THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

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probably have had a whole lot more had we made the Jonathan Law, Holyhead Ballan effort, which for a variety of reasons we didn't do. Wrasse One such a venue is Holyhead. There are good ballan wrasse close in all the way around the coast from the breakwater down past Rhoscolyn and beyond. The 'Fangs' just off Trearddur Bay can produce some very good specimens where they are typically either deep reddish in colour, or a beautiful lighter greenish-yellow. Over in the North Sea, particularly from around Amble up into Scottish waters where there is more of a tendency to fish small baits over really heavy ground within the right sort of depth range, they tend to be darker and more drab. West country fish on the other hand are often bright red with pinkish tints and lots of lighter spots, whereas those taken off the south west of Scotland show more of a leaning towards deep unmarked red. So potentially very variable depending on location. What never changes for me is their power and willingness to make a contest of it once hooked. From the boat, it pays to fish hooks in the size one to 1/0 range baited with crab or worm on short simple monofilament droppers with something disposable weak linked to the bottom of the trace to take it down. Any bits of metal will do. One good trick is to cut thin strips from old lead flashings and roll them like a swiss-roll through a loop at the bottom of the trace, which, if it becomes snagged, will often unwind itself without loosing everything. The closer down into the rock and kelp you drop, the better in terms of fish potential interest, but the less time you have to bring a fish under control as it power dives for snaggy cover. That said, my best ever boat caught ballan wrasse was taken on anything but that approach. We'd just finished filming a fly fishing for pollack video off the Mull of Galloway, so I decided to work a long thin strip of mackerel belly close to the bottom on a six foot monofilament trace to see if I could interest a pollack or two. First drop, bingo, a take. 230
So there I am winding in, certain I have a fish, only to see a large red blur under the surface quite a way out from the boat which I thought was a small pollack covered in kelp. But it wasn't. It was a ballan wrasse of five pound ten ounces, a couple of ounces bigger than the then Scottish record. Suitably weighed and photographed, we then put it back down on the hook to shoot some video footage of it, whereupon it promptly got away. Not that it mattered. The policy on Ian Burrett's 'Onyermarks' is that all fish, Phill Williams, Scottish record Ballan Wrasse including some IGFA pollack world records on the fly earlier that day, must go back. So it was always destined to be released without charge. Funnily enough, my best shore caught ballan wrasse came under similar circumstances. I was photographing a feature looking at shore competition fishing on Herm in the Channel Islands with my friends Peter Frise and Joe Gomez from Guernsey, and so as not to get in their way, I rigged up a short spinning rod with a boat style dropper rig baited with ragworm and let it go straight down the front of a rock face at my feet. That fish tipped the match scales at a shade over six and a half pounds, marginally bigger than specimens I'd taken on previous visits to the Channel Islands, again fishing over on Herm, that time at the landing steps where the ferry drops its passengers. In fact, the whole expanse between the Rosaire Steps and St. Peterport is littered with prime ballan wrasse, black bream, and bass holding marks. So much so that I approached the Guernsey tourist board with regard to taking my dinghy over to more fully investigate this entire piece of sheltered water, only to have the plan scuppered by the local Coastguard on the grounds that it wouldn't be safe to have outsiders racing about there with so many dangerous protruding and sub-surface rocks. I was disappointed, but I took his point. Maybe then a slowly paddled kayak would be a safer approach. Just to round things off, Graeme Pullen and I once spent a week exploring Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel, which is normally closed to angling. We'd read that it was the best shore based spot in Britain to target huge and potentially even record ballan wrasse, and as such were expecting monsters galore. Unfortunately it wasn't like that. I can only conclude that the people responsible for all the hype were assuming great things without ever having had the chance to actually try it. We had plenty of ballan and cuckoo wrasse, both legering and fishing slider floats, but nothing bigger than around four pounds. I was similarly disappointed with the Scilly Isles too from the shore due to the depths at some of the best accessible marks, though the boat fishing within casting range of some of the less accessible pieces of shoreline was excellent. There are going to be good shore marks right throughout the west country, particularly along the rocky north coast. But for me, you would need to go a long way to beat the Channel Islands, where the current boat record of nine pounds seven ounces by Jersey based charter boat skipper Tony Heart was taken, and possibly the Mull of Galloway where I know there are some very big fish, but where few boat anglers ever seriously try for them. 231
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THE ACTUAL BUCKET LIST 100 species
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Colin Penny: skipper of the Weymout
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Page The Actual B
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Long Rough Dab 153 Turbot 154 Brill
Page 11 and 12:
Introduction to the Gobies 251 Blac
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Bitterling 322 Gudgeon 323 Bleak 32
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Spain 479 Thailand 479 Tunisia 484
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As always, with any sort of ambitio
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Working in conjunction with these i
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viviparous reproduction, and the me
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possible, use a landing net, and th
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Only when a world record claim was
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pectorals, with the second dorsal d
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The harbour itself completely dries
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Nor can weights be estimated by usi
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shark and porbeagle exploits, all o
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Mincing also makes demands on the m
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Plymouth and some of the surroundin
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That however isn't the entire story
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Mark Ward, 71 pound Norfolk Tope I
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off around Shell Wharf to the south
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Network (SSACN), and it was on thes
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COMMON SMOOTHHOUND Mustelus mustelu
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But you would be wrong. Because exp
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There are lots of good smoothhound
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But it was a long hard fought campa
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The object of the exercise was to c
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LESSER SPOTTED DOGFISH Scyliorhinus
