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Here is the report of my latest fishing adventure. It's a bit long so you might want to pull up a chair and pour yourself a beer. I was staying in a place called Seaton in East Devon. Our cottage was the second house along from the shore of Seaton Beach which was pretty handy. Seaton is not far from the Dorset border so although I would be fishing mainly in Devon I was hoping to have a session over the border in Dorset at some point (Chesil hooray!!).
So after the long drive down I headed out for my first session of the week at the bottom of the street on Seaton Beach. I blanked! Not a good start.Bugger. The following night I decided to try a bit further along. There is a small river (the Axe) which separates Seaton Beach from neighbouring Axemouth Beach. So I crossed the bridge and walked round to the Axemouth side hoping I would have more luck there. I arrived just as the sun was setting and planned to fish the tide down to low water at 2am. As I came around the corner onto the beach I could see a big shoal of fish jumping out of the water in panic only about ten yards out. Something big had spooked them. Right, I'll set up here then. I thought they may have been mackerel but would like to know so I put some daylights on one rod and cast in their general direction. I put a large fish bait on my other rod and chucked that in too hoping for some interest in whatever was chasing them. Well it wasn't long before I was pulling them in, they turned out to be pollack! After a few casts and nine undersized pollack I put the daylights away and baited up the second rod with a two hook flapper to try for something else. Ragworm on one hook, mackerel/bluey on the other. The hook with ragworm caught me a slippery slimy eel.
The tide dropped and the sea got further away and I caught a fairly big shore rockling on mackerel. The water dropped further and the rocky reef was becoming exposed. I caught another shore rockling then a dogfish. The tide dropped further and about half an hour before low water the rocks were exposed a long way out and the water looked very shallow between them so I decided to call it a night.
Final score - 9 pollack, 2 shore rocklings, a dogfish and an eel. Much better than the previous night
There is a reef off the mouth of the River Axe which on the Seaton side is about 80 yards or so out forming a gulley between the reef and the shore. This seemed a good place to try for my next session so I set up there fishing into the gulley, position 3 on the map below (positions 1 and 2 were the previous two nights sessions).
The plan tonight was to fish one up and three down with two rods and baits ragworm, mackerel, bluey and dirty squid. When I arrived there was a canny sea on so I was hoping I might be in with a chance of a bass. An hour went buy with no action at all and the sea was getting bigger and splashing up over my gear and me. There was a fair bit of weed in the water too but I stuck it out. Nothing happened for a further couple of hours and I was beginning to think this would be another blank when at last one of my rod tips started going nuts. Get in. Not a bass though sadly, it turned out to be a dogfish but a decent sized one at 56cm so not too bad. Caught on mackerel. Not much happened for the last hour apart from a small eel which luckily fell off the hook as I lifted it out of the sea so saving my rig from getting snotted up.
So not a particularly good session. I am beginning to think that this bay is not a very good mark. It seems popular enough there are always other people fishing, sometimes quite a lot, but I think I need to try something else tomorrow.
Next day I got up early and headed along to try another spot on Seaton Beach at first light. Surely there are fish here somewhere? No! I was spinning and bait fishing throwing everything I had at the sea and nothing hooked up except bits of weed. Another blank. Oh bolleaux.
Let's try something different then ...... Mullet. What a bunch of tw@ts! Have any of you tried mullet fishing? It is the most frustrating of all the activities in our sport. Axemouth has a few of them in the marina, quite a few, in fact a sh1t load! I have tried fishing for them once before here and blanked. I was determined to give it another go. Last time I fished for them (a year ago) a lad fishing twenty yards from me pulled in a six pounder on his first cast. The method he was using was to throw bread crumbs on the water to get them interested then float fish a ragworm amongst it for the mullet. Right, I'll try that then.
So I set myself up on the exact same spot where he was at - along the side just past the boat moorings, and I was using the exact same method. The mullet were there, I could see them, and guess what? I blanked. Hmmm. Ok time for a tactic change.
