Road Trip - Wales & Cornwall (Part 1)

Last year's big road trip had been hugely successful and I'd planned a similar trip for this summer. This year I was to show Ronald Traas( aka 'The Dutchie') some of my favourite marks and to hopefully land some big fish onto our kayaks.

Sadly this year wasn't to be a repeat of last year. I do have huge reservations about booking such fishing expeditions so far in advance, as whether you like it or not, you're at the mercy of the weather. As a saltwater kayak fisherman I'm all to aware just how much a trip can be dependent upon the weather, something that's often far less of a concern to the majority of freshwater kayak fisherman.

In the week running up to the trip it wasn't looking too hopeful, but we all know how unpredictable the weather can be and that forecasts are changeable at best!. Sadly this wasn't to be the case and the wind to cause havoc with the planned fishing. Virtually all of my chosen marks were made unfishable, or quite unpleasant for the whole trip. We found ourselves having to fish marks that I had little or no experience on, something that also affects one's confidence when fishing.

We traveled to Cornwall first, purely as no other of my chosen locations were fishable at that time. With the wind averaging 20mph or more the first fishing trip saw us head up into the tidal waterways in the hunt of Gilthead Bream. During my previous trip I'd been warned that the numbers had declined sharply due to commercial netting, though I still caught several fish. What did concern me though was the effect that the stiff westerly wind could have on the fishing.

Fishing was my usual setup for Giltheads, a light running ledger, 1oz with a 3' 20lb flurocarbon trace. The hook is all important here, with a strong sharp hook being a must with the 1-1/0 Sakuma Chinu being a favourite of mine. What there are at this venue is plenty of 'school bass' and as much as they're fun they get to a fresh bait intended for something else all too quickly!

I lost count of how many of these fish were caught and returned, but they weren't the target fish and the Giltheads had yet to make a show. I knew from previous experience that I'd enjoyed my best sessions from the mid-flood tide and that time had yet to arrive.

There's rarely mistaking a Gilthead Bream bite and when my rod tip pulled over hard and line was being ripped from the reel I was in no doubt as to what I'd hooked in to!. It was actually the best run I'd had off any Bream to date and it gave a great account of itself. The surprise was when it came to the net, it was considerably smaller than I'd expected. There's no doubt about it, they fight exceptionally well. Not the PB Gilthead Bream that it initially felt like!

Though I can hardly complain, many people fish long and hard in the hope of catching a Gilthead, so I consider every one that comes aboard a special fish. Disappointingly it was to be the only fish to be caught, Whether that was down to netting, the weather or just bad luck on that particular day, who knows.

The weather continued to be against us and the chosen Pollack grounds were unfishable, I'd also wanted to fish Sennen Cove, but again the weather made that venue impossible. I decided to launch from Porthoustock in the hope of finding some mixed species. Again the fishing proved very tough with only a few small Pollack and Wrasse being caught.

The next day saw us launch from around the corner at Porthallow. The venue looked promising but again it was proving to be difficult. I resorted to drifting with baited feathers, allowing the wind to push me across the bay. After a couple of quiet drifts I found a few mixed species. Nothing exciting, though a pretty Ballan Wrasse was worthy of a photo.

As much as it was enjoyable, it was also terribly frustrating. Yes we were fishing, but not where I wanted to fish, not on grounds where I really knew exactly where and how to fish. But it was a case of fish where the weather permitted, or don't fish at all.

We left Cornwall and heading towards Pembroke, driving past marks around Lynmouth and Watchet that I'd really wanted to fish, again, the weather was wreaking havoc with the plans. I've fished off Southwest Wales before for Tope and enjoyed some great success and I was truly hoping that this trip would produce the goods once again. The weather wasn't ideal with a stiff offshore wind being present for the majority of our time there.

The first day was really tough with me only having a run from one fish which I failed to hook into. The next day was somewhat better, for me at least, with three Tope being caught with another three being lost. Ronald was sadly not so fortunate.

They were all smaller males, but good fun nevertheless on light tackle. I take two rods with me for Tope, though I only fish with one at a time. Fishing for Tope with two rods is asking for a disaster, whether it be a nightmare tangle or a double hookup, neither bodes well.

