Beach Casting, Widemouth Bay, Bude

Horizontal rain and pain

Widemouth Bay, Cornwall. EX23. UK

Widemouth Bay

Summers here!, and holiday it is, an old friend from school had moved to Cornwall and bought a camping and caravan park, ashamedly I've never been further west than Reading, And this was an opportunity to visit this beautiful part of the country, try a bit of surfing, and put a few lines into the water.

I had unsuccessfully tried some jigging and spinning from rocks, and as a result I decided to try a bit of familiar beach casting, but which beach? I didn't have a clue, I had asked the locals and the general consensus was - too early in the year to fish, too much rain, sea too rough, too big spring tide. so the question as to where to fish still eluded me, as we never got that far into the discussion. But I didn't have the option of returning when the conditions were favourable and the fish were about.  So with absolute stubbornness I decided to push my luck, I picked the closest beach to our campsite and with 4 hours to fish, the tides, sunset and surfers dictated that I would be fishing 2 hours down to low water and two back up.

Sand Eels, look out they're hiding under your feet!

I arrived 30minutes before dusk, the surfers had all gone, it was very windy and wet. The rain wasn't falling down but going horizontally, from left to right across the beach. I looked out towards the surf, and then it dawned on me. It was a mile away, well not that far yet!! I think at this point I realised how shallow it was, This maybe wouldn't of bothered me too much, Bass would be lurking between the breakers, but with the very strong cross wind I knew I would seriously struggle to reach over 80 meters, maybe even 60. And by my calculation that wasn't even past the first breaker. I had no waders or even wellies purely because I had never needed them before.Which would of at least allowed me to wade out at least maybe another 15 meters to cast.

leger rig with boon

Undetermined I set up in front of the water, my 11'6" Shakespere Salt Extreme Bass rods with my new Shimano Biomasters 8000 spooled with 15lb Ultimer F1 titanium mono line with crystal clear tapered leaders 15lb to 60lb. I fished with a running leger. a 5oz grip lead on a boom, with 20lb fluorocarbon 18" snoods, the idea that the fluorocarbon and a single Aberdeen size 2 hook. Bait was a small sand eel with the head and tail chopped off then threaded onto the hook and wrapped in a slither of mackerel fillet and bound with bait elastic which would give it strength to stay intact and on the hook after powerful casts . The idea was to keep the rig as simple and tangle proof as possible by using a simple 1 hook running ledger, this would also keep the bait on the sea bed, as I was hoping a ray might come along, even though I'd been told it was to early in the year for them. The fluorocarbon snood is stiffer than mono and less likely to tangle in the surf, and the extra length of the snood and boom would allow a more natural movement of the bait.

It was time to cast, and as I readied the rod, I noticed a scrap piece of mackerel stuck to the back of my hand, I shook my hand and screamed in pain as my baited hook violently flapped about on the end of my hand. the whole point and barb of the hook had embedded itself in the end of my finger, which by the way it's still hurting typing this six days later.  I was now ready to cast using my bleeding and bruised finger, but the sea by now had moved a good 30 meters away, so I packed everything into move mode, and made my way to the waters edge again, another lesson learnt, being this mobile with two rods on one tripod is very difficult. I ended up mostly fishing one rod as a result, I have to admit that the speed of the tide was a world away from the steep shingle banks in Kent that I was used to fishing. It was quite amusing looking at where I'd been walking, lots of tiny 2" sand eels had come to the surface of the wet sand, obviously the stomping on the sand had tricked them into coming out, I'd never seen this before, and spent a good hour of the night amusing myself with playing sand eel stomping, even joking at least I can say I caught a sand eel. It was a shame none were big enough to use as bait.

Now where's that sea going?

I moved forward about 15 meters every cast following the tide, I had no bites at all, I could of used the same two baits all night, except I did try a whole sand eel on its own, and strips of mackerel on its own before going back to using them together. The tide had turned and with the occasional rouge waves that I had managed to avoid up until now, all I could do was watch as the biggest breaker I'd seen all night, it gleamed across the horizon like a wall in the moon light, It came in so quick I didn't even attempt to move, I just stood there with my rod in casting position, I lowered my stance to stable myself as the water hit, it slowly and calmly rose over my boots, and stopped just short of my groin, before retreating 20 meters in front of me.I have to admit it was going to happen at one point or another, I done well to stay clear of the water for as long as I did.

Now I was bleeding, in pain, soaking wet from head to toe, and no fish to show for it. I decided it was time to call it a night, at least I'd managed my four hours. I reeled in and as a consolation found a 20" Dogfish attached to the hook. I didn't see the bite, proberly due the fact that this rod had been cast out for over an hour, since low tide and I had been making my way backwards up the beach letting the line off reel to leave the bait out at distance which by this time had enough seaweed caught around the line to feed an army.

Woof woof, a suprise dogggie

I'd like to think I am a good angler, and to be fair I probably am on the waters that I have experience on, but fishing a shallow surf beach in bad weather, facing a stormy Atlantic ocean on a big spring tide, ill prepared, under researched and against the locals advise was a big learning curve for myself. Yes I admit that swerve balls in fishing can pay dividends, and if you got a hook in the water than you've got a chance. But isn't that just what we tell ourselves to help maintain the belief that the big fish could be the next cast. In reality it will almost certainly end in failure more times than even the most hardcore fisherman would be willing to try, but that's only if you measure failure by the amount of fish you catch, which I don't. As I've said before, one fish can make the difference, I'd feel more happier catching one new species from a difficult/unknown venue than lots of fish from from a easy/dead cert venue. I had visions of putting up blogs of successful fishing trips full of big fish, but that would involve maybe two or three blogs per year if I was lucky, and yes, you could specialise in one type of fishing to increase your success rate dramatically, but where would the adventure be??? I'm not afraid of failure, but I'm constantly learning and that is one of the things about fishing that is so appealing whether you realise it or not, throw in a bit luck, some beautiful locations and the comradery and competitiveness of fellow anglers,  this is a very unique sport with absolutely no hard and set rules, some which may work one day but not the next. You'll just never ever know! unless you try.