A Sea Fishing Trip to Brean Down, Somerset

Date: 25th January 2012

Location: Brean/Brean Down, Somerset

I am sure you can remember when like I can, in your younger years trying to stay awake all night waiting for that special event. Be it going on holiday, birthday or Christmas and inevitably falling asleep and getting woken up what only seems ten minutes later. This was to be avoided at all costs lest missing the alarm for the spring tide trip arranged for the past week.

So it was decided to stay awake all night to make sure all things were packed and not miss that all important alarm call.

I’d arranged to be at my Sea fishing pal’s house at 04:45 for a 05:00 set off. Terry was to provide the equipment for cooking the food, and I was to provide the bacon and eggs. If our last trip was anything to go on when Terry forgot his cup that accompanies his flask, anything could happen!

Sea Fishing Destination Brean

Our selected destination was Brean and possibly Brean Down. This mark is located on the north Somerset coast just south of Weston-Super-Mare. Weston is more notorious for tourists and ice cream than fishing, but after some considerable research and talking to locals who fish the area; this seemed a good mark for our foray. Brean is packed with caravans and in the summer months, holiday makers. In the winter and more inclement months, walkers and anglers are more visible, just.

To get to Brean, leave the M5 at junction 22 and follow the B3140 in to Burnham on Sea and follow the signs for Brean. Alternatively use the post code TA8 2RS for sat nav. You are heading to the far end of Brean along Warren Road and the bird garden at the end where there is a car park. Price is £2 all day, however when we arrived, no one was around to collect. There is another car park 100yds back down the road, but that was locked up and I think, free.

From here you have a few options of where to fish. If you are feeling energetic, you can climb the steps up the side of Brean Down and turn left. Brean Down is the formidable looking hill that you can’t miss. At the end of Brean Down (1 ¼ mile) is a Napoleonic fort and to the right of it is a pebble beach that casts on to sand. You can’t fish the left of Brean Down as it is all cliffs.

The vast expanse of beach at Brean is where we decided to fish, but only the right hand side that runs down the entire length of the down at the bottom of the cliffs. The spring tide was due to be high at 08:00 and 12.4m high. I always use Portishead as a gauge for tide height and time having fished it many times, so 12.4m equates to 13.5m at Portishead and that is a good high tide.

A Good Variety of Sea Baits

I decided to take a good variety of baits. I usually fish rag/lug with squid. However I am keen to experiment with other baits, this is mainly because you hear so many stories of what does and does not work. I am a great believer in the fact that fish, will eat anything else that is living in the sea, or dead. So armed with and bag of frozen mussels from Asda, prawns from the Co-op, other super markets are available. Together with dirty squid, sand eel and mackerel, I think I had most bases covered.

“Wait”, I hear you cry. “You don’t have any peeler crab with you? With cod season well and truly under way you are mad not to! All good fishing tackle shops sell them for .90p each and some not so good ones too”.

I will tell you for why. I have caught a few cod in my time, unlike poor Terry who has not caught a take home in the past 12 months. When I gut a cod, I look at the contents of its stomach. Sure there are cabs in there, but not one has been a peeler. I rest my case. Not to put the dampers on peelers, I will try them one day. That day will be when I am on the beach turning over rocks with a bucket in my hand. Or, plan it right and pay your kids 10p for each one they find. They will have some fun for a couple of hours instead of sitting in front of the computer and you will have a supply of peelers.

I digress. If you start to follow my diary of fishing adventures, you will get used to me going off track and getting on my soap box. Its called passion, we should all have some and don’t get me started on chickens! But that is for another day.

Back to the plot, Wednesday 25th January should be cold wet and windy. Well, none of that. 11 degrees, 7mph wind, and no rain. I hate rain. So all was looking good at 03:00 as I checked the met office site and www.tidetimes.org for the 10th time to make sure I had not got the dates wrong -again. All packed up, bait-check, flask-check, bacon-check, bait-check. You get the picture.

I arrived at Terry’s to find him packed and ready to go. Forty five minutes later, we pulled in to the car park at Brean. We decided to fish the beach first for a couple of hours, then head on to Brean down. Loaded we headed for the beach, sounds like a summer holiday in Cornwall! That’s later this year. Negotiated the wall and set up camp by a small set of steps just to the left of the car park, the free one.

Lines Get Wet at Brean

We fished one rod each on Terry’s tripod and baited up with squid on my 6/0 pennel pulley. Terry on the other hand opted for a running ledger type of arrangement with his sliding boom on the shock leader then a bead, followed by a swivel. Tied to the swivel is the hook trace, sporting a size 6/0 hook. Terry said and I quote “going for the biggies today”. Since it is nearly a year since Terry caught a sizeable take home, we both laughed at his improvised humour. With the level of humour set for the day, we headed off down the beach towards the incoming tide.

