With high-tide at 10.30pm I was umming and ahing whether or not to actually go fishing or not but I'd bought some mackerel from one of the limited options of tackle shops within the village, and the 40 mph winds that were due around decision time didn't seem at all bad.
If I didn't got this could well have been the last session and I fancied trying to catch another sea species to add to my limited tally, and I wouldn't catch anything without a bait in the water now would I.
A walk down to the harbour at 8.30pm the sea was certainly choppier and the white water and crashing waves indicated things would get wild overnight.
The harbour was filling up nicely and a chat to a boat owner who came to see if his boat was going to be fine, said that fill your boots it shouldn't be "that" bad because the "wind was going over us". It was the predicted rain I was more bothered about but it was still very mild and apart from the wind, almost pleasant.
There was an angler on the outer wall already which has a stone and concrete apron which can make fishing from there difficult when retrieving tackle or landing a fish.
At the end of the wall at the round section there is a vertical drop to the water which makes that section the favoured spot.
A long cast is not needed, fish come very close to the wall but for me the best bites came the furthest I could chuck.
That spot seemed to be the go to swim so to speak but to he honest from a novice here the inner harbour wall was producing bites especially when the light went.
It's much easier to fish off here and there are plenty of spots to fish as well and its handy it's well lit. The problem is during the day the inner harbour wall can get quite busy with crabbing going on which can limit your swim choice. What didn't help for me is that I didn't have a tripod so I had to use a bench or one of the harbour signs to elevate the rod.
I arrived at 9.30pm and another couple of anglers were already there but by 10.30pm they had already left. The angler on the outer wall was still there and I was determined to stick it out too.
I am glad I did as well because the bites started to come and after a fish dropped off assume a whiting or something I decided to stay put.
A couple of missed bites eventually a half decent fish was on and as expected it was a dogfish, this on fighting a little better than the last two.
The problem was as I was lifting it up the vertical wall it was wriggling like a good'un and managed to lose the hook and it fell back to where it came from. Encouraging signs so I messaged the Wife to keep the RNLI in standby and got the bait out again.
I had been using mackerel strips cut from fillets but the frozen baits I caught were small whole fish so I defrosted them under cold water and cut the fish in to 20mm chunks. The baits seemed to hold more blood if that would make any difference. I'm sure it helped though because the bites were thick and fast and I bet I could have stayed till the tide went out.
Ok not massive dogfish only a couple of pound or so but the little bait nicking wrigglers can offer sport when the others fish are not interested. A couple of more decent bites without a fish on the end I decided to get back for a nightcap and before the rain got 'interesting'.
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