red gurnard – Kayak Fishing

Sliver Delivers

August 7, 2011August 7, 2011 by rupertkirkwood, posted in Kayak fishing

I have only ever bought one Rapala Sliver, and that was about ten years ago. I took it trolling in Dorset and lost it to the bottom after about five minutes. I challenge anyone not to grind their teeth and mutter unmutterables in that situation when you have just forked out in excess of a tenner for a little bit of floating wood. Well OK, it actually sinks very slowly but you know what I mean, and don’t be picky.

However I HAVE noticed that around the southwest the closer a lure looks like a sandeel the more joy you will have. And experience of Porthcurno suggests that the very large number of launce (big sandeels) which you always catch when using mackerel feathers is probably what keeps the large numbers of birds, fish and mammals excited. And a Rapala Sliver is nice and thin and looks like a Launce. So I shelled out another tenner (or a bit more,actually) and off I went.

Before I tell you how I got on I must brag a bit about my recent Gurnard hat-trick. Well…nearly. All three species in three days anyway. I do like Gurnard as they are very un-Britishly brightly coloured (remember I have a birdwatching background ) and make a ridiculous grunt when you catch them. First was a Red at Porthcurno:

Three days later I caught a Grey and a Tub on my local patch near Bude. I used to write under the pen-name ‘The Grey Gurn-nerd’ but nobody seemed to twig what it meant and in fact not a lot of people read what I wrote anyway. I thought it was excellent.

I was joined by my chum Pokey who always looks like a cool dude and is in total command of the situation (at least when he is in a kayak).

After that major digression let’s get back to the Sliver which I am making a big thing of.Here it is, having survived being dragged around the sea for three or four hours:

Not having caught a single bass all season ( yes, alright I’ll concede to a degree of incompetence but I also havn’t really tried that hard yet……well , incompetence then) I wasn’t expecting much but within a couple of minutes of setting off from Porthgwarra my line buzzed out and I groaned as I thought I had lost more hard earned cash to the depths. But hang on, there was a BIG lump repeatedly,slowly and powerfully pulling on the line. Major panic! I reeled in slowly and in typical bass fashion the line went light as the brakes came off and I was getting ready for the big plunge when it got near the kayak. There it was, and OH NO there goes the fish. Never saw it so clearly it was a record breaker.

A minute or two later I had a 3 pounder on board:

And then another right in front of the Minack theatre.

Crossing the green water of sandy Porthcurno bay I wasn’t expecting a bite but a pathetic tugging on the line produced a launce barely bigger than the Sliver itself. Surely it wasn’t serously thinking it could eat a fish that size. Amorous intent would be more a more feasible explanation.

Porthcurno usually resounds to the occasional scream of excitement from the beach , or applause from the Minack audience, but today it was a bit more cacophonous as the Royal Navy were fine-honing their rescue skills on Logan rock.

P1020455 — Search and Rescue Sea King over Logan Rock

So I’ve still got my Sliver and looking forward to it’s next outing. I notice it really makes the rod end shake as its jointed body ‘swims’ through the water…more so than any other lure I have used. This can only be an advantage because more movement surely means greater attractive power to the hungry predator.

Eight species Fish Fest

July 29, 2011 by rupertkirkwood, posted in Kayak fishing

LAMORNA DOES IT AGAIN

Couldn’t sleep and rolled into the car park at Lamorna Cove at 6.30 am which was before even the parking meter had woken up. Unbelievably a day ticket didn’t start till 7 so I left a polite note explaining my predicament plus the correct money in FULL view on the dashboard and promised to pay when I got back. Surely common sense and an appreciation of all that is reasonable would prevail. (fat chance).

I was fairly bursting with anticipation as it was a cracking sunny day with light winds forecast, plenty of marine wildlife to expect and I was in severe need of catching more than mackerel and pollack. However my first encounter with a fish was not on the end of my line:

I hadn’t come across an Ocean Sunfish for several years so was keen for a closer look but this one s was possessed by an inexplicable turn of speed. However I managed a couple of ghostly underwater images as it spooked past.

Sunfish eat jellyfish and have no teeth so the taxonomist must have had his (or her) tongue firmly planted in his (or her) cheek when he (or she) gave it the Latin name ‘Mola Mola’.

This exciting start was hotley pusued by a fair tug on the line which produced a , yawn, mackerel but it was a real whopper.

My weapon of choice for the day was a string of big blue Hokkais spiced up by a couple of mackerel strips but I was surprised when this smart little cuckoo wrasse managed to get caught on the big hooks.

It was so calm I headed well offshore to maximise the chance of a BIG encounter. An incessant stream of gannets cruised overhead and shearwaters zipped past.

