Its a long drive for species 65
Tuesday was a chance at another species and every trip now requires a game plan that gives me a good chance at something new, the species trip aboard Falmouth charter boat Anglo Dawn was a good bet. Having done two previous trips aboard her this year I knew the ageing yet cantankerous skipper Andy Howell would pull something out of the bag, especially as he had put me on 7 species already. The trip had been booked at the start of the year and over that time a few of the guys had pulled out, part of the territory when you arrange charters and that's why this is the last year I ever charter boats. I am just going to boat fish on other peoples charters or individual spaces, trying to fill spaces at short notice is both stressful and costly, its a shame because I love to support our wonderful charter skippers many I consider friends. Any way back to the blog, good mate Nick Rose drove down from the midlands on the Monday evening so we could leave early the next day, we did nip out for a quick pint with Chris at his local. Nick asked me what I wanted, and to soak up the pint of cider I asked for a bag of pork scratchings, little did I know that scratchings now come in an assortment of flavours, nick shouted from the bar, " what flavour do you want"? I was a bit confused but answered with, pork please, but apparently that wasn't accurate enough as there were a multitude of sub-flavours. When I was a lad the pork scratchings came in just two variety's, shaved and unshaved, I opted for ready salted which tasted like standard scratchings to me. Chris thought it would be a good idea to test Mr Roses's midlands pallet and served him a single, super hot volcanic scratching which was washed down with a slightly potent slug of Rum at 88% proof! The vindaloo veteran hardly raised an eyebrow as he polished both of in an instant, Chris would need to try harder next time, I fear Chris may suffer another level of heat on our next midlands road trip. The bad news was that we had tried everywhere to get fresh ragworm and finally secured a pound from Lizard Tackle and Bait, this meant an early start to drive round to the lizard then back to Falmouth. So our mini pub crawl was swapped for a bag of chips and an early night and Nick was asleep and snoring within a minute of lying on the bed chair. The morning arrived way to quick and before we knew it the Popemobile was loaded and straining under the added weight of our man from the midlands. Chris did a sterling job of the driving and we soon arrived at the bait shop run by Tony Portas, Tony kindly let us pick up the bait at 7.15 in the morning, that's a pretty dam good service and the worm was top notch. Finally we arrived at the marina and loaded the trolley, I noticed Chris didn't put anything in the barrow and I can only assume he was worried he might have to drive that too.
Andy was waiting for us at the gate and looked like he had been spending a bit of time in the Gym, well that's if the gym force fed you cream cakes, made you wear oversize wellies and slapped your head on the way out! I know that previous sentence will cause me pain at some point and I do love to wind the old bugger up, that's why I boarded his boat wearing another charter boats merchandise, just to see how long it took him to spot it!
With the skipper now in a much better mood it was time to go and catch a few fish, and if he got me a new species I would change the shirt to the Stroke one! The crew on board Anglo today was Chris, Gary with his son Fin, a customer of Andy,s whose name I forget but I will call the Rag worm rustler, and finally spicy Nick and I. We drove a little way along the river Fal and anchored close to the main channel, this may have looked strange to the passing small boats, seeing a top class charter boat stopping so close in, there was method in this madness and despite being far from perfect, skipper Andy knows how to track down species. Sure enough the ragworm rustler had the first bite and the first fish was swung aboard, a female Dragonette, a species that was now high on my list, Andy sat grinning in the cabin. The next bite was deep sea diver Gary's, and would you believe it, a Bass another fish on my list, the skipper now had to pass on his smugness, " I told you they are there, I've put you on the spot, if you cant catch them I can do know more"! I hadn't had a bite yet and I reeled in added a fresh Ragworm and fired it out to the middle of the channel, it had just settled when I felt a fast snatch on the line I held between my fingers, I struck and connected with a dynamic little fish I assumed was a Bass. Andy who can give the impression, he only moves like a Sloth, sprung into action with the net, " that's a Couch's Bream", sure enough the stunning pink shimmer confirmed his initial statement and the gorgeous little warrior was scooped up. Andy had mentioned there was a chance of getting one of these wonderful bream and I had set up my rig accordingly, however I have never even seen one in the flesh and to say I was happy was an understatement. This fish was day made for me and the small stature of the fish was more than made up for in its appearance, it did manage to spike me as I released it over the side just like every Bream I've ever caught has, their spines are like needles.