The following day I headed down with lures in mind. The method today was to use a modified Mepps spinner - the treble hook removed and replaced with a size 6 carp hook and "baited" with an Isome. A method I have read about which can allegedly be very successful. So I spent several hours spinning past and through groups of mullet who showed absolutely no interest whatsoever in my tackle. Blanked again. Doh!
OK, this is getting embarrassing. I know mullet are supposed to be a "challenge" to catch but they are swimming right in front of me. If I had a big net I could fill a bag! Come on man! Anyway, next day third attempt at mullet fishing... Ok let's try freelining then. I still have some rag left and I have plenty of isomes so let's try both. No weights, just a light rod and flick the worm amongst them. I found a spot on a floating pontoon that was completely surrounded by fish and commenced flicking.
While I was there another lad turned up on a pontoon on the opposite side of the marina and started fishing for mullet using the bread method. That is, chucking bread crumbs on the top of the water and putting bread on the hook and fishing it amongst them. He only lasted an hour lol. Crows kept coming down and nicking bread out of his bag and whenever he chucked bread on the water a huge gang of seagulls swooped down and nicked it all. No fish for him them.
I sat there quietly on the pontoon trying to keep out of sight of the fish. It's amazing how they can see you. The slightest movement and they get spooked and swim off. Even if I just move my rod tip a bit or cast out it's splash! Bye! So stealth tactics are the order of the day. I started with live ragworm, a size 8 hook and no weights. It was difficult to get any distance with no weight but the fish were right next to me so it didn't matter. They were cruising up and down past my worm not bothered in the slightest. An hour or so and several worms later still nothing then I noticed they were opening and closing their mouths right at the surface so I thought maybe as they are top feeders they will be more likely to take a worm on the surface than below it. So I raised my rod tip and held my worm there with the odd twitch to try to attract their attention.
Well an amazing thing happened. After another hour of this a large mullet, maybe 4 or 5lb was swimming towards my worm. It homed in and went to bite it. OMG, here we go. Ready, strike! SPLASH! BYE! Oh bolleaux! It turned and was away, my worm slid along it's back as it disappeared.
I tried a couple of more worms with no action so decided it was time to give the isomes a try. I fitted a size L pink Isome and began to twitch it around on the surface. Fish swam past it for an hour then suddenly one took an interest. Not as big as the previous one but still a nice size maybe 3lb. It swam up and munched down on my worm. Num Num Num maybe four or five bites then spat it out and swam off. Double bolleaux!! I tried for a while after but that was it for the day. So three days of mullet bashing, score = zero. Annoying bliddy fish!!!
Ok so the fishing isn't going so well this week. I seriously need to get my mojo back. I decided that I would have a night session and head over the border into Dorset to fish my favourite spot on Chesil Beach ... Hive Beach at Burton Bradstock. I have been fishing here several times a year for a few years now so was hoping for a busy session. I wasn't wrong. Armed with ragworm and some frozen bluey and dirty squid I had brought from home I headed down to the beach. I arrived about an hour before HW and sunset and set up one big rod with baits and did some spinning with a second rod using a 60g Zenith spinner. The usual bass task force were out walking up and down the shoreline but nobody was pulling anything in. There were a few lads bait fishing and feathering too. Half an hour or so went by with no luck then I noticed a fella lure fishing to my left pulling something small and silvery in. I couldn't see what it was at that distance but I thought it might be worth trying for a species hunt point so put some sabikis on and whacked them out. Straight away I felt the wriggle of a small fish on the end and it turned out to be my first ever scad (horse mackerel). One point!
The fish was returned but after a couple more casts I caught another one so I decided to use it as a live bait to try for a bass. I hooked it onto the big rod and dropped it a short way out in the gutter and left it for any passing silver spikeys. None turned up but it was worth a try.
