dawlish warren.

[geejayy]

holidays start for me on monday august the 17th by which time i hope to be on my old holiday angling haunts around the warren, if the rods fit in the car.

either way pm me 4 mobile number if you guys want to tag along somewhen 4 a wee fish. or maybe a beer or 6

[BaggieRich]

I'm fairly sure we'll manage to work something out mate. Give ya a call later in the week.

[devonutopia]

Hmm, lived down there for a while and never found anywhere for fishing. Interested to hear of any spots. I'm tuther side of the river in Exmouth now though, but can see the spit of the warren from my office on the seafront.

[pingu]

cool sounds like a plan comeing up
and if te rods dont fit sure can find a spare

[geejayy]

day 1.

on the beach for 0630, no bait , just lures.
tide dropping , i took a slow walk, casting as i went, along the beach towards the river mouth. & could see gannets diveing in always just to my left & out of reach of my spinning rods so couldn't get a hook up.
i found a small sandeel washed onto the beach and so bait fished with that for 1/4 an hour or so before noteing fish rolling and topping in the flat calm surf line about 30ft out.
i flicked various spinners across them but they seemed uninterested.
i did see one jump though off to my right, it looked approx 3lb but wheather a mullet or maybe a shad i dunno. didnt look like a bass.
i spent the next hour or so working my way back along the beach and finnished with a low water float fish sesh on the end of the groyne at langstone rock with some limpets & blanked there too.

i was back on the beach for the afternoon, with my 2 young ones playing in the sand and my fishing again with the spinning rods , some fish bait & a few maddies,
the wind had picked up and a lot of weed was in the surf either way we wandered 1/2 way along to groyne 6 for 3 hours over high water ans while the kids played i managed to catch a couple of sml checkers on worm.

i've just brought ashley back home for some meeting at school re 6th form, hence online now.
it would have been nice to know about it from the damn school & not just given 2 days notice from a m8 of ash's.

day 1 not a blank, hope to be back down for 1st light whats in my bait freezer

[Spahill]

Pretty sure we blanked both times we fished Dawlish Warren on holiday.
Always had a good excuse though.... the sea was too wet or the night was too dark or Baggie was there (always blanked with baggie till this year ) discounting Rodney of course. .

[BaggieRich]

Oh I see..... Like that is it

Back in sunny Devon for Friday night Gord... When you here till??

[geejayy]

Originally Posted by BaggieRich

Oh I see..... Like that is it

Back in sunny Devon for Friday night Gord... When you here till??

now, or about 3 hours ago

[geejayy]

Originally Posted by geejayy

day 1.

day 1 not a blank, hope to be back down for 1st light whats in my bait freezer

well,after that crazy drive by the time i got back i was just too damn knackered to fish the dawn , to be honest the following couple of weeks are a bit of a haze with my fishing exploits plagued by inclemment weather, family concerns & just plain apathy.

i can remember fishing the warren beach again over low water ,it was a bit weedy, it looked like this-& i blanked.





followed by a walk around to langstone rock to fish the groyne for an hour or so, blanked there too.

the next session was off the rock wall just before you get to langstone rock, this bit i'd fished many times before & i had high hopes with high tide due in on dark



i fished from about 6pm through till 2am with an hour to follow on the beach the far side of the rock after the tide had dropped. i had a couple of bites on the wall but no fish, bait was sandeel section & squid , rigs were size 6 hook on a flowing trace & 2/0 pulley on t'other rod.

a day or 2 later , on a family day out, i found a fishy looking spot & after a quick call to dave for any info on the place set up a return visit the next day with some gear.
i took some froze pealer,squid and some sandeel sections and got there early at 11am after dropping the family for a day on the town. the tide was low and there was less water than i had hoped for, so i spent the 1st hour or so hunting the rocks and kelp , finding some velvet swimmers, gobys/blennies and short spined sea scorpions, butterfish. just for the hell of it before starting to fish.
it was an overcast day of light showers and an irritating cold, brisk wind from the southwest .

