around 20 minutes, the base being roasted for ten minutes prior).

As for my brother, well, he loved it. He loved the fishing, loved the fish, loved the whole evening. Some of you will probably meet him soon.