No pain No gain

Yesterday was a hardcore day. I arrived home at a minute past midnight,had something to eat and was in my bed about ten minutes later. My kayak is still on the roof of the car and I'll decide later today if it stays there till Sunday. Nice tides this week, I didn't like the look of how the wind was doing a complete 180 over 2/3 days so took Friday off. There were squalls and occasionally the wind would drop off, for the most part it seemed a constant 15-20mph.

As I drifted into a bay I had an explosive take on my mag popper, as the wind caught me I had to get on the pedals to manoeuvre myself back out . At one point the fish snagged me but I managed to get above it and coax it free. I netted the fish on the opposite side of my kayak and peddled out to open water to sort it out. I like a long handled net, the main reason being you can rest the fish in the water and get yourself sorted out. This normally works well, not today. I brought the fish in from my left(my routine is to the right) sat it between my legs and managed to got a loose treble deep in my finger with the point showing through on the other side. I went straight for the Leatherman and cut the shank and put the fish back in the net. Nightmare. Back on the pedals and out I went again, took a couple of pictures on timer and sorted the mess out.

I've put an effect on here to salvage something for this post

I thought about coming out the water an hour or two later but didn't and stuck to the plan. The fishing wasn't exactly fired up but with five fish and two crackers, on balance ,it was worth it. The water temp was a little cooler but the surface route seemed to be still the way to go. I'm just glad I crush barbs and on this occasion I wasn't on X3 hooks. Treble hooks are an absolute menace on a kayak. Having thought about using singles occasionally before it's maybe time to have a serious look at them. It was a tiring day with various problems. Yet again, I have had exposure problems on my TG-4 camera. I' have it set to auto and have a piece of electrical tape across the dial that can move the settings, despite this, the four images I took were ruined, in fact the worse yet. It might be the case that with the reflective nature of a Bass, of a decent size in the sunlight, at the distance my camera is at is causing the problem. I've had the same problem with any decent bass I've caught this year.

This was the best of the images

That was the longest 11 hours on my Outback yet, it was a very weary retrieval......

No August blues this year!

I had a bit of company yesterday as my old bassing buddy Jamie dug out his Prowler and joined me for a session. We made do with plan B as I didn't fancy how conditions might end up in the afternoon. The 4.30am meet was a shock to Jamie's system but I think he felt relief when I told him that I had a few 2am starts in the last month or so. As I put my Outback in the water the first thing I noticed was how warm the water still is. Now I don't track water temps much other than around May time, an 18.7c surface temp at 6.30am is high I would imagine.

As we set off there was a light breeze and a fishy looking spot so I clipped on a mag popper and went about making a few casts as we drifted off. On the third cast, as I let the lure settle for a moment or two before retrieving it, a small bass nailed it. I had another hit the lure right at the side of the yak about ten minutes later, both ultimately came off but it was an encouraging start. We tried a few spots, trolling and casting and found an area with some fish, we had some fun on surface lures before splitting up to see if we could locate a better fish or two. Jamie trolled off into the distance. I tried a different approach.

I've been thinking a lot about presentation recently. The kayak provides a lot of advantages but at the same time, a few issues to deal with. I'm pretty sure I'm missing opportunities to catch bigger bass, all part of the game I guess. I'm keen do some night sessions afloat and also some more anchoring rather drifting. This would enable me approach things differently and fish some areas more effectively if done quietly and with stealth.

I set up a few drifts using the Wexford worm fished weedless and weightless. Now I've not used these for a while but the Wave Worm tiki stick casts well and I did catch my PB on a white one, I just hadn't got around to using them afloat yet. I wasn't too happy with my hook choice as the Nogales Monster is quite a heavy hook and I didn't like the way the lure was sinking. This kind or stuff does my head in.... Anyway, I had a couple of fish and lost one before I joined up with Jamie again. The  afternoon was a dour affair, the wind got up and we couldn't find any fish. It was long session and a good effort from the big guy who hasn't been out for over a year. I guess we fished from 6.30am till about 3.30pm. To be honest I'm rinsed today myself, really felt that one! August is normally a month that I end up feeling burned out.At the minute I'm stuck to windguru and tide tables. I can't wait to get back on the water....