I use a lighter 6-8lb Shimano Beastmaster with an ABU 6500 when fishing with weights up to 5oz. If the tides dictate the use of a heavier weight I switch over to my 10-15lb Shimano Beastmaster with a Shimano Charter 1000LD. The rig is a simple running ledger, with the trace being 4' long, made up of 3' of 80lb monofilament with around a foot of 80lb wire with an 8/0 bronze hook crimped to the end.

Note the bag lying in the water night to the kayak. It's a military laundry bag that's actually perfect for keeping mackerel and other bait fresh in whilst fish, alive for several hours at time in fact. It does produce quite a big of drag at times, something to be mindful of when anchoring in a strong tide. It could well be enough to cause you to pull/drag anchor. Though it's useful for this type of fishing.

Yes I caught fish, but it was hard work. As mentioned I also lost fish so it had been a great improvement over the previous day. Below is a Mackerel bait that had been dropped by a Tope, note the teeth marks, there's no mistaking what had been holding the bait!

To be continued in Part 2...

2015 Fishing Road Trip (Part 3)

We departed from Watchet and headed Southwest, driving through Devon before finally arriving in Conrnwall. The target species was Gilthead Bream. These can be extremely difficult to locate and are a dream species for many UK anglers. I was very fortunate to have been given some great direction on a previous Cornish visit and the plan was to fish the same area.

The area is the tidal river system and the Bream swim in with the tide. Previous experience has shown it can be quiet until the fish arrive, followed by a relatively brief spell of activity before quiet returns once again. It's allegedly possible to follow the fish upstream, though my success at doing this has been rather patchy!.

However, if the Giltheads aren't about there's plenty of small Bass and Red Mullet to keep a kayak angler amused. Bait was ragworm  rigged onto a running ledger made up with a 2oz drilled bullet lead with a 3-4’ 20lb fluorocarbon trace. The hook was a size 1/0 Sakuma 450 Chinu. Myself and Daniel anchored up in a couple of metres of water and waited.

As it happened we didn't have to wait too long. My first fish was a decent size at 3-4lb and gave me a real scrap on the light tackle. These fish are tremendous fun!

Daniel was not far behind me and landed himself a nice sized fish as well.

The images have been edited slightly as not to disclose the location. After chatting to the tackle shop owner in Falmouth is became apparent that netting is becoming a major problem. Giltheads are currently not protected in UK waters and are being caught as a 'by-catch' by netters who are allegedly targeting Mullet. It's very disappointing to hear this as these fish are not only great sport, they only frequent a handful of areas around the Southwest.

 Despite the potential reduction in fish population we caught more Giltheads. The action was steady.

When the Giltheads weren't taking the bait there were plenty of small Bass and Red Mullet that were more than happy to oblige. I don't recall having caught Red Mullet before, a first for me?.

I've heard of Giltheads that have neared 10lb in weight coming out from this venue. We weren't finding fish of that caliber, though what we were catching was quite respectable. I'm not so sure the Daniel believed just how difficult these fish are to locate and catch as he caught yet another good sized fish!

We actually ran out of bait at one stage so I pedaled back to the launch and drove back to the tackle shop to buy more ragworm, before driving back to the launch and pedaling back to the mark!. That wasted over an hour. The bait was expensive and quite poor quality to be honest, Farmed bait, 'bitty' and small. Still, sometimes you just have to take what you can get.

We only fished for a few hours and bagged 6-7 Giltheads between us plus a multitude of Red Mullet and Bass. Plenty of fish, but most importantly I managed to get Daniel hooked up into the elusive Gilthead Bream. Having ticked yet another box it was decided to change venue and target another species for the next session.

2015 Fishing Road Trip (Part 1)

For a couple of good reasons I didn’t publish much about a ten day August road trip that I enjoyed with my good friend Daniel van der Post. Though I’m sat here, and the weatherman has forecast another wet and windy weekend, the third in a row!. It’s been over a month since I was last afloat so I’ve decided to see what I can recollect from our August trip.

