A sunny day on the water but still no fish....

16/3/2014

Conditions were spot on for a launch at one of my favourite fishing spots. Kieren was keen but i had a limited time window to fish, so with a late afternoon tide we planned to fish the final 3 hours of the flooding tide to be in with the best chance of finding any fish. It was a decent sized tide and we would be fishing an exposed area of coastline so was looking forward to see how the Abaco handled.

Its a quiet time of year in cornwall for fishing, the relentless winter storms have taken their toll and the coastline seems to be in a state of lull before the steady influx of summer species. Shore anglers have been reporting poor, if any, catches and boat anglers have reported commercial nets very close to shore along much of the coastline.... not the news you want to hear before a kayak fishing session but unless you try you will never know and it only takes one nice fish to make it all worthwhile!

So we headed off to the launch mark and upon arrival were greeted by clear blue skies, calm seas (well calm in comparison to recent conditions!) and no-one parked in my favourite parking spot next to the slipway....lovely! Kayaks off the car, Gear loaded on the kayaks and wetsuits on. My kayak was loaded with about as much gear as i would ever take out on the kayak for a days fishing - dashboard with fish finder and two rod holders, storage crate loaded with all my anchoring gear, tackle for heavy bottom fishing, frozen bait, 2 bottom fishing rods, 1 lure rod, my Go Pro pole. and a few other bits and bobs. The only item which may be in the kayak at other venues is the C-Tug. So with the kayak fully laden it was going to be interesting to see how the Abaco performed.

We launched in near perfect conditions and made our way out into the sandy bay. The wind and chop gradually picked up the further we got from the shelter of the cliffs. The Abaco cut through the chop with ease, with not a drop of hull slap heard. We dropped anchor in 75ft of water onto clean sand and planned to sit there until we would have to paddle in 3 hours later. Simple running ledgers were deployed loaded with sand eel or strips of mackerel or bluey with the hope of the oily baits attracting the attention of a hungry fish. Expectations weren't exactly running high but for those 3 hours we sat without a single bite, knock, rattle or enquiry. Not even sniff from the usual dogfish! The baits were coming back untouched and the fish finder showed a water column devoid of baitfish - not usually the best of signs.

So there we were, floating offshore, in March, in the sun, in a chilly North Westerly breeze without a single fish to show for our efforts but did we care?.... Not one bit! And thats the best thing about kayak fishing - even if you blank you still have fun paddling around out at sea whilst normal humans, with an intact sanity, are probably sat inside in front of a warm fire watching telly or walking along their local beach, clad in appropriate winter ware, questioning why two boys are paddling around in the freezing sea in kayaks! Well we were enjoying it.....

I got to try out my Go Pro Pole too and got a few interesting shots

We made our way back to shore with a crosswind and cross-swell. The Abaco handled this reasonably well but every so often the wind and swell would call the need for a bit of one sided paddling to keep a straight course, not too much of a problem and not dissimilar from my previous 11ft Teksport Xplore which Kieren was paddling. We landed and left all our gear on the beach and took the kayaks back out for a paddle around in the waves to make the most of the time. It shouldn't be too long before the mackerel shoals move inshore in numbers after which the fishing should start to pick up. It won't be long before i christen the new kayak!