Merlin 335
Member
I had planned for a couple of months a trip down south to meet up with a mate who has just been posted from Faslane back down to Plymouth with the Navy and have a 3 day fishing session. The original plan was to go to Mutton Cove around 3pm (I was arriving in Plymouth around 2pm after a 5 hour drive) and target conger eels into the night. The following Thursday we then where going to go for a long session at Chesil Beach and then fish Friday evening somewhere to be decided in Plymouth. But the best laid plans of mice and men go awry and the weather decided to turn to strong south westerlies for the Wednesday and Thursday. We managed to fish 2.5 hrs at Mutton Cove, but the wind was steadily picking up and it was becoming very uncomfortable ( as well as picking up lots of weed) and we made the decision to find another mark on the Cornwall side of the Tamar, before dark that would be sheltered from the wind. My mate only knew of 2 - Saltash Pier and Wilcove Pier. So we packed up and went first went to Saltash Pier, only to find several kids, diving and swimming off the pier; so we drove round to Wilcove Pier. We arrived there around 6.30ish and quickly got our rods in. On one rod I had a 2 hook flapper with 1/0 hooks baited with lugs and on the other rods I had a pulley dropper with 3/0 pennel, with this i was using different combinations of mackerel/bluey/squid/lug wraps. My mate was just fishing two scratching rigs just to see what was about. We didn't have a single bite until 9pm, when I managed to reel in a small strap conger on the flapper rig., which at least beat the blank for me and was not the sized of conger we were originally after! At just before 10pm, I had had enough, as I was shattered from the drive down from the North West and we called it quits.
On the Thursday morning, we checked over the weather forecast to see if there was a remote possibility of fishing Chesil, but there was no chance. With the wind being strong westerlies, we decided to take the ferry across the Tamar to Wilcove Pier and try fishing there from 10am. I again used the same tactics of a 2 hook flapper and a pulley dropper, 4 hours passed before we had a single bite, but what a bite it was. On the rod with the pulley dropper with a squid and bluey wrap I had a tremendous fight with a 4lb 1oz bass. I was absolutely made up with that and it made the previous 4 hours of sitting in the very regular rainy squalls worthwhile. A hour later, my mate hooked into a common eel and a small strap conger in quick succession for him to avoid the blank. We decided to call it quits at around 7.30pm as after looking at the weather forecast, the wind seemed to be dropping for us to make a dash to Chesil beach on the Friday morning.
All in all it was a hard slog in some terrible weather, but the bass made up for it. Wilcove Pier is a very nice place and comfortable spot to fish - but without local knowledge we had no idea how to fish it.
On the Thursday morning, we checked over the weather forecast to see if there was a remote possibility of fishing Chesil, but there was no chance. With the wind being strong westerlies, we decided to take the ferry across the Tamar to Wilcove Pier and try fishing there from 10am. I again used the same tactics of a 2 hook flapper and a pulley dropper, 4 hours passed before we had a single bite, but what a bite it was. On the rod with the pulley dropper with a squid and bluey wrap I had a tremendous fight with a 4lb 1oz bass. I was absolutely made up with that and it made the previous 4 hours of sitting in the very regular rainy squalls worthwhile. A hour later, my mate hooked into a common eel and a small strap conger in quick succession for him to avoid the blank. We decided to call it quits at around 7.30pm as after looking at the weather forecast, the wind seemed to be dropping for us to make a dash to Chesil beach on the Friday morning.
All in all it was a hard slog in some terrible weather, but the bass made up for it. Wilcove Pier is a very nice place and comfortable spot to fish - but without local knowledge we had no idea how to fish it.
