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Archirondel 31st July 2000
GR: 712,517
Karen and myself went over to J.F.S. Sport at Green Street in St.Helier to try and purchase a replacement rod for the one that I'd snapped previously ...... after a while, and with some very helpful assistance purchased a Leeda bass rod, little stiff for just plugging, but offers the possibility of ground fishing should the conditions so warrant, plus with luck I shouldn't snap it whilst casting!!!!!!!. Had a general chat about fishing etc.. and had confirmed the stories I'd heard about smoothound being caught from St.Catherine's breakwater ... with the top bait being squid ..... something to go for later in the week, if circumstances allow.....
Drove over to pick Chris up before 5pm, so that we could dig some lug at Gouray near the slipway ..... however we got held up in traffic at St.Helier, and by the time we'd arrived at Gouray the lug beds were already starting to be covered by the incoming tide......
Decided the best thing to do was drive past Archirondel, and on to St.Catherine's Breakwater and see what bait we could get, along with the couple of boxes of squid we already had....
Karen and Chris came back with a selection of sandeels, mackerel, and frozen peeler crab .... unfortunately no worm baits were available... so we drove back to Archirondel....
When we arrived just before 6pm, found that the track leading to the Tower, was blocked, by some kind soul, who'd simply parked their car for the day, whilst they went swimming!!!!!! ... Just unpacked the car and started to walk, when the owner of the car returned .... chucked the stuff in the back, and drove down to the tower....
Things were looking good.... we almost had the wall to ourselves, the wind was a light southerly, with clear skies, with the odd wisp of cloud .... High water was due around 8pm..
We set-up a number of rods, again so we could spin, float-fish or ledger as we wished....
Started fishing around 6.15pm....... I decided to spin until such time as the other two started to have some results with the float or ground fishing.....
I could see quite a lot of surface activity on the western side of the wall, with fish hitting the surface, but they were just out of casting range, even with some of the heavier lures...
6.25pm..... brought the J13 in towards me, and was greeted by the sight of a chasing bass .. not large, say around 2lb, but a bass none the less .... only problem was that it was only interested in chasing, and following the lure about 2 feet behind..... as the plug came towards the surface, so the fish rolled, and turned away ...... I was both exited and disappointed at the same time.....
6.45pm ..... again another chasing bass ... and again no result :-(
We'd been joined now my a mother and her two children who were both spinning ... to avoid getting too crowded, I moved over to the eastern end of the wall, and continued to plug...
7.40pm...... just bringing in the J13, when behind it, not one, but 3 bass following in tight formation ... hoped that one of them would take a lunge, but alas they just followed, and then dived away :-(
With high water there were some really nice currents and eddies to try, but the fish didn't seem to want to play...... soon after spinning was no longer a viable option, due to the amount of floating weed... so I set-up for ledgering....
8.40pm ... Karen managed to catch the first fish of the day ..... a 6" shanny, that she pulled up using float fished squid....... uuuuummmmm....
Things got worse .. nothing... not a bite .... darkness came, and not even a sign of a pouting....
10.00pm .... Karen again had a bite, this time to ledgered squid..... and pulled up a 23" dogfish.....
By 11.30pm, the water had dropped to make fishing almost impossible with the rocks and boulders around the wall clearly visible.. and to be honest, we'd had enough too!!!!!!
All very disappointing, and for no tangible reason .... we may have been better off with worm baits, but even so, I'd have expected a lot more pouting and dogfish if nothing else .. guess that's the way it goes ... another tide, another story!!!!!!!!