A weary paddle home for Jamie

Old faithful- the Yo-Zuri Mag Popper

Battered and bruised but still floating. It was all about the surface action today. There are some days when the good old Mag Popper out fishes anything in the box. I'm glad I've got a few tucked away, no idea why Yo-zuri discontinued this lure, on its day it's irresistible. At 18g and with a longish drop from the rod tip and a snap cast to get the internal weight system working, it can live with any of the modern lures of similar style/weight.Twice today I had a hooked fish come off only to be replaced by another that must have been following. Despite trying a few different approaches I only had a solitary fish on an another lure, a khaki FBM. With nothing much bigger than about 40cm it was nice to find the fish where I had previously blanked a couple of years ago. Still, with the number I caught today I was surprised I didn't sneak out a better one despite it being a nasty neap tide. Thanks for the tip Craig.

A couple of trips

I've fished the last two Fridays. I took a half day off work on the 6^th and I spent the rest of the week questioning my decision making. Having done more prospecting for Bass this year than actual fishing I realised that with 4 hour return journeys and life I don't have the time. I had some pollack on the reefs and packed it in after 4 hours.

I'm liking the latest software upgrade on my Lowrance though. The fish ID makes the down-scan on the right more useful. Previously the fish would show up as tiny dots that you could hardly see and it was more about showing structure clearly. These are pollack.

I set off at 2am yesterday and after leaving my head torch at home I launched later than I hoped for at 4.30am.

I shouldn't really complain, 7 school bass and at least I was catching again.

An early late start

Up at 2am and on the road for 2.45am I was wondering why I went to bed really. Having looked at what I have on in July I'll miss the nice set of tides around the middle of the month. Today was a bit of a push to get my first Bass of the year, in other words I'm late getting off the mark this year.

A lean 71cm

Gutted about the pic being out of focus( the other blurring is deliberate BTW) I had a magic fight off this fish and while it was resting in my net I set the camera on timer. In doing so I changed the mode to scene. I didn't muck about as I wanted the fish back so didn't check till I got back to the car. Lean for its length it will pack the weight on over the summer till the next time it does what it needs to do.

.

 Four bass and a lot of fun with some pollack that seemed to be up for a party despite the bright sunlight and low tide combination. Great days fishing, well the worth the effort and early start.

Taps aff !

Not quite but my drysuit was. With temperature at 29c there was no danger of me getting boiled in a bag yesterday afternoon. Having taken a half day off work the targets were wrasse and pollack. I picked up some ragworm and launched at 3pm on a flat sea, perfect! The wrasse fishing was a bit slow but I managed three species, ballan, corkwing and goldsinny. It was maybe the dropping tide but they didn't seem to be in the mood. The pollack however weren't holding back and I had a great few hours fishing. With the wind gusting to 20mph at the end of session about twice that of the forecast it was a wet and chilly two mile journey back to the launch site. It was however nice to be afloat without a drysuit and have a taste of what kayak fishing would be like in a warmer climate. That said, the water temperature was 15c and it would have made for a bit of shock if I ended up in the drink.

Surprise silver

I did some prospecting today trying to find new areas to target Bass from my kayak. It was a fantastic day to be on the water but pretty crap tides to be fair. I fully expected it to be hard work and I was right. I tried deeper on the reefs and also the shallower areas along the transitions between weed and sand  trying to keep myself in as much flow as possible. It was in one such area where the tide was pushed between a couple of rocky areas being exposed as the tide dropped.There was a nice strip of sand between them that looked fishy. I hooked and lost what felt like a really nice fish. I presumed it was a Bass but ten minutes later sitting in the same spot the hooks stuck and after a great scrap I had a nice Sea Trout in the net. I then hooked and lost another one. Funny old game this fishing as I've only ever caught one tiny one down here before.

51cm

I had a lot of small reef Pollack and a few Launce to make up the numbers. Hard work in the sun but hopefully it will pay off in the long term.

Now this would  certainly make a nice livebait....

Is the bug back?

I'm on a forced lay off this weekend having damaged my back washing my drysuit. Of all the ways I could have hurt myself this happened simply leaning over the bath.The area in question is where my hip joins my spine, a common injury amongst gardeners I'm told. Painkillers and a physio have helped a little and I'll use Sunday to sort some kit out and get ready for a few sessions later this month. I've decided to put some time in to my Bass fishing again,mostly from my Outback. I didn't catch a Wrasse till December last year so I can hopefully set some time aside for a few session on these as well.