About a mile off Porthcurno it was so deep I ran out of line before my weight hit the bottom! However my rod buckled over and I hauled something very heavy up from the depths…..alas only a foul-hooked codling.

The Scillonian was fairly groaning under the weight of passengers as it lumbered past. Just looking at it made me feel claustrophobic….thank goodness for sit-on-top kayaks.

I was half way through demolishing my five weetabix when a load of splashing with the odd fin appearing made me paddle like crazy to investigate. Fantastic….Common Dolphins and as usual they came over to investigate and swam right underneath my feet, and as usual I failed to capture the moment on film. Five or six of them, and they aren’t quite so inquisitive or showy offy as Bottlenose Dolphins so they were soon on their way.

I sat and fished off Porthcurno and watched the world, or a tiny bit of it, go by. The beauty of this bit of coast never fades. The great granite monolith of Logan Rock and the impossibly white sand of the beaches and turquoise of the water. Need some therapy….come here. (I don’t ,by the way)

P1020331 — Bloatboat ruining the peacefulness of Porthcurno

P1020348 — Bingo at the Minack (Bingo's the name of the yacht)

Although I put most of the fish I catch back I kept a few mackerel and chucked the guts out for the expectant fulmars. I like fulmars as they are basically mini albatrosses in seagull’s clothing:

The local gulls soon got in on the scene and the fulmars really got stressy about it . I apologise but I find all the squabbling and bickering quite entertaining although don’t suppose the birds feel the same. But they do get a wholesome meal out of it.

It was time for a leisurely offshore paddle back to Lamorna cove. I had dropped a mackerel flapper to the bottom without success but as I paddled off with it trolling behind me something kept pulling at it and when I reeled it in all that was left was the head.

I stopped for a final drift off Boscawen point when the wind had dropped to almost nothing. The only sounds to be heard were the splosh of diving gannets and the ‘piffing’ of breathing porpoises, and the distant squealing of a young peregrine from the black cliffs at Tater Du. Two fish in quick succession on the hokkais:

P1000845 — Astonishingly red Red Gurnard

The gaudiness of the Gurnard was equalled only by the yellow of Warlord’s hull:

P1000842 — Warlord by name, warlord by appearance

Remarkably my final two bites were two other species of fish, a pollack and then a first for me…..a ling.Not the biggest specimen but an attractive fish nonetheless.

My eighth species of fish was a pouting which unfortunately wasn’t too photogenic when it came up from the depths.

That was it , but one more curiosity on the final paddle in were the half dozen or so Red Admiral butterflies and single Large White that passed me heading landwards after clearly crossing from France. An extraordinary feat, especially as during gusts the delicate little creatures were temporarily blown backwards.

I was still quarter of a mile away from my car parked above the harbour wall when I noticed a yellow note stuck to the windscreen. Oh groan. Unfortunately all that was reasonable had not prevailed.

KAYAK FISHING MOUSEHOLE-PORTHGWARRA 2010

August 13, 2010August 14, 2010 by rupertkirkwood, posted in Kayak fishing

FEATURING NINE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF FISH (yes that’s a PB) AND THE BEST PERFORMANCE AT THE MINACK THEATRE YOU ARE EVER LIKELY TO WITNESS……er….well…. not in it exactly but not far away. Here’s a clue…….

Top performer getting ready for show right in front of the Minack theatre

More of that later.

Parking in Mousehole is far from straightforward so I had to squeak my way through the narrow streets with my kayak on its trolley. I stopped to watch a little squabbling gang of Turnstones fighting for best position on the gunwhale of a moored boat as I paddled out of the harbour. I like them….they are portly and endearing in a Captain Mainwaring sort of way.

And so out into the open sea- I was pretty excited as I felt I was in for a top day and conditions were calm. Off Lamorna Cove I hooked a couple of mackerel and used a sliver of belly to spice up a string of Hokkais and stopped to do a bit of bottom fishing. Pretty quickly I dragged a hard tugging Ballan Wrasse from the depths.

And hardly had my weight thumped the bottom than a female cuckoo wrasse put in an appearance. I get the impression that wrasse aren’t actually trying to eat the lures, they are attempting to ‘see them off’ their patch of bottom. But I’m probably wrong.

Off Tater Du lighthouse the outgoing tide pushed me further offshore in amongst the passing stream of gannets and shearwaters.I know I’ve said this before but if you want some down time from a stressy job I would seriously recommend bobbing about half a mile out to sea on a calm day with your legs dangling over the side of your sit-on-top kayak, hooking a load of fish and with dozens of oceanic seabirds zipping past your lugholes. It’s difficult to beat. Very few boats around but look out for the Scillonian. Yikes that was close!

