Pier pressure
Written by Adrian Farley
Peter, a Postgraduate student from Portsmouth University wrote to me
saying he hasn’t been able to catch.
So, it came to be that two days
later I was on a blustery South Parade Pier in sunny Southsea awaiting
my new ‘student’, Peter. I was still tackling up a float rod and feeling
none too optimistic about the blustery ENE Force 5 which was blowing
anything and everything along the lower deck.
“Hi Pete”, I say, with a
rather nervous smile; you see this was my first outing on the pier this
year as well. It was the 1st of May and not many reports had been
coming my way as yet. This was a ‘dangerous’ experiment but it turns out
that Peter is a bit of a molecular biology ‘boff’ and is completing his
PhD at Portsmouth University.
No worries Pete, I’ll just call you
Doctor hereinafter. Experiment underway …..
I kit out Doc with a 20g float set at
5 feet with a tiny piece of mackerel strip on a size 6 carpie hook.
It’s a bit of a gamble, so I finish putting up a ‘Southend Rig’ on a
second rod. Now, the point of this rig is that it presents a paternoster
type set of hooks but about 12 feet off the bottom or mid-water for
surface feeders like garfish and mackerel. More to the point it allows
me to set out my stall and pour a cup of coffee.
Well, to be
absolutely honest I got a split ring connector attached and was
disturbed by “Fish on …” from Peter. Nah, I said to myself; probably
caught piles!
Oh dear, his rod tip is vibrating and the clutch just
squeaked! Seconds later a beauty of a pier pollack about a pound,
gleaming like polished copper in the spring sunshine, is swung, without
ceremony, over the railings.
Well, “I told you, see ..” says
cocky I! It was certainly the start I was looking for.
The fish was
neatly unhooked and returned as gently as we could from 15 feet up. If
you have a drop net; drop them into it and lower the fish down gently. I
gave the pollack a score of 9.4 and Peter returned to the foray.
Bruddy
‘ell! He dropped the float straight down and it shot off as if there
was a queue for the bus down there. This time a bigger fish of 1 ¼ lbs.
“Right”,
I say to Peter, “job done, I’m off!”
But the lure had been set
and I abandoned the static rod and put together my own slider by which
time it was four, prime pollack to Doc Pete and sod all to me. I put
together an 11 feet Daiwa 2 ¾ lbs carp rod, Okuma baitrunner and 10 lbs
line. My slider float was one of a set I made at home especially for the
pier.
To cut an exciting 90 minutes short, we kept count till we
reached 25 and then gave up counting; and anyway, the tide had begun to
pull strongly under the pier and bites were becoming more sporadic. Pete
had two for his tea and already on ice; both around 1 ½ lbs, while the
rest went back.
Back to the ‘Southend Rig’, then. I baited each
small hook with a sliver of mackerel strip and sorted Peter out a
similar set-up. We managed a coffee and a snack before my rod tip
bounced twice and the line tumbled slack. Nice one …. it’s the first
garfish of the year, neatly impaled in the tip of the beak, but lasooed a
number of times around its bill as well. These gars scamper along the
surface when hooked and tail-walk rather than jump, but provide real fun
on the right gear. Float or freeline fishing is great sport. So back to
the float it was. “More gars on the float than pollack.” I muttered to
Pete.
No sooner had I spoken than the float slid typically sideways
…. but hang on, there are two tearaways on the trace and neither is a
gar! First this way, then that, then under the pier girders; I don’t
think they liked each others company. It was plain to see why, when a
plucky pound plus bass and similar pollack slid over the rail. “Don’t
think I’ve done that before, Pete”, I remember saying.
I should have
pretended it was the norm, eh?
Pete mentioned he had never caught
a garfish before - exactly two minutes before his static-rigged rod
bounced once; then nothing. Then again; more of a gentle feeler this
time. No time to dwell, as the lead pulled out and a gar leapt and
skittered across the chop. It wasn’t happy at all and neither was Pete
when he grabbed it and it scraped its hacksaw blade teeth along his
fingers. “Just behind the head, Peter, firm grasp …”.
“Ouch,
booger!” he replied.
Ah well, first encounters!
Now all this had
happened in under two hours, at which point Gibran from Malaysia joined
us and proceeded to tell me he hadn’t been sea fishing in the UK before.
“What
do I do?”.
No early departure for me then? I set Gib up with a
scratching rig to fish straight down and baited up with ragworm for
small wrasse, pout or pollack just to keep him happy and used to his new
gear.
I might have guessed, eh?
Wallop! Bass 2-5-0 and his first
UK fish. No Gib, it doesn’t get any better, does it?
A nice
mackerel came my way as high water approached.
“Now I’m going home
OK?
Have fun fellahs!” ….. Now that’s something you can do on a pier.
I
started at 5 years and still run a special day on South Parade Pier for
beginners and Juniors at around the time you’re reading this article.
To
see the look of awe on a five year olds face as they actually count the
colours on the scales of a corkwing wrasse, check the beaks out on a
garfish or as two young ladies discovered last year: “Mister, this Sea
Scorpion talks and buzzes when you put it on your palm; it feels all
tingly!”
Well, I didn’t know that till she told me.
We live and
learn.
Copyright Adrian Farley 2010
