Things that go bump in the night!
With the arrival of yet another month it feels like our unusually settled (touch wood ) summer is slipping away, with several summer species still to target, I have to grab every opportunity that presents itself. That's exactly what happened last night, shark club mate Alex Mckay and I have been discussing the possibility of catching a Sea trout for my challenge and last night was to be the night. I am sure purists will say that Sea trout are actually the same species as the Brown trout, Salmo trutta, and this is true, the sea trout is anadromous, choosing to spend most of its life at sea, but like the debate over Smoothounds for this challenge I aint a purist! The sea trout is also thought to be largely female and grows larger on a richer sea food diet, they return to freshwater to spawn during the summer, often sporting a silver scale pattern. I am not a Sea trout expert and must confess to having never tried to catch one, something I really hoped to change. Alex on the other hand does do quite well with the sea trout and having grown up fishing the river in question was most definitely the ace up my sleeve. Like so many of my friends and fellow anglers, Alex has really been supportive agreeing to take me to his most precious of fishing spots, not even a mention of a blindfold! To be honest I wouldn't know where we ended up last night or how we got there, Alex told me it could involve a tad of jungle warfare, it certainly did.
I made my way down to meet Alex and his best friend and fishing partner, Jack, a lovely Jack Russell cross, and despite his age was as mad as a box of frogs!
I pulled up in the south Cornish town with the night time rapidly approaching, sea trout are lovers of the dark and we had timed the trip to perfection. I parked my car up and jumped in the van with Alex and Jack for the magical mystery tour that included cameo's by Badgers, and Rabbits, sadly they were mostly pretty flat, but the appearance of a bounding Deer and two Magpies was surely a sign. We parked up for an attempt at the first pool of the evening, both spots we were going to try were tidal and have produced Mullet, Flounder, Eels and Seatrout in the past. I grabbed my light spin rod from the van and tied on a small hook to which I added a small split shot, that's it basic rig ready, I had the chance of 3 different fish and I had tied up some spinners with a single hook just in case a Thin Lip Mullet was spotted. Jack was off through the grass like a Tasmanian devil that had been short changed, the only sign of his frantic zig zagging was the shaking of the grass that covered him so well. The valley we made our way across was silent and magical in the twilight, it just needed the screech of an owl to complete the scene. Alex explained that this pool wasn't the best of the two but we needed the darkness to have fully fallen before attempting the second spot, he had watched more than a dozen fish in the second pool earlier in the day and was confident it would produce. I must admit that the excitement of targeting a new species in locations I have never fished far out ways the catching, which is the icing on the cake. I know like many before him, Alex was feeling a bit of pressure to help get me the fish I was after but fishing is fishing and if it wasn't a challenge it wouldn't be fun. We approached the tree line and my first glimpse of the river, which to be more accurate was very stream like, we crossed under and over the barb wire fence, only two holes for me. Then it was time for the aforementioned jungle warfare, Alex isn't exactly small being built like a rugby prop, but he literally vanished into the Cambodian forest of twisted limbs, nettles and brambles. Jack kept bounding back for a giggle at this strange man dangling from several pointy saplings, eventually I fell into a small clearing. The pool reminded me of Cornwall's version of an Amazon tributary no doubt supporting a caiman or two, how Alex ever discovered this magical little place heaven knows but what a privilege to be taken there.
The pool was very overgrown and as we were just about on high water it had the appearance of a pond, it was however very deep and moving very slightly. Fish topped just under the far marginal trees but their identity was unknown. This is the sort of fishing that so excited me as a youth and I can understand that as Alex fished this as a young lad what memories it must hold, if not for this challenge I would have missed out on so many wonderful experiences. I nervously baited my hook with a couple of worms and flicked them into the centre, holding the line between my fingers to feel any plucks. Within a few minutes the line was yanked tight and I struck to find myself attached to a strong fish that took me into a hidden snag, sadly that one got away and I just hoped it hadn't spooked the pool. I re-baited and cast the bait further down towards the tail of the pool, once again I had some interest with small pulls and plucks on the line, I struck sending the worms at mach 1 towards us. Strange little bites that Alex concluded may be flounder, I positioned the fresh worms in the same spot and once again tiny plucks, I waited this time which resulted in a escalation of the bite with the line once more yanked tight. I lifted into the fish feeling the reassurance of thumping pressure, Alex knew straight away it was a sea trout just as it decided to go berserk. The fish ran all over the pool, deep, shallow and along the surface before succumbing to a good bit of netting from Alex. The fish was gorgeous in the low light and we needed to work quick to get her unhooked and back to the river, a second quick picture didn't go quite as planned.
Great first shot but the combination of me wetting my hands and the fish being like a bar of soap made the second shot a case of there it was, gone! Alex found this hilarious and luckily Jack had got his fish kissing ritual done before she disappeared into the black lagoon.
What a start and we still had the banker pool to go, I tried another bait in this pool but the excitement of that crazy fish had spooked the area, so time for extraction from the jungle. We got back to the van both still a little in disbelief, Alex explaining that sea trout aren't always as obliging as that. We pulled up in total darkness at the second area and we firstly done what all anglers do when confronted with a bridge, we peered over, down below in the dark, a large pool could be seen and right on cue a very big sea trout gulped down a water critter. Wow, I thought this place looks the business, we grabbed the tackle and as stealthily as two old blokes could, we negotiated the overgrown trail down to the river. Splosh, another sea trout disturbed the surface of the by now emptying tidal pool, a large overgrown bush in the near margin was the honey hole with fish, Alex estimated upwards of 4lbs. We really were in stealth mode, creeping around whispering and only using red lights, Jack however was many years past being stealthy and stomped around like a dog twice his size, he stared frustrated into the black water, knowing full well what lied within its depths. I dropped the bait right on the money and with my heart pounding braced for impact, the instant bite never came. I spent 30 minutes trying different areas of the pool, twitching the bait back slowly and at one point the bait was grabbed and after some extremely subtle nibbling it was ignored. Alex trying a few of the less favoured pools suffered the same fate and despite, perfect conditions, perfect bait and a pool loaded with fish we never caught another. It showed why sea trout can be so frustrating and just how fortuitous the earlier capture was, Jack seemed to take the second pool failure worse than us and whined disappointedly as we made our way back to the van. With the night at its darkest and our journey back through the spookiest of lanes, both Alex and I exchanged stories of things that went bump in the night during our many night time fishing trips. I think it was a good job we done that after we got back to the van, or the night may have been a tad shorter. Thanks so much Alex and Jack for sharing some truly wonderful fishing spots, a night of great company and a great result, id love to do it again, for a thin lip mullet next time! That's number 54 and I really hope I can get something different on Sunday but its certainly getting harder now.