i started fishing from the sand moving up onto the wall as the tide rose



utiliseing as many techniques as i could think of to try and snare a fish of somesort.
i tried- floats and big baits, floats and small hooks/baits for mini species.
2 hook flappers, pennel pulleys, wishbones, plain old flowing traces.long casts, short casts
every spinner & plug in my box and several chucks with sets of sabikis.

about 9 hour fishing through till 9pm ish and high water, caught-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------one suicidal sandeel, hung itself on my feathers.


oh, btw. i was here-


after several days of bad weather, beer, the red arrows and a replenish of bait supply from the dawlish tackle shop i returned to the sea defenses at langstone rock. armed with squid/eel and ragworm fishing sort of 8pm - 1am.
with a 2/0 pully on the big rod and a wishbone or flowing trace on the light rod the rag worm gave me fresh hope.
it was a pleasant warm and calm evening with several anglers along the wall, gossip was of a few mackerel about and a gar + the 7lb bass caught last week??.
it was frustrating though with regular bites which i just couldn't hook, even going down to size 6 hooks.
i saw nothing else caught, most anglers quit on dark.

The great wrasse hunt.

we went the brixham on the last friday, i had persuaded the family to explore the town while revisited my old holiday fishing marks, starting with the battery gardens.


the tide was dropping but 20 odd years ago this was a garrenteed wrasse mark with the odd pollock to 2lb and mackerel & gar .
although i only had squid left as bait i didn't see that as a problem & out came the light rod ,the float and the size 3 hooks.

baited with a long thin sliver , set the slidy float to about 8ft & off we go.
cast , let float settle, float slides away- strike-missed..
hadn't done this for a while ,float resettles then plunges out of sight a swifter strike and i'm in. a swift struggle from the fish and in no time flat, more points for the specie hunt as a fine green & golden flanked pollock swings to hand.
all 3 inches of it



i caught 20 odd but couldn't find a wrasse no matter what
changed depth, changed bait shape still the little pollock.
i changed to spinning in the hope of something different but no joy.
3 or 4more anglers arrived on the rocks and i reverted to the float,
with the tide dropping away i managed a few more micropollock b4 moveing on.

walking around the battery gardens i walked down into fishcombe cove



before climbing the hill to where the old campsite i used to stay on was-
hey, it was still there, i was told it had been built on.
i might go back once the children are a little older
(a 7 & a 9 year old rock climbing all week is gonna just ask for trouble, they got enough bruises clambering about at dawlish)

anyway i followed the path through the woods and across churston cove to the rocky cliff that guards its left flank



climbing through the cleft on the left of the picture to fish the flat platform that lies beyond, i must have spent a couple of hours there, pondering happy memorys from my late teeens when i'd spend most of my holiday here, then as now, dangleing bait or working a lure, passing time in serene solitude for the most part till darkness fell and the pubs opened.

inevitably i got called by the missus to say 'time to go'.
so i collected my gear and headed back noticeing as i did so a seal languishing in the middle of the cove, aah---now i've an excuse for failure.

back at the car after opening it up i motioned dangling a float in the harbour in front of the car while the family loaded up & jumped in (the car).
with a resigned smile i got the thumbs up from the missus .
i had takes from the off but couldn't hook up with them the day looked to be utterly pollocks but i was determined to discover what was down there this time even if it was more pollock coz i'd 'played' i lost one for an instant.
ans so used something i'd picked up somewhere while discussing finicky fish/ hooks too big, just baiting the very point of the hook, did the trick.





wrasse wrangled for the hunt at last , and after reading ping's post i'll claim for goldshinny.

last chance saturday-
last chance to fish before heading home, after the club shut & the fpo returned from bingo me and 4 very pink squid went back down the sea wall .
i fished a pully pennel with size 2 hooks and medium sized squid baits from 11.30-0200, saw 5 other anglers 1 on the wall had lost a doggie,
4 came from the far side of the rock as i fished and reported nothing bar a couple of small bass. weather warm&dry, sea state flat/gentle swell.
high tide was for about 2am i think, caught nothing, not a bite.

it was a bit dissapointing overall but then again goodfishing and family holidays are always a bit of a compramise.

[pingu]

great report gordon
a tough couple of weeks
afraid the goldskinnys not on the list though mate


dave