Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Shore Angling........

OK...so, now you can see gaps showing in my blog...this is because our days or seriously full on now. We've been joined by Andy (skipper of Poole based Silver Spray) Cumming so now we have Reg Clough and Dave Lovelock of the EFSA International shore team, Mark (I did stop talking once...for nearly 3 seconds), to provide the expert tackle knowledge, Andy to walk about looking important as skippers should, Fiona providing the glamour and catching the best fish and me....as chief taxi driver and bottle washer.

We have fished....and fished...and fished. And we are learning thanks to the dedication and expertise of the team. We are learning the better marks and trying to unravel the tidal/fish feeding patterns. We have much to learn but it is all very good fun.

The conversation (we are a sad bunch of buggars) in the evenings and mornings at the house is all about tackle, techniques, fish I.D., tides, water clarity etc etc etc. And...when we get into a bar full of glamorous hot Thai totty...what are we doing...yes, huddled together and talking about FISHING!!!!! The gals think we are all insane....well, we are!

Our day starts off with Mark taking the shore team to the day's selected mark...and I go ahead to the next selected and previously untried mark and wait for Mark to catch me up. The two of use clamber down the cliffs and rocks (usually in the hottest part of the day!) and assess whether or not it's accessible for lads bringing gear with them.

Once the shore line is reached Mark, the human dynamo, sets off with his snorkel to investigate the species that are available and what the underwater terrain is like for the tackle. If we cannot see down to the deeper areas, we return and get the scuba gear on and dive the 15 meter line. So, it's pretty exciting...coming back with a mental picture of what we've seen and then remembering it all for the evening's discussion with the fishing lads.

Reg and Dave like to fish the dusk, so we return to wait for this period when it does seem a flurry of feeding takes place.......then it's back to the cars and into a bar for a well needed ice cold beer or 12 and dinner...as we are all starving by now.

The photo's are just a little bit of what I've downloaded off my own camera....the main photo's are on Mr Lovelock's camera...and we are just off to download his camera onto a disc and then I can get to work on them.

Today we are going to look at an area that we hope may hold worms for digging. Then we are going to fish the longest pier in Phuket in the hope of catching stingray.

It's all great fun and we are having a great time together....even we do sound like a load of sad old wotnots....but we are loving it!!!






Little moray eel from Rawai pier


Fioana with a 2.5kg cuttlefish from Rawai pier...see; they're not just in Alderney


A good multiplier that can handle 30lb mainline is required. The rod can be a light beachcaster or strong spinning rod....think wrasse fishing tackle off the rocks...that how we seem to be progressing with 30lb line straight through to 50lb snoods and strong size 1 or size 2 hooks....but more of the tackle at a later date and why we're using such hefty stuff

There are LOADS of different species...today I have also to buy a Fish ID book because every local we asks either shrugs his shoulders or gives a different name for the fish than the last person we asked......
Thanks for reading all of you....the blog is now attracting an AVERAGE of 184 hits per day..a good start! Please email me direct if there's anything you want to know about any aspect of what this is all about...remember, my aim is to give you the opportunity to have a great holiday over here whatever it is that you would like to do...................



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