Once it got dark I put the lures away and put out a second bait rod with a two hook flapper, small hooks, bluey on one hook and rag on the other. I began catching poor cod on both baits on the small hooks and they were coming in one after the other cast after cast. Nothing else though and nothing on the bigger hooks/baits but another species point anyway. After an hour or so of this I landed the surprise of the night, an eel. At first I thought "not another eel" and was expecting it too snot up my rig then I realised it wasn't green but grey and with a black trim along the fins! My first ever Conger! I was well chuffed. Small but perfectly formed Size isn't everything, at least that is what the wife says
So a canny night on Chesil with a few fish and three species points. No big fellas but a very enjoyable session.
So now we come to my final session of the week....
After such a disappointing week on the fishing front I was hoping things might improve on my last night session. The plan was to fish Branscombe beach. This venue has a reputation as a good smoothound mark so I bought some peeler to target them with from the tackle shop in Lyme Regis. It also has a reputation for bass and huss so some big fish baits and also some lures were the plan. Two hook rigs with an additional small hook and bait for anything else interesting and possible species hunt points.
The drive down to Branscombe was rather stressful with narrow single track roads with high hedges so you couldn't see what was around the next bend. I made it though only to find there was a beach party going on next to the car park (a wedding) and there were a few anglers out along a fair bit of the beach so I had to do a long walk along the shingle to get a space. That south coast shingle is tough going. By the time I got to my spot I was knackered and had to sit down for five minutes before I could start fishing lol
I put out a crab bait at distance and got out my spinning rod trying various lures. Eventually I caught the first fish of the night, an undersized pollack, on sabikis. This was closely followed by a shore rockling on the crab bait. Next cast with the crab bait and I had something that felt fairly heavy on the end and it turned out to be my first ever spider crab.
Over the next few hours I landed two small huss, one poor cod and a particularly yellowish looking eel. I am well pleased with the huss not just for the species point but also because I've never caught one before! Woo Hoo!
So no smoothies or bass tonight, but my first huss makes up for it. And I had the pleasure of fishing a beautiful venue while listening to a wedding band playing "The Can Can". Lol. My next big trip is the Isle of Skye in October so I'm looking forward to that now. ttfn.
So after the long drive down I headed out for my first session of the week at the bottom of the street on Seaton Beach. I blanked! Not a good start.Bugger. The following night I decided to try a bit further along. There is a small river (the Axe) which separates Seaton Beach from neighbouring Axemouth Beach. So I crossed the bridge and walked round to the Axemouth side hoping I would have more luck there. I arrived just as the sun was setting and planned to fish the tide down to low water at 2am. As I came around the corner onto the beach I could see a big shoal of fish jumping out of the water in panic only about ten yards out. Something big had spooked them. Right, I'll set up here then. I thought they may have been mackerel but would like to know so I put some daylights on one rod and cast in their general direction. I put a large fish bait on my other rod and chucked that in too hoping for some interest in whatever was chasing them. Well it wasn't long before I was pulling them in, they turned out to be pollack! After a few casts and nine undersized pollack I put the daylights away and baited up the second rod with a two hook flapper to try for something else. Ragworm on one hook, mackerel/bluey on the other. The hook with ragworm caught me a slippery slimy eel.
The tide dropped and the sea got further away and I caught a fairly big shore rockling on mackerel. The water dropped further and the rocky reef was becoming exposed. I caught another shore rockling then a dogfish. The tide dropped further and about half an hour before low water the rocks were exposed a long way out and the water looked very shallow between them so I decided to call it a night.
Final score - 9 pollack, 2 shore rocklings, a dogfish and an eel. Much better than the previous night
There is a reef off the mouth of the River Axe which on the Seaton side is about 80 yards or so out forming a gulley between the reef and the shore. This seemed a good place to try for my next session so I set up there fishing into the gulley, position 3 on the map below (positions 1 and 2 were the previous two nights sessions).