A nice fish from July a few years back.

When I've been speaking to Craig recently it's rekindled my interest in targeting Bass. He's on that daft journey, up at all hours, and with a fly rod. In Scotland I'm not sure there is a tougher but at the same time realistic saltwater challenge like it.I'll see if the bug bites me next time out, if I can pinch some flies from him I might have a crack as well....

Tope and Smoothound Video

Smoothie operator

The next trip on my yak, the targets were again Tope and hopefully Smoothounds. I fished 7am to 7.30pm. The Mackerel were hard to come by but I did have a string of nice Herring to add to the bait stocks. Not that it mattered a lot, I had one Tope run about 4pm but it dropped the bait. Saturday was more of a smoothie day, I've never caught so many. The gear I was using was on the heavy side but it was still great fun.

Most were on the small side. I only had 3 that were slightly better, seen here in the picture above, bottom right.

I had one hook, one hook length and no light leader. Somewhere between me cutting the hook length and tying the hook on, the tub I had some bits in disappeared, still got the lid....30 odd fish with this ,20 crabs and 4 squid is a proper economical use of resources. Species, Mackerel, Coalie, Herring, Tub Gurnard, Grey Gurnard, Whiting,LSD, Smoothound. A great days fishing.

Bass blank

The following day after my Tope session, I had my first shot at Bass from the shore with my mate Craig. Sadly we didn't catch any Bass. Craig had a small Pollack and I hooked and lost a rare Scottish Garfish. It was great to see though. I did have one in roughly the same area 4 years ago in May, not sure if the numbers are there to target them though ?

Since then Craig has been on a mission( with some success) I'll be back at it some time soon.

I don't know too many anglers that have caught one in Scotland but they are around.

A few Tope

I only had one proper attempt at Tope last year and kind of missed the early run of pack Tope. With a settled forecast I intended to put that right at the start of June.

I was on the road for 3.30am after a double dunt of coffee, launched for 5.45am after a quick call to Belfast coastguard to log my trip. I started fishing the last of the ebb. Nothing around in terms of mackerel I picked up a few Launce and some Coalies to supplement my frozen bait and then dropped the anchor. It was a cracking morning, calm and windless, not another person to be seen on the water. I knew where I should have been but I wasn't in the mood to be fighting the tide too much so, I was here.

After a couple of hours I had dropped a Huss after it spat the bait as I went to lift it out, from there, it was just a wall to wall dogs. I was kind of regretting my decision to fish this area but had a move further off shore as the tide started to flow. I picked up a few fresh Mackerel which proved to be the turning point of the day. As I waited, the bottom seemed paved with Whiting ,they came up 2 and 3 at a time if the feathers hit the deck. I then had an absolutely howling run, thankfully the hook didn't stick as a sizeable seal popped up down tide. Having just got over that, a Gannet hit the water like a rocket about ten yards from my yak. I shifted around in my seat to check I hadn't soiled my drysuit and put a fresh bait down.

I then had a couple of decent hours fishing with three Tope and a nice Thornback before it went quiet. I wrapped it up for about 1pm after trying inshore unsuccessfully for a Bass. Species for the day,Coalie, Launce, Whiting, Mackerel, Grey Gurnard, LSD, Tope ,Thornback and Pollack.

The Haunting

I had a shot locally for Pollack around the middle of May, a mid-week evening session on a lovely night. The area was all but devoid of Pollack, two small fish in 3 hours. A guy I met on a kayak last time out, he was in exactly the same place he left me on my previous visit. I had put him on some fish using my marker float as he didn't have a finder. As I was catching fish I could hear him shout “dinner dinner”. I later found out by speaking to him he had been out the day previously, that day, the next day and was intending to fish this spot on the Monday as well. The calm weather has a lot to answer for, this guys been haunting the place in his blue/light blue camo tandem. Revive the Clyde bollocks, the Clyde is Alive? All that's been done there is put more general pressure on one of the few decent marks easily accessible by a kayak. I've made the odd mistake myself but responsible and social media? Marks named and battered all over Youtube,? Not too clever in my book.

A weekend to forget

Setting off with the best intentions a pothole put an end to the first Bass trip of 2018 on Saturday morning. The roads are truly a disgrace at the moment. Two tyres in two days, I'm now spending more time looking at the road than what's going on around me on it. Three hours to get a new tyre and I had missed the tidal window that might have produced a fish or two.

