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Boulay Bay (L’Islet) 15th Aug 2002
Map Ref: 672,546
Tide: HW 12.06pm (9.6m)
Weather Forecast: Fog/mist to start, then Bright and Sunny. Easterly wind force 2/3
Chris and myself decided that Boulay Bay would be a nice change …… unfortunately to a) gain easy access to the Islet, and b) to maximise our chances of catching fish, it meant an early start….. collected Chris around 5.00am …. Drove up to Boulay, parked, walked over the beach, scrabbled over the Islet (really a two person job, with tackle needing to be passed up…), and set-up to fish by 6.00am, just as the Dawn was breaking….
Chris elected to ground fish, from the western end, coupled with some lure / float fishing…..
whilst I moved over to the eastern end, to float fish for mullet, in the sheltered bay / beach at the back of the Islet….
Not a great start …… started to throw out some groundbait, when the spoon detached from its handle…. Sailed on, and splashed into the sea below… just to complete the farce, a large mullet comes out of the gloomy depths and onto the rock shelf that the metal spoon has settled on, and then moves off, showing no interest at all in what ground bait I’ve managed to throw out …… should have forgotten about the bread, and gone with a selection of cutlery instead!!!!! As it happened, I’d packed a second flicker spoon, and so got back to the task in hand….. a second mullet arrives, smaller than the first, takes a lunge at the groundbait cloud, but then moves on, before I can tempt it with a baited spoon hook ;-)
Well at least there were mullet about, and they seemed to be showing at least some interest….. along with the ever growing hordes of whitebait, smelt, and small wrasse…..
7.00am …. Polarised sunglasses even at this time of the morning are a revelation….. looking down into the depths, I saw what at first I thought was a light sandy/mottled flatfish, in amongst the smelt and wrasse …. Reminded me of a small Brill, or similar…. However shortly afterwards, the fish rose higher in the water column, and I realised I was not looking at a flatfish at all ….. it was in fact a small John Dory, swimming sideways …. Fabulous…. I’ve never seen one swimming in the wild before….. such a strange, ugly, yet fascinating fish…
7.15am …… rising out of the depths, the outline of a grey ghost makes a bee line for my baited hook ….. trouble with the crystal clear water, is that I found myself watching the mullet, and NOT the float …. Consequently when the bite came, I reacted too slowly, and the moment was lost :-( Stupid mistake to make, but so easy to do……
7.35am ….. suddenly to my left, a number of mackerel attack a floating section of bread crust that had failed to sink, jumping clear of the water in some cases as they did so…. But no sooner were they there, than they were gone……. Too quick for me to try and catch one with my mullet set-up…..
8.00am...... couple of people fishing the harbour pier, moved off..... probably to go to work.... although others came and went through-out the day...
8.15am…. with the sun now rising, and me facing east, my ability to see into the water, even with sunglasses was very difficult, and at times I struggled to even see the float……. Suddenly the tranquillity of the bobbing float was replaced by its submergence…. A sharp strike in response, and the game was afoot…… the fish dived straight down, taking line, and making the fixed spool scream as it did so…… my immediate response was to try and control the fish as much as I could…. Below were clearly visible shelves of barnacle and weed encrusted rock, just waiting to separate me and the fish……. Proved to be difficult, as the mullet, seemed only to know two directions ….. down, and towards me and the rocks!!!!!
I shout to Chris, to let him know I was in ……. The fish continued to fight on….. I shouted again to Chris, but still got no answer…… so I shouted again, and again …… and again …… all with a similar result…. NO Chris ……. I suddenly realised I had two problems …… I’d climbed down the eastern side, as it was low water…. Chris has done the same on the western side, and between us was a solid island of rock, though which sound was not going to travel!!……. OK so Chris is out of touch, so what …. Well that’s the second problem, because in my haste to fish, I’d left the landing net neatly propped up on one of the rocks at the top, and I couldn't get to it, without rubbing the line over the VERY sharp rocks in between………. What I needed was Chris , with the net.. neither of which seems to be an option!!!!