With the tide ebbing and lots more to try we headed out of the river towards the lair of the Red Band fish, tiny Sabiki feathers were rigged up and I for one couldn't wait to be reacquainted with the bright red pulsating ribbon fish. We stopped on the mark and straight away we could see on the sounder a huge ball of bait covered the Red Band mark, Gannets dived like missiles striking at the dense shoal of Mackerel and Pilchard. We couldn't get our little sets of feathers past a few feet below the boat as string after string were brought aboard, Nick was filling the bucket with fresh bait.
It was then I noticed Commercial Chris as Andy pointed out he perhaps should have a long line type reel as he pulled a full string of about 10 mackerel on his 20 foot line of feathers. It was a great 20 minutes from the perspective of bait collection but completely scuppered the Red Band fishing, I did get through the bio-mass once and straight away had a trembly type bite so reminiscent of the Red Bands, this turned out to be a lovely Red Gurnard.
We tried another mark for the bands but once again the vast shoal of mackerel spoiled any chance we had and to be honest they were a pain in the rump all day long. I started to think we were cursed but soon the culprit was clear to see as yet another episode of Bananagate took place aboard this vessel, skipper Andy throwing caution to the wind and scoffing the cursed fruit in broad daylight!
I guess this was more penance for the T-shirt incident and as John the fish Locker found out on a previous trip Banana banter doesn't pay! We stopped on a bit of broken ground for a drift in the hope of a Tub Gurnard for me and anything for everyone else, there were several nice red gurnards caught especially by the Ragworm Rustler who had a knack with them. My large strip of fresh mackerel finally got a bit of interest and upon reeling in I found myself attached to my first Cephalopod of the year in the shape of an Octopus. They are a crazy creature taking on surrounding colours in an instant combined with their superb suction they are a true ocean oddity. Strangely I always have an overwhelming urge to fling them towards a wall to see if they would stick, I should add this has never become a reality and will remain the case, I think.
It seemed the octopus were in a shoal or whatever a group of Octopuses are called, possibly Octopods, as Nick landed one right after mine, noticeable by the squirts of water hitting the side of the boat.
We then headed off to an area of rough ground, so Commercial Chris could get his wrasse fix, and instantly the wrasse were hitting the fresh ragworm. Chris, still keeping with the commercial theme was bringing them in two at a time and I managed a few nice female cuckoo wrasse.
Nick was keen to catch his first wrasse and as soon as he changed to ragworm baits he was straight in to a fish.
With everyone having several wrasse it was time for another move and this time anchoring for the chance of a Dab or Ray, the small tide resulted in a distinct lack of rays with only none turning up, their cousins the dogfish turned up but even they were more of a pair than a pack. The final effort of the day was to try a bit of reef for conger and I opted to have a gamble for a Red Bream on hindsight probably not the smartest move. The problem was the anchor kept tripping and we just couldn't hold on this section of reef, this meant a short journey to another area and at this lump of rock we did get the hook to hold, curse of the banana! Once we dropped our lines I started getting plenty of bites which resulted in the capture of wrasse, whiting and pouting. The other guys fishing for conger were missing some good bites as the congers seemed a bit finicky but eventually the ragworm rustler managed to hook a low double. The final fish of the trip was another conger to Nick who had persevered in his effort to get one, not huge but with the congers being so fickle it was a target fish.
That was trip done and despite the fishing being tough for a number of our target species we all had a really enjoyable day, plenty of banter. With the huge pile of quality ragworm left I said to Chris we would have to go fishing the next evening to make the most of it, but whilst on our journey back Chris informed me he had given all the worm to the guy I subsequently named the ragworm rustler. Many thanks Andy for getting me yet another species and despite the bent fruit and unsolicited assault on my shorts the double choc chip cookies and Couch's Bream just about made up for it. Great bunch of guys to fish with and its that sort of camaraderie that can make a tough day memorable. Cheers commercial Chris for driving all over Cornwall to get us some bait, next trip might be for something small but rare in our neck of the woods.