More patches than a ship full of panto pirates

Having already replaced an alloy due to a crack 6 months ago I thought the same thing had happened again as result of the sudden deflation. The price to replace it was eye watering. 19 inch low profile run flats,no spare or space saver isn't a solution for the roads at the minute. My car is a company brief, as much as it's a great car I probably would not spec it with these if I had the choice.

I changed direction that evening and headed north for a few hours for Sea Trout. I lost one but blanked. I'm not feeling the motivation to fish for them this year for some reason. I might have a shot from my Outback at some point this season but outside of this  I'm done for the year.

I had a launch on Monday, poor tides but I thought it might be worth a shot. The plan was combine a spot of Bass fishing with lures and maybe a Thornback or early Tope.

When it came to catching, I had an estimated 3 or 4 pound seagull with the first cast of a surface lure for 2018, awesome.

 It's always a pleasure to release them high into the wind and see them fly off, just like Kes. I might even have had a tear in my eye. I think we'll call this one a draw.

Between catching dogfish and farting into my drysuit not much else took place.

Early days down there, must do better next time out or they'll be a melted kayak on a beach somewhere.

Scotia Fishing

If you follow my blog you might recall me catching up with my mate Callum at the start of last year. I had never fished for Grayling before so we had a day on the river to remedy that. Callum coached me through a session on the french leader and I managed to land a couple of fish. In February this year, I was delighted that he managed his first magazine cover shot. Well done sir, cracking shot!

The one and only time I'll feature on the front cover of Trout & Salmon for sure. Here is some video of the cover fish, as you can see,he's not bad with video equipment either.Press play and the clip will work.

That first Grayling… #flyfishing #fishing #winterfishing #fishingvideo #slowmotion #flyfishingguide #fishingguide #fishinginscotland #flyfishingnation #catchandrelease #grayling #ombre #river #looparmy #looptackle #fullingmill #visitscotland #scotland #followyourpassion #scotiafishing @loop_tackle @fulling_mill

A post shared by Scotia Fishing (@scotia_fishing) on Feb 8, 2017 at 12:34am PST

Grass cutting can wait

For another day at least. Thankfully it stayed dry so I can catch up with what needs done at home on Sunday.

Today was a matter of just picking away it the opportunities. It's been two months since I've been afloat on my Outback, it certainly feels it tonight.

A little bit of spirit back

So I didn't think about fishing again till Tuesday. I had a few beers and tried my hand at windsurfing. I was staying at Dakhla Spirit basically a windsurfing hotel. Over a dropping tide the shallow lagoon started to reveal a few features that caught my eye. It was maybe 5/6ft deep at high tide with a sand spit with what looked like deeper water on both sides. I took walk down that evening with low tide just before dusk. There were still a few windsurfers speeding past, so rather than getting involved in that I went back to the hotel, read my book and drank a bottle of wine.

I was ready not long after dawn the next morning and the walk to the spot was maybe 500/600 yards. I thought it looked pretty fishy, much like an estuary without a river at the head of it. On the outside edge there was some light flow with tide emptying from the bay. Casting the 28g jig around I was counting to 15 on the outside and about 12 on the inside before touchdown so it had a some depth. I had been getting a lot of hits and put it down to Garfish as they're usually the culprits. Sure enough I picked one up after about 20 mins.

Following on from this I sussed out the main culprits were cuttlefish. I was cursing I didn't have a jig for them with me as I've never caught one. I'm also pretty sure with some bait here you could score with a multitude of species.

After about 30 mins I had a couple of hits when things went solid and something went off on a tidy run, hunkered down, and went off again. It certainly had some weight to it and I soon realised it was a ray of some description. After nice scrap I could see some colour and it looked bigger than I was expecting it to be. I've been here before with a nasty big southern stingray so I fumbled in my bag for pliers, getting done with a stinger was all I needed. I had realised it was hooked it in the wing, what I didn't appreciate was that it was a pair of rays with the other one following it. As I edged it into the shallows its mate pegged it. After careful inspection it seemed not to have a stinger. I managed to get the hook out and encourage it back out to sea with the butt of my rod through the shallows. After that I had a couple of garfish and moved to the end of the sand spit.If anyone finds themselves here take some salt as the beach is jammed full of razor fish, these would be a great bait here I would think.

