The Cod, the Bread and the Ugly
Here we are again its time for this weeks blog and this time is going be a double one as next weekend I am banned from not only fishing but even talking about fishing will be taboo, its the wife's special birthday and her foot is firmly down. The first part of this weeks challenge was an opportunity to get back up the Bristol Channel heading out from watchet aboard Reel Deal Charters. This trip had actually been booked for the 1st Jan and was meant to be the very start of my 52 week challenge, the weather has conspired on a number of occasions since. When I saw skipper Dan Hawkins had posted spaces for a Friday Cod sorte, in one of these rare weather windows I put our names straight down. The weather remained settled as predicted and once again a hard frost greeted the dog and I when I opened the porch door, luckily the frost protection device was on the screen! I Loaded the kit in the car and went to remove the screen protector, unfortunately a heavy shower of rain had fallen during the night soaking the material and causing it to freeze to the screen. I started the engine and after a bit of pulling I managed to rip the screen protector free from the screen, it did leave a fair bit of the material still attached, glad my wife had bought two. Chris was waiting out on the side of the road like a great pile of refuse, with his assorted mish mash of bags and containers, I think I will refer to him as bag boy during this adventure. The anthem for our 80 mile journey was a blast from the past, quite literally,Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, what a classic album this really is and both bag boy and I imagined ourselves as brave soles heading out for codling onboard the Bristol channels very own Thunder Child!
We arrived safe and sound despite the Martians, at Watchet Marina and this was another venue I've never fished which is another one of the positives of doing this species challenge, I'm getting to try new methods from new areas. Despite being by the coast it was - 0.1 but other than the chill in the air it looked like a stunning morning, blue sky's, and chocolate water the Bristol channel looking truly radiant. We managed to get the marina code from another angler and carefully negotiated the frosty steps down to the pontoons, a short walk and we were welcomed aboard the borrowed dive boat Obsession 2. This boat was on loan for the winter period while skipper Dan's new purpose built Reel Deal 3 was being built, although a dive boat, Obsession 2 was more than adequate for angling with plenty of room on board. Skipper Dan Hawkins quickly introduced himself and stated that I had put him under a bit of pressure today with my challenge being for such a good cause, he went on to ask " how big a Cod do you need"? That was simple " any size Dan, I don't care if its only 6 inches long its all about the species", Dan replied " that's good you might get one like that today". I had heard good things about Dan and in one instance while fishing from Pembrokeshire a group of very loud welsh anglers had claimed he was the best skipper they had ever been out with, further more they are happy to travel from wales to north Devon to fish with him. Straight away I knew he was exactly what it said on the tin, the fact that he was determined to help me get a Cod of any size was proof enough. He also enquired what else I needed that may be possible and straight away it had to be the Spotted Ray, Dan stated that they had been coming out to fish baits. Typical I had done mini Sandeel and Squid wraps for the Spotty's but didn't bring fish, Dan pointed to the café on the harbour and stated that they sell mackerel. Bag Boy kindly offered to go and grab a pack of their finest Mackerel fillets, really annoying when we both have freezers full.
While I started tackling up on the boat more characters started emerging and not wishing to sound derogatory it really reminded me of the scene from the Pirates of the Caribbean where Davey Jones's ship The Flying Dutchman rose from the sea and her crew spawned from the ships structure all covered in seaweed and barnacles! This group of elderly gentlemen appeared from various parts of the boat to introduce themselves and clearly they were a smashing bunch of friends and regulars aboard Dan's trips. It didn't seem very long before the banter and abuse started and I wondered if their lack of teeth was the result of banter gone bad, I doubt if they had a full set of teeth between them. It was about this time my phone started ringing and I chose to ignore it, I was fishing what could be more important, it began ringing again. I removed the phone from my pocket and checked the screen, 2 missed calls from Bag Boy, I glanced towards the quayside café but couldn't see him, he must be wanting to know if I want fillets or whole mackerel bait, I decided to leave it to him. We were waiting in the marina for quite sometime and I was wondering if my compatriot had maybe fallen in or even worse might be having a full English. Eventually he arrived with a soggy bag of the oldest mackerel fillets I've ever seen, clearly they had mistaken bag boy for a harbour side crab lining tourist. "Why didn't you answer your phone" enquired bag boy, " didn't hear it mate, why what was the problem"? " I was shut out of the gate and couldn't remember the code", oops how bad did I feel. I quickly changed the subject " what the hell is that", I gestured to the bag of warm fillets. " a long long time ago they were Mackerel but if it gets you a Spotted Ray it would be worth it don't you think"! He had a point and id rather have a bad bit of Mackerel than no Mackerel but I really felt that Crabs wouldn't touch it.
