Holiday Snaps.

The rain that had dampened our wedding celebrations the day before followed us to Devon and we arrived to hear of flooding in the county, the heavier rain was to the south, not long after we arrived and settled into the caravan the sun was out. Even though it was a kind of honeymoon there were plans to do some fishing and passes had been granted, Peelers and Lug were collected on Sunday but the first trip required some smelly Mackerel as bait.

The foul stinking stuff was for Cerys's first fishing trip of sorts, we headed down to Appledore to join the crowds on the quayside to do a spot of crabbing, great fun was had by all and a bucket full of crabs were returned to the sea at the end of the session.

Crabbing fun with Cerys.

Pinchy!

I did an early morning session at the beginning of the week and did get some interest on the Crab bait, Smoothhounds, the baits kept being picked up and dropped just as I leapt towards the screaming rod, my main goal on this holiday was to get another one of these mini sharks onto the rocks.

On the rocks.

The onshore wind kept me from my target quarry in the middle of the week so I went in search of a bass or two in the estuary mouth but a mix up in tide times meant I didn't catch any until late in the session.

shiney!

They were small but still great fun to catch.

I was back on the rocks early on Friday with another bucket of peelers, after thinking about the dropped takes from the previous session I stuck an extra hook in the bait and fished with a pennel hook length. The first take was a little hesitant but it gradually built up steam and headed off towards Lundy Island at a great rate of knots. My old beach rod has a very fast taper and not a lot of fish can make the butt section bend, these hounds make the rod flex under my reel and you have to keep one eye on where you put your feet on the slippery rocks as these fish quickly change direction and head off on another run.

Ho! Hounds are great fun.

Pocket Rockets!

Just like fly fishing for Carp, catching Smoothhounds puts a huge smile on my face after I banked a second hound towards the end of the session I was grinning as I walked down the pipe to the Ho! (Westward Ho! that is)