Cow Nose Ray, probably 5/6kg's

                      

After that I had a couple of gars and moved to the end of the sand spit

 This looked a cracking spot for a predator hunting. I caught site of a decent fish that turned away just as the lure came over the edge and I'm pretty sure it was a big bream of some description. I adjusted my position so that I was bringing the lure along the edge more at the end of the retrieve, giving any fish following the lure more of a decision to make. And that's exactly what happened with this little fella, he came up over the edge and at the last minute smacked the lure.

A meagre example of a Leerfish given my expectations. But for 3 days and a morning fishing, for 4 rods, the fact is ,it was the only one that was  seen caught.

I then took a walk to the outside shoulder of the spit and did a spot of jigging. I only had one hit here but it was another new species for me. It's jack of some sort or maybe a scad  ? Scott will be along to tell me at some point( probably a False Scad). I did find an identical picture of the fish online but on further inspection I'm sure the anglers ID is wrong.

I tried again the next morning and did have a few gars. I hooked something that I played for a couple of minutes but never got to see before the hooks pulled. It was fast and had weight but I'll never know what it was. What was interesting were the pairs of cow nose rays cruising the surface. This kind of explained how I had foul hooked one as I was working the lure pretty shallow at the time.

One final note on the first part of the trip. I sent Ali a link to the first post. He pointed out that I had lost patience and some of my kit was wrong, namely my rod. I agree with both points in fairness . But I stand by what I've written.

I wont travel to another continent and accept anything less than 100% commitment, organisation and planning for my money. A guide can't put fish on the beach for an angler to catch and I'm not expecting anyone to wipe my arse. I'm fine with that. I've occasionally used the services of a guide abroad and once in Wales I know what I should expect. This wasn't it. You see Ali, I've been at this game a few years myself. 

Western Sahara fiasco with Peche Dakhla

Western Sahara borders Mauritania to the south and east, Algeria to the north east and Morocco to the north. The region is currently administrated by Morocco although this isn't currently recognised officially by the UN as it is a disputed area. The Spanish moved out in the 70's and from there, some debate took place between the various parties. The berm( buffer zone) runs kind of diagonally across the region from the south to the north, essentially a militarised area which is mined and pretty much off limits. If you find yourself heading here check the UK Gov site for updates as travel here is not without risk. This being particularly relevant if you travel outside of the windsurfing/surfing areas that from my observation seem to be ( for Africa at least) pretty well protected.

Having carried out due diligence in as far as I possibly could , I arrived in Dakhla via Casablanca and Gatwick from Scotland. At the minute there are no alternative routes from the UK. Alternatives via Paris and the Canaries have recently been cancelled, Royal Air Maroc having this route buttoned up for the moment. The area is well known to French and Moroccan anglers with Ali at Peche Dakhla YouTube the main guy for this area. Before making my decision I had checked his YouTube uploads and FB across various months before asking a number of questions about the best time to visit. April looked OK. Ali suggested from there on in, prospects would be good. I checked last April, lots of big Leerfish as well as good results a month either side of it.

I'll summarise up front before getting to the breakdown of the trip. It was shit. I've  probably never used as many words to explain how shit something was in 9 years of blogging. For anybody who follows me here....

The good

• The food
• The  freshly ground coffee
• The view

The bad

• Virtually zero advice
• Ali the guide looked disinterested
• Ali wasn't there for most of day 2
• A guide without a spare reel despite me asking about bait tackle before my trip?
• A guide who doesn't know the forecast/wind direction/strength ?
• No plan B for Leerfish, 5 spots, 3 on one beach 2km long?
• Complete lack of the target species
• Fishing pressure on this beach which is also netted by rod and line anglers
• No consideration on choice of venue or conditions to match ability.
• Cancelled his services at 10am on day 4 from 6 days fishing- a first for me

What I could have done differently

• Chosen a rod that didn't have an extra fast action
• Learned more French, although communication was OK
• Went to a casino with the money spent on the trip. On balance, despite all the planning this amounted to just a bad bet.

Day 1

The fishing area in relation to Dakhla.There is a lot of security along the journey. You would need a proper off road vehicle with a compressor to deflate/inflate tyres to get here to the coast.

I met Ali and and a young Moroccan angler at the airport at 1.30am After arriving at the camp at 3.30am Ali wakes us up at 8.30am. Having slept like a log after the journey we have breakfast, a fried egg, warm bread , olive oil dip ,freshly ground coffee and some fruit.

