Clovelly - Bass fishing Trip report

[kiwimarty]

I was due to leave the house by 05.30am so my alarm on my phone was set to go off at 04.30, leaving me plenty of time to get to Clovelly by 8am and meet up with the rest of the guys. That was the plan anyway but yep, I slept in. It was only by half an hour but I was now in rush mode, which really got me stressed.

As this was my first fishing trip for some time, I was well up for it, so after rushing round like a blue assed fly, I was soon on the road. It was a beut of a morning. The sky was clear and there was only a whiff of a breeze.

A quick call to Shaun and Richard on the way up, confirmed we were all making good progress and by a little after 8am we both pulled into the car park at the same time. Once we got our bearings and off loaded our gear, it was time to look around the quay in this beautiful little town. Check out the old stonework in this photo.

Clovelly quayside.


Tom (Tommy a) and his father Steve (Shads) soon joined us. We continued to wait a little while longer, then, all of a sudden we heard the thud thud of a British motorcycle engine. The rider dismounted, took off his helmet, and with the most well spoken accent I have heard for sometime the rider said “Hi I’m Clive the skipper, are you Shaun”.

Soon we were all aboard “Jessica Hetty” and steaming out of Clovelly harbour on a sea that could only be described as a mill pond. I also noticed how there was so few ships and other craft on this stretch of North Devon coast compared to the coast to the South. It turned out to be not just down to the time of the morning but all day.

We started fishing for Mackerel for bait. Within a few minutes we had a bucket full. We then headed for our first mark close to Hartland Point.



The skipper chose Shaun and Richard to help get us on our mooring. This was a class act watching the two guy’s with nerves of steel (just been issued with life jackets) work the front of the boat. They got us hooked up first time and came back to an applause from the rest of us. Nice one fellas!

A couple of us fished with a static bait down tide whilst a couple of us, including myself chose to plug and spin fish. One or two of us had bites but I think it was around this time the skipper decided to”have a fish himself”. Why not I thought. Within half an hour the swine had three Bass. The smallest being 2lb 4oz and the largest around the 8lb mark which he returned. As for us….Zero, Zilch, nothing. In the words of Meldrew, “I don’t believe it”.

It wasn’t as though the fish weren’t there, they were. I can honestly say that I have never seen fish ‘playing’ in the water but these Bass did. They splashed around in the white water of the tidal riff; I was completely amazed by this I can tell ya. Every now and then a dark coloured fin rose out of the water. The skipper informed us that those were the fins of Sunfish. What a day this was turning out to be.

Soon it was time to move on to another mark. We fished it for a while but it wasn’t productive enough so Clive moved us again. In fact, anytime the fish slackened off, Clive was ready to move us again. We anchored up next to a wreak, we drifted over a wreak then moored once again on another close to Lundy island.

Lundy


To be honest, I forgot the amount of times Clive moved us so that we would be into the fish.

That also goes for the amount of fish we all caught and all the different species, which included Bull Huss, Pollock, Pout, Mackerel, Scad (horse mackerel) dogfish and a couple of Tope bites too but none being landed, oh yeah, lets not forget the Bass the bloody skipper got too…lol.

I was hoping, as were the others for a Bream or two but they too were elusive and no, Clive didn’t get them either!!

Here I have a couple of pictures of Shaun fighting with one of his couple of Bull Huss he caught as well as the end product.







As well as the spinning lures we used, Rapalas, Toby’s and Dexter Wedges, bait included Mackerel, Squid and frozen Sand eel.

Various rigs were used also. I used a bream rig nearly all day with size 1 Viking hooks which got me a nice 5lb Pollock as well as various other fish.

Clive was a great skipper and the only one I have ever fished with who cooked us lunch. Yep that’s right. The Mackerel we had caught earlier also served us for lunch. We all thought he was cooking lunch for himself but no, he laid out the fillets of fish out for us and kept the coming for the next 40 minutes or so. What a bloke.

Out of interest, he had tossed the fillets in a bag of wholemeal flour seasoned with a good amount of black pepper, salt and a little rosemary. They were delicious.

Clive got us back to Clovelly for around 7pm (longest day’s charter) in time for a pint at the pub on the quayside. Richard decided that due to him borrowing my lighter all day, he would walk up the steep hill to fetch the car. Well done Rich, I would never have made it in the time you did it mate.

Thanks go to all the guy’s on the trip that made it a fantastic day. As I always say, it this sort of thing that makes this forum great. Here’s to the next one fellas. I hope you all enjoy the write up.

Ya pal Kiwi.


Richard's Perfect Rod Rest.


Richard's Scad.


Steve's Pollock.

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Great report mate thanks

The skipper was tops - loads of effort / safty and great company will deff recomend , but he is fully booked till october

Great day out fishing the rapids around the rocks and seeing sunfish

TOp day out

[Ben]

well done all

[Norfolkboy]

Well done guys, sounds a fantastic day out. Nice report Kiwi, love the pics tooo

Must get on 1 of the meets soon

[Old Smoothound]

Thanks for the write up Marty , what a day out fishing.

Securing the anchor rope was a scary moment, but I had an enourmous amount of confidence in my safety,as Richard had me by the trousers!!!

Shame about the Bass, they were there, but did not want to play with our lures or baits, except the skippers of course!

Nice to meet up with old friends and 2 new ones...top blokes plenty of banter and p*ss taking all day. Great fellas we must do it again next year.

As for the food, the recipe is highly reccommended, who would have thought Rosemary with Mackeral, but boy does it taste good

The first time lunch has been prepared and served to me by a charter skipper

[devondave]

sounds like you all had a great day i cant wait for the next devon meet (nudge nudge wink wink kiwi!)

and the skipper sounds a great bloke even proving to you the fish was there to be caught!

[pingu]

nice one again guys and good to see the photos
pity about the bass , next time i guess

[Greenheart]

Thats the kind of trip I like, it's not just catching fish that matters.
I wish you had included a photograph of the old British bike, coz thats my other hobby (1971 Triumph Bonneville & 1983 BMW R100RS)
I shall have to try & get booked on this boat. I won't mind if the fish arn't feeding if I can talk about old bikes!!!. What sort was it? "Don't say a motorpike & sidecarp, i've heard it before"
Nice photos too, well done.