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Fort D'Auvergne 11th Aug 2002
Map Ref: 656,477
Tide: HW 9.17am (11.2m)
Weather Forecast: Cloudy with showers later. Wind W to SW F4
Tide: HW 9.17am (11.2m)
Weather Forecast:
Having lost the previous two days due to high winds and showers, the desire to “chance it” grew ever larger ….. on the previous day, Chris and myself had made the most of the spring tides, and had gone around the Island looking at suitable marks under such low water conditions ….. whilst such reconnaissace trips are extremely valuable in the information that they yield, and the subsequent decisions made to fish specific marks, they are no substitute for fishing, esp. when ones time is so limited, and your chomping at the bit…….
Having been down to Green Street and The Dicq on that trip, and seeing how calm it was, even with a NW F5/6 blowing over the Island, we’d made our minds up to give it a whorl, if only to satisfy our own curiosity…..
Collected Chris around 6.45am, and drove straight down…. Found the normal carpark full, so went back to Green Street multi-carpark …… indeed I suspect it may be even closer, and will probably try and park there in the future…..
Anyway, unloaded the car and walked down ….. to find that with the large spring tide, that the water was already lapping at the base of the rock …… rapidly set up, and took up potions, after chatting with a chap who wanted to know about fishing from the beaches….
To be honest, conditions were less than favourable from the off….. the westerly wind was cutting straight across us, pulling the floats from right to left, and dragging the gear in ever closer to us!!! The wind also created a fair degree of chop, making bite detection almost impossible, save for the most positive of bites …… and then to compound matters the prevailing wind direction, brought across rafts of floating and submerged weed, making fishing impossible on occasions …….
Had a number of solid bites, but failed to connect .. the nagging doubt and suspicion was that they were being caused by the submerged floating weed….
By 8.40am ….. Chris had decided to try and fish from the more sheltered bay by the pool on the left-hand side… but with no joy, although there were a number of small fish in the 5 to 6” bracket swimming around…..
By 9.00am we called a halt … it really was impossible ….. as we packed up, I foolishly suggested may be going to the Albert Pier, as the steps could perhaps afford us some protection, and ledger for the mullet there, sep. since we still had half a bucket of ground bait left…….
When we arrived, we found the steps were all but in accessible due to the very high tide, and with a chap fishing over the railings with half sides of mackerel, for bass I guess ….. so we gave the overhang a go… dropping the ledgered bread over the side, and looking for bites from the rod tips …. But the wind had increased more to F5/6 and made it impossible …. Just as we started to pack up, it started to rain and drizzle …… which it continued to do for the rest of the day……. :-(