We used 190g breakaways to hold bottom, which to our surprise worked. After 20 minutes we reeled in and assessed the damage to our Squid. Un-touched I lashed on some lug worm whilst Terry opted for Mackerel. This brought in some small sized bites of the nothing on the other end variety!

This lasted till high water and bacon and egg time. After breakfast, we readied ourselves for the hike up the 10,000 steps to the top of Brean down. Seriously, it feels like it to the totally unfit like me.

The peninsular is approx 1.5 miles long so we had opted to travel light. When we arrived near the track down to the pebbly and rock strewn beach, we dumped our gear and went for a wonder around the old Napoleonic fort that is situated at the end of the peninsular. Follow this link for more info, packed with tide times, history and more, http://www.breandownfort.co.uk/

Once on the down beach, we set up again and using the same method we adopted on the previous beach, we sat back and admired the views across the channel towards Wales.

After a short time, only 10 minutes, I had a very large knock on my rod. Letting the bite build up till it was near constant, I struck and felt something very large on the end. After reeling in 20yds of line, the tension was gone. Re-baited and got it back out to as near the same spot as previous. After 5 minutes, another knock. Just the one, then nothing.

This Fishing Tactic Did Not Work, I tried Something Else a Clocktail

After much silence and lack of action, I decided to change tack and re-baited with a cocktail of Mackerel, Squid and prawn (raw). I used a baiting needle to skewer the prawns; I then used bait elastic to secure them and added mackerel and squid to help bind them together. After gently applying them on the 6/0 hook with the needle, a final lashing of bait elastic secured them in place.

I like to experiment with baits and try various types of sea wildlife to attach to a hook, only stopping short of chicken legs! That’s for another day.

On the other rod, I attached a sand eel, using light bait elastic to bind it, light bait elastic tends not to cut in to the soft flesh of the eel. It is best to keep sand eels frozen until you need them, either using a food flask or cool bag with freezer blocks in. Even then, as you can see below, they quickly defrost and the elastic cuts in to them. The cut is ok if it is small and allows some juice to flow out.

These baits developed more bites and some promising strikes. However, there was never anything on the end. How many times has that happened? Speaking with several fisher person’s after the trip. The general thought at the moment is if you get bites and land, then it will be a big one. But the bites are few and far between. So it looks as if we had a successful day of bites, but not just enough luck to land one. We will be back to this mark, sometime in the near future.

Brean Sea Fishing Mark

Talking about the mark, I have told how to get hear but not much about the actual fishing mark. As you can see from the pictures below, the first one is the steps down to the pebble/boulder beach.

At the bottom of the steps, there is a short section of rocks to climb or slide down depending on your nerve. That’s about as bad as it gets, apart from the slippery boulders and pebbles on the beach. So advice is this, do not wear wellies or other footwear that has rubbery type soles, or you are sure to end up on your butt. Like Terry, he went to retrieve his caught up hook, slipped on the rocks and ended up in the water. Luckily it was not deep and only got a soaking and hurt pride.

The next picture is of the beach looking right, if you were facing the sea.

This area is accessed down the steps in the previous picture. Be careful not to wonder to far, as the approaching tide will cut you off and you will have to do a spot of rock climbing!

The scene looking left is a lot different. Behind Terry and to the left you can see an outcropping. If you fish the other side of it, watch for the rising tide as this will also cut you off from your escape. The cliffs are a lot steeper this side too. In the background, you can see the Napoleonic fort. Beyond that, there does look to be an area that could be fished. However, this looks very dangerous and I would certainly not attempt it, and I consider myself as to be a seasoned idiot who usually would.

On the right of the picture, is the shore line. When the tide is going out, if you walk towards the fort. There are some rock outcroppings in the water. We fished these for an hour and got a few bites also. Just by wary of the tide turning. When the tide runs, it runs and large waves crash on the rocks and would easily sweep you off. They are large enough to surf on, believe me, I fancied it.

The views from this vantage point, on a clear day are great. You have views across to Weston-Super-Mare then on to Birnbeck Pier. Across the water, the Brecon Beacons behind Cardiff.

So at the end, of the day a blank. However, lots of bites, fresh air, exercise, great views, good company and no rain. Oh I almost forgot bacon and eggs butties alfresco style.

Catch up next time when Terry and I attempt another mark that promises…….

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