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Albert Pier 21st Aug 2002
Map Ref: 647,477
Tide: HW LW: 1.02pm (2.5m)
Weather Forecast: Fine with sunny intervals. Wind N F2
Drove down to the pier on my own around 5.30am, set up the gear and groundbaited around the steps and was ready to fish with the first morning light around 5.50am …..
Already ground fishing from the parking overhang above, was a chap in a white van… turned out to be Arron, whom I’d spoken to earlier in the month, about taking some rods over to the UK for a friend of Dave Benson …. Small world…. We looked at the rod canister and then at my car …. Regrettably they were not going to fit :-( …
We talked about fishing, rigs and marks, and Arron told me how hard he thought catching mullet was, with his friends having allsorts of difficulties with the ones to be seen in the top marina during high water…… when I told him of our strike rate so far, I think he thought I was being a little less than honest, or at least stretching the truth some!!!!!
Anyway the morning sun rose, and the conditions were calm …. And around 7.20am I saw two mullet cruise around the end of the pier and up towards the inner harbour….. well at least they were about, even if they were not interested in my offerings…..
7.50am … whoosh , the float suddenly went strait down, hit home into what felt like a small mullet …… certainly gave me a run for my money, much to Arron and his friends amusement …. After about 10 minutes or so I managed to bring it into the net, but not after it had made a number of crash dives and runs, and brought along no less than four other mullet to do a sort of synchronised swimming routine ….. got Arron to come down and help unhook the fish, so he could experience the power and beauty of the fish first hand… surprisingly enough I got the distinct impression he was going to be dusting down is freshwater tackle and giving it a go himself in the not too distant future, and that suddenly the stories I’d told him of catching mullet around Jersey had more than a ring of truth about them…. Strange how that often seems to happen ;-) ….. took a couple of pix, and gently returned the fish…….
Over the next two and half hours I had a number of positive bites, but failed to connect with any of them :-(
10.30am … my mobile went off ….. it was a chap called Paul ……. Paul lives in St Helier, had read the Diary and wanted to know if I’d be interested in going along with him and his friend Stu to Corbiere and plug for Bass …. I have to say the idea appealed but I’d already spoken to Chris about the following day, and knew I couldn’t do a late evening followed by a full day / evenings fishing that we had planned maybe to Elizabeth Castle…. Paul said he was interested in maybe giving the mullet a shot, and asked if I’d just run over the basics tactics I’d been using again…. Which I was more than happy to do….. we left the invitation open and said we’d try and hook up sometime later in the week ….
No sooner had I put the phone down and started fishing again, than I had a series of missed bites in rapid succession …… very frustrating, but intensely exciting ……
10.50am ….. the float shot under for the umpteenth time …. But this time the line stayed solid as the hook bit home ……. Another 10 minute battle with a 14.5” mullet, again with a couple of swimming companions for part of it….. again a couple of pix and a safe return…..
11.05am ….. the float shot under and the rod bent …… another mullet ….. well no … felt like it for the first few seconds, and then it shot off at strange angles and started to run hard parallel to me … at first I thought that maybe the fish was foul hooked, or had the line twisted around it, but I soon remembered this sort of fight ….. mackerel ….. put up a really good scrap for it’s 13.5” size ….. decided to keep it, as I knew my father-in-law Dave had a real passion for them, and would make a nice change for his tea …..
11.30am …… every so often, I find myself hypnotically staring at the float, rather than fully focused for the strike ….. and it always seems that its just at this moment, or when your in the middle of pouring a cup of coffee, or feeding your face, that the fish come knocking ….. true to form the float shot under, and it took me a split second to react … you know how it goes …. OH WHERE HAS THE FLOAT GONE …. OOH COULD BE A BITE …. I’D BETTER STRIKE ….. and at the same time admonishing oneself for not striking sooner, and wondering as you do, if you are going to be too late …….
Well not this time …… the float stayed under, the upper half of the rod bent, and within 30 seconds or so, I was having to give line freely from the centre-pin …… this was a larger fish than the previous offerings of the day, and had caught me somewhat off guard……. It powered off on a number of occasions towards the large pillions under the overhang to the left, but each time I managed to steer the fish out of potential trouble, and back into open water…… after 10 minutes or so, I thought the fish was starting to tire, but this wasn’t one of the smaller fish of earlier, and no sooner had I picked up the landing net than it shot off again ……
After another 5 minutes of hard fighting, I managed to get the fish to the surface and hold it there, after a couple of abortive attempts the fish slipped into the net, and I lifted it clear of the water, turned to take it to the lower landing to unhook it, to be met by a chap in a suit ….. turned out to be Paul’s friend Stu, who’d popped over from work to have a chat … couldn’t have timed the catch better if I’d wanted, unhooked the fish ….
Measured it at 19” and placed it in the weighing sack and registered a respectable 2lb 9oz …. Let Stu have a good look at the fish, before slipping it back…. And then chatted about fishing and more specifically about plugging for bass, sounded like Stu had the bass bug badly, but he also wanted me to show him first hand the mullet rig, so he could talk Paul through it….. not long after Stu had to go, and left me to it…..
Things went very quiet after that, and low water came with nothing to report….. then suddenly around 1.15pm the float shot under, I lifted the rod, and hit home …. But I knew straight away that the fish was small, back to what I’d had for the majority of the morning….. again after about ten minutes or so managed to get the fish to stay up, and was kindly helped to land the fish by a Portuguese chap who’d been watching from the top of the steps…… measured 14.5” and 1lb 4oz in weight (just for comparison) and returned to fight another day……..
1.45pm ….. life became difficult with a number of kids deciding that they wanted to fish where I was, with bright big floats, large splashes, and generally preventing me from trotting my float down the side of the stairs / wall ….. all rather disappointing but rather predictable …. After an hour or so I decided to call it a day, and packed up to leave them to it …… at the top I started talking to a middle aged gent, who obviously knew his stuff, and we talked about various aspects of mullet fishing around the Jersey coastline….
Later that evening around 6pm, Paul sent me a text message ….. he’d just caught his first ever mullet ….. picked up the phone later and spoke with him directly …… he’d managed another, both fish around a couple of pounds each ….. to say that Paul sounded pleased would be a very big understatement indeed!!!!
UPDATE:
Paul now has his own website dedicated to Mullet fishing in Jersey at : http://www.chippyjersey.co.uk well worth a visit, and improving all the time…..