Southwest Sea Fishing Blog

Finally, we’ve got that long awaited break in the bad weather and I’ve been able to get out and do a spot of shore fishing. And with a forecast of sunshine and light westerly’s it seemed the perfect opportunity to venture further afield without much risk of being rained off.

After hearing many favourable reports about East Portlemouth, South Devon recently, I thought I’d try my luck down there. It’s a bit of a pig to get to with all the narrow country roads, but by god is it a great venue to fish.

 Although the beaches at the mouth of the estuary have been pretty productive recently (including a new British shore record for thornback) I decide to bypass these and head around the corner and fish the open coastline. It’s a bit hairy getting down to some of these marks, but with calm seas, dry ground underfoot and the bare minimum of gear in my backpack I thought I’d give it a shot.

Like in so many other places, the views from the Southwest coast path around the Salcombe area are absolutely fantastic, and even without the fishing to look forward to it’s a day out in itself. Despite this, the fishing was the real focus do I made my way down the Gorse covered slope and out onto the rocks.

Just before you get to the first gate on the main path it’s possible to break left and follow a lightly trodden path downward, which I did. Hairpinning to and fro I tentatively made my way down and out onto the little plateau. I fished from low to high tide so arrived when the platform was at its biggest, but before I unpacked I had a quick scoot round to make sure that there was no chance I would be cut off later on! It was all good so I set up.

I had high hopes for today’s session – I thought of the reports and the talk in the tackle shop and set up my main rod for Thornbacks. Since it was mainly rough ground (although there are some tasty little sand patches too) I went pretty heavy with 60lb braid on my Abu 7000 and terminal gear to match. First off I went for a pulley rig with rag and a big fat prawn.

With that out, I banged out a second Pennell pulley loaded with ragworm and mackerel – surely even if there weren’t any takers on the first rod I’d be in with the chance of a dog on the second, I thought. As it happened though, I had no real interest on either! There was definitely some small stuff down there though as the fish and prawn were getting chomped by something, and by the tiny knocks I don’t think they were crabs doing the damage.

I thought maybe Plaice on the sandy patch (hopeful as ever) or possibly rockling. With this in mind I set up a light spinner with a running ledger, a few beads, size 4 hooks and smaller cocktails and tried my luck again. This time though, nothing but gear lost in the rough! Ah well, at least the trip back up the slope would be a little easier with less gear...

With the big baits still out, I turned my focus to the rocks around the edge of the platform. For a while I spun frozen eel and head hooked rag around the features I could see through the clear water in the hope of a Pollack but nothing materialised – so then I went Wrassing.

Almost as soon as my gear hit the bottom it got hit – and hit hard! I’d only just had time to set the drag before I was duelling with a crash diving Ballan. Fantastic! The place was absolutely alive with them – all over 1lb, but some were getting on for 2lb, maybe even more. It was a cracking wrasse mark.
Anyhow, after a few of these I turned my attention to my other rods but still no joy. I tried a few different spots and switched to ragworm and squid, prawn and mackerel and various other combinations but still nothing. Still, you’ve gotta try these things...

After the wrassing I thought I’d have a toot at a bit of float fishing in the hope of a Mackerel or Gar but no joy there. I flung some feathers for ½ hour or so too, trying different depths - but again, all I got was arm ache.

Well, with the tide all the way in and the sun getting low I thought it best to pack up for the day to allow me to negotiate the return journey in at least half light, but it turned out to be far from a wasted day. The wrasse were great fun down there, and I’m sure that if I return in a week or two I may just end up with that illusive Raymond. Next time...

After heading back to the van I decided to take the smallest road back around to Southpool (the one that hugs the estuary) to case out a few possible marks for another time and, man, am I glad I did!

Just before you join the main East Portlemouth road once more, you run along the tail end of Southpool Creek. I looked over into the creek (now full at high tide) and from one bank to the other it was absolutely alive with fish. Naturally, I pulled over and talk a walk down to the bank to check out all the commotion! As it turned out, all the splashing and ripples were caused by Mullet tight to the surface. There were hundereds of them – nothing that I saw of any major size, but you never know what lurks below.

In an instant I’d already decided to return again when high tide coincides with sundown, but this time with my mulletting gear! I tell you, I’m excited already. If it turns out to be any good I’ll plot the mark on one of the SWSF interactive maps for you to check out. In the meantime, email me if you are interested in checking it out yourself.

Well, what a perfect end to a great day – and in my opinion, although no records were broken, East Portlemouth still remains right up there with the best South Devon Sea Fishing Marks.

Until next time.

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!