The kids go back to school in just a couple of days. The eveings are drawing in rapidly and although it’s never really felt like summer properly got into gear, you can also feel the season is changing again. It’s been a fun four weeks of fishing in August. No fishing for me as it were but taking the kids on a few adventures has been great and it’s meant I’ve done a few different things than I normally would. I got to get used to that!
We started the month with a trip “home” to Dawlish. It’s funny how you can spend more of your life living somewhere else but the place you grew up with always be “home”, sort of. We never planned to fish but I did sneak the kids’ rods in as I’ve still never seen the kids catch a fish from the wall where it all started for me. We didn’t have much time, the weather we pretty rubbish but it was worth a go. The sea front in Dawlish has changed a lot since the major wall collapse all those years ago. On the whole I like what has been done. It’s made it more accessible in most places, although I’m not sure why there are rails trying to stop people getting onto one of the walls. It’s only dangerous if you go on there in dangerous conditions. You have to plan for the biggest idiot I guess.
The beach itself has changed a fair bit since I was a kid. Much of the sand has washed away so where it was once sand is now a lot of rough ground. We never used to catch gurnard off the beach but now there’s loads. You don’t see the mullet like you used to but that might be because the sewage pipe has been switched off and I can’t complain about that.
The kids swished some lures around for half and hour before the rain set in so we left and went to feed the trout in the brook instead. It’s hard to explain to a five year why you can’t fish for them. Not whilst anyone is looking any way!
A night out!
I’d promised the kids we’d go night fishing. With a couple fo days of dry weather forecast we went for it at short notice. I’m fortunate to fish a lake that’s very quiet so I can take the kids and they can play as much as they fish. There’s loads of wildlife at night so it was an ideal spot. I didn’t fancy fishing for carp during the night and having to deal with them tear arseing around at two in the morning but I did fancy having a go for an eel. It’s been years since I fished for eels. They are incredible creatures. Truly wild and each one has an amazing story to tell. I don’t know anyone that’s fished for eels in the lake so it felt like a bit of fun to have a go. When I have fished for them in the past, they’ve been a pretty straight forward fish to target. Toss out a bit of fish, wait for darkness and wind them in.
Well I didn’t have a touch! It might seem a bit arrogant but I was really suprised. I’ve often found the first time a water is fished for eels it can be really good sport. Weirdly the sessions after seem to fade away and it’s something I’ve read other anglers experience. There’s no doubt there are eels in the lake, they are in every puddle, pond, lake and reservoir in the lake but on that night that didn’t want to know.
The night also told me I need to sort out better sleeping arrangements. The boys had my comfortable bedchairs whilst I tried to sleep on an unhooking mat. I did not sleep on the unhooking mat!
The boys had great fun catching Roach and Rudd on their float tackle and then got stuck into the Perch with their lures. They catch way more Perch than me when using lures. The amount of times they stop winding, get distracted etc and then started winding only to have had a Perch grab the static lure is amazing. Well noted, add lots of long pauses to my retrieves in the future.
And in the last week we headed for a fishery close to home that I haven’t fished in over a decade. i used to fish it a fair bit one summer for the carp and it was great. No one bothered with it so I used to throw in loads of bait and enjoyed great sport. I joined different waters after that fun summer and so never went back. Well we decided to give it a visit with the float rods to see what we could find. The fishery istill looking good. A little more tidied up than before but you can’t let everywhere go completely wild, which is a shame. We started as you’d expect with lots of small roach and rudd. Then, when it was already past bedtime, the bubbles started. They looked rather “Tenchy” to me so it was all a bit exciting. There’s very few waters around here with Tench in them. When one of the boys finally connected with a bite and the rod hooped over I thought we’d hit the jack pot. But then it rolled over and stopped fighting, a big bronze Bream. And not really really that big but in Joss’ arms it looked like a monster and he was understanderbly over the moon! Fishing with the kids certainly reminds me to enjoy every fish, even the slimey Bream!
So, the kids go back to school this week and whilst we will still of course fish togther, I’ll be getting stuck into the evenings and looking forward, I hope, to some autumn Bass and Ray off the beaches and, getting out on the boat when the opportunity arises.
Good luck!
