Lure Fishing Fun! - 14th October 2015

The forecast was much calmer than last week and i fancied my chances at getting Andrew hooked into some hard fighting Pollack. We had struggled to even get a rod in the water last week with the rough conditions but things were looking much better. Little wind forecast and only a drop of swell. The sun was out too!

It was an early start to catch the tide. I wanted to hit some clean ground to start with to show Andrew the ropes with anchoring a kayak. It was very calm.....

The fish finder was showing clean ground so down went the anchor with Andrew tethering off my bow in the Abaco. 

We baited up and dropped the rigs to the bottom. All was fairly quiet for a while. The odd bite came and went but nothing was really having it. I had a good bite on a small strip of mackerel and soon enough something flat was heading towards the surface.... A small Turbot!

Nice! Maybe things are starting to pick up. A few dogfish followed and then the fish finder screen started to look different. The bottom became rough, the anchor had slipped.....bugger! That would most likely mean it would be well snagged too. Oh well lets see whats feeding over the rough stuff.  The Pollack were. We started to pick up Pollack up to the 4lb mark. Good fun on lightish gear. I stuck on a lure but couldn't work it properly at anchor in the tide. A few Pollack couldn't help but oblige though despite the lure being nowhere near the bottom. 

Time to try and haul the anchor......snagged....absolutely solid. Bugger. I paddled uptide to try and break out the cable tie weak link but couldn't get up enough momentum to break it out. Andrew come alongside and we pulled as hard as we could. Nope. We stayed put and carried on fishing. It was quiet. 10 minutes later i was bored. That anchor is either coming up or I'm cutting it free. I pulled as much as possible but still solid, passed the anchor line to Andrew....pop...out it comes! (i loosened it first!). Up comes the anchor and time to find some new ground. 

Mackerel were scarce but every so often we would paddle over a shoal.... 

​We headed over to the reefs. It was proper Pollack time. Fiiish Minnows rigged and down they went.

Andrew was first in. Rod bent over, fish taking line. This looked a half decent one! He was giving it stick and the fish was giving it him back! Eventually he got the better of it and pulled his biggest kayak fish to date onboard... A Pollack around the 6lb mark ​

My lure was next to be nailed. Tap, tap, BANG! The rod lurched over and line peeled off the reel at surprising speed....

The Pollack really do go well in the deep water. This one had taken the lure in midwater and managed to run around 40ft back towards the bottom before i put a stop to it.... great fun! A few more lively runs before it made it way to the surface. A Pollack around the 8-9lb mark was soon on the Tempo.

She was swiftly released back to the depths. The rod bending continued and Andrew battled something different....

.... a Cuckoo Wrasse!

A few small Pollack later and something bigger was hanging on the end of my line...

The Ugly Stik 6-12lb was bent well. I really like this rod for lure fishing in deep water. It has plenty of backbone to give the fish plenty of stick but the tip is responsive enough to give the lure some action. I could use lighter gear but i know some real monsters can turn up in the waters of West Cornwall and if I'm ever to hook one i don't want to be let down by light gear. Anyhow, it was working well now and a Pollack of around 6-7lb arrived at the surface. It was soon unhooked and sent on its way.

Next up something different that was thrashing around all over the place...... A Ballan Wrasse

A few more Pollack kept us busy. The swell was surging up over the reefs so we couldn't resist a closer look. It was impressive....

We got as close as we dared and then paddled for shore. I do love paddling the Tempo, It really does fly along!

That was it. We had a great day on the water and caught a few rod benders. Andrew had a decent fish and picked up the hang of lure fishing quickly. Great weather, plenty of fish and great company. Another successful day kayak fishing, bring on the next session!