I continue to play the fish out…. Thinking at the same time, about how I was going to resolve these problems, with the odd desperate shout for Chris to come and help, thrown in for good measure…. Eventually after about 25 minutes or so, the mullet was beaten, and was on the surface, but I still had no way to land it…. Then an idea….. now that the fish was beaten, I could guide it around the front edge of the rocks and into the bay to my right… this I did, and it allowed me to climb/ scrabble higher up the rocks, whilst maintaining contact with the fish …. Managed to get to the top, and shouted for all I was worth, to Chris, to give me a hand (whilst I’d got to the top, the landing net was still out of reach!!!!)…. Chris came up from the Western side, much to my relief….. and asked me if I’d been calling him, as he thought he’d heard something, but guessed it was from one of the boats, and had thus ignored it!!!!!!
Explained what had been going on for the past half hour, and laughed telling him to take his mobile with him next time…… anyway, scrabbled back down, and Chris netted the fish……. Weighed and measured (1lb 10oz, with a length of 17”, thought it was going to be more in the two pound bracket from the length, and the fight it put up….. obviously a mean, lean, wild mullet, rather than the slightly porky harbour variety I’d been used to!!!), took a picture, and popped it back, on the other side of the Islet…..
9.45am….. having returned back to fishing, I started to allow the float to drift with the current, towards the right, and into the bay area…. As it did so, the float entered into a scummy region, where I felt there was a possibility that mullet may gather, and find it attractive….
My float suddenly went under, but striking home, yielded no reward….. :-( …… and to add insult to injury, as I retrieved the tackle, up popped a mullet behind it, only to dive away as the last of the bread, dropped away from the trailing hook……
Went up to tell Chris, only to find, that he’d come over to see me, to let me know he’d just lost a garfish on the float tackle, and that it had also shredded his hook line as well….. tales of woe all around it would seem……
10.20am ….. with the tide rising I was forced to up sticks, and take a new position on top of the Islet and fish into the little bay….. as I was doing so, Chris shouted across that he’d caught a blenny!!!!!…..
With the rising sun, came the realisation, that whilst the water was almost gin clear, and there were loads of smelt to be seen, that there were no mullet in the upper quarter of the water column, as far as I could tell … as a consequence, I decided to fish deeper, and adjusted the float stop knot to fish at a depth of around 13ft……
11.00am …… a small shag turned up, diving around where I was fishing, presumably after the smelt….. decided to take a time-out, and had a cup of coffee for five minutes, and allow it to move off, before continuing….
11.10am …. Very shortly after starting to fish again, my float went under, and the fish dived off, but away from me and the Islet ….. Chris came over, while I played the fish, which went on a series of deep and powerful runs, further, and further away…… I managed to start to regain some line, before it gained its second wind, and shot off, taking yet more line…… eventually however, I started to get the upper hand, and brought it closer, but it still proved to be difficult to bring it to the surface…… a couple of deep lunges towards the rocks below, countered by additional pressure from me, and the fish came up….. it appeared to be fairly spent, after some 20 minutes of fighting, and trying to throw the hook, so I guided it towards Chris, and after a couple of swirls and sideways flicks from the fish, managed to net it for me……
Got the fish up to the top of the rocky platform … a nice looking thick-lipped mullet of 19”, and weighed 2lb 11oz, took a couple of pics, and put it back………
11.51am….. Chris hooked a sandeel while feathering for mackerel .. whilst I’d read about this happening, it was the first time I could remember witnessing it….. anyway, Chris decided to put it out on a single line, to see if he could temp any hungry bass in the vicinity, that hadn’t had their fill of whitebait!!!!!!!!
12.30pm…. everything went very quiet ….. even the whitebait, and smelt disappeared.. :-(
Karen phoned, to see how things were... just at that moment, a fog bank had rolled in.....
very pleasent, as it cut down the heat from the overhead sun ..... but didn't please Karen, as she was flying into the Island that evening!!!!! But as we were talking the fog was soon burnt off, by the sun, and with it, the heat ...... made more unpleasent by the almost ridged stature I'd adopted whilst fishing... oh and the fact that I was wearing black jeans!!!!!
