Beautiful Ballans
Samphire Hoe, Kent Downs AONB, Samphire Road, Dover CT17 9FL. UK
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| Just a few rocks to check then? |
Well, It's been a while since my last blog, I've been fishing and I've even caught fish, but life has been so busy with the little one, who's now keeping me and his mother awake, all night and every night, and even more so, he's keeping us on our toe 24/7 as he's just learnt to walk, regardless, I do occasionally get the chance to get out fishing, and this trip was a very enjoyable session. This time of year there is a lot of May weed in the water, a algae bloom that can ruin fishing session, I normally swear I'll pack the sea fishing gear away till it goes away, and start fresh water fishing for Catfish, which I do, but I did have a plan! looking at close range fishing to avoid the May weed problem, I had always fancied dedicating a day to targeting the bigger Ballan Wrasse at Samphire Hoe, although I'd caught plenty of smaller Wrasse and other species with tiny baited sabiki rigs as written about in my blog
sabiki fishing Samphire Hoe , it was time to get serious, and crab baits were a must!.
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| Rockworm (Rockies), tough old bait |
A quick call to my friend Dave, a local match fisherman and bait collector to Samphire Hoe, and it was agreed we would go collecting at silly o'clock in the morning, having always bought my bait, Dave was gonna show me the ropes in bait collecting and make me a complete hunter gather fisherman, and it went like this!, we got up after a few hours sleep, bleary eyed and very tired, we set about wondering about for at least a few miles over dangerous rocky ground almost on all 4's only stopping, to practice heavy lifting with sharp and jagged rocks and occasionally sticking your fingers in deep and dark holes to be pincered by the local crabs for 3 whole hours!!! I would like to say this was fun, well maybe a little, but this was extreme hard back breaking work!! and maybe it would pay many of us to do this occasionally to remind us what goes into finding our bait. With the hard work, I came away with very few crabs that were peeling, the best ones for bait, but I did learn the difference between Blue Velvets, Shore Crabs and Edible Crabs and how strong the claws are off the edible crab, seriously not to be underestimated as they crush clams and mussels and a little finger is a lot softer!!!!!!! I also found some worms, believing them to be Maddies, I later found out the were something a little bit different, Rock Worms.
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| Blue velvet peeler crab |
With a bucket of crab and a pot with a few worms I said my thanks to Dave, and set off to Samphire Hoe to see if I could find these bigger Wrasse.. I had my 2 Dawia Therory Bass rods, paired with Penn Fierce 2 reels loaded with 12lb mono direct to pulley rigs, plain 4oz leads, with a single size 1 chinu hook baited with soft peeler crabs or hard back crabs. The sea was a little bit more coloured than I would of liked and definitely not that calm, guessing that this would push the fish away from the wall and deeper into the nooks and crannies of the big boulders, I launched the baits out about 40 yards, where I envisaged the big boulders gave way to the natural sea bed, as this should be a good place for the larger fish to patrol. It didn't take long for the first rod to take a massive pull down!, excitedly I struck the rod and played the fish hard, fearing it darting into the rocks and invariably snagging me up, the fish was free and coming up in the water, it felt big, and it was!, just not what I expected or wanted, a Dogfish!, but a welcome catch and starting the session off.
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| Stunning Corkwing Wrasse |
Peeler crab was the bait bringing the fish, the next 5 fish all came to peeler rather than hard backs. my first was a Pouting, closely followed by a couple Ballan Wrasse of about 1lb,and 1lb 8oz, and another Dogfish and Pouting. It was fantastic fun watching the bites on the soft bass rods, and 1 thing was slowly dawning on me, I had not snagged the bottom yet, Samphire Hoe is a tackle graveyard, and somehow I was lucky enough to be avoiding the snags. Even though it was still early into the session I had another issue I was down to my last Peeler, the hard back crab rod had not had a sniff of a bite. But I wrapped the bait up as carefully and perfectly as i could, it was a very small Blue Velet Crab but fitted perfectly on the size 1 chinu hook. I sent it out about 40 yards, felt the lead down to the bottom and rested the rod, It was high water and I felt very confident. Well it took 30mins before taking a severe pull down followed by lounging runs each stripping line off the reel with a burst!!,
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| Best of the bunch, 2lb 6oz Ballan Wrasse |
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| Micro Pouting likes the Rockworm |
I picked up the rod, and tightened the drag, and lifted into a fish, immediately I felt it knocking down the rod, was it a Bass, or was this my big Wrasse? I bullied the fish to the surface as I didn't want to give it a chance to dive into one of the big holes between the big boulders, all by myself, and i think I need a medal for this! I lowered the drop net down, in strong winds, over a ledge, and into the sea, and scooped up the fish, with one hard, as the other was holding the rod and playing the fish!! It was my big Wrasse, a beautiful Ballan weighing 2lb 6oz, OK not my biggest, but the best looking one!! What a cracking session this was turning out to be, I had run out of peeler, and still no bites on the hard back crab, I was now onto the Rock Worm that I had found, and accounted for a few more fish, my bringing my tally was 4 x Ballans, 2 x Corkwings, 3 x Dogfish, and 4 x Poutings, This wasn't the most hectic of sessions, but peeler crab bought out the bigger stamp of Wrasse for sure, Just wish I'd had more, as the hard back crabs did not induce 1 bite!!. It had been a wonderful day, and to top off the sun burn, I got I finally got snagged up losing my rig, With that it was time to call it quits! knowing I had been a very lucky boy not to lose more tackle.