Even half a mile offshore I could still hear a young peregrine ‘whinnying’ its demand for breakfast to its parents which could not possibly have been beyond earshot. I don’t like the bit of coast between Tater Du and Boscawen point. The cliffs are black and sheer, good only for peregrines, and they reflect even the slightest swell to always make the sea bouncy. And it’s the site of the Penlee lifeboat disaster, so I moved on.

At my next stop I dropped the line to the sea bed and soon pulled up my biggest whiting ever. Not big , but bigger than the pifflers I usually catch.

And the species kept on coming as I drifted on towards Logan rock…..first a small but ferociously clicking red gurnard , hotly pursued by a marginally bigger grey gurnard which I havn’t caught for many a year. But I have often been tempted to use ‘The Grey Gurn-nerd’ as my blogger’s pen-name.

I was a bit peckish so poured the milk over my five Weetabix ( my usual kayaking breakfast- quick and easy to eat and does the job) but it went all horrible and soggy because I just kept on hooking fish and had no time to down it. Quite a decent cod:

I should point out at this stage that I put virtually all the fish I catch back- I only keep a couple of mackerel for bait and enticing seabirds a little closer.

So eight different fishy types before breakfast! I was feeling quite smug but thought it was wise to head inshore because the NW wind was starting to strengthen and I was being slurped towards the Gwennap Head tide race which was fairly roaring.

I coast-hugged back against the current to the shelter of the always stunning Porthcurno bay. That’s when I saw a couple of fast moving fins across the far side of the bay against Logan rock and my heart briefly did stuff which would probably fuse an ECG machine.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Bottlenose pair

I carefully paddled over for a look but didn’t need to get too close because a pair of dolphins soon came over for a snoop and swam right beneath my kayak. This was a total thrill as bottlenose dolphins are no lightweights- they can be over 12 ft long and weigh half a ton.

Over the next 45 minutes the pod of about a dozen dolphins put on the most perfect display to the vociferous approvement of everyone on the beach and a considerable crowd gathered in the Minack theatre. I hope there wasn’t a performance on because the dolphins would be hard to upstage.

They started off with a couple of slow circuits around the bay with a splinter group going close inshore to entertain the swimmers. Every so often several stopped and wallowed and sploshed around and did a few small jumps.

I’m sure they could sense all eyes focused on them as they started to wind up for an astonishing finale. They started to jump more and hurl themselves about generally. Every leap was cheered wildly by the crowd. So difficult to photograph as they are back in the water before I could press the shutter….just missed this one by the shortest of noses:

I was enthusing with a fellow sit-on-topper and thought the show was over but we were both absolutely flawed by the grand finale which took place right in front of our noses. What must have been the biggest dolphin came powering along at a good 30mph and leapt 8-10 foot out of the water in a huge horizontal jump and must have cleared 20ft in the air without losing any speed. Lovely clean entry, it disappeared for a brief second and then leapt again and then , incredibly a third jump which left it virtually on the sand at Porthcurno. I have never in my life heard such a spontaneous and explosive roar of approvement from the onlookers. I was temporarily rendered senseless- everybody knows dolphins can jump but the size of the beast and the speed and height and distance it jumped were quite unbelievable.

That was it , and the dolphins returned to more sedentary progress and disappeared off round the headland to the west, but not before the inquisitive pair had one more sniff at my kayak:

Phew. I was getting a sore butt because I had been in the seat all day but wanted to find a little private beach. Oops there weren’t any as there was an ultra low tide and the rocks were covered in barnacles and would make a mess of my boat. Only place was a kelp-covered ledge.

Time for a spot more bottom fishing off Penberth cove and up came my first scad of the year:

The paddle back to Mousehole was uneventful apart from pollack and mackerel trying to eat my trolled plug. Getting access to Mousehole harbour wasn’t easy because of tombstoners.

P1020636 — Not as slick as a dolphin,mate.

Mousehole inner harbour was fairly buzzing and it wasn’t straightforward squeezing my sixteen foot boat up the slipway and through the narrow streets back to the carpark.

P1020642 — Mousehole: right up there in the Quaintness Champions League

Over ten hours in the seat for a crumby 22 miles covered. Who cares? But TOTALLY TOP ENTERTAINMENT

LUNKERS AT LAND’S END

June 13, 2010June 16, 2010 by rupertkirkwood, posted in Uncategorized

Not being quite sure of whether my priorities were fishing or wildlife encounters today, my kayak was armed to the teeth with two rods,all manner of lethal lures,a couple of cameras and a hefty Cranberry and Orange cake courtesy of Waitrose ( just a normal fruitcake would have been fine if you had bothered to stock it, or is that a bit too Morrison’s for you?). But no suncream…..bad news.

You have to squeeze through a bit of a tunnel to get at the sea at Porthgwarra:

Before I had even planted my butt on my kayak seat the excitement level of the day was set when a pair of choughs appeared on the cliff above, chattering excitedly over what one of them had found beneath a bit of sheep dung.