 Over breakfast it appears the fishing hasn't been good. Simone has been here for 4 days, this his last. He's had 3 small Leerfish and an African Pompano. Having noticed Ali's FB had some recycled images from last year and some new Corvina images it kind of backs up what I had been thinking about the form at the minute. Simone seems a decent angler, he advises using jigs 30-60g. Ali provides some words of wisdom, the first of two pieces of advice, longer leader. I tie on a longer leader. We drive 200 yards from the tent in Ali's Pajero. We're on a steep gradient sand beach with large Mullet leaping 4/5 feet in the air in the morning sun, looking good. We separate and start fishing I vary things using jigs and chisel nose lures and try a Roberts Ranger. Ali gets a brief hook up when I'm watching him but it comes loose. He seems to be throwing a 120g weight with a treble( serious distances) 

One of the local lures with a new hook from my kit

This is wound at speed across the surface creating a bubble stream. Not that he shows me this but I take hold of it and have a look at what's going on. The hooks are blunt. Simone, he's not had a touch. I can see he's probably a wealthy Moroccan, he's throwing lures with a Tenryu Ventura. It also explains why he's not recommending 4oz lures as this is way over his rod rating. We move along the beach and try a few spots. We see two whales hammering some fish just offshore and some camels. I get a hook up from a following Leerfish but it comes adrift. I try various lures but there isn't much around for any of us. After some lunch at the camp Ali points to the sun, Liche are here but they wont eat. 

We agree to bait fish for Corvina using a large cuttlefish Simone found on the beach. It would be a budgies paradise here, the whole beach is littered in cuttle bones. I'm offered a worn 15ft rod but Ali doesn't have a reel?At a push I can use my main reel but it wasn't ideal. After a 20 min drive we arrive at stunning surf beach, the descent is sketchy.

I go down last avoiding the possibility of being hit by loose boulders in the sand. We fish for about 3 hours, Ali gets two bites and he lands a bream.

The 200ft high cliff behind us held some fossils.In this case what looked like oysters

The 3 rod and line commercial anglers with 13 rods do a little better 300 yards along the beach... We head back to the camp for an early dinner.

Simone, me and Ali.It looks like he's turned to Catholicism in an attempt to get us on "la liche"

The food Abass turned out every night was varied, healthy and top notch.

  

We fish the spot in front of the tent till dusk without a touch. Ali is taking Simone to the airport tonight. I clarify he's coming back tonight( twice) Also, the time we start at in the morning. He tells me 5am I clarify this. He also mentions the spot in front of the the tent, he seems to like this. He says something about 10am pointing to the beach. The pace of today had been fast, covering the ground we've all been trying hard.

Day 2

The wind has really got up during the night and also changed direction from being marginally offshore to being onshore at about 1 o'clock on the dial. It's 5am and with dawn 2 hours away it's pitch black. The stars horizon to horizon are incredible, wow! No sign of the jeep, no answer from any of the other tents at the camp? I cant say I'm best pleased at having been left alone. I go back to bed and set my alarm for 6.30am just in case I drop right off again, which I do. At 7am I hit the beach at prime time. I get a hook up from something on a 90g spoon, given how it behaves I surmise it's large ray, foul hooked, but it comes off. I see Abass, the cook, waving at me. It's 8.30am, not sure where he arrived from?

