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South West Belated Friday catch report!

Trampster

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Plymouth.
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Sorry I couldn't get this up before, but sometimes life just gets in the way. I sent John a message last week mainly to see how he was, and he replied saying that he was about to contact me as him & @bananas were heading for a shore mark on Friday. I said I would do my best to be there, ordered some bait on Thursday, and then around 6pm that evening, something went wrong with my replacement hip. Could hardly walk & Didn't think I would be able to make it, so cancelled the bait early on Friday morning. By lunchtime, after a couple of strong doses of Paracetamol, pain was easing, so slung some rods, reel & tackle in Jeepy, and off I went. Despite school holidays ending, there were still a lot of Grockles about and the traffic was terrible. It was only about 30 miles but iit took me an hour & a half.

On arrival, the sea & the weather were looking fairly good, so I had a quick waz in the bushes and headed off along the track to the beach where I knew the boys would have set up. It's a level track but still a fair hike. This was about halfway!

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I stopped to catch my breath at the ramp down to the beach and tried to decide which of the group of spread out anglers was John. "Ah, there he is waving" about 200 yards along the beach. Now 200 yards isn't far, but tis if yer breathing isn't good and yer trying to drag a 'wheelie' box with 3" wheels over shingle! Anyway, I made it eventually, and had a quick chat to John & Bob. I decided to set up my new lure rod with an SG Salt Seeker first as I was hoping to christen it. I was watching the Gulls pitching in further along the beach, as I then got on with setting up the tripod & my bait rod.

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I cheated - this photo pinched from an earlier trip to the same mark.

"Mackerel" shouts John, and as I looked up, the water was boiling with fish in front of us, and a carpet of baitfish were being chased up on the shore. I'd heard of this happening but never seen it before. It didn't take many casts before a couple of Mackerel were landed, and then they stopped biting as quickly as they had arrived.

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I went to bait up my beach rod and couldn't find my bait box. It was in a bucket in the boot of Jeepy when I left, and I think due to a bit of hard back lane cornering, it had escaped on the journey. Never mind, fresh belly flaps from the Mackerel will do, and John also came over with a handful of baitfish to try plus a few small Rag. The rest of the afternoon was a bit of a blur - I didn't seem to be able to keep any bait on the bait rod so it needed a lot of hauling in & rebaiting, and every now & then, there was another shout of "Mackerel!" So it was grab the lure rod and have another cast. I normally would have taken more photos, but it seemed I was just too busy! I didn't even get around to eating my Pasty I'd brought for tea!
Thanks to Bob for a bit of casting advice - after years of chucking out 4oz weights & bait with a big beach rod, it took me a while to get used to casting with an incredibly light lure rod & small Shimano reel (thanks John for that one!) A few tips from Bob & I was doing much better! "Don't thrash it so hard, and keep looking at the sky about 10 O'clock"! ??????

It got to about 8.30 pm, I'd had 6 good Mackerel, didn't want too many as not much room in our freezer, and a few smaller ones went back. I was worried about the trek back to Jeepy, wasn't having any luck on bait, and as I like to clean my fish on the beach, I settled down on my wheelie box, tray & chopping board on my lap. Bucket of water ✔ Sharp filletting knife ✔ Away we go. Just about got mine done and John comes over. "Nice sharp knife" he says! "Do you like cleaning & filleting fish?" he says! "I don't mind" I said. "We used to do up to 200 when I used to go boat fishing". "You can do mine!" says John. ?? I should have seen that coming! I didn't mind - only took 10mins. I cleaned a few Mackerel for John, and his nice Bass - he actually caught 2 but an undersize one was safely returned.

Other than the amazing amount of Mackerel around (at last), and John's Bass, I don't think there was a lot of fish to be had. John had a couple of Scad on his bait rod, and I think Bob had a couple of Pout. We were quite well spaced out so it was sometimes difficult to see what was coming in. I decided as it was now dark, I was going to pack up - John will confirm it takes me a while, as everything has to do tidily back in it's bags & boxes! John & Bob decided to do the same.