I’ve visited and fished with Daniel several times in his own country, the Netherlands, though he’d yet to visit and fish the saltwater here in England. He’d read my reports over the years and finally made the decision to cross the English Channel and sample what I’d been taking for granted for several years. As much as I’d really been looking forward to this trip, it put a little pressure on me as I naturally wanted Daniel to enjoy some good success and leave with a smile of his face.

Over a few weeks, I did my research, whether it was on the web or mailing a few friends for some additional information. It was important that we’d be able to fish regardless of the weather, whilst ensuring that we were fishing venues that were likely to produce some memorable fish. I also wanted to put as many different species on his kayak as possible, as many of the fish that are readily available here in UK waters are a rarity, or simple don’t exist in Dutch coastal waters. One thing was for certain, we were going to be covering quite some miles in order to satisfy all of my wishes.

That said, I didn’t want to spend 10 days on the road neither. To that end, I’d decided that we’d potentially fish from South West Wales down through Devon and Somerset, to Lands End in Cornwall. Daniel was very keen to fish for Tope, so that was my number one priority.

Daniel arrived in the UK, via the cross Channel ferry, making it to my house before dark. He was to use my old 2011 Hobie Outback for the duration of the trip, it being well kitted out for the task of saltwater fishing. We spent the evening organising tackle and packing the car, it really is amazing what goes into the car for a 10 day fishing/camping trip (way too much!).

The forecast was quite favourable for the first 2-3 days, so the decision was made to head directly to the Tope grounds located in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales. As much as I’d read about how productive this area can be for Tope, I’d never visited the area myself, so I found myself relying on some information from a friend. As it turned out, the tips were good!.

We made camp on a local campsite, located reasonably close to the fishing grounds. It meant a drive every morning, though there was a beach within a stones throw distance which provided an enjoyable evening stroll.

I had packed a cool box with frozen mackerel and some sand eel, though this was only to last a couple of days at best. We were soon on the beach, checking rigs and other niff naff prior to launching. As exciting as it always is to fish a new location, there’s always the big question mark over whether or not it was going to perform. There’s no substitute for fresh bait, so the frozen bait was taken afloat, though the mackerel feathers were quickly deployed.

I think it turned out to be harder to catch mackerel than anything else!, though one by one we amassed sufficient fresh bait throughout the day to keep us fishing. We initially chose to fish towards the centre of a large bay. The ground was fairly clean, though not featureless. As the tide flow was not excessive I chose to fish with my lighter 6-8lb class road, a 6000 sized reel with a running ledger to a 5/0 Sakuma 545 hook. The trace was tipped off with a few inches of metal trace as there was a strong likelihood of hooking into some toothy fish. With anchors down we commenced fishing, the breeze was a little firm at times, but conditions were pretty good. All we needed was some fish!

As it happened we didn’t have to wait too long to find some fish. We started to catch one tope after another and it was great fun. Though these were ‘pack Tope’, smaller fish  between 5-10kg that tend to shoal together, though on light tackle they still provided very enjoyable sport. It’s important to strike early with these fish to prevent a deep hook up. It used to be the ‘norm’ to strike on the second run, though I tend to tighten into the fish within 3-4 seconds. Occasionally the fish will drop the bait, though if left, the Tope regularly return and pick it up once more, often within seconds. I probably land 3 out of 4 Tope that take the bait, that’s a hook up percentage that I’m more than happy with, whilst minimising the risk of a deeply hooked fish.

Daniel was also catching, the fishing was good, we were having a great time!.

Though after a couple of hours things went quiet, almost dead in fact, so the decision was made to move to another mark. I took us to a nearby headland to fish some deeper water.

I was concerned about the tide, though it didn’t appear too bad so once more the anchors disappeared into the depths. Both kayaks were equipped with a full length anchor trolley and a ‘clip on’ anchor setup. The latter permitted easy release of the anchor and featured a buoy so it could be left in the water to allow you to photograph the other anglers fish, etc.

I’ve used this setup for years and it works extremely well. Returning the the anchor it was merely a case of clipping back on and swinging into the tide to fish once more.

