Kayak Hand Lining, Port Isaac, Cornwall

The English weather forecast is Pollocks!

Port Isaac, Cornwall, UK

The kayak route as seen from Port Isaac

It was coming to my attention that I was finding the fishing very difficult in Cornwall for many reasons. mainly due to the lack of info and experience I had, I had great expectations of catching new species and teasing Bass and Wrasse out of rock gully's on lures, but even the locals were saying there's been too much rain which has ruined the fishing, It had been raining for three weeks before my holiday, rained during my holiday and its still raining two weeks later. Even I have to admit that as bad as the English weather is, this was unusual. Whether the rain water had pushed the fish out to sea, or made climbing on wet slippery rocks and navigating up/down sheep tracks on cliff faces near impossible and dam right dangerous, it was getting to me. If the fish won't come to me, then I will go to the fish!

The master plan by Eddie Van Goff

A boat trip? of coarse, yes! but that got cancelled! guess why? the sea was too rough! oh and when a boat did get to go out, not enough lunatics wanted to go sea fishing on a boat in the rain, except me, so that got cancelled too. Pulling my hair out now! All was not lost though, me and Sarah had a kayak trip booked, and it hadn't been cancelled. Ok, it wasn't a fishing trip, but we had been told we could hand line with feathers for Mackerel as we toddled along with the other kayaks whilst following the coastline exploring otherwise inaccessable caves and bays. It was the best that was going to be. So with a bit of cunning, sheer determination and a lot of desperation, I devised a multipurpose hand line rig, capable of fishing multiple depths at once for three target species, Mackerel, Bass and Pollock, This took me all of one minute to think about, "the master plan" was put on paper to show Sarah. The idea was tow along a standard mackerel feather trace with a 2 oz lead attached and then attach 2 meters of 20lb fluorocarbon with a Sidewinder small 6" green sand eel shaking it's stuff behind at a lower depth and swimming down to the bottom when we stopped, I figured that the feathers would appeal to Mackerel and possibly a Pollock, and that the Sand Eel would appeal to Bass and Pollock which I must say my "Van Goff" clearly shows.

Hand line rig for kayak fishing

We managed to buy a crab hand line for a bargain of £1.89 from a souvenir/bakers shop, I modified the rig for the trip, I dismantled the crab catching devise/rig so quickly I didn't even have time to figure out how it worked with a pebble, wire boon and a little sack that resembled what you put your washing tablets in for your laundry. With 5 minutes to spare we grabbed the wet suits and made our way to meet the rest of the party and pick up the kayaks. We actually set off from Port Gaverne with Cornish Coast Adventures, with a quick tutorial for the six of us, we precariously boarded our tandem kayak and demonstrated basic turning and stopping skills, which was a little bit harder as it took some teamwork, before heading out of the bay and up and down the coast past Port Isaac on our little adventure.

I didn't put the hand line out until about halfway into our paddling tour, but when I did it was clear the 1oz lead wasn't heavy enough to sink the rig whilst we were paddling along, it just skidded across the surface, but I had anticipated this and had taken a few different weight leads, so when we landed on a inaccessible tiny beach I retied a 3oz lead which sunk the rig enough, but to be honest I think a four oz would of been better. When we left the beach, I actually managed to capsize the kayak trying to get on, sending me and Sarah head first into the water, losing the hand line as it disappeared in the surf, amazingly I spotted it wash up on the shore after two minutes of frantic searching, now it was time for the slow paddle back to port. We stopped along the way a few times to wait for other people, I took the opportunity to jig the rig with my arm trying to attracted fish. then it was the home stretch, I had been purposely not rowing to slow us down, letting Sarah do all the work, mostly to give us more time out at water, She didn't know, the benefits of being at the back! Then I felt the line tugging against my leg, was it? Yes! I have! My first ever Pollock about 1lb 6oz taken on the Sidewinder 6" green Sand Eel. The fish was hooked, landed, photographed, unhooked and released in under a 30 seconds by an over excited angler. a world record maybe?. Sarah "Didn't you want to keep it for dinner?" I forgot that part. I was just happy to have caught a fish.

My first Pollock

I have to say, although not technically a fishing trip I enjoyed the kayak trip immensely, and saw some magnificent Cornish coastline from a different view, And catching my first ever Pollock was a big bonus. It has got me thinking about trying some proper kayak fishing sometime, but if you noticed in the video, my paddle floated away as I unhooked the fish, I cant help but think I might need a bit of practice lol