The plan tonight was to fish one up and three down with two rods and baits ragworm, mackerel, bluey and dirty squid. When I arrived there was a canny sea on so I was hoping I might be in with a chance of a bass. An hour went buy with no action at all and the sea was getting bigger and splashing up over my gear and me. There was a fair bit of weed in the water too but I stuck it out. Nothing happened for a further couple of hours and I was beginning to think this would be another blank when at last one of my rod tips started going nuts. Get in. Not a bass though sadly, it turned out to be a dogfish but a decent sized one at 56cm so not too bad. Caught on mackerel. Not much happened for the last hour apart from a small eel which luckily fell off the hook as I lifted it out of the sea so saving my rig from getting snotted up.
So not a particularly good session. I am beginning to think that this bay is not a very good mark. It seems popular enough there are always other people fishing, sometimes quite a lot, but I think I need to try something else tomorrow.
Next day I got up early and headed along to try another spot on Seaton Beach at first light. Surely there are fish here somewhere? No! I was spinning and bait fishing throwing everything I had at the sea and nothing hooked up except bits of weed. Another blank. Oh bolleaux.
Let's try something different then ...... Mullet. What a bunch of tw@ts! Have any of you tried mullet fishing? It is the most frustrating of all the activities in our sport. Axemouth has a few of them in the marina, quite a few, in fact a sh1t load! I have tried fishing for them once before here and blanked. I was determined to give it another go. Last time I fished for them (a year ago) a lad fishing twenty yards from me pulled in a six pounder on his first cast. The method he was using was to throw bread crumbs on the water to get them interested then float fish a ragworm amongst it for the mullet. Right, I'll try that then.
So I set myself up on the exact same spot where he was at - along the side just past the boat moorings, and I was using the exact same method. The mullet were there, I could see them, and guess what? I blanked. Hmmm. Ok time for a tactic change.
The following day I headed down with lures in mind. The method today was to use a modified Mepps spinner - the treble hook removed and replaced with a size 6 carp hook and "baited" with an Isome. A method I have read about which can allegedly be very successful. So I spent several hours spinning past and through groups of mullet who showed absolutely no interest whatsoever in my tackle. Blanked again. Doh!
OK, this is getting embarrassing. I know mullet are supposed to be a "challenge" to catch but they are swimming right in front of me. If I had a big net I could fill a bag! Come on man! Anyway, next day third attempt at mullet fishing... Ok let's try freelining then. I still have some rag left and I have plenty of isomes so let's try both. No weights, just a light rod and flick the worm amongst them. I found a spot on a floating pontoon that was completely surrounded by fish and commenced flicking.
While I was there another lad turned up on a pontoon on the opposite side of the marina and started fishing for mullet using the bread method. That is, chucking bread crumbs on the top of the water and putting bread on the hook and fishing it amongst them. He only lasted an hour lol. Crows kept coming down and nicking bread out of his bag and whenever he chucked bread on the water a huge gang of seagulls swooped down and nicked it all. No fish for him them.
I sat there quietly on the pontoon trying to keep out of sight of the fish. It's amazing how they can see you. The slightest movement and they get spooked and swim off. Even if I just move my rod tip a bit or cast out it's splash! Bye! So stealth tactics are the order of the day. I started with live ragworm, a size 8 hook and no weights. It was difficult to get any distance with no weight but the fish were right next to me so it didn't matter. They were cruising up and down past my worm not bothered in the slightest. An hour or so and several worms later still nothing then I noticed they were opening and closing their mouths right at the surface so I thought maybe as they are top feeders they will be more likely to take a worm on the surface than below it. So I raised my rod tip and held my worm there with the odd twitch to try to attract their attention.
Well an amazing thing happened. After another hour of this a large mullet, maybe 4 or 5lb was swimming towards my worm. It homed in and went to bite it. OMG, here we go. Ready, strike! SPLASH! BYE! Oh bolleaux! It turned and was away, my worm slid along it's back as it disappeared.
