After April had been a pretty fish filled month, I was keen to keep up the effort. There hadn’t been any giants gracing my nets but the variety had been great fun and the successes were regular. When you’re fishing time is just a few hours at a time (three hours is a long session for me) catching fish is by no means a guarantee. Well, I guess it could be, but I do try and give myself some reasonably challenging targets. The rewards are so much greater if you have to work for it.
The month started with a fishing lesson which saw a few new faces coming along. Brothers Billy and Jacob, brought along by their mum Sarah, listened carefully and very soon they were working brilliantly as a team to bait the hooks, cast, strike and land the fish, and then safely and successfully use the disgorger. A perfect start!
I do always try to stress the importance of being as quiet as you can during then lessons, but fully understand that the excitement of catching your first fish can boil over. At least I know everyone is having fun when I hear the first squeals up and down the bank. On this particular evening though, just minutes after everyone had left and calm had returned, the carp moved to within inches or where the guests had been sat enjoying the bait that had been spilt in the margins. I had to chuckle.
At the end of the month, Sarah, Billy and Jacob were back and quickly put everything they had learnt back into practice. After a few quick bites using maggots for bait, they soon chose sweetcorn and were prepared to wait for a bigger fish to find the bait. After some decent Roach, Jacob eventually struck into a much bigger fish that was clearly a carp. The elastic did what elastic was supposed to do and the patient game of teasing a large fish on light tackle to the net began. The team did a great job and after a good five minutes, a beautiful common carp went in the net. I was really chuffed for them all. New anglers have been born!
A few days later my 4am alarm clock was buzzing on the bedside table and I was off out for a couple of hours before work. In 2023 I caught some very special crucian carp and I fancied some more of that. Very often, crucian carp are found in ponds alongside large carp. This can make it difficult when targeting shy biting crucians that require fine tackle and a bit of finesse. Those small baits are attractive to large carp and sooner or later, a delicate tap on the quiver tip becomes a rod heading towards the lake and flying off the rest as something big picks up the bait.
That coupled with the fact crucians are shy, so hang out near lilly pads, makes the job or targeting relatively small fish amongst a bunch of big brutes, and landing them safely, a proper challenge. On this occasion, I couldn’t tempt one of the elusive crucian, but the balanced tackle stood firm and managed to tease a big mirror carp from out of the lillie’s it had gone charging through. there’s no doubt it was good fun but I would have swapped a crucian for that big old carp any day. not complaining though!
The middle of the month is when things got tricky. When you’re on a roll it feels like you can turn up anywhere and you’ll catch the fish of your dreams, even though it’s never happened before! It’s the optimism in fishing that I love and I guess is so addictive. One more go and I’ll hit the jacket pot!
First up was a return to Colliford and an evening on the dry flies. My fly fishing as I have written before is poor. My dry fly fishing is really poor. But with that optimism is was off to Colliford to catch amonster, wild brown trout on a 4/5 weight road on a dry fly. It makes me laugh writing it! But off I went and with overcast conditions and a decent breeze over my left shoulder, it did look good. I opted for a different area of the lake to that which id fished on the previous two visits, just for variety, no knowledge applied whatsoever (other than that useful breeze). As I wondered along the margins were full of carp, everywhere! I was tempted to have a cast but didn’t want to be dragged around on light gear all evening should I hook one and much preferred the thought of that brown trout instead.
Three hours later and a lot of casting and walking I got back to the car having raised one fish. And that’s all I saw. I’ve got a lot to learn when it comes to those trout and those little fluffy dry flies!
Next up it was time for a mullet. I’d not fished for them yet this year. The tides weren’t perfect for the couple of hours I had before work on a Friday morning but I opted for a spot which on the ebb tide has a nice little eddy that I’ve caught from in the past. The water was crystal clear on arrival which I love but you can then see when there is absolutely f### all in front of you. But I’m not put off by this this so started with my bread lobbing ritual. Two hours and a few loaves of bread later, I didn’t even see one let alone cast for one.
I pushed my luck and after work and a lunch time dinner date with the better half, I grabbed another hour but this time on a different estuary. This one was full of fish! They were only small but sod it, a mullet is a mullet. I started with the bread ritual having relieved the Co Op of a few more loaves. The little fish were soon happily feeding away and after the obligatory missed bites I hooked and landed the first one of the year. The fish cleared off, like they do for a while then came back with the tide when another nice little fish its way into the net. A lush spell in the sunshine.
The month then ended with a couple of trips with one of the boys. He’s got a few fish on his “fish wish list” for 2025 which includes bass and gilthead bream. I figured we’d go and do them both in one trip (there’s that optimism again!). We found a spot I hadn’t fished before but wanted to try and find a way of getting access to the water in an area that was otherwise high banks. The spot we found looked perfect! We were both buzzing as we watched fish drift on the last of the ebb (and then they drifted away…). As with any new spot, you’ve got to fish it a few times through various tides to see how they tick. We had lots of little rattles which I didn’t think were bream and eventually we connected with a little bass which I suspected were the culprits. But it was his first so he was super chuffed! We will definitely be going back to that spot soon.
We squeezed in one more trip at the end of the month and this time tempted my good mate Mike out from the engine bay of the boat which will be his office for the big fish season ahead. I’d got a few worms from the ever brilliant Lowen Chy Angling in St Austell and went to a spot I used to fish a lot (about 15 years ago!) in search of wrasse and a Pollack. They used to be easy from here and I assumed we’d have an easy couple of hours in the sun hauling big green ballans. On arrival, the water was lovely and clear as it often is there which means you can pretty much sight fish you targets. However, the big aquarium was worryingly free of fish. However we did then spot a huge wrasse swim out from under the rocks whilst we set up and I was sure we’d catch on the first cast. So wrong! We managed a small wrasse each. With the fishing being quiet Mike introduced Joss to goby fishing in the rock pools with the mullet hooks he found in my tackle box. A hand line was quickly fashioned in no time the fifty year age gap between was lost as they excitedly stalked gobies from the rock pools around us.
I love that about fishing. Mike will never tell you himself but has probably leadered more Blue Fin Tuna in the UK than anyone else in the country. But here he was passing on his goby snatching skills and becoming totally lost in that mini monster world where the fish they caught were a fraction of the size the lures they use in tuna season but the smiles were every bit as big. Fishing is the biggest leveller I have ever experienced in my life. Give two people a rod and they are equal no matter what their background.
If you can’t be good, be lucky!
