I've planned a weekend break with the missus to celebrate our wedding anniversary so naturally I'm showing her a good time by taking her fishing with me. To be fair she actually loves sitting behind me reading, plus i get the bonus of a nice picnic lunch and action shots if I get a good bend in the rod although that never happens to me here at West Bay, It's a place I really enjoy but never do well at, but in my defence there are much easier docks and quays on the south coast.
A reccie the day before saw everyone blanking aside from the many families crabbing, their children filling their buckets with glee, also much to the delight of the herring gulls who would swoop down for a buffet upon release. More encouraging were the large shoals of tiny pouting visible in the clear water, I only knew they were pout due to the kids getting a few in their crab nets, that'll do me I thought - a few small pout, maybe a blenny or wrasse then off to the pub, if not I'll try for small mullet up the shallow end, either way it would be fun fishing on coarse gear as usual.
The rules here state 'Handlines or float fishing only' so typically almost everyone lobs out a lead or casts a lure, however float fishing suits me just fine. It would be none of the sea float malarkey though, you know the size of a cuban cigar with line like rope, nope I'm looking for bites off the little 'uns so its a bog standard avon float as seen if the first photo.
The rod was my usual five piece travel match and my old Okuma was loaded with 6lb line in case any decent mullet show, the bait was cheap old supermarket prawns, I also had bread but that's almost a non starter here due to those pesky gulls.
I set up in a corner that usually produces the odd blenny and get plenty of bites but they are so small they are coming off the hook, I swap my size 10 wide gape for a 14 and manage to get a minnow sized pollack of all things before a succession of tiny pout. With the small fish target achieved I reverted back to the size 10 and moved to the main channel, here it was fun trotting along holding back in deeper water and good ten feet or so down.
I then joke with a crabber I pass after he was initially impressed with my tally of 6 fish that were I to eat these they would be smaller than the chips. I then had the urge to move on near some rocks after as the chap there had just packed up. "Of to catch some monsters?" the crabber quipped "Yeah right!" was my lighthearted response happy to settle for anything chunkier than take away potato produce. Little did I know what was to follow.
I get to the pier's and where the ebbing tide hits some rocks hoping for a wrasse or anything, by now it was quite shallow but I continued to feed each run, trotting through at around 4 feet deep. The cheap Sainsburys prawns I was feeding are so small they are like big maggots, because of this you get plenty in a pack so in a few went each cast, little and often as the saying goes.
I was enjoying running my avon along these rocks and was certainly taken by surprise when the float buries, I strike thinking it's a rock of course before the clutch screams and the pure silver of a stunning bass not a wrasse flanks brightly in the spray, wow, I then ask the wife( I like to think calmly but..) to pass my trust Diawa Iso but for some reason she's extending it fully on the quay, not a good idea as it's best to extend it using gravity when fishing from a height, fortunately upon seeing our commotion another angler rushed to our aid. Here's an action shot of it at the crucial moment.
He was laying on his stomach over the edge. the handle just long enough to reach the water. I would have struggled on my own and my wife wouldn't have had the strength. yet here I am with a total stranger working as a team. Get in!
After thanking the other angler and having what seemed like the best bacon and egg roll over I continued to fish and I even saw a bass spin near the surface in the clear water for my feed, I expected a bite and sure enough the same thing happens again.
Then again although no3 was smaller and a bit knocked about with criss cross scars and a sore near it's tail, It was like it was a bycatch discard thrown back so no photo.
With the tide now almost fully out and the skies brightening a little the missus is off to the loo after I tell reassure her it's a good time to go and I wont get any more, so naturally no4 arrives to show how little I know, this time it was back to perfection with a really heavy set fish.
All the fish were returned unweighed and unmeasured but that's a 26" net so go figure. The place was super busy and I was getting quite an audience at times. People on the other side of the quay were talking to passers by whilst pointing at me doing the 'This big' gesture with their hands, I reckon they gave the bass a few extra inches but I didn't mind given I would have been happy with something akin to a thumb and finger measurement at the start of the day.
By now the tide had changed and so did my lovely trot. The flow had reversed and the wind had got up, blowing my loosefed prawns back at me despite my best throw, I did not reach for the catapult as I was almost out of them anyway, it was a good time to call it a day and my thoughts turned to that pint, a well earned one for sure.
We packed up and the skies started to brighten instantly and yes that beer tasted so good, as did the second, by the time we decided to head back to out accomodation small mullet the size of dace were sunning themselves lazily on the surface, not often you see these from a pub garden.
We left the mini mullet to their sunbathing and took the car back dropping it off then walking all the way back via the River Brit so we could both have a drink, polish off some fish and chips and watch the sun go down at the end of a wonderful day.
As for that mini species hunt, well it would be remiss of me not to show one of those monster pouting.
The last word goes as a doff of the hat to Martin, the chap from Wimborne who helped me with landing these fish, along with his energetic wife who seemed to be doing a running commentary. We all know it can be a grind if the angler next to you is hauling and you're not, so I was happy to watch him finally get a knock and bend into an eel of all things. He said he was an experienced angler when offering to help with the first fish, I put my trust in him and he didn't let me down, landing them all without hesitation, thanks mate.
