Fishing around the Percuil and Fal

[Blankton]

Last weekend I had an impromptu trip down to Cornwall for some fishing with another SIBer

We camped on the Roseland and launched at Percuil boatyard. This is a great little spot. There is a large public carpark with £2 a day honesty box and public toilets. There is a slipway which goes onto good hard creekbed at low tide, which is fine for launching wheels - no sinking into the mud/sand/shingle. I think its £5 to launch, but we paid £10 to leave the boats tied up overnight, so we didn't have to take them out.

Fishing is the main reason I have my boat - so pretty much all weekend was spent fishing. Unfortunately there was a 15-20mph northerly all weekend, which was a pain in the backside.

We tried for Gilthead bream up the creeks, but didn't have any luck, maybe a bit late in the year.
Fishing the carrick roads was was very difficult due to the wind. In fact even in the creeks we were blowing around at anchor.

On the sunday we motored into the wind for about half an hour to get to turnaware bar, which was relatively sheltered and had a few huss and a lone mackerel.







St anthonys "fraggle rock" lighthouse:


Turnaware bar, with tresillic in the background




I'm back in a couple of weeks for half term. Hopefully to catch some winter species such as whiting, squid, cod etc.

After the wind caused such a problem in this trip I was wondering if ayone that fishes from their boat uses a drogue to try and hold the boat into the tide. I am thinking of buying one. A lot are aimed at kayak anglers, I wonder what size I might need for a 3m SIB?

[paintman]

Used drogues for years on reservoir boats for trout fishing. Mine's 5ft by 5ft which complies with International Fly Fishing competition rules.

I also use mine at sea - 17' Dory. Most useful when wind is with tide & you're drifting too fast due to the wind & will slow you down so you're more at the speed of the tide. Usually stream over the side so drifting sideways, but can stream over the bow.

Have a look at the Wychwood or Airflo drogues. You don't need to use clamps on the side of the boat, I attach both cords to a screwgate carabiner & the carabiner to a suitable point on the boat - or a short length of rope which is attached to the boat. This still allows you access to one of the cords for when you retrieve the drogue. Pulling one cord collapses the drogue & once it has then pull on both cords & recovery is easy.

This link is a reasonable 'how to'. Attaching at two points does have some advantages & I do sometimes rig that way on reservoirs, but a single point isn't as bad as he makes it out to be & I generally single point at sea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPpzLIzcb2E

[Blankton]

Thanks for the detailed response. In my situation I was thinking of deploying from the stern while anchored at the bow to pull the boat in one direction, as I was swinging on the anchor with the wind. I suppose the other thing to do would have been to use a stern anchor as well, but I didn't have one and a drogue would be a lot smaller and lighter to keep in my gear "just in case".

[paintman]

I get a similar boat swinging problem float legering dead baits for pike on Pitsford reservoir.
Usually anchor with the anchor rope central on the boat - note there is not a tidal flow but wind can be a bit of a pain - as there are two of us in the boat each with 2 rods deployed.
Drogue wouldn't make any difference but a second anchor would.
Problem with that is you then have two ropes for fish to get tangled round!

If you want to try two anchors deploy the front one first, anchoring stern to tide is dangerous & can pull the stern down allowing water to come over the transom.

[paintman]

Just a thought, if you want to leger then consider uptiding with grip lead as the bow in the line will help to mitigate the effect of the boat in addition to keeping the bait hard on the bottom.

[paintman]

If you fish the Fal regularly might be worth a look at the youtube 'The Fish Locker'.
Random choice, bear in mind you can't target these deliberately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVupsyhb0uM

[Blankton]

Thanks for that Paintman, I am familiar with his work. It was very lucky he happened to be fishing for sharks when those tuna swam by

[paintman]

I was planning on trying a bit of sharking in the same area this summer.
The Totally Awesome Fishing site (on youtube as well) also has a session fishing for blues & they were well inside the Manacle buoy.
Unfortunately our holiday plans for this year were scuppered by cv.

[Blankton]

Just noticed your location. Two people from the most landlocked county in the country discussing sea fishing......

[paintman]

.....in the same area of Cornwall!

[Blankton]

A couple of weeks late with this, but prior to lockdown 2 I had another week down that way. Going for a week meant that I didn't have to push it with regards to the weather, I just went out when the weather was decent.

First day I just motored round from the launch spot to St Mawes harbour, where I was tieing up on the pontoon for the week. It was a spring low, so there was no water in the harbour and I had to kill an hour or so. Drifting around the shallow ground off the castle I had a couple of bass and a small polloack. The best bass was just on eating size, but I put it back.





Then there were a couple of poor days, followed by a whole morning afloat in the carrick roads. I had a nice mixed catch predominantly of bullhuss and whiting. The huss went up to about 7lb (just unhooked over the side, I don't like them in the boat) and some quite nice whiting. I also had a mackerel (which made good bait) and some doggies. I also had a squid rig out, but still no luck on that front.





The last decent day I was doing some pleasure trips for a mate and my wifes little cousin. But I managed to sneak in a lure rod and had some wrasse near the lighthouse.