"A web site dedicated to Shore Fishing"
May 2006 News Archives
Monday 15th May 2006
PRINCESS PIER
By Simon Baker
Went down the pier at 3pm and stayed till 8pm. Had the idea that i was gonna try for a bass and was encouraged to see large shoals of sand eels along the inner and outer walls.
I was even more encouraged when my wife pointed out 4 mullet swimming on the marina side where the mackerel fishing and tour boats are moored, even more encouraged when it was quite obvious to me that these mullet were in fact 4 largish bass patroling just under the bait fish (if anyone who fishes regularly does not own a pair of polarised sunglasses i suggest you get some asap!!! you'd be surprised what you are missing).
Anyway within 20 mins i had a whole bucket of sandeels and used 6' trace and circle hooks with 5 gram drennan piker float on one rod and a 16' freeline/bubble float set up with circle hooks on another. Good job that i had no problems catching the bait cuz the mackerel ripped through my stocks taking the bait on both set ups.
I did get a couple of runs from cuttle fish/ squid and one definite bass run...but yup...the one that got away. I have a good feeling about an early morning high tide session, hmmmmm, i think tomorrow fits the bill...lol till then tight lines all.
HOPES NOSE
By Dansak
Fishing Hopes Nose yesterday from 18.00 - 20.00. Caught loads of mackerel using light spinning rod and a wedge, took a few home the rest went back. Everyone there appeared to be catching, a few were taking large black bags of fish that they couldn't possibly need. But all in all a good couple of hours of fun!
BABBACOMBE PIER
By Simon Baker
Well, looks like the mackerel are definitely in, reports from brixham and hopes nose have been of bucket loads all week, and i have fished babbacombe a couple of times this week, monday 15 mackies, tuesday not so good 3, but today thursday it kicked off big style, i was float fishing with my mate, between us about 60 mackerel. Not only mackerel down there but huge shoals of sand eels which are easy to catch on small feathers, a 4-5lb wrasse just swimming lazily around at the end of the pier, the seal made a brief appearance and what we at first thought to be a mullet turned out to be a 5-7lb sea trout taking an interest in my live sandeel(obviously not fooled into taking the bait, but had a good couple of sniffs at it)
Wednesday 10th May 2006
BRIXHAM BREAKWATER
By Madangler
Fished the Breakwater on sunday 7th may from 11 am till 4 pm lovely day but very few fish finally found the little perishers about 20 foot deep on the float using size 10 hooks with worms(Rag). Managed to get 2 Wrasse only tiddlers but it felt so good after blanking many many times this year. one guy near me had a macky but only one and he was there for about 6 hours before he caught.
Tuesday 9th May 2006
HOPES NOSE
By Jon Grimes
Fished Hopes Nose 7.5.06 at first light. I took some light float gear to see what might be about. It was another beautiful morning with the sun coming up over the horizon and the sea flat calm. Not a great deal of fish on float and I had a few small Mackerell.
What I can say is that the small commercial boats were just off the point of Hopes Nose using feathers. At times the boats were no more than 40/50 feet away from the rock but they did have a LOT of mackerell.
I kept an eye on them for a while and they kept taking the Mackerell so there were a lot around. This was at first light from around 5.10am to about 6.30. After this it went completely dead, but this might be due to the fact the Seal popped up under my feet with a Mackerell in its mouth. A nice sight but the fish certainly did not like it.
Unlike Babbacombe on Friday I saw no sand eel or Mullet etc etc but a nice morning none the less.
BABBACOMBE PIER
By Simon Baker
Went down to babbacombe this morning at 10am (Monday 8th) and fished until 4pm, Fantastic session, We all caught mackerel, myself and 2 others on float one guy on spinners, all about the 1lb and over mark. I dont think i have ever seen so many sandeeel off the pier, caught loads with my little feathers and used live, couple of takes on the sandeel but mackerel strip worked best. I think Devondave who posts on the forum was asking where the Mullet were, well dave, loads of 3-6lbers swimming past the end of the pier all day, at one point around 40-50 in a big shoal.
Friday 5th May 2006
Website changes
As you may have noticed the web site is undergoing to makeover. The site now uses the latest CSS2 and is built using XHTML. Each page should now load pretty much instantly and I've made it even more disabled friendly. If you are a disabled surfer make sure you check the Accessibility page for information like the hidden navigation system built behind this site for blind users. For all other users of this site you might like to read my website changes page which lists what's changed.
