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Fort D'Auvergne 13th Aug 2002
Map Ref: 656,477
Tide: HW 10.40am (10.8m)
Weather Forecast: Bright with a W to SW wind F2/3
After the past four days of poor weather, at last a real opportunity to get out and have a go, down around the Green Street Slipway ….. decided to fish off of the Fort D'Auvergne rock, to make life simple …… one of these days, esp. with a westerly wind, I really must try from the slipway itself…..
Anyway, I’d pre-soaked 2 and 1/2 loaves of crumbled medium crust bread the night before, and left it to “stew” in the car overnight… drove over to pick Chris Ball up just after half past seven, having grabbed some additional supplies on route, such as parking scratch cards, water, and sweets……
Drove down to the Green Street Carpark, put down 5 parking scratch cards to cover us until 1pm (by which time I guessed the tide would have dropped to call a halt to fishing), and made our way to the rock ….. when we arrived the tide was out, but rapidly advancing towards us …. Gave us enough time to comfortable set up, groundbait the area, and go through our usual rituals, such as having a cup of coffee before we started, by 8.20am….. Things looked good, nice and sunny, very little wind, and a jolly lot nicer than it had been on the dismal Sunday outing…….. it just felt right …… and I told Chris as much, and sort of regretted doing so afterwards, in case I’d jinxed us!!!!! :-(
As the water just started to lap at the base of the rock, so sufficient water was available to allow us to start fishing …… both Chris and myself were using very similar set-ups …. With a large white straight orange tipped wagglers….. I’d chosen to go with a 3 swan, as I was fishing above Chris, and needed the extra weight to gain distance….. fishing a depth of 2 to 3 ft from the hook trace of 20” or so, 5lb fluorocarbon line, with its size 10 kamasan B983 wide gape specialist hook (which I’d painted white)…. Topped off with a thumbnail size bit of bread flake, squeezed to the shank and bend of the hook, leaving a nice fluffy bed of bread in which the point and barb were concealed…..
To start with conditions were slightly off putting, with a lot of colour in the leading water, with its turbulent load of sand and sludge, not to mention floating weed……. Slowly however, as the tide advanced it became apparent that the water was clearing to a degree, but perhaps less than normal, possibly as a consequence of the poor weather over the past few days………
With Chris sitting and fishing in front, I resorted to fishing more towards the right-hand side at about 45 to 90 degrees to where we were sitting, and in front of the rocky reef…..
As the tide rose so did the wind, and came round to the west, giving a little chop and bob to the water, but still allowing for very pleasant fishing……
8.45am…. suddenly my float bobbed, and went straight under ….. I instantly struck home, and was rewarded, by the tug of a fish on the other end…… gave a shout to Chris that I was in ….. I managed to bring the fish up to the surface quite quickly whilst it was still in that disorientated state, that so many mullet seem to start off in, when they are first hooked ….. nice looking fish ….. let me rephrase that ….. very nice looking fish … looked well over 3lb…. Suddenly as if a switch had been thrown, the fish woke up out of its dazed state, and powered off to my left .. and straight towards the half submerged reef …… I desperately struggled to keep it from entering there, for fear that it would cut the line on the rocks ….. as I applied pressure to the slipping drum of the fixed spool, as the fish took more line, it suddenly veered away from the left, and came in underneath the front of the rock, forcing Chris to scurry off his perch and allow me to try and play the fish at the front ….. no sooner was it guided away from the dangers of the front, than it decided to sped off to the right, and into the rocky reef there .. all the while I’m trying my best to guide it away, and wishing it would start to dive, rather than thrash around on the surface….. Chris scrambled down the right-hand side of the platform, and whilst playing the fish in one hand, I managed to pass down the landing net with the other ….. the fish by this time was in a bisected channel, one of which led to Chris …. We’d played this game before (although on the other side of the Rock) with other fish in the past… if we could time it right, then the fish would be forced down the channel, and into the net …..
However just at the critical moment, the fish dived deeper, and the back-swell, meant that Chris was unable to move the net, due to the force / weight of water suddenly running over it .. for one heart stopping moment, I think we both thought that I’d land up catching the net, rather than the fish, as the float, bobbed over its rim …… thankfully both the fish and tackle remained united ….. but there was no time to give thanks, as the fish powered back around the front of the platform, and into the left-hand reef, diving deeper as it did so, again scaring me witless, by the fact that it could so easily cut the line against the submerged rocks, with their jagged edges, and barnacle encrusted faces ……
Dire times, require drastic measures, and I made the decision to tighten the drag …. Much too hard for such a fish, but with little option if I was to move the fish out into more open water, and stand any chance of playing it out…….. the curve on the rod increased, and I was convinced the hook was going to pop at any moment, and ready to curse my luck as it did so ….. but it didn’t happen, the gods were smiling.
