NO PRESSURE INFRONT OF THE TV CAMERAS

Had a call from me old mate Henry Gilbey last week to see if I was able to take a couple of days off from work and go fishing with him - not needing a second invitation I obviously replied YES!  Along for the ride was a camera man John and director Alex to film a couple of short films for the Tight Lines programme on Sky Sports 2, to showcase how effective fishing soft plastics for wrasse and pollack can be. Henry was a bit nervous to say the least as its been quite a while since his last television work but he needn't have been as he is a natural! His excitement and enthusiasm manifest into great television!!

I was nervous myself as the fishing has been so good just recently but would it fire in front of the cameras??????????????????

Plans were drawn up that they would fly in from Newquay with the islands own airline, Skybus, on Tuesday afternoon and have an early night before hitting the wrasse marks all day Wednesday and then the pollack marks on the Thursday before they jumped on the plane back to Newquay late that afternoon. A good plan we thought and we had Neil down from Bryher to fish as well so we were all set. Or so we thought!!! The few days before they were to arrive it had, like the rest of the country, been raining continuously meaning all flights from Lands end were cancelled due to water logging and the seriously strong winds meant no flights from Newquay either - they were stuck!!! After a phone call from Henry they decided that they would try again the next day, weather permitting! Thankfully Thursday dawned and the wind had eased enough for them to fly over at lunch time meaning an already short period of time to film was cut in half again! Christ could we actually do it in that time Neil and I thought?? Seeing as we were running out of time, Neil and I decided to do a reccy around St. Mary's in order to find somewhere to fish meaning as soon as they landed we could go straight there no messing!! There was still too much swell under the airport where we had planned to take them so we stomped round to Peninnis to gauge the fishing. Half an hour later and we had managed eight wrasse and a small pollack on the back tide, this would make the flood tide even more productive. But there was still the North East wind to contend with so we both decided that we would fish under the Garrison at a spot I have caught plenty of tidy wrasse before. Picking up Henry and the crew we told them of the change of plan and headed straight out there. It looked perfect with flat calm sea, no swell and lots of boulders!!! We all rigged up with various soft plastics and cast out, bang bang bang we were all into fish straight away!!!! At times it was mental with all three of us into wrasse at the same time, it seemed like the place was literally carpeted with wrasse!!! Admittedly they weren't the massive kelp beasts that we were hoping for but it was as frantic as anyone had ever seen before!! It didn't matter what size, colour or shape of lure we tried, they just smashed into each and every one of them!! Considering the three of us only had two hours to fish and Henry had to do several pieces to camera we lost count of the exact number of wrasse caught but I bet it would have been 90 to 100 wrasse to 4lbs in various colours, I think the crew were shocked at the number!!!

With the wrasse film in the bag as it were, we decided to try under the airport the following day in the hope of getting a couple of bigger fish and some nice scenic shots to show the islands off in their true glory as the weather was stunning! Sadly the usual wrasse hole failed to live up to expectations, maybe due to there still being quite a bit of swell so it was off to target the pollack. 

After climbing down to the spot at low water all we had to do was set up and wait for the tide to push. Pollack love tide!! This spot you can fish until your arms fall off without even seeing a pollack but just like flicking a switch, as soon as the tide pulls hard then they come on the feed and today was no exception!! Neil whispered in my ear jokingly that I had taken us to a dud mark then bang he hooked a steam train of a pollack that was on for a few moments before smashing him up, gutted for him as it was clearly a big pollack!! Yep the tide by now was pushing nice and hard!!! I had on another stonking fish that I managed to get within 20 yards of the rock before this one, just like Neils, came off - ARSE not now, not in front of the cameras!!!! Neil then landed a cracker of a fish at 6.4lbs taken on a Savage Gear Sandeel

The pollack were coming thick and fast with Neil losing another big fish before I managed a couple of fish, one going 5lbs and this one of 7.4lbs both taken on the awesome Fiish Black Minnow

Henry had been taking the mickey, as he usually does, on our ability to lose good fish when the same thing happened to him! Oh how we both laughed!!!!! We both told him that it wasn't beaten but he continued to horse it in and attempt to show it who was boss resulting in ''beep'' after ''beep'' in front of the camera!!! He did manage to land a couple of fish himself though which was great to see as I thought he had lost the knack!!!!

To top off the trip we witnessed large shoals of baitfish, probably herring or pilchards being rounded up by a pod of porpoises with gannets diving in on the action, it really was a majestic sight!!! I am so pleased that we managed to get such good fishing for the show, it promises to be pretty cool I reckon and should be aired on Sky Sports 2 on December the 14th. Neil and I had a real blast helping, hopefully it will entice a few people to try a lighter approach and fishing soft plastics, it really is such fun and christ does it work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!