Madpolka Keeps It's Feet Dry!

It's not often I have a chuck from the shore, but I had a new rod and was desperate to give it a try.  Strictly speaking it's not new as I bought it last Autumn to do some float fishing whilst on holiday when the sea was too rough to get out on a boat.  It is a Leeda Northstar Bass (12') with a casting weight of 1 to 3 oz.  I bought it with a Rovex Nexium 5000 baitfeeder fixed spool reel from Torbay Angling (no longer there sadly) for a very good price.  On it's first outing, at a very hard to reach rock mark, we didn't even get a bite so now, nearly one year later, I was determined to put that right!

Our chosen venue was Brixham breakwater as a forum member on World Sea Fishing had recommended this to me.  We made a brief stop at the tackle shop on the sea front in Brixham and picked up some superb quality rag worm and then headed to the breakwater car park.  This is fishing made easy as you can park right at the end of the breakwater and there is a cafe there as well to warm up in when you are finished.

The chap in the tackle shop had recommended we try about 3/4 of the way along the pier for a Wrasse or two and he suggested I try inside the breakwater on the moorings side as well as the outside on the seaward side.

A Dark, Damp, Brixham Harbour

The weather was fairly typical for August nowadays - 12.5 degrees Centigrade and wet!  We got to the breakwater at around 2.30pm, around two and a half hours before high water.  I rigged up with a sliding float rig which would be cocked with around 1 oz of lead.  I chose a size 6 strong Carp hook and baited with a section of rag worm.  I mentioned the quality of the worms before but these were real snakes.  We managed to get three baits out of each worm and it was a good job as we end up needing the half pound we bought and fished only for a couple of hours or so.

With my tackle ready to go I clambered down the rocks and flicked my float just beyond the weed fringe at the base of the rocks in to what looked to be deepish water.  I set my float to fish the bait at around 8'.  The result was instantaneous.  No sooner had the float cocked then it disappeared under the surface.  I lifted and wound in to a lively small Wrasse which was approaching half of a pound I guess.  I removed the hook and returned him and went in search of some more bait.  Re-armed I cast again,  this time a little further along the wall.  Blam! again a similar sized fish instantly attached itself to my hook.

With my rod truly christened I decided to join Pops on the seaward side of the wall to try my luck for a larger fish.  As I climbed on the wall I was greeted with this beautiful sight of a tall ship coming in to this historic harbour.

Tall Ship

I re-rigged my float to fish at a depth of 12' as the water looked deeper here.  There is a challenge to fishing this mark as there is a pronounced ledge at the base of the wall (around 6 feet below the surface) which extends 10 yards or so before there is a drop in to deeper water.  This means you have to cast beyond the ledge but fish close in to it to get to where the Wrasse hide (I am guessing as this is where the bites came from).  The Wrasse have ample opportunity to dive in to the ledge as you try and wind them over it.  This is my one criticism of my lightweight bass rod as it is very flexible and lacks the back bone to prevent that first dive from a larger fish - I lost plenty of fish to the ledge on this afternoon, but at least that was exciting!

I flicked my float out and again had instant interest.  Not quite the kamikaze stuff I experienced on the inside wall but a series of pecks before the float finally went down.  This produced another small fish for my tally.

Small Wrasse

Well the afternoon continued in this vein without break.  A bite on every cast resulting in a small Wrasse (Ballans and Corkwings), a lost bait or a lost fish thanks to the ledge!  I progressively whittled away my worms and even when the rain came I was having such a blast I didn't stop (much to Pop's disappointment I suspect!).

Fed up with losing fish on the ledge I decided to try my luck a bit further out.  This seemed to do the trick and  I had a very sharp bite which made my float disappear.  I lifted and wound, and was in to a better fish.  I reeled as fast I as I could and was surprised that the fish managed to take some line as I had the drag wound tight to try and stop the fish getting to the ledge.  For an instant it hit the kelp at the top of the wall and I quickly marched down the breakwater to get a different angle on the fish and it came free!  Another few turns and the fish was mine.  Not a monster at a pound and a half, but much better than the dozen or so I had caught previously and it certainly had the nicest markings of all my fish.

My best breakwater Ballan

It is easy to see why shore fishing is so popular when you can get sport this prolific.  It is the type of fishing you can do without much preparation.  It is quick to get started and you can easily do it just for a couple of hours rather than devoting a whole day which works well when you have family commitments etc. 

As we were wrapping up from our session another holiday maker and his girlfriend came to the breakwater armed with a spinning rod, newly acquired float rig and frozen mackerel bait.  They enquired what we were catching when my float disappeared and I explained that we were Wrasse fishing.  We showed him how to rig the float and left him with our last few worms which would have provided 10 baits I guess.  I hope he managed a few as he had braved the rain!

Contact - steve@madpolka.co.uk