The fish moved out in front of the platform …. As it did so, I immediately started to slacken the drag, but took a little line back to maintain the desired tension, until the clutch slipped when I attempted to retrieve, or the fish pulled hard enough to warrant its surrender ……. I cursed to Chris, saying what I’d give to have been able to use the centre-pin, with it more subtle control, and more forgiving nature, when it came to playing such a fish…… to which Chris simply replied that if I wanted the fish landed, I’d have to bring it to him, ‘cos he wasn’t about to scramble back up and try else where…… I fully understood, and told him I really thought there was little choice in the matter, at this stage of the tide……. And so the fight went on……
Now the fish adopted a new tactic… with the backwash from the advancing tide coming around from both sides of the platform, it purposefully maintained station in first one, and then the other, thus expending as little energy as possible, and letting its body weight do the work for it, with the odd lunge, and shake of the head, just to let me know it was there ….. every time I tried to move it out, and get it to do some work, in order to tire it out, I was faced with a slipping clutch, or having to resort to additional tension, that was met by a powerful surging run in the opposite direction back to the flow, with the odd dive for the rocks just for good measure… and so a sort of stalemate arose …. But it did a least allow me to swap arms, every so often and reduce the ache in my muscles that was slowly, but surely developing ……. I’d also seemed to gain a small number of onlookers from the parade, who gave supportive gestures of approval and encouragement…. And all I could do was shrug my shoulders to indicate that this little skirmish, had some way left to go…..
Suddenly I noticed another mullet … even larger than the one hooked, rise from the depths and started to swim along side it ….. soon after two more mullet arrived, as the larger one disappeared, and eventually much to the surprise of Chris and myself, a total of 4 other mullet in unison were swimming with the snared one, not but 12ft away from us, and on the surface, ….. if Chris had been able, we could have almost been able to net 2, 3 or even 4 mullet, for the price of one!!!!!
However…. after several abortive attempts at bringing the mullet around to Chris, and trying to get it back onto the surface, it started to loll a little……. And right on cue, just as it was about to be netted… off it sped again, this time with a series of deep diving surges, and violent head shaking and nodding…… and back into the back-flows……. I was starting to wonder if I was going to ever land this fish, and kept having to apologise to Chris, for keeping him away from catching fish himself .. which obviously he couldn’t, until this fish was out the way… but it made me feel better for saying so anyway….
At last, and with some relief, the fish started to swim on its side…… a sign of weakness … uuumm , more a sign of danger….. I decided to gamble, and applied more pressure, and the rod bent round again, but I stuck with it, and finally managed to get the fish to swim towards Chris and the waiting net …….. with a couple of near misses, it eventually glided over the rim, and Chris lifted, and twisted the net handle upwards, thus trapping the fish, and passed it up to me …….. I could have sobbed with joy, pain, and relief, all at the same time…….
Managed to thank Chris as he climbed back up, for his patience, and considerable help ….. so vital in actually landing this wonderful fish for me…..
Took the fish up to the top, to unhook it, and was greeted by a chap that had been watching throughout …. And told us it had lasted the best part of half an hour, and congratulated me on such a fine mullet and the way I'd played it.. .. to which all I could do was mumble something rather incoherent in the way of thanks, and beamed uncontrollably …….
Asked Chris to grab the weighing sack and my Camera … which he did, whilst I measured the fish ….23.1/2” long …… Chris scrambled back to try and catch one of the other mullet we’d seen, and left me with the chap who’d joined us to weigh the fish …. Corrected the balance for the sack, and then popped the fish in……. we looked at the scales, and agreed at 4lb 9oz …… a new PB… YES!!!!!!
Took a couple of snaps, and asked the chap to do the honours with me holding the mullet, which he very kindly did… then I walked with the fish to the steps, and down onto the low wall, and slipped the fish into the water, and let it go……..
Went back, thanked the chap who’d helped, and sat down….. all I can say was that I was physically shaking, and emotionally drained……. But wow, was that a rush…….. gimme gimme gimme ..... mullet are a drug!!!!!
Managed to pour myself a cup of coffee, and phoned Leon to let him know how I’d got on, and then did the same with Eddie in JFS Sport, as without the help and guidance that both had given me over the previous year, I’d probably never have had the opportunity to hook into, let alone play and land such a magnificent fish …. If either of you two are reading this, then Thank You Both, once again……
Well things rapidly started to change….. the wind started to pick-up to force 3 or even 4 on occasions, and blow from the west, in which case we had problems with the cross wind, or from SW, straight in our faces, and bringing the tackle in rapidly towards us. This coupled with the additional chop, and greater amounts of drifting sea weed, meant that detecting all but the most positive of bites, was all but impossible….
We both seemed to have bites but failed to connect, and we were really not sure if they were due to fish or floating weed, on many occasions…..
11.10am …. Chris gave a shout, and his rod was bent, with the tip giving a number of pulls, and with it line… but almost before it had started, the fight was over and the fish was gone, having managed to shake itself free…. :-(
11.50am …. Chris gives a shout, and then questioned if he should have, when his rod tip bent slightly again in response… it’s a small mullet that he very quickly pulls up without a fight….. turns out to be a small golden grey mullet of 10”, which he pops back before I could snap it with the camera …. To be honest, with the sunshine, the rocks were baking, and the only place he’d managed to land it was into a rock crevice with sea water in it… and boy did it splash about.. not really ideal to try and take a picture…..
The water was fast ebbing away, and just past noon, my float slid under the water…. At first I thought I’d picked up a small clump of weed, but soon realised it was a small mullet .. a very small mullet … all of 8”, and taking a leaf out of Chris’s book slipped it back, without a picture, again as there was no where really suitable to do so, and it wasn’t really worth it……
By the time 12.45pm came around it was time to rush back to the car.. Chris came back from a short play over by the swimming pool side, whilst I threw what remained of the groundbait in….. which was met by a shoal of very small, but hungry mullet ….. which shoals be ready to catch in about 15 years time, when their more in the 4lb class….. ;-)