We carefully negotiated the Harbour gates which is quite a maze and something different to see on the way out to sea, I quickly fired off some pictures much to the amazement of the Dutchman's crew. Once out of the harbour we headed off towards Minehead and hopefully a few Codling, I opened my bait box proudly revealing my Lugworm and Squid pre-prepared wraps, the old fella next to me chuckled as he threaded small lugworm onto a rig of multiple tiny hooks. I quickly gazed around at the rest of Bristol channel diehards and sure enough the same rigs hung from their rods like a myriad of Christmas decorations, I looked over to Bag Boy who was tying his 6/0 pennel rig, " mate think we might be going too big with the rigs". He also surveyed the boat and came to the same conclusion, we changed our hooks down to a more sensible 1/0 on a pulley rig. Dan appeared and advised to take off the pulley and use a zip slider which he passed to me, he added " keep the trace really short while the tide is running so the bait stays nailed to the bottom". This is what makes a great skipper ensuring their anglers have the best chance to catch and not just leaving you to find out the hard way, if you ignore this type of advice more fool you!
The sea was lovely a flat and I knew bag boy wouldn't be needing an extra bag today and to be fair I think he has got the sea sickness thing sorted, it was definitely worth him soldiering on through the early chunder episodes. The day really was glorious and its days like this that just being out on the sea is reward enough, the sea air fills your lungs as the boat rises and falls, edging ever closer to the anticipation filled fishing mark.
The skipper swung Obsession 2 into the tide and released the chunk of iron that would be our umbilical for the next few hours, fishing the channel allows you to still feel part of the landscape as your never really far from land. Today was no exception and the white tent like towers of Butlins glistened in the winter sunlight, I couldn't help but feel they didn't really fit in with the rest of the stunning Somerset coastline. The boat settled into her position and a flurry of casts sent the baits shooting off in all directions like the legs of a spider. This is the first time I have set out to uptide and I am extremely impressed with the system, I will be investing in an uptide rod in preparation for next autumn. The basic idea is to cast a gripper lead out from the boat higher up the tide, as the lead lands line is paid out to allow the wires on the lead to dig into the mud, the line in effect has a large bow in it. When a fish picks up the bait the lead is pulled out of the mud and the rod indicates a slack line bite, the fish is normally hooked at this point but retrieving the slack line rapidly is the priority. The channel is shallow and the tides strong without the use of uptiding fishing would not be as effective and would also lead to the use of heavy leads, uptiding allows a 6oz lead to hold in a strong tide. It wasn't long and angler Paul on the far side reeled in a brace of small Codling, multi hook Mike next to me was next and he pulled in a pair of small Codling. The toothless wonder up the front then shouted he had opened his account with a small Codling, I was surrounded by Codling and anyone of those fish would have made my day. I reeled in and shortened my trace to less than a foot, changed the bait to a small piece of black lug minus the squid and fired the bait back uptide. Dan appeared with the first of the many cups of welcome steaming hot coffee and enquired how it was going, stating once again "don't worry we will get you one", you cant beat a confident skipper. I watched the rod tip intensely and noticed a few small rattles, could it be the codling I so desired, the rod tip straightened and rattled again but very slightly. I was sure this was a bite but without the clearly visible slack line I didn't want to take it to early. The skipper tapped me on the shoulder, " try this, bait all three hooks with worm and stick with it", he had made me a rig what an absolute legend. I baited the hooks with small lugworms and grabbed the rod to retrieve it and change the rig, I could feel something kicking at the other end remembering the earlier suspect bite. As the rig approached the boat I could clearly see my target species heading towards me, I was praying inside" stay on, stay on", and as I swung the fish aboard the crew cheered species 20! It was another of those great moments resulting from a small but significant fish, it may seem crazy that I get so excited over such small fish, I know however that the little fish will achieve big things in this particular challenge. Skipper Dan was clearly delighted and relived to see me land one and Bag Boy stepped up to do a great job of the pictures , small but perfect, future super Cod.
What now, well it was straight on with a Spotted Ray bait, manky fish held together with a strip of Squid and lashings of elastic. The skipper decided to make a move as the tide started to pick up and we soon found ourselves on an area of broken ground, this area also had a better chance of a Ray so fingers crossed. Once again small Codling started coming aboard and the rest of the boat were taking part in the Cod competition so every small fish was measured prior to release. I then noticed a hard rattle on the rod tip and the line slackened off indicating the lead had been freed from its grip, I wound in the slack line rapidly hoping that I had now found the Spotted Ray I was after. I could feel a fish but wasn't convinced it was the fish I was after, however it was spotted, being a Lesser Spotted Dogfish. I swung the fish in and it was quite a good size LSD but with some striking markings I decided to get a new picture for the gallery.