We anchored up in much deeper water which also enjoyed a stronger tidal flow, though certainly nowhere as near as I’d feared. This was monitored throughout the session. I would have certainly had no qualms about relocating should it have become too strong. With another whole mackerel on a dedicated Tope rig (8/0 de-barbed bronze hook) I was soon fishing again. I must say that the scenery around Pembrokeshire was stunning, catching fish was honestly a bonus. Again, we didn’t have to wait too long before the baits were found and the reels began to scream.

With Daniel hooked up into a fish, I simply recovered my bait, unclipped the anchor and pedalled over to take some photos. This is where the clip on anchor system comes into it’s own.

We fished as light as possible given the tide, with minimal lead used to hold bottom at all times. We were also equipped with lure rods in the hope of finding some Bass and Pollack later in the day.

The easiest way to bring a decent sized Tope aboard the kayak is to grab a pectoral fin pull the fish onto your lap.

With the Tope on board, they often settle down quickly when positioned on its back (tonic immobility). Though it doesn’t always work!

All fish were quickly photographed and returned, apart from a few cod and bass for the table, I very rarely keep any fish these days.

 

I hadn’t taken my GoPro with me so I relied quite heavily on Daniel to take the occasional photograph for me. I’ve caught quite a few Tope over the years, but it’s always nice to have a couple of photos from every trip. Just to show that I didn’t blank if nothing else!. My biggest fish of the day ‘was released early’ before Daniel made it over to my yak!

We fished this mark for a couple of days, managing 22 Tope between us which I consider to be extremely successful. Daniel was certainly pleased, the No.1 target had been caught!. Other species were caught including Bullhuss, Gurnard, Ray, Launce, Dogfish and some Bass & Pollack to lures.

It had been a cracking start to the trip. Though the weather had began to turn with the South Westerly winds picking up to a point where it was getting rather uncomfortable to fish. We’d done well, so with the camping gear packed we headed around the Bristol Channel, leaving the northern side and heading to the southern side.

Cornwall – First trip out

I used to live in Cornwall, though it’s well over ten years since I moved to Hampshire. I’ve only  enjoyed a couple of days kayak fishing in the area a few years ago, so when the opportunity arose to spend several days kayak fishing in Cornwall I took it.

I packed the car full of camping gear and enough tackle to cover just about any type of saltwater angling. The original plan had been to camp my way around the county, however, the campsites are charging what I consider to be ludicrous prices. One person and a small two man tent was attracting prices of between £18-23 per night!. That’s not far off ‘bed and breakfast’ prices, some roadside hotels offer similar deals. So I provide the tent, the bed and probably have to pay for the shower… I just don’t see how they justify those prices. Rant over.

Anyway, I decided to grab some free accommodation at the local Naval Air Station at Helston (perks of the job) which put me in easy location of both the north and south coasts.

If I wanted to bait fish I’d either have to catch it, buy  it or dig it. Though to be honest I was more interested in lure fishing. I’d made a load of jig heads, packed plenty of soft baits as well as a box of smaller lures for casting or trolling. Species wise I was aiming for Pollack, Bass and Wrasse with the chance of all sorts of other species making a show.

After a somewhat lazy weekend I travelled down early on the Monday morning, the journey being around 240 miles was expected to take a good four hours or more. Once on scene I organised my accommodation before making the most of the day and getting afloat!. I chose to launch at Porthoustock as it was familiar ground and should produce a few fish to get me off the mark.

I planned to drift over the Manacles in the hope of hooking up with my target species, however, once out of the bay the conditions weren’t quite ideal. Sure, it looks quite idyllic in the above photograph, though the small bay was well sheltered from the wind and once further out the water was choppy with an accompanying stiff breeze.

I’m not one to put off easily so I stuck with the plan and drifted, fishing a jig head fitted with a decent sized shad soft lure close to the bottom. To say that the depth varies considerably in this area is quite the understatement!. The sea floor comprises of many steep pinnacles which can rise from 20-30m to the surface in the blink of an eye. There are many mounts just below the surface so a close eye is required to watch for disturbed water, highlighting potential underwater hazards. Even with a GPS and underwater charts, you still need to keep a close eye on your surroundings at this venue. In the photo below I’m drifting quarter of a mile offshore in about 17m of water, however, rocks are breaking the water ahead of the kayak.

