Glorious Failure

My trip to Cornwall coincided with the arrival of yet another depression. The type that brings strong winds and heavy rain. The resultant cancelled boat trips could have brought on a diffferent type of depression.

My options were limited from the shore I could potentially target gilthead bream and three bearded rockling. However the rockling normally show during the winter so I decided to concentrate on trying for a bream.

Gilthead bream are a warm water species and at the right time can be found in numbers on the Fal and Helford rivers. As the tide floods, the bream run up the estuaries up to the top of the creeks where they feed on worm beds and peeler crabs.

Access to the Fal and Helford rivers from the shore is limited and this is one venue that is better approached with a small boat or kayak. I was aware of one definite mark towards the top of one of these rivers and decided to concentrate my efforts there.

I fished a number of tides, however with the heavy rain colouring the water and bringing in an influx of fresh water I was not confident. Unsurprisingly my paltry catch for all this effort was a single flounder. So far I have had four sessions after a gilthead bream without success.

A night session on Penzance Pier after a three bearded rockling was another glorious failure, resulting in pollack and yet more shore rockling.

One day, I will return to Cornwall and bag both these species!