My gaff on the left, Ali's on the right the toilet at the back

I have breakfast and Abass joins me on the beach. He's using a 3m Hart pro spin rated to 120g which he's using this effectively despite this being broken and repaired at the butt section. It looked like it had been snapped when being pushed in to the sand. I ask him for one of his lures and I change the hooks, he's still getting +40/50 yards on me. I've realised that my rod is too fast and I cant compress it enough, potentially a problem. This proved to be case as the wind grew stronger and directly onshore as the day went on. By 12.45pm I'm pissed off and hit the tent and read my book. I ask Abass where Ali is, he shrugs his shoulders. The guide arrives at 1.30pm and has a laugh as I've dozed off in the tent. I cant say I'm laughing. I think about what needs to be said and tell him in French, 5 hours, one spot, not OK. Where have you been? I can see he gets the message and we head off along the beach to the same spot we were yesterday. Ali gets out the car and walks off with no chat. I do likewise. We fish for an hour and don't get a touch. We have dinner and funnily enough, we end up back at the same spot after dinner. Blowing a hooli, directly onshore. Ali drives off after 10 mins and Abass and I walk our way 1.5km back along the beach, casting as we go. I realise I have problems with Ali. In the tent I explain I have issues with my rod and get my point across using the word parabolic and some drawing in the sand. Ali doesn't have another rod, doesn't offer me his. He adds ,that he has no problem doing this all day in these conditions. I think about saying good for fucking you mate, but it would get lost in translation. I think he gets the message but isn't bothered. We talk about perseverance and reward. I get this. The reality is 4 anglers off and on the beach plus some others fishing for two days, I'm yet to see a much evidence of a Leerfish. How many spots for Leerfish do you have? Ali replies, 5 and then points to the 3 spots on the beach we've fished. I got to bed extremely pissed off. Ali does not possess  a B game and I think I've clocked it.

Ali's beach, the camp you can see as black dot just above the first map point on the bottom left.This was where most of the fishing was done.There is a tidal race at the 1km mark, you can see  a trace of this on the sea in this image. Many "gross liche" from this area it would seem. I fished this as I walked past it from the 1.5km mark on the way home. Ali was nowhere to be seen. There was another fishing camp at the 2.5km mark before the cliffs. Apparently these guys weren't very good...

Day 3

We had agreed 7.30am. No sign of Ali. I'm on the beach at dawn , arguably the best time of day on any beach , anywhere in the world. I fish alone except for a pack of wild dogs that look like dingos, 30mins without a touch and got back up for breakfast. Ali and Abass are around. I have a few cups of freshly ground black coffee with two sugars before asking Ali for the game plan. We head back to spot in front of the tent yet again. Abass gets a hook up and it comes off. I know that his and Ali's hooks are brutally blunt, hours of being dragged up the sand at the end of a cast. Ali said he had a hook up, zzzzzz, gone. Change your hooks then! Sharpen your hooks! He must have said zzzzz gone, at least twice a day. Frankly I wasn't in the mood for listening. I explained to him that if I didn't see a fish getting caught or catch one that I was off.

It looked to me like Ali had now fished for 8 days straight and had run out of steam. That I can appreciate but I hadn't travelled to another continent to fish a 300 yards stretch of beach with little or no evidence of fish on it for three days.

I had a walk along past the area I normally fished and found a net in the gutter at low tide- fantastic! We then took a run along the beach to the usual spot returning fish-less we stopped to speak to a few anglers camped in the sand dunes. Being the weekend the beach was busy, lots of rods but nobody fishing which I found odd. After a couple of minutes Ali returned with two Mullet and a large Cuttlefish. We had a chat, he stopped the jeep and came around to my side of the car, within seconds of putting his hand to the sand he came up with an old gill net buried in it Those guys, 5 Liche in the net. The lack of activity from the rods started to make sense. 

Ali gets the message as I shake my head. He drives past the end of the beach, seriously off road to an old Spanish lighthouse on a cliff. Finally, a change of venue. We fish for 5/10 mins Ali, says if they are here you know about it quickly. This was a glimpse of what a guide should be doing but it was all too quickly over as we were back on the beach in front of the tent within 30 mins. Ali gives me a 90g weight style lure. Half way through day 3 and that's only the second time he's shown any interest in what I'm doing. Again, I'm told  "La Liche "are there but not eating. I ask him if they're on a diet which is of course lost on him. I ask about what our options are. 

We head off to his top spot for Corvina after some discussion as we both seem to have given up on La Liche. As we get ready he still hasn't got a reel for me. We head off on 40 min drive and I work out we are not going to the beach we tried before.

Mauritania and the berm lay about 250km away

 As we leave the main road Ali deflates the tyres on the jeep and we do some serious off road driving.

I think if I had put as many casts here with the lures I had I would have hooked and landed a snake, scorpion or maybe camel.

 I recognise the beach from his videos but my heart sinks. I know before we start my kit wont deal with this. It's a surf beach, dropping tide over bright green boulders and 10/15ft breakers about 200 yards out. I watch in disbelief as Ali, rigs up with waders, surf jacket and boots. He ties me a rig and as I wade out, I know its probably the last time I'll see it as I cast it out.

