Madpolka Enjoys "7 Up" In Plymouth 

I'm getting fed up with writing about the weather but it has been such a dominant feature this year it is playing havoc with my attempts to provide content for this web site.

My July trip was blown out due to the weather and I had hoped to make up for this with plenty of action from my 2 weeks holiday in early August.  So typically I picked two weeks in the middle of one of the worst stretches of summer weather I can remember!

But never mind, with the onslaught of high winds and rain looking like it might abate for 24 hours we dashed off to try our luck on a rare bright day on the 8th of August.

The forecast was not great, and with "SeaQuill" now having moved from the deepwater of the mayflower marina to Queen Annes Battery we planned to try a little "grifting" in and around the Tamar to see what we could find.  When we arrived at the boat however the weather looked a little better than forecast and we decided to see what the conditions would be like at the Mew Stone so we could hopefully add some fresh mackerel to our selection of baits and also have a few for the barbecue.

Having reached the Mew Stone we were pleased to see a good number of fish marking on the sounder and set up the first drift across a pronounced and deep gully.  Well I have not seen mackerel fishing like this for years.  I fish by counting down my feathers and stopping at every 4 to 5 second interval and giving a few sharp jigs before proceeding to the bottom.  I don't think I ever got below 10 seconds and certainly didn't get to the bottom.  We quickly caught all the mackerel we needed and turned our attention to other quarry.  As a point of interest we covered a good 10 to 15 miles on the day and we saw masses of mackerel on the sounder all day; I bet the gales have blown them apart now though!

We decided to try a few more drifts on the same mark with 3" shads (Orange Tiger stripe pattern).  This produced a lot of quite small pulls and several small Pollack of 1 to 2 lbs.  Pops tried a string of 3 jigging eels and was catching the Pollack three at a time.  These small fish coming from fairly shallow water were able to be returned with no problems.  We could have caught these all day but decided to look a little further a field.

The sea was producing a fairly large but very long and regular swell which was quite comfortable and easily within the capabilities of Pops' boat so we decided to head east to fish a small wreck that has produced good numbers of summer whiting for us in the past.

We stopped at West Rutts, a well known reef on the way, and had a few drifts with both Shads and rag worm.  Now East and West Rutts regularly receive good reviews for producing good sized Pollack,  but though we continue to try I have not yet managed to find one!  I did catch a nice female cuckoo wrasse however which fell to a rag worm.  These appear to be in huge numbers on all of the deep Plymouth Reefs and can be a menace although beautiful to look at.  Also they do not tend to fare too well when returned so we decided to move on to the wreck. Three species aboard and the day was going well.

On reaching the wreck we tried a variety of different tactics.  I fished a blue 4" Shad on a Portland rig which accounted for a couple of nice Pollack approaching 4 lbs for the largest.  Pops fished baited feathers and soon found some nice whiting running to 2 lbs in weight.  Four Species captured and the day was far exceeding our expectations.

I tried fishing a sliver of mackerel to a size 1/0 hook with some attractor beads which also produced whiting as well as the obligatory Pouting. (Species number 5).

I then switched back to the Tiger pattern smaller Shad and tried hopping this just off the wreck whilst Pops pursued more whiting on an extended drift.  I had hoped for a Codling or a larger whiting but was delighted to catch a fabulous Red Gurnard which made it 6 species and ate very well later that day!

As the day wore on the wind picked up, the tide turned and the chop became short and un comfortable.  We decided to head for a last hours try for some Ballan Wrasse at a favourite mark in Cawsand Bay, out of the wind and close to home.

The first few drifts produced several small Pollack on Rag Worm fished on a short flowing trace.  A move to slightly deeper water produced my target species, a small Ballan Wrasse of around 1 lb and we had hit 7 species for the day!

So with a fine feed of mackerel, whiting and gurnard on board and a good species count we decided for one more drift before home.  Now I was using a newly acquired 8ft Maxximus Solid Carbon Red rod.  This new rod has the same excellent solid carbon blank as the older rods but is longer, is in 2 pieces and has vastly improved reel seat and eyes.  The rod is rated 10/20 lbs and is enormously flexible and great fun for light tackle fishing.  It was on this last drift that my new rod bent double and I was in to a decent fish.  The result was a beautifully marked Ballan Wrasse of 4lbs 2.5oz.  Sadly the fish had taken the hook badly and could not go back.  It will be used however to make stock or chowder and will not be wasted.

Perhaps the best days are those that start with low expectations and end up so much better.  This day was a good days light tackle sport by any ones measure however and in shore fishing in Plymouth in the Summer goes from strength to strength.

(By the way, sorry for the "non maritime" photos - forgot the camera again!)