I paddled east as I wanted to avoid the hefty swell on the exposed west facing coast. Wind was very light easterly so no problem. Porthcurno Bay never fails to impress: a spectacular amphitheatre of granite cliffs with a couple of gems of golden beaches opens up before you as you round the headland with the ridiculous name of Pedn-men-an-mere. The sandy bottom produces surely the most turquoise water in Cornwall. And all the time there is a constant stream of gannets just a bit further out which every so often group together and pile into the water with a hell of a splash. There’s plenny of fish out there.

However I only landed a couple of the compulsory piffling pollack until I switched to a big Rapala lure beyond Penberth cove. As I was fiddling about a decent pollack took my rubber sand eel with quite a rush.

And then barely had my jointed Rapala started doing its wibbly wobbly stuff as I rounded Merthen Point when the line really buzzed out. I knew I had my first bass of the season on the line because the resistance more or less went till I had the fish in sight right beside the kayak. This is typical of larger bass. They go with the flow until they see you glaring down at them and then crash dive. Understandable, I suppose. Another reasonable fish:

P1010382 — My 2010 bass drought ends here

At Boscawen point I thought it was time for a bit of bottom fishing so I pointed directly offshore and paddled out for a mile. Lovely calm conditions. My mackerel feathers had just about got to them bottom when the line went heavy with a couple of slow tugs. To my great surprise up came a couple of one-and-a-half pound cod…..I’ve only ever caught two tiddlers in the previous ten years.

The action just didn’t stop….. six or seven more cod up to two pounds; a barely detectable tug produced a launce,

and a marginally greater struggle produced one of my favourites-the absurdly unbritish and brightly coloured Red Gurnard. These boldly grunt their disapproval of being hauled up from the depths so I put it back (along with all the others,today) .

Alien told us that in space no-one can hear you scream and the same principle applies when you are a mile offshore in a kayak by yourself. This is a bad thing if you are befallen by some disaster (or indeed being consumed by an alien), but quite handy if you don’t want anyone to hear or see you because you are making a complete berk of yourself. Robert Green take note.

And boy was I about to have a max cringeworthy moment. My rod bent double and proceeded to steadily creak up and down as if the biggest fish to have ventured into Atlantic recently was hanging of the end of my 99p mackerel feathers. My kayak seemed to be moving quite fast through the water and I held on tight for over 15 minutes until my forearms got cramp and sweat beaded on my top lip. Doubts began to creep in…funny how the great beast only tugged the tip of my rod down as the kayak rode over a swell…..what a gink!-snagged on the bottom….again!

On the way back I took another swoop round Porthcurno Bay. There was a performance on at the Minack theatre and I caught the occasional shriek of one of the cast giving it his or her Shakespearian all, but they sounded more like a pack of dogs. The Hound of the Baskervilles, maybe?

My lack of suncream was beginning to tell as I felt my scalp beginning to crisp up like Danepack on the barbeque. The forecast had said cloudy with thundery outbursts. These were clear to see half a mile inland but over the sea it was clear blue sky and being early June the fry factor was off the scale. So I had to take my thermal t-shirt off and wrap it rounded my balding pate.

The swell was still slurping around the headlands which had prevented me getting out for a leg stretch so my posterior was a tad numb after eight hours in the seat.

Back at Porthgwarra the tide race was beginning to zip and I tried a bit more bottom fishing but without success. Well it hadn’t been a bad day. Six different species….those mentioned plus a few mackerel.

Yikes, the vast dark shape of a basking shark suddenly appeared about a yard to my right, cruising along happy as Larry with fins out of water. TOP excitement. MUCH longer than my kayak-getting on for twenty foot. It was lazily pursued by another but my one -to -one encounter with one of natures extreme beasts was messed up by some snorkellers shark watching from a RIB…..cheating!

So I went off and found another couple of sharks that were unnoticed and undisturbed and as I sat quietly watching them as they duly obliged by circling around right past and underneath me time and time again. And of course I had to capture that monumental gape by dunking my camera just beneath the surface:

There were loads of little blue jellyfish around today and one of them had the incredible misfortune of finding itself right in the gapepath of the shark where its future wellbeing REALLY did not want it to be.

Phew, escaped….just.

P1010455 — but look out, there's another one behind

Another action-packed day. I clocked up a feeble fifteen miles which is pretty pathetic but the reason I paddle such a long way during winter and spring trips is because I get so cold when I stop for any length of time. That’s why sitting about bottom fishing is often out of the question especially during this particularly parky spring. And that’s why I was wearing a thermal t-shirt despite roasting temperatures today-didn’t dare risk it.

Land’s end. It’s the best.