sea angler malc

Sea Angler - Plymouth. Skipper Malcolm Jones.

“This will only be a short drift” shouted Malcolm Jones, Skipper of Sea Angler 2. “ it is just a small pocket of fish hard on the bottom” the reels went into free spool as the anglers dropped their gear right into the bottom, reel ten turns slowly and drop again, and then again. It wasn’t long before two rods were bent over into fish and the smiles beamed around the boat. Malcolm had found the Cod again!! The consensus is that Cod are a Winter fish, but what many are unaware of is that after the Winters cold weather a lot of Cod come down to Westcountry waters for their Spring holidays. Usually from March to July there is an influx of smaller Cod upward to 12lbs, with the occasional slightly larger fish for good measure. From July onward the smaller fish head on out to deeper water and are replaced by fewer but larger fish. These larger fish can sometimes be exceptional fish, but they have to be targeted and fished for hard on the bottom, because Pollack will seize any bait or lure that is more than ten turns off the bottom and it is easy to succumb to the screaming reel sport that the Pollack are famous for..... but they are not nearly as tasty!!! Malcolm moors “Sea Angler 2” at Queen Anne’s Battery(QAB) Marina just outside the lock gates to Sutton Harbour at Plymouth. My pal’s moor their boats on the pontoons just across the water from him. Needless to say there has been some good hearted banter back and forth for the last few years. So when the call came and Malc said he only had four on and did I want to come Cod fishing, it was pick up bag and hamper and gone!!! 0730 and the QAB banners were just stirring in a light wind that had a touch of the dreaded Easterly in it, but it wasn’t much. We would get best part of the day in before flood tide would give wind against tide, which might make for a lively ride home but by that time who cares! The word on the grapevine was that the Dartmouth boats had been finding a few Cod so if the fish were that far West, they would also be down our way. The problem with the Plymouth patch is that there are a lot of wrecks up to the East and you need an inside line on where the fish are to be found. “Sea Angler 2” haunts these wrecks week in and week out, if there were Cod to be found I had every confidence that Malcolm would know where they were. We sat around in the sunshine with a full house of tea and coffee and I watched everyone tackling up. It wasn’t difficult, evidently Sea Angler 2 regulars they were to a man using black plastic booms, 10 foot leaders and shads. The shads were the usual orange red and yellow colours, you guessed it Rhubarb and Custard Sidewinders! With a few conventional unweighted shads in the same colours in case the fish wanted them. As it turned out through the day, the honours were about even between the orange and yellows and a small blue and silver shad. I think it quite likely that the Cod were turning on to the massive influx of sandeel’s that happened in late May this year. We approached the first of the wrecks within an hour of leaving the moorings. This is a wreck that has several large lumps scattered within fifty yards of the main wreckage and it is amongst this tangle of wreckage that the lures have to be presented if you want a chance of fish. Using his superb touchscreen Garmin 5012 sounder Malcolm was able to pinpoint pockets of fish hugging the bottom, then setting up short accurate drifts to put the lures amongst the fish. A very real advantage of using such state of the art digital equipment is the speed of redraw on the sounder and instantaneous reaction to every movement of the boat. This is light years away from the Mk12 and 21 Decca sets that those of my generation first fished these wrecks with a long time ago... too long ago!! The tide was moving Sea Angler 2 at nearly 2 knots, it wasn’t easy to keep the shads in the target zone. Most ended up with a pound of lead on to keep touch with the bottom. It was tap the bottom, ten turns, then freespool to tap the bottom again, another ten turns, by which time it was up and around again for another drift. Short accurate drifts, hectic fishing, but it wasn’t long before the first of the nodding rod tips gave a clue to the identity of the fish... Cod. We did another two wrecks in the same vicinity, skimming down the sides fishing the lumps and bumps rather than aiming for the wreck each time. The shoals of Cod were not right on the wrecks, but using the fast water around it to ambush the bait fish. A dozen Cod and Malcolm set a course for the Eddystone Reef. The week before he had a party out which had caught some superb reef Pollack to nearly eighteen pounds and we wanted some of that.. Another round of tea and coffee and the nosebag went on whilst we motored West. It would be fantastic to say that we ended up with half a dozen double figure Pollack, but we didn’t. Shads produced some five or six pound fish and the sea started to lump, so Sea Angler 2 pointed north and we motored quietly home after a memorable day in good company... which at the end of the day is what it is all about. Website: http://www.seaanglerii.co.uk/ E-mail: info@seaanglerii.co.uk Malcolm Jones. Phone 01752 316289. Mobile 07977097690. Top tips. 1. 10 ft leaders are long enough. In heavy water even shorter for the “hopper” effect. 2. Orange and yellow shads work good for Cod. But if it goes quiet try a silver and blue. 3. Weighted shads such as the Sidewinder are good lures but sometimes an unweighted shad will be better. 4. Put a swivel three feet from the lure to stop the leader twisting. 5. If the leader still twists, put another swivel in the leader or join two swivels together. 6. Check your knots, we all tie a bad one now and again. 7. Run your fingers down your leader after every fish. Feel for chafed or nicked line. 8. Fishing snaggy bottom put your sinker on a “rotten bottom” that will break out if it gets snagged. 9. If your leader tangles back onto your main line, slow your speed of drop. 10. If it still tangles back use a longer boom and slow your speed of drop.