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dartmoordog

dartmoordog

Well-Known Member
A keeper mate of mine and I like a bit of fishing around our, just stunning, coastline here in Devon. So on Thursday, off we set, to a lovely mark down near Burgh Island, to fish the rising spring into dark, after that elusive 8lb Bass for dinner. Caught fcuk all!

Anyway, we had a great time, in the teeth of a “brisk” wind and the odd shower, thats Devonian for a howling gale and pi**ing it down! But being rough, tough country boys, we just cracked on and really enjoyed being where we were, it was stunning in our sheltered mark. The inevitable happened to me, and I snagged the only rock within ten miles of that sandy coastline, and lost my “clipped down” rig, so being a tight arsed Devonian, I am already planning a visit to the mark on the next low spring.

So yesterday I took my giant ESS, Shitbags, back to the mark and some fcuker had pulled the plug, because the sea was miles away! But I found my rig, yes, a whole £15 worth of diesel, for a £1.50 worth of tackle, but if I am honest, I just didn’t want it left laying around.

So, on the way back to Gods Country, Dartmoor, I took a detour along the famous WW11 beach of Slapton, the US Tank is still in the car park. The sea was crashing onto the beach, really rough in the teeth of the recent storm, the whole of Start Bay was a throthing mess. I got to the Strete end of the beach in time for the 15:00hrs news, to hear that the Coastguard had to “persuade” someone not to go swimming at Slapton an hour previously. I shite you not, some dick was going to go swimming in that sea.

Personally, I would not have bothered, let em crack on, and measure them up for a body bag. Putting other people’s lives at risk is not acceptable in my mind. Idiot, pure and simple.
 
dartmoordog said:
A keeper mate of mine and I like a bit of fishing around our, just stunning, coastline here in Devon. So on Thursday, off we set, to a lovely mark down near Burgh Island, to fish the rising spring into dark, after that elusive 8lb Bass for dinner. Caught fcuk all!

Anyway, we had a great time, in the teeth of a “brisk” wind and the odd shower, thats Devonian for a howling gale and pi**ing it down! But being rough, tough country boys, we just cracked on and really enjoyed being where we were, it was stunning in our sheltered mark. The inevitable happened to me, and I snagged the only rock within ten miles of that sandy coastline, and lost my “clipped down” rig, so being a tight arsed Devonian, I am already planning a visit to the mark on the next low spring.

So yesterday I took my giant ESS, Shitbags, back to the mark and some fcuker had pulled the plug, because the sea was miles away! But I found my rig, yes, a whole £15 worth of diesel, for a £1.50 worth of tackle, but if I am honest, I just didn’t want it left laying around.

So, on the way back to Gods Country, Dartmoor, I took a detour along the famous WW11 beach of Slapton, the US Tank is still in the car park. The sea was crashing onto the beach, really rough in the teeth of the recent storm, the whole of Start Bay was a throthing mess. I got to the Strete end of the beach in time for the 15:00hrs news, to hear that the Coastguard had to “persuade” someone not to go swimming at Slapton an hour previously. I shite you not, some dick was going to go swimming in that sea.

Personally, I would not have bothered, let em crack on, and measure them up for a body bag. Putting other people’s lives at risk is not acceptable in my mind. Idiot, pure and simple.
Click to expand...

You should have gone fishing at Slapton - still no fish , but you wouldn't lose any tackle.
 
I lost my best trout mep in a tree on the river Moriston on my last trip to Scotland. But shhh don't tell anyone.

I did debate swimming the river and climbing the tree to retrieve it but couldn't be arsed.
 
dartmoordog said:
A keeper mate of mine and I like a bit of fishing around our, just stunning, coastline here in Devon. So on Thursday, off we set, to a lovely mark down near Burgh Island, to fish the rising spring into dark, after that elusive 8lb Bass for dinner. Caught fcuk all!

Anyway, we had a great time, in the teeth of a “brisk” wind and the odd shower, thats Devonian for a howling gale and pi**ing it down! But being rough, tough country boys, we just cracked on and really enjoyed being where we were, it was stunning in our sheltered mark. The inevitable happened to me, and I snagged the only rock within ten miles of that sandy coastline, and lost my “clipped down” rig, so being a tight arsed Devonian, I am already planning a visit to the mark on the next low spring.

So yesterday I took my giant ESS, Shitbags, back to the mark and some fcuker had pulled the plug, because the sea was miles away! But I found my rig, yes, a whole £15 worth of diesel, for a £1.50 worth of tackle, but if I am honest, I just didn’t want it left laying around.

So, on the way back to Gods Country, Dartmoor, I took a detour along the famous WW11 beach of Slapton, the US Tank is still in the car park. The sea was crashing onto the beach, really rough in the teeth of the recent storm, the whole of Start Bay was a throthing mess. I got to the Strete end of the beach in time for the 15:00hrs news, to hear that the Coastguard had to “persuade” someone not to go swimming at Slapton an hour previously. I shite you not, some dick was going to go swimming in that sea.

