Mr Fish
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
- Messages
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- Location
- North Devon
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
…. to go floundering!
It is here anyway, our estuary fishes well up to Christmas then dies off again.
I usually do three or four sessions a month but didn’t go at all last year and not been this year until now.
So the plan was to fish Sunday daytime but first I needed worm. Digging it does feck me up so I tried to buy some but no joy - harbour rag is hard to come by here (to buy) but the fish won’t take anything else.
On the Saturday I went where I thought I could get enough for a session, it was bloody hard going.
First spot I tried was in the shade behind an old barge and the mud was icy.
There was worm there but not huge and after 10 minutes I couldn’t feel my hands at all.
I washed the mud off and stuck them down the front of my waders for 10 minutes then tried another spot further down in the sun.
This one was VERY muddy but the worm there was much bigger, albeit fewer.
I wasn’t doing very good - my condition doesn’t like such activity at this time of year and every ache is magnified five times.
After an hour I wasn’t happy I had enough, but I just couldn’t do any more.
My meagre haul, about half a pound…
Sunday I was really feeling it but dragged myself out, to the opposite side of the river to where I had dug bait.
Finding worm that side is hit and miss but I took the fork, thinking I’d probably need to poke up a bit to finish the session.
I also threw in a small headlight as didn’t plan on fishing after dark but may have needed one to pack up. More on that later!
High was about 9am so I got there around 10 with the intent of fishing the ebb, usually a decent shout when the water is moving.
I set up at a likely spot but soon realised it was too shallow as a mud bank in front of me became exposed, so moved down, waded across then walked back up the bank.
Fishing at last, let’s start flounder season 2023!
The flow was fairly strong but not too bad and there was a depth of water, all looked promising.
Except it wasn’t! No bites at all. The worm was coming back untouched, which was good for preserving bait stocks but not so much for catching fish.
Now, flounder fishing in the estuary is a funny thing. You can stand there for six hours and blank while the bloke 50 yards away bags up. They hold in pockets or in small gullies or pits.
So the trick is to move around and not stay in the same spot all day.
On the other hand…. they can and do switch on and off with different states of tide so if you move too much, you might leave just before the spot starts to produce
I did two hours at this spot, was just about to move when I caught this monster, smaller than my palm…
So I gave it another half hour, but no joy. I moved downstream on the bank 100 yards or so.
Nice view but still no fish
The flow at this new spot was also faster. That can help, or not. Today it didn’t.
I did find there was enough worm in the mud behind to dig some if needed, which was worth knowing.
After an hour there, I pushed much further down, onto some stony ground (but casting into clean) at a well established proven mark.
In previous years at least, the river changes constantly so you can’t bank on former marks.
THAT spot did nothing either. There was about 90 minutes until dark and I rolled the dice once more, heading a bit further downstream to a more inviting looking bend.
After about half hour I had a very jagged bite, first bite I’d seen all day.
It seemed too violent for a flattie and schoolie was my thought, but I left it five minutes and lo and behold, my first half decent flounder of the season.
1lb 2. Not big enough for the comp minimum size but quite a chunky fish.
Now this looked better! Now, as mentioned, the estuary is a funny place. ‘Low’ tide lasts about six hours, before the flood starts again about two hours before high tide.
Yep it’s weird.
Conventional wisdom locally is the fish are only feeding with tide movement currently, but I have noticed sometimes they switch on at ‘dead low’.
Feeding up before the flood I guess, which is rather violent.
Could this be one of those scenarios? If it was, it had to wait a little because I took advantage of the gathering gloom to hide in a water outlet in the embankment and deposit a danger to shipping.
I hardly ever do that but no way could I walk the mile back with that monster begging to be released.
After sticking a warning flag in it and wishing it a safe voyage to the sea, I went back to my rods intending to pack up.
Instead I reeled in a much chunkier flounder!
Now this could be a comp qualifier! The minimum is 1lb 6.5 ounces and this looked close.
A very quick weigh put it bang on that. But it had a lot of mud on it and deducting that plus the weight of the bag, it was clearly going to be under.
Had it gone 1lb 8 I would have washed the mud off, zeroed the scales and got a true weight, but clearly it wasn’t quite there.
Who would know? Well, no one, but why would you cheat your mates in a fishing competition?
Sorry, didn’t get a pic of that fish, it was getting too dark.
The headlight went on and I decided it needed at least another half hour as clearly things were starting to happen.
I cast out again. Then the headlight went off.
It was only one of my small spares. When did I last charge it? I couldn’t even remember. It had spent most of the year being used to catch rodents brought in by the cat and hiding under the sofa
I had a long walk over muddy/stony riverbank plus a walk through some woods.
Plus I couldn’t even see to bait up, so reluctantly decided to pack up while there was still a tiny bit of light left.
I reeled in to find small flounder on both rods. It certainly did seem to be kicking off, although the tiny ones always seem to feed after dark so that’s no cast iron guarantee but you can get better ones amongst them.
Anyway, it was moot, I had to go, so I did.
It’s whetted my appetite though so will certainly try and get back soon!
Oh, the much agonised over worm quantity? Despite not being particularly stingy with it, I still had about half left!
On the way back I dug a hole in the mud and returned them to hopefully live out their slimy lives and help repopulate the area!
