Looe Cornwall - Smugglers and Smeddums

The walk from Looe Harbour through to Hannafore where I wanted to fish around some rocks you walk past one of the oldest pubs in the UK, The Jolly Sailor. 

The pub was built in 1516 and sat on the banks of the river. Until about 120 years ago sea vessels used to moor right alongside the old part of the building, until land was reclaimed allowing for cottages adjacent to the pub to be built.

Now the Jolly was a regular smugglers’ haunt. There have been many stories of smuggling, Press Ganging and Crimping which is the practice of kidnapping people to serve as sailors by coercive techniques such as trickery, intimidation, or violence.

One such story is that ,during an unexpected raid by the Customs Officers, the quick-thinking landlady sat on an illicit keg of alcohol, thus concealing it beneath her petticoats and voluminous skirt. While the Customs Officers searched the premises, she calmly knitted, and they would not dare ask to see under a lady's skirt!

The pub as you see it today was two separate buildings until the early to mid 1900's. In the 1800's the old shack that was to the left of The Jolly was removed and a two storey building was erected (Glendale). There are some interesting beams inside The Jolly.

In 1588, the Spanish Armada fleet was attacked and shipwrecked off of the Coast of Cornwall. Some of those beams ended up in buildings around the town including The Jolly, the West Looe Church and The Smuggler's Cott.

The story goes... On 31st July 1588, word came that the Armada had been sighted and so an English force led by Sir Francis Drake and Lord Charles Howard left Plymouth to meet it. 

It is said that when Drake was told of its approach, he simply replied that he had plenty of time to finish his game of bowls before defeating the Spanish.

Relying on the skill of their gunners, Howard and Drake kept their distance and tried to bombard the Spanish flotilla with their heavy naval cannons. 

While they succeeded in damaging some of the Spanish ships, they were unable to penetrate the Armada’s half-moon defensive formation.

Over the next several days, the English continued to harass the Spanish Armada as it charged toward the English Channel. 

The two sides squared off in a pair of naval duels near the coasts of Portland Bill and the Isle of Wight, but both battles ended in stalemates. 

Oh the beer, well I've always been disappointed in the Ale offerings when you've got tourists to serve but Jail Ale which is Dartmoor Brewery's original beer ain't a bad pint, the Jolly serves that anyway, alongside Tribute which seems to be everywhere. About of the best of bad bunch anyway, The Fisherman Inn serves that too. 

A relatively early start this one because Looe gets busy in the summer months especially when the day was going to be a rather pleasant 21 degrees. 2 rods one with a float set-up and then a lure rod as well. It's a rather pleasant walk this in-fact I did it later on in the day with the family as well for a spot of lunch in the lovely small café in Hannafore. No rest for the wicked 25k steps covered 😀 

The tide was coming in fast and I had a few hours so with bait this time to try I was hoping something would turn up. 

It was gin clear though and after a natter to a walker who stopped me to ask where I was fishing he said, you'll be wasting your time mate, dusk and in to dark is the best bet. I'm getting that feeling already to be honest and I've yet to see anyone catch a fish.

Even in the harbour where I've had a little go down the harbour wall for an hour or so nothing and that was on the LRF gear. 

I fished a couple of rock marks and to be honest one in particular looked perfect and after losing a couple of lures I decided to try the float set-up out. 

Some strips of fish, crab and also cooked prawns were tried without even a nibble from anything which surprised me as it looked perfect for a bite. In desperation and to mix it up I rigged up a creature bait and dropped that in and around the rocks and over the rough ground.   

Nothing, hmmm not easy this sea fishing lark. I stopped longer than I thought I would be nearly 3 hours of fishing without anything to show for it.

I'm going to give the lure fishing a go in to dusk I think and then we've a trip to Polperro so I might bring the LRF gear to have a go down the harbour wall. I found a video on YouTube where an angler did exactly that and caught some fish, so I might as well try and follow in his footsteps.

We've been lucky with the weather really because it did look like it was more bad than good before we went but we've been rather lucky I must admit.

The is nothing like these seaside towns when the weather is good. So much to do at Looe too, I'd certainly come back again. Just a shame the pubs don't up their game and serve decent beer. I think many of them are owned by the big boys which doesn't help because massed produced offerings is about the best you are going to get. 

Anyway on to the next one !!

I need some luck !!