I experienced a few plucks and hits to my lures, though I was having no luck achieving a hard hook up. I swapped the lures a few times with no real success. I was drifting faster than I’d have liked, often reaching 2mph. Despite using fine 30lb PE braid line with a 4oz jig head I wasn’t achieving the feel I would have liked.

I noticed a fishing trawler heading in my direction when he was a mile or more away. I was drifting, yet he always seemed to be on a direct course for me. When he was within a hundred yards or so I peddled a little to push away from him, yet he kept on coming. Needless to say I wasn’t too impressed at this point and decided to wait until the last few moments to push away hard if required. As it happened he did steer clear of me, by all of about 3-4 yards at most!. He wasn’t hanging about and his bow wave lifted me up as he came alongside and I rode quite heavily over his wake. I mean seriously, what is wrong with people??. Apparently it’s a problem with the local fisherman who consider the area theirs and don’t appreciate other folk on the water. I wish I’d taken photographs and reported the idiot.

I wasn’t having any real luck fishing jig heads so I switched over to a bit of trolling. I’d rigged the Outback to permit the fitment of up to two Scotty rod holders mounted onto vertical extenders. These are fitted to a length of YakAttack’s GearTrac using a Gearhead adapter. This permits me to have the rod(s) ahead of me whilst still being able to operate the Mirage Drive.

I tried several hard lures with only one small bass to show for my efforts. Just for the sake of catching a few fish I rigged up a string of feathers with a 3oz butterfly jig for weight. I moved inshore out of the weather and made a few drifts across a small bay. I was almost immediately into fish, not sizeable, but it felt good. There was string after string of small Pollack, all around a 1lb in weight. Though with 3-4 on at time, it was providing quite some entertainment on my light tackle.

After picking up a multitude of Pollack, half a dozen school bass and a handful of mackerel I decided to call it a day despite having only being afloat for under three hours. It’d been an early start to the day, a fairly long drive followed up with a bit of fishing. I really fancied a couple of cold drinks, a shower and a comfy bed!.

I hugged the coastline on the way back and nosed around a few of the coves. It really is a picturesque spot and it was very pleasurable just doing a little sight seeing.

So the first session of the trip was over and I’d not blanked, bonus!. For my next session I’d made arrangements to meet two local kayak anglers (Sam & Ian) in order to show me how to find and tackle the big Pollack, I can’t wait!

Going Dutch (Day 2)

Ok, so the previous day had proved totally fishless, for me at least. Today was going to see the Team trying for bass around the islands of Zeeland. The location was another bridge, a particularly long bridge in fact!.

After a continental breakfast we headed off to The Hobie Shop in Colijnsplaat. Adjoining the Hobie shop is Bass Hengelsport, a cracking little fishing shop.

It was good to browse around the fishing store as there’s many items of tackle for sale that aren’t available here in the UK. There was large range of butterfly jigs and as I’ve recently purchased a vertical jigging rod for this months road trip, I picked up a selection to try out. They also had an huge range of loose soft baits for sale, needless to say I picked up a few examples for testing purposes!

Once I’d finished spending money on bait and tackle I headed into the Hobie shop where I had the opportunity to meet a few anglers who I’ve only chatted to online. It really is good to chat to keen kayak anglers, seeing the kayak angling scene from different angles is always very interesting.

Johan, one of the Dutch guys, sat us all down and proceeded to give us a thorough brief on the venue and tactics. I found this particularly useful and it certainly provided some confidence prior to getting afloat. The method was going to be drift fishing, specifically with what was effectively a ledgered ragworm fished just clear of the seabed. Should I bite be felt the bait was to be free-spooled for a few seconds prior to tightening up into the fish. Should a mackerel be caught it would give the opportunity to livebait, which is apparently the killer method for the larger fish. Rigging the livebait would be no different from fishing worm.

