Rain, hail and a big fish...

By Tony Runnalls

I class myself as an all-rounder and will have a go at anything that swims and over the last five years Darren and myself have had a couple of long weekends away - fishing various marks along the coast of Cornwall.

Our most recent visit was probably our best for the amount of fish we caught and the worst session for bad weather.

We had booked a caravan at The Hillview Holiday Park, 1 mile from the beach for a song, and it was a great place to stay. The caravan was excellent and a great location, we arrived Sunday morning booked in and was on the pier just as the tide was coming in at 2 pm, high tide was at six and we was going to fish through to about Midnight.

The first couple of hours was spent losing leads until we found some nice sand running parallel with the submerged rocks, we were told later that there was the remnants of the old pier running out from the high concrete base at the very end of the pier on the left if you stood on it and looked straight out to sea.

You would have to put a lead to the right to avoid it but you will lose every fish as you retrieve them because the debris will cut straight through your line every time.

Its best to try and get the last swim on the causeway and put your leads straight out in front of you, the further the better as it is deeper and all our better fish came at distance in the deeper water.

We both had identical set ups that consisted of a 6/8oz beach casters with 80lb braid straight through and we fished paternoster rigs with 40lb mono hooklength and a 2 hook Pennel rigs, we used whole squid and half mackerel for bait.

The 2nd rod was a 3lb tc carp rod and my Shimano1000s with 15lb mainline 3oz leads with 10lb hooklengths with rag and small bits of mackerel over the edge of the pier.

The ideas was to put out and wait on the big baits and work the smaller baits in close for sport. The fish started coming immediately and the first four hours were great until it started to rain and the wind started to pick up.

We fished on till about 10 and called it a night as we were both soaked through to the bone, we had some nice eels to just over 7lb so we were hopeful that over the next couple of days we would get a result.

The next morning we woke to a solid downpour, there wasn’t much wind but the rain was constant and the forecast didn’t look promising with rain forecast for the duration and clearing on the day we left. So the decision was made to have a go and put up with the downpours, we tried to use the shelter of the pier to protect us but we got soaked through every session, at one point we had hail stones the size of marbles.

We was getting a fish a chuck on the flood then it would die off and pick up again on the ebb. We caught all sorts - small pollack, wrasse, red gurnard, small straps we were having a whale of a time in the rain.

We caught fish on every bait we tried and every method!

The local Raga Restaurant in the High Road, Ilfracombe was a delight and the owners are a lovely couple who have travelled around a bit and know how to cook some fantastic food from all over the world. The Curry Goat is the best I've had (and I eat a lot of it), its even better than mine.

On the last evening it was perfect, the rain had cleared, there was a warm breeze and a high tide and our sprits were lifted at the prospect of a pleasant evening rather than standing in the rain all night. We decided to fish whole baits on the big rods and set about catching some fresh mackerel on feathers and put them out whole to try a tempt something bigger. On my first cast the rod was nearly pulled in by something that took a load of line on the first run and threw the hook. During the evening I had some good sized doggies and some straps to about 7lb.

Around 8pm just as the tide was at the peak as Darren was un-hooking a doggie for me, his rod come off the rest and was heading out to sea - he grabbed it and lifted into a 'steamtrain' of a fish that started stripping line at a terrific rate.

Darren started to tighten up his clutch and try and get some sort of control, but the fish had other ideas. Darren’s rod was bent double and it looked like it was going to snap, he started to regain some line but from my vantage point I could see that Darren was playing the fish as hard as I've ever seen anybody play a fish and the lack of stretch was making it even more exciting because he could feel direct contact with the fish - whatever it was.

Now as you can imagine I was getting really excited at the prospect of landing a monster from the sea, it could be anything - from a tope to a ray and was aware of the fact that we would have to get it on the pier - so I started to guide Darren to the stairs and as luck would have it there was a nice rail for Darren to lean on until the fish was ready to be landed.

The wash on the tide was coming up and down and just about covering our feet on the flood and dropping away on the ebb to about 5 ft and every 6th or 7th wave would be a little bit bigger so we decide that we would try and get the fish up the steps on the wash preferably the bigger one. We still haven’t seen the fish but it was getting closer and we have drawn a bit of a crowd behind us, I got all the other rods in and stood behind Darren because the fish was under the tip and trying to get under the pier and the amount of pressure Darren was exerting on the fish was causing him to lean dangerously over the rail so I grabbed onto his belt just in case he went too far.

The fish broke the surface for the first time and we just couldn’t believe it, it was the biggest eel I've ever seen - Darren was getting really excited, after another 10 minutes we both felt that it wouldn’t be long before we got it on the pier and the question was raised as to what we was going to do when we did!

Now Darren eats anything that’s edible from the sea and always takes a couple of fish home, whereas I don’t, I put everything back, so I knew he would want to take this home and when he said I should dispatch it as soon as we got it up on the pier I told him to do it his bloody self!

We were ready and the fish was tiring and on a high wave Darren steered it up the steps and it kited under the bar and broke the hooklength, the wave receded and the fish was motionless on the cause way and we stood there looking at each other, then the eel started to wriggle and went to the right - luckily it went further inland on the pier, Darren threw the rod to me and jumped on the fish and dispatched it as quickly as possible - he's been eating eel ever since.

The fish was weighed at just over 40lb and I will remember it for a long time, needless to say after that we were well chuffed and decided to call it a day and make our way home once the tide had gone out.

Barbel fishing next time...

I have just had an invitation to fish on the Teme from one of the Committee Members of the Barbel Society and have booked a couple of days away so I will let you know how I get on.

Good fishing to you all

Tony Runnalls