Porlock Wier report late July 2005

[Lookfar]

Hi folks,
I was allowed to take the boat to the Bristol Channel this year, so on Sunday 24th we rolled into Porlock Wier with the usual band of willing helpers in tow. The new Harbourmaster is commendably friendly and efficient and I was delighted to be given a wet mooring for the first time ever. Makes the boat a tad more secure but more to the point, I don't have to worry about her settling onto a stray rock. There was plenty of water as the tide was huge, just a few feet below the quay. We launched easily and took my various assistants out for joy rides through the swell. It was a bit lumpy, even the channel water further out was coloured and not surprisingly, the mackerel couldn't be found.
That set the pattern for a few wet and windy days, charging around the bay wave-hopping or fruitlessly bouncing feathers in murky water through the 3 hour tide window available. At least we saw a porpoise or two. By Friday 29th I was getting very frustrated about having no bait for my new lobster pot, so I saved the previous day's chicken bones for potbait. I also gave up on finding mackerel as a bait source for fishing and splashed out on a fiver's worth of rag and squid. No surprise then that we arrived near the Ivystone to drop the pot in and before I could get the rope rigged, the crew were into mackerel. Took me ages to get the pot down as every time I tried, someone would swing in another couple of fish to be dealt with!
Finally got the pick in and the rag/squid got instant attention. I had my mate's young son along, who'd never caught a fish before. Once he'd cut his eye teeth on a few mackerel, we shifted him across to rag/squid on small hooks and he hauled in a couple of pout and a doggie. Dad meanwhile was blanking and getting a right ribbing until he finally found himself a mackerel or two and a nice pollack. My other crewman was also a complete novice in small boats, but a former merchant seaman so no worries he'd go green! He also got a small pollack, while I added a strap conger and a doggie to the tally. A nice couple of hours despite the chop, but with three beginners aboard I was working hard.
Sunday was 'proper fishing' day with a friend visiting from Cornwall, Dave, plus another camping friend. I'd been way too optimistic about launch times, so Dave was there for several hours before we even had water in the harbour. As soon as the tide flooded the outer harbour, Alan and Dave piled aboard and we poled ourselves out into the open sea, without managing to bend the prop or scrub the paintwork despite going aground a time or two. Straight out to check the lobster pot and the mackerel obliged once again. I parked us up on the Ivystone with trigger fish in mind. Dave started the ball rolling with a small pollack on the retrieve. There wasn't a lot of tide and it was the rag/squid baits on bream rigs that were getting all the attention again, with our juicy fresh mackerel fillets being largely ignored. I bumped a fish or two then finally connected to something that was certainly no dogfish. It was a palely marked ballan and at 2lb 4oz just squeaked in as a personal best for me (not had a lot to do with wrasse). Next fish was livelier and took off uptide. With just a 10lb hooklink and size 6 hook I wasn't going to bully it but we really couldn't guess what it'd be. Certainly wasn't expecting a conger, though! That went 6lb 12oz but Dave then lost a much meatier fish that also did the same trick of legging it away uptide. Time for some more substantial rigs. These largely got ignored but Dave did add a poor cod. I finally got a knock on the uptider with mackerel fillet and a smallish fish surfaced. Deep down it looked like a small strap, then maybe a rockling but as it rolled I was pretty gobsmacked to see it was a small ling, of all things. Welcomed it aboard with reverence.
The tide was dead now, so we hiked out into a deep rift offshore. That was pretty dull, just a scattering of doggies on any bait we chose to try and no sign of the hoped-for bigger conger. We'd just decided to head up for another mark when Alan announced he didn't feel well and immediately proceeded to prove his point in glorious technicolour. Dropped him ashore, went out to try the mark I'd been given the day before by a local and to my abject embarrassment, discovered I'd forgotten to hit SAVE on the GPS. We gave it twenty minutes anyway, on a rough guess at the position, and predictably didn't even get a nibble. Came in with Dave nailing the throttle, resulting in him losing his own hat over the side.
Not a bad day though, the sun shone and the chop was relatively slight. Could probably have done another half hour but it isn't a good place to push your luck with the tide times.
For the rest of the holiday, it was back to trips around the bay. The lobster pot? Useless. Things got in, ate the bait and left again. Back to the drawing board before I have a go at the local spider crab population.

Steve

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Great read steve

[Norfolkboy]

Nice one Steve, atleast you managed to get into a few fish

[Rob M]

Great report Steve!!

Rob

[Ben]

nice read mate!

[Old Smoothound]

Nice read Steve,

Probably a tad early for the Triggers but I did hear a report on Black Bream from Porlock Bay....not confirmed though.

But glad you had a nice time in our neck of the woods

[Lookfar]

Originally Posted by Old Smoothound

Probably a tad early for the Triggers but I did hear a report on Black Bream from Porlock Bay....not confirmed though.
But glad you had a nice time in our neck of the woods

None of the bites looked like bream, they were either pout trembles or good solid pulls that were probably strap conger, since they seemed to prefer rag to the mackerel we put down for them. Huge numbers of small jellyfish in the blue water, several porpoise around but too rough to spot any sunfish.
Good to have some success down there, made a few local contacts too and Mrs M is happy about the boat going with us next year as well. Can't wait, that's such a lovely coast to spend a day off that fish are just a bonus
Back to the Solent now, and maybe a crack at the elusive bass.

Steve