With the briefing over and a spot of lunch demolished in quick time, it was time to head back over the bridge to the launch area. Launching required carrying the kayaks down the seawall, not a great issue with so many people around.

 

I decided to take two rigged rods afloat, both rigged the same with a 1.5oz egg-shaped bullet lead on a running ledger with a 2’ 20lb fluorocarbon trace. The idea was that should I break one set of gear I could swap straight over, or perhaps rig one quickly with livebait should I catch something suitable.

Once launched it was a short peddle out of the bay to the bridge itself. These large bridges are truly great feats of engineering, they provide a lot of structure and generally hold some good fish. The weather was far from ideal, the wind was blowing and the sea particularly lumpy in the more exposed areas. The drift speed was somewhat quicker than I’d hoped for, so I ended up deploying a drogue from the nose which slowed me down considerably.

As per the previous day the fishing was proving to be difficult!. The drifts were a little unpredictable due to the changing wind and the sea floor shelved up very quickly at times. I had to pay close attention to the depth at all times as it was proving all too easy to snag the bottom. Most of the fishing took place between the first and second bridge pilings, with the depth varying between 5-17m. There were no fish being caught between the Team members which was proving a little frustrating.

I finally had a hit whilst drifting below the bridge and after allowing the bait to free-spool for a few moments I tightened up into a rather lively fish. After a couple of hard plunges it settled down and came towards the surface. Just as I expected to make visual contact with the fish the line went slack, it was gone.

We continued fishing, drift after drift, trying many different areas around the bridge. Eventually, right next to me, one of the French Team members hooked up.

I have to say that when the fishing is tough it’s nearly always the two French guys who manage to pluck out a fish. After passing him my net he proceeded to land a nicely conditioned Bass of around 3lb. So they were there, perhaps not in numbers, perhaps off the feed… who knows.

This particular location is also favoured by the scuba divers who regularly visit this area to view the breeding seahorses which I was told frequent this venue. You watch these scuba divers rig up on the steps 20-30m away from where we were at times fishing, before submerging out of sight. Now call me crazy, but if I turned up to dive and saw many kayaks fishing the area that I intended to dive, I’d probably have a change of heart and go elsewhere. Not these divers!, not even so much as a dive flag, there’s just out there.

At one stage I was drifting below the bridge and turned to see a bizarre looking flat circle of water about a metre across, directly in my drift, only a few metes away. I was drifting towards it quickly before I noticed the streams of bubbles around the edges of the circle. Geeez, a diver!!, I peddled quickly back up tide to begin a drift elsewhere, crazy or what!?. David Morris said later that he’d seen a couple of divers on his fish finder!.

By this time we were getting hungry and Bram Hullekes has ordered a truck load of pizzas to be delivered back at the seawall, how civilised. It provided a pleasant break to the fishing and some much needed sustenance.

With only a few crumbs remaining in the pizza box it was time to head out and fish into the evening. I was quite hopeful that once the bright sun dropped towards and below the horizon, that there was really good chance of hooking into a bass.

We continued to fish into the evening and at around 7pm the other anglers decided to call it a day, however, myself and David chose to fish into dusk. The wind was easing off dramatically and it was turning into a stunning evening afloat.

I fished right into the structure and hooked into some rather small. I was a little surprised when a scorpion fish came to the surface, perhaps he was a little more surprised when moments later he was lipped hooked and heading back to the sea floor. If I was going to catch a bass, my best chance was with a livebait, hopefully this was going to be it!.

 

So I continued drift and drift with my livebait swimming beneath the kayak. At times it became a little excited and I was waiting with baited breath, expecting to be smashed hard. It just didn’t happen. With the setting sun we started to resign ourselves to the fact that we weren’t going to catch a bass. The Scorpion fish was unhooked and he swam off quickly, no doubt counting his blessings.

That concluded another day afloat, another frustrating day, yet another very enjoyable day. A couple of the Team members were waiting for us when we returned, not something we were expecting. We both felt a tad guilty as we’d not expected anyone to hang around and wait a couple of hours for us to return. However, those guilty feeling melted away whilst we shared a few cold beers at a local bar. Tomorrow would see us have another crack at the Zander, third time lucky??