Portishead Marina 23/07/05

[Pross]

Well, after struggling to decide whether to chase my first carp or my first mullet at the weekend I finally decided that the carp are around all year but I need to get a mullet while the warm weather is here. So, I made myself a load of groundbait, chucked my gear in the car and headed off to Portishead Marina for the afternoon. I had checked the marina out earlier in the week and was told there are plenty of mullet around and was surprised to hear that there are quite a few species of fish caught there, the reason I was surprised is that the lock gates are shut and there is only a tiny trickle of water between the marina and the Bristol Channel other than an hour or so either side of high tide. Apparently, the boats go out and catch fish in competitions which are then brought back and weighed at the marina before being released alive into the marina which effectively provides a stocked sea fishing area! I was told there are sole, bass, pollack, thornies and even a smoothound in there.

So, anticipating several more points for the species hunt I set up 2 rods to fish the bottom. The first was a pulley pennel baited with frozen peeler and, as there is no tidal flow, a 3oz plain lead which was cast out about two thirds of the way across (around 70m at a guess) to where there is apparently a bit of a hole. The other rod was set up with a wishbone rig with size 2 hooks baited with rag and a 4oz watch lead on a zip slider. With these rods safely on the rest I started groundbaiting about 10m out and set up my carp rod with a 2SG stick float and size 6 hook with a pinch of bread as bait.

I fished from about 3.30pm until 7.00pm with my time being unfortunately cut short as the missus got called into work. Unfortunately there was a bit too much of a breeze for the light float tackle and I didn't get any bites, likewise a complete blank on the rag but I was alerted to a big bite on the peeler crab by the guy next to me when I was concentrating on my float and missed it like a complete idiot!

Anyway, for those interested in fishing the marina I think it could be an excellent venue. Speaking to regulars it has not been fishing as well the last few weeks but it offers the chance to catch quite a few species and the way it is "stocked" there's always a chance of a surprise catch. You can literally fish out of the back of your car although I felt like the excercise and parked 5m away , there's a tackle shop on hand and a cafe at the other end of the marina. Fishing is restricted to the opposite end of the marina from the lock gates away from the moored boats but there were some pain in the arse kids going up and down in an inflatable with an outboard in the area where we were fishing .

I'm going to give it another go on a sunnier, less breezy day for that elusive mullet and it is worth anyone local giving it a try as I fear that fishing will be stopped once the redevelopment of the marina area is completed and more area is required by the boat moorings.

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Lovely read mate and Im sure next tiem you will get one