I took a trip down to the Helford river to inspect a few possible fishing marks and get an idea of the shape of the river bed and where the strongest tidal currents were and where any food stuffs may be deposited.

This is an often overlooked part of sea fishing. Whether fishing from a Kayak or Beach casting, you can save yourself a lot of time and effort by spending a few hours walking your local beach or kayaking its length to select a few prime areas that you can revisit at a later date.

E.G. This time of year after a good onshore blow you can see decomposing seaweed along the high tide line and this contains a myriad of small beasts including seaweed fly larva. This compost heap containing “food stuffs” will mature and stay on the beach until the next high tide when it all gets washed into the sea, carrying this goodness out, away from the shore into the open mouths of Bass and Mullet as well as anything else that may be there and hungry. An ideal opportunity to catch some fish!!

In the Helford I was going to the head of the creeks on the down wind side of the river valley, this is where any floating or just subsurface matter gets blown, and there should be, in theory a greater concentration of “fish food” therefore fish in these areas. If you look at the image above you can see the surface is littered with flora and fauna.

As always I had a rod with me just in case, and decided to wet a fly. I tied on a Mysis shrimp pattern and had a few casts, more as a casting exercise than anything else as I thought nobody could see me. I ended up in an almost trance state with the heady sent of tree sap, wild flower perfume, and the splash and silver flashes of playing mullet until it I was brought down to earth with a crash…. A group of HOLIDAY makers on their kayaks ambushed me; splashing and laughing, scaring my fish and bursting my bubble. I was a bit pissed off for about 30 seconds, but then on reflection I was pleased to see others learning water sense and enjoying themselves without polluting the environment on jet skis!!

Anyway, I now have yet another mini fishing session where I blanked, but I have got some great marks and ideas for future fishing sessions. All this planning and preparation will pay off soon, watch this space.