1.30pm…. Chris decided that it was a waste of time ground fishing, and set up his mullet rod, and came over and joined me…… Chris started fishing off the eastern edge, whilst I was higher up, and fished into the little bay region at the back of the Islet…….
1.55pm.. the sea starts to come alive once more, with the return of whitebait and smelt, and we also saw a couple of mullet come cruising around the front edge, at some speed, and obviously not interested in our offerings!!!! …… still nice to know they are still about…….
Suddenly a little way out and between where Chris and myself were fishing, a series of splashes occurred, as if someone had thrown a skimming stone… plop, plop, plop……
Sort of took us by surprise, and after a few seconds of trying to see what had caused it, I went back to rebaiting my hook……..
Cast out, and waited for the shot and bread to sink, and for the float to cock…… the float cocked, but then continued straight down…… blinked, and struck and the still descending float….. BANG ……. What followed was some explosive action ….. this was no mullet……. The fish hit the surface, and it was immediately apparent, what the fish was, and what the splashes had been 2 seconds before……. GARFISH
The snake like outline under the water, shot off first in one direction, and then the next….. suddenly it was on the surface, but some way out …. Its response to the applied pressure from the line, was to rear up, and start tail-walking on the surface….. magnificent stuff….. then it plunged downwards, only to zoom back up, and break the surface, with a series of aerial acrobatics, and summersaults, that just left one mesmerised…… all too soon the show was over, and the fish came readily in…… lifted the fish up, as Chris felt it wasn’t worth risking life and limb to scramble down and net it……
Took some pictures of the 23” garfish, before dispatching it to the bait box, for later float fishing trips……
If you want to catch garfish, and have some real fun, then scale right down to this scale or lower….. I’m sure if people did, they’d be a lot less dismissive of the humble snipe!!!!!
3.50pm…… oooh… little bit of excitement, as a couple of mullet come nosing around the float, but soon dive deeper…… whoosh, under goes the float…… but rather than the mullet that I’d hoped for, I find myself pulling up a 5” smelt, that drops off, just before I can grab it…… 2 seconds later, Chris looks up, clutching another 5” smelt, that he’d just hooked into!!!!!!
3.55pm…… Chris gives a little shout, that turns into rapid action, as his rod bends, and the reel sings, as it gives out line, to a running fish …… turns out that Chris had been having problems with keeping his bred on the hook, and had started to reel-in, when a mullet had started to follow…. Chris had stopped to allow the fish to come up to the bait, and the second the fish had opened its mouth and gabbed the bait, Chris struck, going by what he saw, rather than what the float told him…… anyway, this mullet, did very much what my first one had done… diving deep, but very close to the Islet, always trying to get under the submerged rock ledges and weedy hazards……. As a result, Chris was forced right to the edge, to try and steer the fish clear of its intended escape routes……. Slowly, and steadily Chris wore the fish down, until eventually after about 15 minutes or so, he had it on the surface…… BUT….. there is always a but…… the tide had fallen, so that it was going to be hard to net the fish….. my two handle length landing net, would only just half submerge…… I’d moved down, and was forced to kneel/ lie over a rock outcrop, which meant I was effectively blind, straight in front, and at that angle, Chris couldn’t see anything at all…… managed to get Chris to steer the fish in towards my left-hand side….. but just as I was going to net it, the fish was spooked, and went under the rock over hang, dragging the line over the face of the net…. A couple of heart stopping seconds, and the fish had moved back to my left ….. took a deep breath, and told Chris to guide it in again ….. this time there was to be no escape, and the fish glided over the rim of the net, and safely lifted out…… phew…. Passed the net, with fish, up to Chris, and scrambled up to the top…… nice fish, again 19”, and 2lb 7oz
…….. took some pictures, and then Chris popped it back…… Chris was very happy, and so was I….. the jinx that Chris seemed to have, every time he came mullet fishing with me, seemed to be broken…… :-)
We continued on for another hour of so, but despite having a couple of bite early on, had nothing further to show for our efforts…….
Just before 5pm, and with the tide low enough to allow an easy access off the Islet, we decided to call it a day….. and what a day……..