Albert Pier 2nd Aug 2006

Map Ref: 647,477
Tide: LW 6am / HW Noon :
Weather Forecast: Fine with sunny periods 23^oC. Wind WSW to W 11mph with gusts to 20mph

Got up at 5.30am having recovered from the sea-sickness traumas of the night before on the ferry crossing…. Made a few sandwiches and some coffee, grabbed the bucket of pre-soaked bread that I'd made up when I'd arrived, along with my tackle-box and match rod… Drove over to pick-up Chris Ball at 6.30am, and arrived down at the pier at 6.45am.

There was a car already parked up with what looked to be rod tubes on the roof rack, but no sign of the owner…. Looked over the railings to the steps, and there he was.. fishing for mullet - easy to spot by the bucket of bread and the loaf wrappers next to him…

Made ourselves known, and asked politely how long he was fishing for, to which he said probably for another hour or two…. Chris went to look over the other side of the pier to see what options he had there, whilst I decided to continue with polite conversation… when he realised that we too were there to fish for mullet he very readily offered an invite to the pair of us to join him - mullet fishing tends to do that, don't really want others fishing around you, unless they too are after the grey ghosts as well….

So Chris and I tackled up, at the top of the stairs .. transpired that Chris (for what ever reason had decided to bring his spinning rods rather than his match rod) and had put his Polaroid sunglasses down somewhere at home the night before and had been unable to locate them this morning --- I think it was a classic case of last minute preparation which was soon confirmed by the fact that he'd not got any bread for the hook!!!!

Anyway set up with a crystal waggler 5 No4 shot and a size 8 hook, and fished a depth between 6 to 13 ft (increasing with the tide). Sat down on the lower landing and fished and started fishing next to our host …. Who turns out to be on holiday (last day) and who's name is Nigel ….. sounded like he'd had a good time on the Charter Boats and also fishing off of St Catherine's and St Brelade's with ray, smoothhound, bream and dogfish all being on his catch list…. He'd had a nice lifting bite just when we'd arrived, but otherwise nothing of note save for the garfish earlier on and further out hitting the whitebait…
Chris came down and sat between us, and so we continued to fish and chat as the tide slowly came up….

There were periods of slack and periods of missed bites with the usual Anglo-Saxon commentary…. I just seemed to be hitting into nothing, and wondering if I needed to change my hook size down to a 10 (Nigel was using size 8, and Chris a size 14 or 16 I think), but decided to perceiver…

9-05am… Nigel was just telling us how he was going to have to leave for the family day out, when he gave a shout that he was in….. he had a scrappy little fighter of a mullet that he managed after a couple of minutes to bring to the net….

Turned out to be a thicklip, I measured it at 13.1/2“ and we guessed it was around 1.1/4lb or so … Nigel was very happy to say the least!!! He slipped the fish back into the water, and off it went…

9.40am My float shot under for the umpteenth time…. But this time I managed to hit home and was rewarded with a fighting fish on the end…. It crash dived this way and then that …. I never managed to bring it up far enough to see it, before if drove in towards the submerged stone steps and me, and went into one of those head shaking spasms … all I could do was hold on and pray… but to no avail, the fish threw the hook, and there was a collective groan of disappointment, with a few blue words from me!!!!!

Soon after Nigel gave his apologies and packed up and left, and I continued to smart over the one that got away, much to the amusement of Chris….

Things went a little quiet with the odd missed bite here and there…..

10.50am…. my float again shot under, and I half expected nothing to come of it, exept this time the rod bent over, and I was in…. yes!!!!!
This was a small mullet, but what it lacked in size was more then made up for by its fighting quality … it just would not give up, and it was only after a couple of abortive attempts did I manage to get it to Chris in a position where he was able to net it…

It was the same size as Nigel's at 13.1/2“ , I weighed it out of curiosity and it came in at 1lb-04oz so we were spot on with our original guess work.. took a few pix and returned it… a much happier man!!!

11.10am …. The float bobbed and I half jerked in response and tensed in anticipation …. Whoosh, under went the float, and struck …. And the unmistakable thump of a fighting fish was my reward … this turned out to be a larger fish, that again kept surging down , and took a while (well OK a few minutes) to bring under any sort of control …. Managed to bring it to the net and Chris very kindly did the honours of lifting it out for me… we guessed it was about 2 to 2 and half pound ….. unhooked the fish, measured it at 16”, took a picture and weighed it…. Came in at 2lb-02oz, and then slipped it back …

Things after that went very, very quiet…. And by 12 noon (ie High Water) I decided to make a pit stop and get some lunch, so I left Chris on the steps and walked down to the loo and Café….

Two steak and egg rolls and a fresh set of parking scratch cards for the car later, and I was back to the fishing…. Or lack of it….

12-40pm…. Missed a cracking bite, and was then taunted by a series of similar ones…. All very frustrating…

1-05pm…. This time I hit home…. Again a small mullet of 13.1/2” , but again a real fighter…. I think Chris was almost ready to throw me in by this time, even though I had offered to swap positions earlier….

Things went quiet again, and by 1.55pm we decided to call a halt... just as we were doing so, a young lad came up with his rod and asked what we'd been fishing for, so Chris explained that we were fishing for Mullet … the lad seemed some what despondent and showed Chris his outfit which was for feathering … he obviously knew what he needed but hadn't brought it with him, and so we took pity and decided to help him out… he had a small loafer float, so Chris gave him his hook length and shot, and I filled is bucket with the soaked bread, and gave over the half loaf that remained for the hook…. We wished him well and went off….

On the way back we dropped off at JFS Sport and had a chat with Eddie, who seems to have got back into mullet fishing over the past year in quite a big way, so we picked up a few bits and bobs and left it open with him as to trying to get together sometime over the next month…. hope we can as I really enjoyed my previous grey ghost outing with Eddie.. we shall see, fingers crossed….

Return to UK Seafishing Diary updates