The curse of the Grrrnards

This is a Blog that could have been celebrating another two species but once again the fishing gods conspired to ensure that my challenge is no walk in the park. The first trip was targeting the Conger Eels residing in a wreck off the lizard known as the Snake Pit, an invitation to fish with Conger club teammates Sam James and Steve Holyer. This was to be fishing aboard Steve's own 19 foot boat Freebird launched from the lovely little cove where they live. I have previously mentioned that Steve is totally blind and I was really looking forward to fishing with this truly inspirational guy once again, combined with Sam and his hearing difficulties they make a quite a pair, incredible to watch them working together. It took me a couple of hours to get down to Sam's and the weather was still flipping hot, hot, hot! The tides were perfect for conger fishing and the plan was to fish several hours for the Eels and as the tide slackened off try for the elusive John Dory that are also resident on this wreck. That would give a few hours in the afternoon to try for a Gurnard for the species hunt, I still remember both Steve and Sam stating "Gurnard that will be no problem they are easy", strangely that's what Lewis the skipper of Pegasus had said the week before. We parked down near the little beach, somehow and headed off for the launching process, somewhat reminiscent of the launching of a new ship as the vessel glides down runners and crashes into the sea.

Steve was already on-board sorting out the boat, that's how well he knows his boat and the harbour , I tripped over several times on the abundant rocks, ropes and abandoned lobster pots, yet Steve makes it look easy. With the boat down the runners and in the water we were joined by Steve's friend and local bass angler Noddy, who having never landed a conger before was hoping for his first.

With the crew aboard Sam spun Freebird seaward and opened up the engine to send us bouncing over the mirror like surface of the early morning sea. The journey to the Snake pit didn't take long as the wreck is fairly close to shore but still lies in 200 feet of water. Now followed some pretty amazing positioning of the boat where Steve conveyed the exact numbers from his head to Sam for the positioning of the boat, we drifted over the wreck 4 times, during which I dropped down feathers to collect fresh Pouting for bait. Steve was adamant where the boat should sit and 30 to 40 minutes was spent ensuring this would be the case.

Sam put the boat uptide of the wreck and Steve released the anchor putting the boat right on the money, the importance of this accurate position was soon realised as bites were instant.

All the eels we caught were 100% possible because of the time taken to get the boat in the correct spot, and fandango swivels and hooks don't put you on fish, good seamanship does, so thanks guys for your work that day. Steve was soon into an eel and it gave him a good scrap even on his heavy tackle, he knows there are monsters in the Snake Pit and doesn't risk being under gunned. The eel was a 20lber and Steve grabbed the trace and expertly T barred the eel quickly off at the boat edge.

I was soon connected to my first conger of the day which also fought all the way to the surface, seeing the eel was a bigger fish I asked Sam if we could try netting it. The net was a smaller type boat net but Sam put it downtide and I dropped the eel back into first time, easy peasy, it also contained the eel safely while we weighed it. The fish was just shy of 30lb in the net so around 28lb a nice long eel, a monster of the future I hope.

The eel was quickly released and disappeared rapidly to the ships hold to join the writhing mass of eels that gives the snake pit its name. Next up was Sam with his broken finger and an angry eel gave him a good work out before submitting to the superior muscles of the life boat man.

We decided to bring this one in for a quick picture and the eel was relatively well behaved, the thing with conger and small boats its always tricky to get good photograph's, if you walk back to far your over the side. I managed to get back enough to get a quick landscape picture of Sam's Eel before it was slid back to the inviting looking water.

The temperature was rising and the Eel action had been fairly frantic we had landed 5 in quick succession and lost a few that had either got to structure or spat the hooks. There then followed a period of nothing, this mirrored the recent conger festival and you start to question if you have bait on, are you snagged or has the boat moved. Steve checked the numbers and decided to release a little more rope to put us back in the sweet spot, this soon done the trick as bites began again. I had changed to a smaller bait having pulled out of my last fish, this time two large Octopus tentacles would surely be irresistible. This done the trick as instead of the gentle plucks so typical of congers the rod tip bounced once and swung straight down as an eel down in the dark backed off to the safety of some structure. I bullied it up the important first 20 feet and into open water before it was aware what was happening, now with its fight or flight mode truly in fight mode it shook its head violently. These large head shakes cause the rod to shake violently and the bigger the head shake's the bigger the eel, it then made a dive for the wreck taking line but not enough to get to sanctuary. Suddenly a scream was let out like someone falling in a mincer, it was Noddy connected to his first ever eel next to me and every head shake of his eel was met with woops of delight. Fortunately the eels stayed apart and Noddy got his first eel of 25lb up to the surface and quickly unhooked with only a little drama. I had managed to milk my eel battle enough that everyone agreed it must be a fairly nice fish, its always a little worrying that something smaller may pop up on the surface to plant egg directly on your face. Fortunately this wasn't the case and Sam once again done a stirling job with the net, with the Eel going straight in with no issues, we both got a hold to swing her in though. The eel remained calm until we were weighing it whereby the split ring on the scales opened up tipping the net enough for the eel to escape to the deck and unleash hell, Noddy was screaming once again but this time in fear as the eel headed towards him with fury in its face. I jumped on the writhing eel and picked up a gash to the leg for my trouble but soon we had the grumpy fish calm again. The eel weighed 42lb and turned out to be the biggest of the mornings fishing, a nice fish for an inshore wreck and tribute to the skills of Sam and Steve.

