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Havre Des Pas – La Collette Reclamation Zone 30/7/03
Map Ref: 653,475
Tide: HW 8.20pm (34.6ft)
Weather Forecast: Dull with showers. Wind WNW force 4 to 5
I’d had a phone call earlier in the day from Chippy, and we’d agreed that the conditions ruled out going to the Ferry Terminal as we had planned, and that a more sheltered venue was required …. And so we plumbed for Havre des Pas, fishing from the westward Reclamation boulder field, so the wind would be lessened and behind us….
Drove over to Five Oaks and collected Chris around 3pm, having spent the first half of the afternoon in JFS Sport, chatting with Eddie, and collection of various bits and bobs, such a 8lb line, Kamasan size10 hooks, and a selection of his special white wagglers…..
Drove back into town with Chris, who took me down into the Reclamation area itself, where there is a small car park, and consequently only a short walk to the boulder field, that makes up the Reclamation site edge….. we did try walking through the new garden waste disposal area, until we were intercepted half-way across and turned back …. Not a problem as we realised that the path we really wanted was to our left, parallel to the security fencing, and joined up with the Havre des Pas promenade….. From here we could walk over the top of the boulders until we reached a suitable fishing spot…..
I’d not originally calculated to be either parked as close as we were, nor as easily as we had, consequently arriving at just after 3.30pm was about three quarters to an hour too early…. I’m sure Chris saw the funny side!!!!!
I got the impression that Chris wanted to fish the outfalls slightly further round, but it looked really slippy to me, and as we’d arranged to meet Chippy and Carl close to the promenade, it didn’t seem such a good idea to me, and besides which the prevailing wind would have started to cut across us, causing the lines to really bow out, making the fishing very difficult indeed …. So we elected to walk slightly back and fish the two small bays separated by the low boulder breakwater (only visible at low water)…..
So we clambered down over the boulders and down onto the foreshore, and used the time to set-up and look around …… the area we were going to fish over consisted of three distinct regions in my mind ….. firstly there was the foreshore with its mosaic of sand, gravel and small boulders, with wrack attached here and there, but with a very shallow draft …… behind this was a section of small boulders covered in sea-weed, almost forming a low wall and platform, about meter or two high and about 3 or 4 meters wide, which then merged with the larger blocky boulders which are so characteristic of the Reclamation site in general……. It seemed to me that we would have to wait for the bays to fill, so that the wrack of the foreshore would be covered, and allow us to fish from the small boulder wall….. as the tide advanced, we would be forced back onto the larger boulders, and probably fish most of the incoming tide from that position, retreating at intervals to higher positions…..
By 4pm the water was just starting to come into the first of the small bays whilst we set the gear up…..
By 4.30pm, Chris was chomping at the bit, and had moved slightly further round towards the outfalls, and had started fishing …. I decided to continue to look around, and to put some ground bait down, in the hope that the rising tide would wash it out of the rocks, and get the mullet interested in the general region….
5pm ….. Chris had returned and we both started to fish the first seaward bay at a very shallow draft, mindful of the clumps of bladder wrack, that would be all too easy to snag upon….. however there was some stringy green “intestinalis”(spp), which kept getting on the line and making things awkward…. But as the water continued to rise, this problem greatly diminished, as I suspect the weed was washed over towards the Green St Slipway area…..
Around 5.15pm, my mobile went off…. It was Carl to say he’d be over in about 10 to 15 minutes ….. worryingly he didn’t seem to know where we were, when I told him we were next to the low bolder breakwater …… anyway 15 minutes later he popped over the top of the boulders and came down to join us ….. but still couldn’t work out where he’d been fishing with Chippy two days previous……
5.50pm and Chippy makes his entrance….. a little perplexed as to why we are fishing into the seaward bay … until I explain about our early arrival!!!! It also became clear that Carl was disorientated by the fact that they had arrived later in the tide on the Monday, and consequently the topography looked somewhat different!!!!!!
By 6.15pm we were all fishing into the shoreward bay, trying to avoid being snagged on the weed of the small boulder wall in front of us, whilst Chippy and myself, chucked out the odd spoonful of groundbait …..
Very quickly we all seemed to have bites, but we were forced to fish at distance, and seemed to suffer from the delay in line pick-up … thus failing to connect with the perpetrators…..
This continued for a while, but slowly the bites seemed to dry up…. and things went very slowly after that….. to the point where Carl was suggesting moving off to the Harbour …. But by the time we’d have packed up, got across, found somewhere to fish, and set back up again, I felt that we may as well stick it out and see what was about…..
7.50pm …. My mobile went off ….. it was a chap asking for help about boat fishing …. All I could suggest was joining a club / contacting local tackleshops, or find a place on a novice trip with a friendly skipper …. And I was so engrossed in conversation, that I missed Carl pulling up an 8” smelt …… !!!!!
8.00pm …. Chippy gave a shout next to me ….. he’d managed to hook into a fish ….. a mullet even …. Not a big fish, perhaps a couple of pounds ….. he was going to beach it on the rocks, but thought better of it when it suddenly tore off, when it came close to shore ….. Chris moved over and grabbed a landing-net …. I decided to get some “action pix” … I was just about to take one when Chris moved in the way …. So I moved forward to the waters edge to get a shot of Chippy and his new 7 piece rod battling with the mullet …. But just as I was going to snap the picture ….. Chippy gave a moan .. the fish was off ….. and so we all resumed our positions hoping that we would be next to have a mullet on the end of our line …….
However despite a few more bites, nothing came of it, and the wind seemed to be picking up, and things were getting decidedly chilly …… by 8.30pm or so Carl had had enough, and within 10 minutes the rest of us decided to call it a day ….. rather disappointing, but that’s the flip-side of being a mulleteer……
Almost had a very nasty ending to the evening, when we got back to the car…… I’d lost my hat!!!!! Chris very kindly went back down the path, and came back grinning …. I’d dropped it on the path, and not lost it on the boulder field as I had feared!!!! :-)