28/04/2012
Gareth has done a cracking write up of the events before and after my dodgy secret mark, so I won't bother repeating those parts of the session. Here's the bit in between though!
We arrived at the mark around midday and it was looking good, the 17mph winds were off our backs at my mark so we could get a bit of
much needed shelter. I explained to Gareth that it was a bit sketchy to get down to but perhaps on reflection, that was a little bit of an understatement. However after Gareth had successfully climbed down and up the othe side I thought he'd be ok. That was until we reached the final descent. It was obvious that he wasn't comfortable in the situation, so he rightly decided to turn back and head for one of his marks close by. I had said I would come back with him, but after 5
of him assuring me he'd be fine getting back, I continued down the final drop to the mark. Thinking that Gareth would be ok, I started fishing with a small soft plastic and after a few chucks I had a little ballan wrasse of about half a pound. After another 20 mins I decided to switch tactics and use a home made 2-hook flapper armed with size 4 hooks, a few luminous beads and lovely fresh wriggly rag as bait. I was getting a wrasse a chuck for 20 minutes, nothing of any size but alot of fun. Then I had a tiny rattle and brought up a little LS scorpion fish. Back on the ballans then for a few chucks before species 3 came up, a little corkwing. I stayed happily pulling out these wrasse for another 45 minutes and finishing with around 15 ballans, 4 corkwings and 2 scorpion fish before I thought I best go and join Gareth now at his spot. I packed the gear up and climbed my way back over the tops. As I peered over the crest of the hill though, I was shocked to see Gareth stood about 2/3 of the way up the other side. I must admit, at this point I felt a tad guilty and when I reached him I apologised profusely for not coming back sooner. He was fine about it though and said it was his own fault for convincing me he'd be ok. Nevertheless we now had to get up to the top with Gareth way out of his comfort zone. He was adamant that he was going to swim round but I had to stop him doing that, the current is deceivingly strong round this spot and the last thing I wanted after leading him down there, was for him to go disappearing out to sea. So after 10 minutes of calming his nerves, I gave a samaritin like speech (Gareths words, not mine) to boost his confidence in the climb and showed him a number of ways in which he could go about it. It was really a case of mind over matter and after another short calming nerves period he went for it and sure enough had no problem whatsoever. Once up top, I again apologised for putting him in that situation. For anyone that wanders why some marks are kept secret, then here is your answer. Being a confident climber myself, I don't appreciate how difficult it is for others to get to some of these marks I fish and I'd hate to put anyone in that position again. Also Gareth rightly pointed out after his ordeal that if I had of broadcast this mark to everyone, then no doubt people would try and reach it thinking, 'ye, i'll be fine' and someone would end up getting badly injured.
As you know from Gareths's report we then had another couple of hours wrasse and mini bashing at his spot which was alot of fun and produced a fair few fish.
I went back in the evening to see if I could get a conger, but only managed half a dozen small pollock, a solitary poor cod and this beasty shore rockling which just about makes the record list weighing 270g (roughly 9.5oz) and measuring just shy of 30cm. All fish came on my scratching rig to rag/macky baits.
Cheers for reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross
No comments:
Post a Comment