We ended up with 12 Conger and lost a few as is the case with conger fishing the odds are largely in their favour its just a case of how much we can change them. We drifted the wreck and a nearby reef for the needle in a haystack that is the John Dory but to no avail, always worth a go. Then it was inshore for the easy Gurnard, well you can guess how that went, a ton of Cuckoo Wrasse, Dogfish, and Whiting but no Gurnard. Sam of course pulled up a lovely Red Gurnard and the icing on the cake was when Steve said he had a bite on his rod that he believed to be from a gurnard, did I want it? Well Steve had landed 5 dogfish in a row, he must have thought I was born yesterday, " no thanks mate you can bring your own dogfish in I told him". Well of course it had to happen, sure enough he reeled in a Red Gurnard and I really needed a door to bang my head against.

We headed for home having had a great day, no species to add to the list but with Gurnards either side of me surely it wont be long before these "easy little fish stop being so difficult".

Sunday was my first chance at a Blue Shark and I had a trip booked up with Dan Gunnow aboard his new updated Borlewen, great young skipper that I have done well with in the past. I was to be joined with long term angling pal Glen Patterson, his nephew Mason and mate Martin. The guys had travelled down from the Midlands and London , Glen though was staying in a caravan on holiday for the week. The weather was still dam hot but the bad news was there was little to no wind and when combined with a smallish tide equals very little drift. The less ground you cover with a drift the less scent is getting to potential sharks, plus they seem lazy and lethargic often choosing to just visit you rather than battle with you.

We steamed out 23 miles and the slight breeze was disappearing fast, the feathers were dropped to gather fresh bait and before long we had several fresh Mackerel baits all ready to go. Glen brought up his feathers and shouted, " what's this ugly little red thing"? of course I knew without even turning around, it was another Red Gurnard, this fish is the boat version of the blasted Blenny and is going haunt me all year! It was about an hour when a shark appeared around my bright green float, slapping its tail as it circled tight before disappearing deeper, the anticipation was unbearable. Glens rod behind mine was off as the shark took his bait, he subdued the fish in fairly short time and it was unhooked at the side being around 60lb

It was another hour before the next shark appeared and as predicted it was just milling around chasing gulls, biting floats and taking quick bites of the baits, swimming tantalisingly close to the boat and Masons close in bait.

Eventually when she'd had frustrated us to within an inch of our lives, she took the bait still not convincingly but enough to get the hook connected. Mason done a great job on his first Blue Shark and it made the qualifying length although a somewhat skinny fish.

Clearly chuffed Mason's trip was made and its always great to see someone get their first shark I can still remember mine like it was yesterday. I then spotted a shark around my float and once again it was trying to bite the bright green bottle and generally harassing the top of the rig, it then went down for the bait and the ratchet was screaming that wonderful shark bell noise that forces adrenalin around your body in an instant. I picked up the rod and engaged the drag lever letting the barbless circle do its job, the line tightened instantly as the fish realised something was amiss, it started the initial dive when the rod sprang back with that sickening cut line feeling. That was it gone the line was severed and I can only surmise that the constant harassment to the float of the sharks had damaged the monofilament at that point. I re-tackled somewhat dejected but the arrival of another shark can lift even the lowest of spirits, I love seeing these fish they are a true apex predator within our world. The fish was another nice size Shark and once again played around sunning itself and showing off in the lovely blue water.

Eventually the fish swam out to Glens float and straight down on to his bait, the float bobbed up again and with no further sign Dan advised Glen to check the bait, as he retrieved the bait the shark worried it was losing its meal grabbed the bait and it was fish on. Never use a butt pad Glen had a nice little workout with this fish and eventually it was defeated and brought in for the measuring process. This one was also a Shark Club qualifier but with a much bigger girth making around 85lb in weight, really pleased for Glen who is no stranger to monster fish, having some real beasts around the world.

I did have another enquiry as a shark took off with the bait but it was dropped and after inspection 10 minutes later the hook was baitless, another chance missed. So that was that, 3 sharks landed and a few opportunities missed, but that's fishing. It was great to fish with Dan again and his new boat is mighty impressive but it still needs a good skipper at the helm and despite not having developed any quirks yet he is a dam good skipper and a pleasure to fish with. Glen, I and the guys went for a slap up fish supper and I'm not one to drop anyone in trouble but Glen could be after this. When we were ordering our fish and chips I decided to go for the Oap portion, that's not an omission on my behalf, Glen chose the standard with added mushy peas and bread and butter. He then received a phone call from his other half who wanted to know when he would be back to the caravan as she had spent the afternoon cooking a roast dinner, Glen's answer " I am just having a cup of tea love then I will be back for it", incredible and he even complained that he only got one slice of bread and butter. If his good lady does ever read this I hope he gets his backside tanned as I owe him for sneaking up on me while I fished a midlands canal in the dead of night under the guise of a local couple of thugs!

So no more species this week although I could almost touch them, its shark festival next week so I have 3 more days to try and catch the Blue Shark, I hope this isn't my first festival blank but the weather is looking pretty poor with light winds.