Ferry Terminal 7th Aug 2006

Map Ref: 647,477
Tide: LW 10.58am (3.1m) HW 4.49pm (9.4m):
Weather Forecast: Pleasant with decreasing cloud 22oC. Wind NNW 7mph with gusts to 17mph

This then was going to be my postponed day off to catch-up with the Diary, make rig, etc, etc… however I received a text message from Paul Carpenter (Chippy) the night before, and a quick telephone call resulted in a decision to fish the Ferry Terminal on the flooding tide.

I drove down to St Helier, stopped off and had a chat with Eddie at JFS Sport - chatted about mullet, tactics and venues - and purchased a few new floats to replace the ones I'd lost, and then zoomed over to the Ferry Terminal car-park and arrived just after 12.00 noon.

Grabbed my gear, put on my waders, and strode off down the pebble beach, and set up at the green algae band of boulders and stones that make up the mid part of the beach.

Strung up a 2.1/2 swann waggler with a 12” fluro hook length and a size 10 hook…

Just as I'd finished, Paul arrived, and we walked down to the wrack line, dropped the gear off and pre-baited the swim…

Chippy had a can of pilchards that he added to his bucket of bread …. I'd not bothered taking mine out of the car boot …. He had also elected to use a size 8 hook and a longer hook length…..

There were a lot of small bait fish in the water, and they made something of a distraction by continuously hitting the surface, especially when we'd just spooned out a fresh load of ground bait… there was one noticeable disturbance some way out in front of Paul, with a fish jumping almost clear of the water…. But not within out casting range!!!

We had a series of missed bites between us, although it did take a while to get going… by 2pm we were pushed off the boulder line at the base of the beach, and with this we had more bites..

2.15pm… Chippy pulls up a Shanny, that promptly dropped off at his feet.. well knees as we were wading amongst the wrack…

2.20pm ….. had a super bite, over struck and promptly popped the float holder, so my float bobbed off away from us never to be seen again!!!

Staggered up the beach, moved my gear further up, sorted out a new float, and re-groundbaited …. Waded back into the water, started chatting to Paul about my lost float, when a mullet whelmed and splashed on the surface between us, taking some of the floating bread I'd just flicked out…..

Five minutes later, around 2.30pm, and Paul's stuck into a mullet… I retrieved by tackle, and staggered back up the beach somewhat hindered by the wrack that seemed to have a tendency to wrap itself around ones feet at the most inopportune moment…. Set the rod down and grabbed the landing net, and waded back towards Paul…. By this time he almost had the mullet under control, although it took several runs when he tried to bring it up, and close to the net…. Eventually he got the upper hand, and the fish was safely netted….

Not a big fish at 17”, and we guessed the weight to be around 2lb ….. Paul was suddenly a very happy man… and why not!!!

And that was it really, Paul slipped the fish back, the swim died, with no real bites after this… indeed Paul called time at 3pm, and I stayed another 30 minutes with nothing but the baitfish to keep me company….

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