Shore Trip - Hannafore Point

Whilst thinking about going sea fishing and checking the tides, I noticed that whilst high tide was at 6pm on a day I had off, 6pm was also the time of sunset, and the time of moon set. The same day was also the calm after a strong blow, so a trip was nailed into the diary.
Mike and I went to Hannafore Point next to Looe Beach, to try surface and subsurface lures and float fished sand eel, after Bass and Wrasse.
It looked great, choppy, colored, clear spots amongst weed, but despite all this we blanked.
We even tried ledgered sand eel near white rocks for the last hour, but not so much as a nibble.
It was weedy as hell along most of Hannafore. The lures kept picking it up and it got rather annoying, but then that's where the fish would be so we put up with it.
It all looked right, but either we had chosen the wrong approach, or the fishing fairy just wasn't on our side. She is a fickle wench that fishing fairy.
On another note, and possible the reason there was not a fish in sight, was the half ton bull seal we saw happily toddling along just 40yards off the beach. Ive never seen one that size. Massive bugger.
Now either he was there because he knew the fish were, or he was there and all the fish had legged it. Or indeed he was on his way up the river to snack on the mullet that come in on the tide.
Either way I'm blaming him.
It felt great to do some salt water fishing again.

Trangia Mini

I picked this little fella up as it was cost effective.
I only wanted the fuel Burner, but that was £12 or so, plus postage, but for £20, I could have this whole pan set, with a burner included, so....
Cant wait to try it.

In a similar way, I got this fuel bottle. I only wanted the special tap that's on it, but its £5.99, plus postage, making it about £9. Well, this bottle with the tap on it was only £10, so again, easy choice.


The pan set is tiny, but big enough for one, and super light, and clicks together neatly. The fuel bottle is neat, but holds half a litre. More than enough for a weekend or even a week according to some claims.

I'll use the pans and burner with my Trangia Triangle though, as that's more stable and has better wind protection.

Carp trip - Method Feeder

Another trip to our local pond this time armed for action.
We had mixed up a smashing method mix of Ringers carp ground bait, laced with molasses, curry powder, and salt, and some other bits. It bound together and smelt fabulous but not too strong.
We arrived at midday, to find the pond mobbed out with anglers, so we hid ourselves on the farthest hidden back bank to do a little quiet fishing. Problem was we had intended to use the method feeder, and we soon found out that in our cramped and overgrown swim this wasn't going to work. It was also baking hot with the sun in our faces, and even Mike, who is seasoned at burning jet fuel round the world to 'forn-parts', admitted it was 'rather hot'. For my part I was dying right there in front of him on the bank.
Anyway, we really weren't in the groove, as we had tangles in bushes, Miss-casts, and generally buggered up our fishing. We resolved to move as the day wore on and other people left. We got lucky at 4pm, and soon moved to a nice open swim that was also shaded - yay!
Mike had 6 fish in total.
In daylight on the bottom, an 8lber we didn't photograph, and this nice 10lb 2oz (on x2 fake corn)


and these two 8lbers (on x2 fake corn)


and at night, this 11lb and 9lb on surface bread...


Mike also had a roach of 1lb 9oz (on halibut boillie 10mm)
and an eel of 2lb (on x2 fake corn!)

For my part, I had nothing during daylight, fishing the method and fake corn, but at night changed to one sinking fake yellow and one floating fake glow in the dark corn, and had one fish of 9lb.


All the carp scrapped like we had never known them too before. Each one put up an account of itself way above its weight, just refusing to surface for ages.

We also saw something Ive only ever seen once before, and that was Grass snakes. Several of them. Mike got a photo, and I managed to grab this little video clip.


A very pleasant afternoon and evening, which we managed to rescue after it going very 'Laural and Hardy' on us.
A bit flipping hot to start with, but worth the effort.
What was strange (apart from catching an eel on fake corn), was that I only had one fish, after fishing the same spot I did last time and did so well. However, we think that because there had probably been a lot of bait going in during the warmer weekend and how busy it has been all round the lake, the fish has become dispersed all over the place and well fed.