I tried a couple of more worms with no action so decided it was time to give the isomes a try. I fitted a size L pink Isome and began to twitch it around on the surface. Fish swam past it for an hour then suddenly one took an interest. Not as big as the previous one but still a nice size maybe 3lb. It swam up and munched down on my worm. Num Num Num maybe four or five bites then spat it out and swam off. Double bolleaux!! I tried for a while after but that was it for the day. So three days of mullet bashing, score = zero. Annoying bliddy fish!!!
Ok so the fishing isn't going so well this week. I seriously need to get my mojo back. I decided that I would have a night session and head over the border into Dorset to fish my favourite spot on Chesil Beach ... Hive Beach at Burton Bradstock. I have been fishing here several times a year for a few years now so was hoping for a busy session. I wasn't wrong. Armed with ragworm and some frozen bluey and dirty squid I had brought from home I headed down to the beach. I arrived about an hour before HW and sunset and set up one big rod with baits and did some spinning with a second rod using a 60g Zenith spinner. The usual bass task force were out walking up and down the shoreline but nobody was pulling anything in. There were a few lads bait fishing and feathering too. Half an hour or so went by with no luck then I noticed a fella lure fishing to my left pulling something small and silvery in. I couldn't see what it was at that distance but I thought it might be worth trying for a species hunt point so put some sabikis on and whacked them out. Straight away I felt the wriggle of a small fish on the end and it turned out to be my first ever scad (horse mackerel). One point!
The fish was returned but after a couple more casts I caught another one so I decided to use it as a live bait to try for a bass. I hooked it onto the big rod and dropped it a short way out in the gutter and left it for any passing silver spikeys. None turned up but it was worth a try.
Once it got dark I put the lures away and put out a second bait rod with a two hook flapper, small hooks, bluey on one hook and rag on the other. I began catching poor cod on both baits on the small hooks and they were coming in one after the other cast after cast. Nothing else though and nothing on the bigger hooks/baits but another species point anyway. After an hour or so of this I landed the surprise of the night, an eel. At first I thought "not another eel" and was expecting it too snot up my rig then I realised it wasn't green but grey and with a black trim along the fins! My first ever Conger! I was well chuffed. Small but perfectly formed
Size isn't everything, at least that is what the wife says So a canny night on Chesil with a few fish and three species points. No big fellas but a very enjoyable session.
So now we come to my final session of the week....
After such a disappointing week on the fishing front I was hoping things might improve on my last night session. The plan was to fish Branscombe beach. This venue has a reputation as a good smoothound mark so I bought some peeler to target them with from the tackle shop in Lyme Regis. It also has a reputation for bass and huss so some big fish baits and also some lures were the plan. Two hook rigs with an additional small hook and bait for anything else interesting and possible species hunt points.
The drive down to Branscombe was rather stressful with narrow single track roads with high hedges so you couldn't see what was around the next bend. I made it though only to find there was a beach party going on next to the car park (a wedding) and there were a few anglers out along a fair bit of the beach so I had to do a long walk along the shingle to get a space. That south coast shingle is tough going. By the time I got to my spot I was knackered and had to sit down for five minutes before I could start fishing lol
I put out a crab bait at distance and got out my spinning rod trying various lures. Eventually I caught the first fish of the night, an undersized pollack, on sabikis. This was closely followed by a shore rockling on the crab bait. Next cast with the crab bait and I had something that felt fairly heavy on the end and it turned out to be my first ever spider crab.
Over the next few hours I landed two small huss, one poor cod and a particularly yellowish looking eel. I am well pleased with the huss not just for the species point but also because I've never caught one before! Woo Hoo!
So no smoothies or bass tonight, but my first huss makes up for it. And I had the pleasure of fishing a beautiful venue while listening to a wedding band playing "The Can Can". Lol. My next big trip is the Isle of Skye in October so I'm looking forward to that now. ttfn.
Dogfish!!
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