BABBACOMBE PIER
By Simon Baker
Went down the pier tuesday morning and stayed till midday, i had a mackerel of nearly 2lb, and one other guy had a macky too, seems like things are picking up according to most reports. Was also down at Princess pier last friday and my mate tony managed 4 large squid(not cuttlefish) with squid jigs on a float set up, i had no luck though. Sorry this post is a few days late but my pooter packed up and had to get a new one.
BABBACOMBE PIER
By Peter
Well I decided on an easy option as it was raining heavily when i finally left the house - so good old Babbacombe pier was the option as there were only three people there when i arrived at 8 o'clock.
I took a float rod to start off with in the hope of getting some fresh mackerel for bait as my frozen mackerel had definitely seen better days and then squid was still solid! The blokes who were there said they had had a few bites but nothing caught yet - which was no surprise considering they had more interest in there ring tones on there phones and the bottles of white lightening they were drinking!!
So on my second cast of my float I pulled in an average size mackerel and shortly after one more before the light started to fade.
I then set up my bottom gear and waited for darkness.
About 10 minutes after the darkness came one of the blokes had a doggie on but due to him reeling it in at about 20 mph he lost it and his tackle!
Anyhow they caught one more between them and i managed three doggies in total - so not a waste of time!
ps... I overheard the blokes saying they were all going back down on saturday night - so if you want to avoid ring tones constantly playing, radio playing club music etc I wouldn't bother with babbacombe on saturday!!
BABBACOMBE PIER
By Jon Grimes
Fished Babbacombe pier for a couple of hours on Friday morning (5th) I fished from about 9am to 11am and it was a beautiful morning with the sun out and the sea flat calm.
I haven't been to this pier for ages but thought I would give it a go with some light float gear as I had the day off. Not the most hectic sport but I did have 3 bites but only hit one, being a nice size Mackerel. The lack of bites was made up by the fact it was a beautiful morning and the water at the end of the pier was gin clear. As a result I saw a fair amount of fish activity. Lots of sand eels of various sizes around for the first hour and after that they seem to completely vanish but its a good sign to see them.
Also saw a large shoal of Mullet swim pass the head of the pier and as the sun was out and the water clear it was a great sight with the majority of the fish being a nice size. Also saw a couple of large fish moving through the rocks and weed right at the end of the pier. I could not make out what they were but it looked as if they were certainly searching the rocks for food but moving quickly and of a nice size... Wrasse, Pollock???... who knows.
A few other anglers turned up about an hour before I left and only saw one Garfish caught but I left them to it as the sport seemed to be the first hour I was there and I am sure if I had got there earlier I might have had a bit more success.
Forum goes live - NEW!
As I have admitted before I am struggling to cope with running this website. I have just launched a new forum so I'm hoping all you report-submitters and readers will use this forum so the news is as current as possible. I will still be updating this page but for the very latest news as it happens you might want to try the forum. http://torbayfishing.jconserv.net/
A number of the reporters on here ask not to receive a reply from me. Could all the submitters please get in contact with me.
Thursday 4th May 2006
BABBACOMBE PIER
By Steve W
we turned up at the pier at eight in the evening,quite busy (about 10 people)but managed to get a spot at the front.
Everyone on feathers as the mackerel were back around , my friend and myself only managed one each due to getting down late and it was starting to get dark by then but enough for some fresh bait for the evening session. Come nine only four of us left so we all rigged up for bottom fishing,packed up about 12.30 as the tide was near its lowest and it had gone quite but i managed to land four dog fish and a crab the size of a dinner plate that let go upon breaking surface my mate had a nice size doggie and one of the other fellah's also had one.
great evening,good company and some fish as well ?
Forum goes live - NEW!
As I have admitted before I am struggling to cope with running this website. I have just launched a new forum so I'm hoping all you report-submitters and readers will use this forum so the news is as current as possible. I will still be updating this page but for the very latest news as it happens you might want to try the forum. http://torbayfishing.jconserv.net/
A number of the reporters on here ask not to receive a reply from me. Could all the submitters please get in contact with me.
Monday 1st May 2006
HOPES NOSE
By Tom
16/4/06 fished Hopes Nose at just after high tide. Nobody was catching anything with feathers but i managed to catch 4 big mackeral on small jigs. nobody else managed to catch a thing. quite a successful day for this time of year.
BABBACOMBE PIER
By Simon Baker
Went down the pier at 10:30 am float fishing with mackerel strip bait, two other guys fishing with me,i had one bite in 4 hrs and one of the guys had 1 Large mackerel.
I was just about to pack up and thought...nah...one more cast...would you believe it i caught a sea trout!!
i took it to Quay Stores and Simon the owner weighed it...1.5lbs. I would always normally put them back but the fish was bleeding badly from the gills, so we had a nice fish supper tonight.
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