It is here anyway, our estuary fishes well up to Christmas then dies off again.
I usually do three or four sessions a month but didn’t go at all last year and not been this year until now.
So the plan was to fish Sunday daytime but first I needed worm. Digging it does feck me up so I tried to buy some but no joy - harbour rag is hard to come by here (to buy) but the fish won’t take anything else.
On the Saturday I went where I thought I could get enough for a session, it was bloody hard going.
First spot I tried was in the shade behind an old barge and the mud was icy.
There was worm there but not huge and after 10 minutes I couldn’t feel my hands at all.
I washed the mud off and stuck them down the front of my waders for 10 minutes then tried another spot further down in the sun.
This one was VERY muddy but the worm there was much bigger, albeit fewer.
I wasn’t doing very good - my condition doesn’t like such activity at this time of year and every ache is magnified five times.
After an hour I wasn’t happy I had enough, but I just couldn’t do any more.
My meagre haul, about half a pound…
Sunday I was really feeling it but dragged myself out, to the opposite side of the river to where I had dug bait.
Finding worm that side is hit and miss but I took the fork, thinking I’d probably need to poke up a bit to finish the session.
I also threw in a small headlight as didn’t plan on fishing after dark but may have needed one to pack up. More on that later!
High was about 9am so I got there around 10 with the intent of fishing the ebb, usually a decent shout when the water is moving.
I set up at a likely spot but soon realised it was too shallow as a mud bank in front of me became exposed, so moved down, waded across then walked back up the bank.
Fishing at last, let’s start flounder season 2023!
The flow was fairly strong but not too bad and there was a depth of water, all looked promising.
Except it wasn’t! No bites at all. The worm was coming back untouched, which was good for preserving bait stocks but not so much for catching fish.
Now, flounder fishing in the estuary is a funny thing. You can stand there for six hours and blank while the bloke 50 yards away bags up. They hold in pockets or in small gullies or pits.
So the trick is to move around and not stay in the same spot all day.
On the other hand…. they can and do switch on and off with different states of tide so if you move too much, you might leave just before the spot starts to produce
I did two hours at this spot, was just about to move when I caught this monster, smaller than my palm…
So I gave it another half hour, but no joy. I moved downstream on the bank 100 yards or so.
Nice view but still no fish
The flow at this new spot was also faster. That can help, or not. Today it didn’t.
I did find there was enough worm in the mud behind to dig some if needed, which was worth knowing.
After an hour there, I pushed much further down, onto some stony ground (but casting into clean) at a well established proven mark.
In previous years at least, the river changes constantly so you can’t bank on former marks.
THAT spot did nothing either. There was about 90 minutes until dark and I rolled the dice once more, heading a bit further downstream to a more inviting looking bend.
After about half hour I had a very jagged bite, first bite I’d seen all day.
It seemed too violent for a flattie and schoolie was my thought, but I left it five minutes and lo and behold, my first half decent flounder of the season.
1lb 2. Not big enough for the comp minimum size but quite a chunky fish.
Now this looked better! Now, as mentioned, the estuary is a funny place. ‘Low’ tide lasts about six hours, before the flood starts again about two hours before high tide.
Yep it’s weird.
Conventional wisdom locally is the fish are only feeding with tide movement currently, but I have noticed sometimes they switch on at ‘dead low’.
Feeding up before the flood I guess, which is rather violent.
Could this be one of those scenarios? If it was, it had to wait a little because I took advantage of the gathering gloom to hide in a water outlet in the embankment and deposit a danger to shipping.
I hardly ever do that but no way could I walk the mile back with that monster begging to be released.
After sticking a warning flag in it and wishing it a safe voyage to the sea, I went back to my rods intending to pack up.
Instead I reeled in a much chunkier flounder!
Now this could be a comp qualifier! The minimum is 1lb 6.5 ounces and this looked close.
A very quick weigh put it bang on that. But it had a lot of mud on it and deducting that plus the weight of the bag, it was clearly going to be under.
Had it gone 1lb 8 I would have washed the mud off, zeroed the scales and got a true weight, but clearly it wasn’t quite there.
Who would know? Well, no one, but why would you cheat your mates in a fishing competition?
Sorry, didn’t get a pic of that fish, it was getting too dark.
The headlight went on and I decided it needed at least another half hour as clearly things were starting to happen.
I cast out again. Then the headlight went off.
It was only one of my small spares. When did I last charge it? I couldn’t even remember. It had spent most of the year being used to catch rodents brought in by the cat and hiding under the sofa
I had a long walk over muddy/stony riverbank plus a walk through some woods.
Plus I couldn’t even see to bait up, so reluctantly decided to pack up while there was still a tiny bit of light left.
I reeled in to find small flounder on both rods. It certainly did seem to be kicking off, although the tiny ones always seem to feed after dark so that’s no cast iron guarantee but you can get better ones amongst them.
Anyway, it was moot, I had to go, so I did.
It’s whetted my appetite though so will certainly try and get back soon!
Oh, the much agonised over worm quantity? Despite not being particularly stingy with it, I still had about half left!
On the way back I dug a hole in the mud and returned them to hopefully live out their slimy lives and help repopulate the area!