Personally, I would not have bothered, let em crack on, and measure them up for a body bag. Putting other people’s lives at risk is not acceptable in my mind. Idiot, pure and simple.
Click to expand...

Don’t even get me started on idiots and their lack of respect for the sea. Here in Blackpool some kids died a few weeks ago because they ignored the signs. Tragic yes but wholly unavoidable.

When we had the last big storms there was some women with a child looked about 8 years old carrying a body board. Couldn’t believe my eyes. Didn’t see them go in the water and maybe they turned around but looked for all intents and purposes they were going to try. Beggars belief.
 
I can't fly fish and I was on a motorbike so I took a five piece travelling Shakespeare spinning rod and a selection of various sized meps and salmon spoons, as recommended by Grahams of Inverness.

The big mep was catching the big trout. When I lost if and had to use a smaller one I never caught the bigger fish again.
Epic fighters on light gear.
 
Don't get me started! There's a couple of disused quarries round here that draw all the idiots out from Birmingham and Wolves in the hot weather.
The trespassing, littering, anti-social behaviour and idiotic parking on the small lanes are bad enough, but I'd say at least once a year on average there's a drowning. Most recently during the last heatwave, and the fire service dive team spent 2 days finding the body. Then the Police get nothing but abuse when they're up there turning people away the following weekend.

Anyway, yes, I have fond memories of spinning for trout with my dad in Ireland and Yorkshire. I really must make the effort to get out with him again whilst he's still young enough and fit enough.
 
Down here it's selfies on the edge of notoriously unstable cliffs.

Darwin award candidates 150 feet up at West Bay. Even brought the kiddies along to watch mummy fall to her death. Fun for all the family...

1601737902239.webp 1601737937043.webp
 
C.J said:
You should have gone fishing at Slapton - still no fish , but you wouldn't lose any tackle.
Click to expand...
I spent many childhood holidays at Slapton, very deep! One year I stood there rooted to the spot with my Dad and older brother as a submarine surfaced just off the beach!
 
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Swedish said:
I spent many childhood holidays at Slapton, very deep! One year I stood there rooted to the spot with my Dad and older brother as a submarine surfaced just off the beach!
Click to expand...

It goes deep very quickly does Slapton, sadly many lives were lost there during the war.
 
Very similar up here near Thirsk at the bottom of Sutton Bank(gradient of 1:4) there is a lake. During the heat wave all the idiots from miles around came . They had barbecue's,tents,went fishing /swimming in the lake,they left litter of all sorts (as you could well in again ). Traffic was horrendous, just parked anywhere. It got so bad that the locals have now closed all the parking spaces off as these were on private ground but allowed people to park if they used common sense, police moved people on but they still came back. We locals picked about 9 bin bags of rubbish in about two days. Thankfully the good old British weather out a stop to it all .
 
Mepps, they're called Mepps.

Please.

When you use them on a river you are mepping the river, that's the only time it loses the S.

They should only be cast upstream and are a waste of time on a bright day.
 
A good few years ago now I fished with two friend on Slapton Ley. I would think this must have been the late 80’s.

I have no recollection of the fishing itself, but I do recall we drove there early in the morning, knocking over a couple of coneys en route which we then fried for breakfast. Never tasted better.
 
I’m no seafarer but as a regular mountaineer the idiocy is not just confined to the coasts.. the sheer volume of folk out on the hills with no kit, map and no idea is truly terrifying.
Never forget traversing the CMD Arête one December and catching up with a couple in jeans wearing boots hired from Ellis and Brigham in fort William. The plateau of the Ben was in white out conditions and I have no idea how they would have made it off without latching onto us as we navigated off with a combination of compass bearing taken from known fixed gps coordinates.
 
Yes. Thanks for that CJ. It was indeed Hallsands I was thinking of. :tiphat: I remember (far too many years ago!) 😳 being taken there as a child & being told the story
 
I used to live in Weymouth and spent a lot of time on the angling charter boats and helping out a mate on his trawler. Listening to the lifeboat channel it was staggering the lunacy that resulted on a near daily basis when sun, sea, boats and very often, booze, all came together.
Drunk kids pinching rowing boats at night and trying to row round the east side of Portland.
A solo diver diving with an anchor line attached to an inflatable rib but no marker buoy so that when someone thought they'd found a drifting boat that had broken loose and took it in tow, he came up like a cork out of a bottle and got the bends.
People in tiny speedboats running out of petrol in Portland Race and chucking the anchor out (heard about that one first hand in the wheel house. Luckily he only had about 30 feet of rope and the anchor just sailed out behind him in the current. If it had caught and the rope had held it could have pulled the boat under).
Running out of fuel on the edge of the race was the favourite one. The lifeboat became known as the big orange taxi.
 
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