Pops Goes Solo In The Spring

So whilst those of us under 65 years of age were toiling to beat the credit crunch, Pops took advantage of the fabulous early Spring weather to venture out from Plymouth again. Becasue he was sailing alone this day the pictures are taken at home so apologies for the non maritime nature of the graphics!

The weather was set fair and in what was little more than a ripple with no more than a force 2 southerly breeze, Pops set out to try his luck at our favourite whiting wreck again.

Once again however timing was bad and he arrived at the wreck just as slack water arrived. With both baited feathers and artificials failing to entice a bite, although fish were marking on the sounder, Pops decided to follow up on a tip from "Clives Tackle & Bait". This tip was to try a mark or two in the general Eddystone lighthouse area which had produced some Pollack in the previous week.

Well it certainly did the trick. As well as a number of smaller fish, Pops took this smashing 7lb Pollack. The fish succumbed to a 3" blue shad fished on a flying collar rig, and by all accounts put up a tremendous struggle. On a tackle note, Pops has been struggling for a few years now to find a reel he likes and has tried a range from the cheap to the relatively expensive. He has now had two outings with his new Fladen Warbird leaver drag reel and reports that it is the best he has had for a good while with a very smooth drag. Priced at a little over �40 from Trago Mills this surely is one of the best value reels for the hobby angler on the market.

With the tide now running, and needing to head back towards port, Pops thought he'd have one more go at the whiting wreck. Well that bit of tide made all the difference with a couple of good fish falling to baited feathers. The best of which was this lovely 2.5 lb fish - an excellent pan sized specimen!

Now is it just me or does that Whiting look better than 2.5 lb? I'd get your scales checked Pops!! The Whiting had been gorging themselves on Sprats. With the sand eels not far off now I expect the good times are about to roll again on the in shore fisheries.

Now my next trip will be out of Plymouth or Dartmouth over Easter and all being well we have another trip a week later in search of Plaice out of Weymouth aboard Dave Pitmans "Atlanta" - that is if Pops and all the other angling gentlemen of leisure have left us any fish to catch!

contact - steve@madpolka.co.uk

Madpolka Publishing

Sea fishing diary madpolka

www.madpolka.co.uk

madpolka

Sea-Fishing Diary