Southwest Sea Fishing Blog

No, not a Session Report at all, but an insight into my mind-set (perhaps), why I became an Angler in the first place and the tremendous potential around Cornwall.

I was born and raised in the Midlands and my first experience of Cornwall was in the late-60's when I was about 10 years old. It was a family holiday and we were stayng on a holiday site just outside Polperro. Time has eroded much of my actual memory of that long-ago holiday and I am left with only an impression. It seemed to be a glorious summer with hazy mornings and calm sunny days...

BUT three memories do still stand out with absolute clarity...

... me on the beach of a small cove watching a man standing up to his 'dangly bits' in the water, bending and scooping with his hands and now-and-again throwing live mackerel onto the beach...

... laying flat on warm, wet rocks peering into the water looking for crabs when suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere , a huge silver fish appeared just two feet below me...

... crawling to the edge of a steep, high cliff (while my parents were inside a tourist-attraction) and seeing sharks, yes sharks - maybe five of 'em - way below me, scooting over the bottom sand like underwater jet aircraft while only a few hundred yards away, around the point, holiday-makers splashed and paddled totally unaware!

The silver fish was identified as a Bass and I later came to believe that the shark were in fact Tope and what huge Tope they were!

It was these experiences that ignited the spark in me that was to become a life-long passion for angling but it was to be many years before I returned to Cornwall even for a holiday.

Then, in the summer of 2004, I and my own family moved to Cornwall to live.

Since then I have crawled (somewhat more cautiously) to the edge of steep cliffs, I have dangled over harbour walls at considerable risk to my polaroids, I have spent more time half-submerged in rockpools than is sane and spent more time in tackleshops than is healthy - I have listened and I have looked and I can tell you that Cornwall still has tremendous sea fishing potential!

In 2008 I hope to prove it to you!

Paul.

I was looking at heading deeper into Cornwall for this session, but with the weather being so hit and miss recently - and flitting from sunshine to rain quicker than I can switch rigs - instead I decided to fish closer to home and revisit Mount Batten Breakwater, Plymstock.

A strong westerly isn’t ideal for fishing this particular breakwater since it comes right across the approaches and hits smack bang on the end of the pier, but seeing as fishing off the sides, north and south, can still be quite productive I went anyway. Today I Fished the outgoing tide from top to bottom.

Even in the time it took me to walk up to the end of the breakwater I must have counted at least 3 small Pollack being brought in by other anglers, it looked promising and I couldn’t wait to get in the water.

I fished the north side (facing Sutton Harbour) first, and dropped a big bait out onto the sand in the hope of a dog. I let that sit there whilst I set up my lighter gear for Pollack and mackerel.

Retrieving over the rocks with a small ball weight and rag took a Pollack every few casts, although they were absolutely tiny. Still, a fish is a fish! After a while I switched rigs and fished just off the bottom instead, again with rag, in the hope of a wrasse to bring my species to 2. It just wasn’t happening though – I couldn’t catch a wrasse to save my life. I guess if I was uber-keen on catching one I should have gone back down to the beginning of the breakwater on the southside where you have all the patchy rocks, kelp and sand. But instead I stuck up the top end where I could keep an eye on my doggie rig (which, incidentally, didn’t get touched all day).

Other folks kept pulling the Pollack in (mainly on rag and small lures), and I kept scratching near the rocks – but only up until I saw the first glint of a mackerel break the surface on a nother guy’s line. Yep – the mackerel were in! That was the first one I’d seen from the Plymouth shore this year, and what a sight it was.

Naturally, I quickly changed over to a float rig with mackerel strip in the hope of seeing a second greeny-white flash, but after a while I came to the conclusion that that particular mackerel’s GPS had failed him and he was a one off. Plenty of folks were now trying for the mackies – either spinning, floating or feathering – but no more were to be seen.

I kept a float out about 30 yards off the south-western tip of the pier just in case, but still no joy with the Mackerel or Gars. Surprisingly though, the float did still get a bit of attention – from a good sized Pollack this time, high in the water and on mackerel.

I started fishing closer to the rocks with larger mackerel strips in the hope that this was going to sort out the bigger Pollack from the small, but all it proved is that the horde of smaller Pollack around the edge of the breakwater would also take the float fished mackerel strip as easily as they did the ragworm!

Pollack, Pollack, and more Pollack was to be the theme for the remainder of the day, but you can hardly grumble at that!