I didn't want to start the year with a blank so I opted for a few hours fishing at Portishead marina hoping for a flounder or two to rattle the rod tips and get my species hunt under way. I'd never fished the venue before but was aware that freshwater tactics were the way to go so armed myself a couple of carp rods and set the alarm for an early start in the morning.
Conditions in the marina looked good with a bit of colour to the water which I hoped would encourage the fish to feed. I kept my set up simple with flowing traces carrying a few bright beads and a small spinner blade for added attraction with ragworm on a size 4 hook. Rather than using a plain old lead I decided I would try open-end feeders loaded with halibut groundbait containing chopped up mackerel and squid.
Having grown up coarse fishing I've used groundbait for years but like most sea anglers its not something I've really used in salt water. With such a great range of fishy groundbaits and pellets on the market its an ideal time to start experimenting with groundbaiting in sea angling and is something I intend to do over the coming months. Whether it will help my catches I'm not sure but it can't do any harm!
Back to the fishing and I started to get bites straight away but they were little rattles that didn't develop into proper bites I suspect little whiting and gobies were probably to blame. I continued to fish hard despite the lack of fish casting regularly to get a bed of bait on the bottom which would eventually attract something decent. I finally got my reward about lunchtime when I struck into my first proper bite of the day and the rod arched over into a good curve. I thought I'd hooked into a large flounder but I was in for a little bit of a shock when instead of a a flounder a mullet broke the surface with the ragworm bait hanging from the corner of its mouth. The fight was not as heart stopping as I would have expected from a mullet but was very relieved when I managed to scoop the fish up on the landing net at the second attempt.
My 5lb mullet.
The mullet went 5lb exactly on the scales which was a massive PB. After a quick photo it was returned to fight another day. I had a few more bites after returning the mullet but no more fish and packed up mid-afternoon. I went home a very happy man!
My species hunt challenge has started with a bang although not quite in a way I was expecting!
Looking forward to my next trip already.
Tight Lines.
2013 Species List: thick lipped mullet
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