Sadly Bag Boys rod had been pretty quiet and he was desperate to get his first ever Cod, frustrating when you see so many around you, he did say he was hanging it out for a big one. This didn't quite pan out as he landed the obligatory dogfish and a whiting with the latter fooling him it was a codling right till the end. The skipper then cooked up bacon rolls for the dentally challenged who had brought the raw ingredients with them, Dan pointed out though how entertaining it was, watching them trying to eat the rolls with so few teeth. He actually stated it was like being at a sawmill with the toothless wonders one front tooth resembling the saw blade, joking aside the frying bacon was demoralising to those without and my cheese dipper just didn't have the same appeal. It was however somewhat amusing when the skipper served them the rolls to be told by one they couldn't eat it as they had a raging toothache, how unlucky to have toothache in your only tooth, soup next trip perhaps!
The picture above shows a strange cloud formation clearly dumping some form of precipitation onto the waters surface, I love seeing something new and have to grab a picture for prosperity. The fishing really slowed up during the flood tide and despite my best effort for the Ray I only managed another dogfish, there was over 30 small codling caught and released by a group of very experienced channel anglers. I must say a big thank you to these guys for all their help and support on the day and the great banter they really are a hilarious bunch of guys, god willing I'm still doing what they are doing at that age. Finally a massive thank you to Dan Hawkins skipper of Reel Deal Charters, you are indeed a top skipper and Dan added a donation to the pot so thanks for that too. Chris and I learned a great deal about fishing the channel today and will be back next autumn a bit wiser, I however will be trying to get out with Dan on one of his Porbeagle trips in April.
The second species targeted this weekend was to be the King Carp and with a little bit of sun forecast the method was to be floating bread crust , my favourite method of stalking Carp. The Carp in Sanctuary lakes respond well to crust and despite the early morning frost I still felt we could raise a few fish. I headed over to the lakes at 11.30 in the morning and arranged to do a few hours fence construction before having a go for the Carp. I arrived at the top lake to see the biggest ugliest Cormorant I've ever seen, like a huge black Heron, I showed it the door but it probably explains why this lake has been out of sorts lately.
I made a start wiring up the electric fence when Chris arrived, no longer Bag Boy he turned up armed with crusty loaves so today he was to be known as Baguette Boy. We spent a few hours fixing connectors and running wires eventually finishing at the compost toilet, a good few hours work and now half the land has the new fence installed. We stopped for coffee and in baguette boys case, ginger tea his new favourite drink. The lake then had chunks of bread dropped into key locations and we sat back to fish float fished corn while awaiting the first slurp of a feeding Carp.
It didn't seem to be too long before a small carp swirled just under our feet in the thick bed of rushes, this was literally 3 feet from baguette boys float fished corn. Sure enough this fish dropped down onto the corn and Chris was hooked up on his light tackle, the feisty little common led him all over the place but eventually capitulated and rolled into the net. The little fish was in great condition and was clearly one spawned in the lake being smaller than any we had stocked.
It was time for another hot drink and wait for a sign of a feeding fish, although it was no longer than 20 minutes before another Carp swirled for some bread over on the dam bank, "I'm going have a go for that" I told baguette boy. There now followed about 40 minutes of frustration and missed opportunities as the fish spat out my crust at least 3 times, the water was really clear with visibility of 3 feet meaning they were really flighty. I cast the bread and let it drift down towards the fish and remained low and still like a scarecrow and as the fish slowly rise to look closer at the bread ,your heart beats become deafening in the silent bubble you've have put yourself. Suddenly the vacuum like mouth of the carp sucked in the crust and like a coiled Viper I struck, well more like a coiled Slow Worm. The fish was off across the surface clearly fuming at its lapse in concentration, despite the cold water the fish fought well and reminded me how much I enjoy summer stalking. Chris slid the net under the fish a gorgeous looking Common Carp and species 21, what a lovely fish to hit 21 with, some quick pictures and the fish was returned. I did notice the top of the tail had been taken most likely an old Otter injury that had healed very well, a lucky fish I think.
I told baguette boy I thought there was another fish further down taking crust and as if it heard us, a great swirl emanated from the dam wall once again. " Go get it" I said to Chris and he was off in a shot, however he too suffered the frustration that accompanies early season crusting, the fish swirling and blowing the baits with a take it or leave it attitude. The light was beginning to fade and the thousands of starlings made it even darker as they headed to roost there squawks and chirps becoming deafening. Then a huge splash as baguette boy connected with a Carp, I grabbed the landing net and headed over to him, a short battle and I slid the net under a lovely winter Mirror Carp not a bad few hours with a couple of baguettes and a few slices of bread, the simplest of rigs, a single hook. Chris was clearly chuffed to get a couple of fish after a gruella the previous day and it was nice to do two completely different styles of angling.
Well that's the two last sessions covered and I'm delighted to be on species 21, that's probably it for this month although I may have something in the pipeline for the end of the month to knock off another. Thanks again to the boat crew, Dan and Chris and as ever thanks to my wife for the support and if only she liked fishing her birthday would be so much more special. Best wishes to all Stroke victims and their families may your recovery be swift and full.
