Unfortunately Paul had to work at the last minute & I did doubt if I should still go, but as happens more often than not, these sometimes turn out to red letter days.
Leaving early meant I missed the London traffic but I didn't take into consideration the start of the Bournemouth rush hour at 8am. But with the sun blazing down & barely any wind I rocked up to the pier at 9'o'clock just in time to get a decent parking space & as I got my gear out of the car I watched the early morning divers boarding a boat to take them out for the day.
With the beautiful weather the pier was quite busy with people milling around, on their early summer holidays no doubt.
So as I rigged up my ever faithful Isome worm I though to myself it was just a stunning day to be out & about, of course I don't want to blank but if I caught a few fish & a new species I'd be a happy man.
If you read my previous LRF blog I'm a sea angling novice, the previous time out was my first foray into this exciting method & I had some lovely fish.
On the top of my list today was a pollock, as they eluded last time out, so a few of those would be ace, along with some scorpion fish, blennys & a wrasse or two.
Flicking my lure around towards various snaggy looking wood pillers gave me my first problem of the day. It seemed like the bottom was covered in some kind of "cotton wool type" weed, every cast resulted in a weedy covered jig head & worm. Not idea conditions at all, a quick chat with a passer by concluded that it was because of the storm last week & it would take a while for the tides to clear all the weed, I know little about "the way of the sea" but it sounded a plausible theory.
So a plan b was needed.....
I guessed a dropshot rig could be a perfect foil for the weedy problem.
As I scrabbled about in my fly vest for hooks, flourocarbon & spilt shots to make up a few dropshot rigs something caught my attention through the wooden slats of the pier floor.......
A large shoal of roughly 2" silver fish flashing and moving as one, excitedly I grabbed my rod & luckily still had my jig head & worm attached. I just knew there would be a few bigger fish under the shoal, waiting for the right moment to attack & get a free lunch.
First cast right into the middle of the fish ball & as the silvers parted, my jig hadn't even touched bottom when it was grabbed by something decent.
The drag zip... zip.... zipped away & as I turned him quite easily, a lovely pollock sufaced right in front of me. I lifted him up carefully & finally I had my target fish (& previously uncaught) in my hands.
Of course I'm sure I could of have had a few more on this method but I had a feeling there were bigger fish lurking in the weedy depths.
One lure just shouted out to me so to speak as I peered in to my tackle box, a couple of tiny 5g jigs that Paul bought for me on the last trip, on a recommendation from John Wheeler.
John, if you don't know is a seasoned sea angler & a fountain of knowledge for all our LRF style questions & we hope to travel down to Plymouth sometime soon & join him for a day or two.
Back to the fishing in hand.......
First cast with this lure proved I had made a correct decision in changing things up, a big hit from a strong fish that really stretched my skills to the limit.
I managed to get his head up & that's when I started to wobble, an estimated 3lb+ pollock was peeking up at me.
Now I found myself in a stalemate, checkmate if u like..... There's no way I could lift this fish but I had no option as I didn't really think I would have fish of this size. I had a net in the car but that was no good to me now, anyway as u can guess the hook pulled a few feet from the rippled waves, but I'm happy to say the fish swam off strongly but I was really kicking myself I'd made such a silly mistake.
With the shoal still around I had to take 5 & get my net, praying that none of the eight or so anglers now on the pier would jump in my golden spot. Needless to say, I ran all the way with a heavy heart about that cracking pollock I lost.
My luck was in, nobody else had moved & I also brought my gopro with me, so I as I put the chest mount on, I peered down under my feet to see an amazing sight, the silvers were getting smashed from all angles by possibly five or six big pollock. The water bellow was full of tiny scales & half chomped fish dropping down to the bottom & glistening in the sunlight.
Like an excited school boy on the last day of term I couldn't get my lure down there quick enough & on the first drop my jig got hit again......
A modest fight compared to the last 3lber but a decent fish surfaced & again I'm surprised...... It's a beautifully shiny, silver sea bass, another species I've not had before but I didn't expect to have from this pier & I managed to get some of the fight on camera too. I'll post a link to my YouTube channel when I work out how to do it.
Before you ask he when back well & dived right back to the bottom in a shot.
I wasn't quite sure if this day could get any better (apart from the good pollock loss) but I never could have imagined what happened over the next hour up to high tide.
Three or four casts later I'm getting frustrated as it's almost a hit a cast but unfortunately my hook just didn't keep its grip on various fishes lips long enough for me to land any of them.
The most memorable was a slamming take, on for a matter of a second & all I saw was a large flash of silver that was at the very least a bass of 2ft, maybe bigger.
Of course I checked the sharpness of the treble & found one hook to be bent at a right angle. These standard trebles are quite a fine gage to suit the lure size but maybe an upgrade was needed in the future.
Luckily I managed to bend it back with my pliers & the hook points were still sharp, I swiftly made another cast.....
Bang again & it's another species & another pb
It was a lovely Wrasse estimated at around 1.5lb & I managed to get a video of it on my gopro camera but I forgot to get a pic on my iPhone so check out the video at the bottom of this blog for that fish.
Again next cast a beautiful pollock & by the end of the day I honestly lost count of how many I had, 15 or 20
I also had a few more wrasse In-between
the pollock party
Another cast surprised me even further with this little beaut.
I'm sure this was a pure fluke but it did make me laugh.
At least now I knew what the shoal of silvers were, tiny pencil shaped sand-eels.
The perch/pike angler in me told me give it one cast with the sand-eel still attached & if nothing happened them I'd release him to live another day.
I feathered the line down & as it touched bottom I turned the reel handle one full revolution & held the rod 90 degrees from my body, watching the tip.
It gently bounced around for all of five seconds before the rod doubled over, this was an altogether different beast, I just couldn't stop the fish snagging me somewhere under the pier before my 6lb hooklink snapped.
I certainly learnt my lesson with that fish & I felt rather sheepish that I'd even attempted it, whatever it was. But I'll bring a heavier rod for some livebaiting next time.
A few more pollack later I was skipping my jig just along the bottom, as close as I dared when I hooked into a good fish, as it hammered off under the pier I thought to myself it's about time I landed one of these bigger fish. I slowed him down, in turn burnt my finger on the spinning spool & quickly tightened up the drag. Strangely he then turned away from the snaggy pier & sped off out to sea, in the direction of Bournemouth I believe.
Now off the bottom & away from snags I had the upper hand & finally could enjoy the fight.
A good sized slighty red & green fish sufaced & I finally saw the fish that had made my heart skip many a beat in the last 10 seconds.
As I sat back & looked at my prize i thought to myself, I felt in the past I didn't have a clue about sea species, but now I understand a little more of how to tackle these fish & what makes them tick.
A few more pollack & small wrasse came to my net after my big wrasse, but as the large shoal of baitfish disappeared & the tide turned i struggled to even get a bite, even turning back to the normally dependable Ecogear worms.
One thing I'm sure of was it just one of those days where everything went right. As Paul always informs me, any man, any day, any time can catch plenty of fish & I'm thankful that today "I was that man"
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zld9owIdpMI&rdm=1l0ogl59b&client=mv-google
Excellent stuff Mark, well done mate!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks Andy 🎣🎣🎣
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