I decided to try to hump my box, rods & rod rest straight up the beach and up over a bank onto a footpath, rather than drag it 200yds back across the shingle to the ramp where I came down. By the time I had done this, I was struggling for breath, John and Bob had already gone on back to the car park, so I turned my head torch off and sat down for a breather. Absolutely beautiful sat there in the dark listening to the gentle waves on the beach! After a while, I thought I'd better make tracks, and as I got about halfway back along the path, there was another headtorch coming towards me - it was John who had come back to lend a hand and make sure I was OK. "One for all and all for one - I wasn't leaving until you were safely back to the car park" he said! Bless him!

Nothing more to report really (some might say "thank God"!) Just a final photo of the delicious Mackerel when I had rinsed them at home. 2 went to Daughter on Saturday, 3 were Vac packed & went in the freezer, and 1 large one went in my belly! ??

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Thanks for reading, and sorry if I've rambled on a bit - it's what I do best! ???
 
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Well done Dave a great report and glad you enjoyed yourself and caught some fish
Thanks John! ??
I think now we have the Vaccum packer, i'd be tempted to go back again & travel light with that lure rod & a plastic bag if we had more room in the freezer!
 
Well done Dave, glad you got out in the end and enjoyed the trip, I expect it did you the power of good?
 
Well done Dave, glad you got out in the end and enjoyed the trip, I expect it did you the power of good?
Yep, it was great to get out and see somebody different to chat to, as well as the fishing! I'm fine on the beach but just get so down when trudging across the shingle or lugging gear uphill leaves me so out of breath.

The road/track to the house at the far end of the beach got washed away so they are having to use quad bikes along the beach to access the house. Just wish I had one! My old garden tractor would be great with a box or trailer on the back, but it's residing en France!
 
Yep, it was great to get out and see somebody different to chat to, as well as the fishing! I'm fine on the beach but just get so down when trudging across the shingle or lugging gear uphill leaves me so out of breath.

The road/track to the house at the far end of the beach got washed away so they are having to use quad bikes along the beach to access the house. Just wish I had one! My old garden tractor would be great with a box or trailer on the back, but it's residing en France!
Is there any way you can limit what you take Dave? I know we all tend to take too much gear but light beach fishing shouldn’t really require that much?
 
Great report Trampster, good of John to come back and check you were ok.
 
Well done for getting out and getting a few tasty fish for supper .
Great catch report .
 
Is there any way you can limit what you take Dave? I know we all tend to take too much gear but light beach fishing shouldn’t really require that much?
I did have a weed out of the stuff that I put in my Wheelie box, but it makes not a lot of difference as it takes so little to make me short of breath. Two beach rods & reels, Lure rod & reel, a few Leads, Lure box, small box of swivels & end tackle bits, Headtorch & batteries, Pliers, Knife & chopping board, Bottle of water, compulsory Pasty (!), coat! It sounds a lot, but all essentials.
 
Thanks all for your kind words - it makes the effort worthwhile! :):)(y)(y)
 
I did have a weed out of the stuff that I put in my Wheelie box, but it makes not a lot of difference as it takes so little to make me short of breath. Two beach rods & reels, Lure rod & reel, a few Leads, Lure box, small box of swivels & end tackle bits, Headtorch & batteries, Pliers, Knife & chopping board, Bottle of water, compulsory Pasty (!), coat! It sounds a lot, but all essentials.
Yes that’s not a huge amount, to be fair.
I suppose you could go with one beach rod and reel instead of two?
Must admit even going down to one makes life a lot easier when I’m rock hopping.

Then again it’s not a huge wet gut difference, I realise.
Also as you found, wheels on shingle don’t really work - you may well be expending more effort on it.
What about a wheeled sled?
 
What sort of trolley have you got . I invested in one of the tronix pro beach trolley with the big inflatable tyres on . It works reasonably well on shingle if you dont over inflate tyres . You can load it up including strapping rods to it . I would say the main negative of the trolley is because it can take a good load you do end up taking far more stuff than necessary and then its not so great . If you kept your gear to only the essentials as you did on this trip then possibly this trolley would make your trip easier. Ive used it to fish from exactly the same spot you were in .
 
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