Ali in the surf . The water was OK but when I came out I was pretty cold in the wind. On the drive down to what should have been a pristine beach I could really appreciate what a problem the world has with plastic. The volume of litter was incredible.

Sure enough after 30 minutes my rig is gone and what I have is about 50 yards of worn 30 pound braid. Ali saw how I was dressed when we left camp, shorts, inappropriate footwear and the wrong equipment. The thing is, I had breathable waders and boots in the tent. He knew this as I told him I brought them. He says he can cast a rod out for me. I decline. I phone my wife and ask her to look at a hotel for me. I've had enough of him. Not much gets said over dinner.

The main tent

The sun sinks into the sea, followed by my confidence in Ali and a good few £

I tell him I'm thinking of leaving, he seems surprised. We agree to have a push for a result the next morning and agree 7.30 am. I'm up on time, no Ali. 

I have breakfast with Abass then hit the beach. I come back up fish-less at 9 am. Ali says “good morning” and I return the greeting. La Liche? I reply no. I take a seat in the tent for a break for 10 minutes. Ali walks past me to the spot in front of the tent without saying a word. I almost lose the plot and decide it's time to go. At that point I get my wife to book a hotel as I don't have an internet connection. Ali arrives a the tent and puts his head through the door, La Liche, zzzzzz gone! I reply, aye, like me mate ,gone! I've packed my kit. He drives me to a hotel 70 km away. Not much is said on the drive.The longest 70 km both of us have probably driven.

If you like windsurfing and find yourself near Dakhla I would use Ali for a day or two, if the fish are there, in numbers and can run the gauntlet, you might just catch them. I just find it hard to believe that given the coastline available he had no other options. 

A rod 3 m-3.30m would be ideal. I used a 3m Hart Shore Power Evo 2, in hindsight, the blank is super fast, very stiff. It was too much work to compress this rod in that wind on an ongoing basis cast after cast. I was throwing lures mainly 40g-3oz and up to 4oz. 

Abass and Ali with a similar diameter braid and rod length but different rod action were out casting me by a mile. They had better technique. That said, I had enough distance, they didn't land a fish either. Having watched enough videos of fish caught on this beach, extreme distances are not always required given the tackle I've noted being used. Distance is always good but if the fish are not on the beach it wont matter a lot. The virtually non existent release policy must also have played its part over a period of time. The fact that Ali appears to be looking for a new camp tells another story. Considering the relatively  sparse population in the area the fishing pressure seemed very high. It is indeed their country and they need to eat, every corner on the coast had a tent, every tent had rods. In extreme places with no roads and no water people were fishing. I've no idea where they came from , got there or  for that matter survived  but they certainly seemed to manage.

Rod - Hart Shore Power Evo 2 40-120g  3m

Reel -Diawa BG4500

Braid- Sufix 832 30 pound BS

Lures- various, Roberts Ranger 2 1/4 oz, Wake Seriola 3 oz, Wake Lichia 2 oz, various jigs, SG Surfwalker

It was on to another destination for the next three days. I didn't fish at all on my first day as I was totally fed up with the whole escapade. It took me 20 mins of guiding myself to land my first fish early AM on the next morning and another 30 mins to catch  my first Leerfish, tiny in comparison to my target size but the target just the same. I'll put a post up about that just shortly.

Leerfish snacks

My PayPal has been taking a hammering this month but I'm pretty much done now. I'm waiting on some Owner ST66  trebles to re-rig those that I'm fitting with that style of hook. I'll also be trying singles with a split ring, swivel. split ring option. I did this in Norway on pirks a  few years back and it worked a treat with less fish lost. On the likes of the Roberts Ranger(centre left) and Wake chisel nose baits next to it , this seems to work well from what I can see. These lures are designed  to be skipped across the surface and worked like this for fish such as Roosters, Striped Bass, Leerfish and Bluefish. Who doesn't like a bit of surface action?

I have a few bits and bobs in the garage that can be used including the large size Mag Popper that I was kindly given a few years back but not used. Garfish seem to figure heavily on the their menu so the style and casting ability of some of my other choices makes sense to me. I picked up a couple of 3 ounce chrome spoons as I can imagine there will be a lot of mullet around. The roll and flash of these fish is bound to attract Leerfish so these heavy spoons might come in handy. I might also try them bounced along the sand on the surf beaches to see if I can pick up a Corvina.