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One of the few occasions when I can
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When they were more numerous than t
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With its recent history, can there
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Getting back to the history of thos
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Ross Johnson, skate from the shore
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From the shore, obviously, it won't
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I remember one particular fish that
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have a lot to do with numbers, dist
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That said, I have on occasion been
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I once took a bucket full of live m
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With fast tides, a profusion of ban
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igger than ten pounds, then it's a
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Spotted Rays also lack rough prickl
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A strikingly beautiful fish which e
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An occasional specimen might even t
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Most of the time we spent fishing i
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Another of those at best rarely rep
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A much smaller fish of more souther
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As with all species, and for a rang
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Our first trips didn't exactly ligh
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etween Christmas and the last big t
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The Fylde would fish best after a b
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Muppets too began to appear in a ra
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own boat over there to fish the rou
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Colouration and lateral line are tw
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Deep diving plugs too, providing th
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pollack have a protruding lower jaw
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The upper flanks and back have been
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From my own experience, certainly f
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photograph of a whiting he'd caught
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s monofilament to help eliminate se
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fishermen, presented as a flapper,
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mouth is noticeably dark. There can
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LING Molva molva Bucket List status
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Mac McAllister, Whitby Ling Now, th
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GREATER FORKBEARD Phycis blennoides
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In common with all the rocklings, t
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SHORE ROCKLING Gaidropsarus mediter
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I used to tag along to collect dise
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As with the more familiar flounder
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fish, little realising that they we
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Though it was still very early in t
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A fish with a distribution potentia
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aits, and a tiny sliver of squid or
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e enough to push them right out wit
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Hooks obviously can be bigger where
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He also uses this description for t
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I spent some time chatting to Paul
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fin extending right around to the h
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Whatever the reason, it did actuall
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From the shore it's slightly differ
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161 And if you are not holding your
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MEGRIM Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis B
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Colouration is brown with some dark
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Dan Burrows, Fleetwood Because of m
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Where there are still a few bass le
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ecruitment in the face of imminent
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As ever, there was always the dange
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The EU is relying on existing enfor
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The total reduction in fishing mort
Page 179 and 180: south, as it is a common enough fis
Page 181 and 182: A fish with a large mouth and power
Page 183 and 184: weaning these otherwise algae graze
Page 185 and 186: spots, and put in the time both swi
Page 187 and 188: Ollie Stenning, 8.7.4 Thin Lip reco
Page 189 and 190: Despite living nearby in Hampshire,
Page 191 and 192: Simply fold the pectoral fin forwar
Page 193 and 194: Otherwise, a family of fishes of vi
Page 195 and 196: epeated off the Yorkshire coast. Ye
Page 197 and 198: were forced to remove their fightin
Page 199 and 200: So far as I can ascertain, this is
Page 201 and 202: different scales starting at the gi
Page 203 and 204: everywhere as was once the case. Wi
Page 205 and 206: Quite an unusual visitor to our pat
Page 207 and 208: Four of us we were drift fishing a
Page 209 and 210: Physically, the almaco is a slightl
Page 211 and 212: Already we are seeing that, not onl
Page 213 and 214: the end of the trip, still with no
Page 215 and 216: I've had it happen to me on more th
Page 217 and 218: What clinched that line of thinking
Page 219 and 220: much stronger sharper hooks, and bu
Page 221 and 222: Mike Thrussell, Gilthead Bream I ha
Page 223 and 224: BOGUE Boops boops Bucket List statu
Page 225 and 226: AXILLARY BREAM Pagellus acarne Buck
Page 227 and 228: Caught out, instead of reversing th
Page 229: The biggest of the four was put at
Page 233 and 234: CUCKOO WRASSE Labrus mixtus Bucket
Page 235 and 236: For deliberately targeting them, th
Page 237 and 238: The scientific wisdom suggests it t
Page 239 and 240: As is the trend with most of the gu
Page 241 and 242: In this particular case however, re
Page 243 and 244: Although I've never caught one myse
Page 245 and 246: So you can expect to see them in mo
Page 247 and 248: The knock on effect would also sign
Page 249 and 250: Phill Williams, Shad on fly Unusual
Page 251 and 252: THE GOBIES Potentially quite a larg
Page 253 and 254: Colouration varies between reddish
Page 255 and 256: TOMPOT BLENNY Parablennius gattorug
Page 257 and 258: BLACK FACED BLENNY Tripterygion del
Page 259 and 260: A very dark blue-grey fish over its
Page 261 and 262: If it's a conger, the eye will be l
Page 263 and 264: Yes, conger can be a handful. Dange
Page 265 and 266: to make a short flowing 10/0 hook t
Page 267 and 268: Anyway, a good hour went by without
Page 269 and 270: More recently, that trend has given
Page 271 and 272: A fish well capable of weights well
Page 273 and 274: eam covered in a mosaic of heavy sc
Page 275 and 276: Trigger fish are not overly demandi
Page 277 and 278: Distribution extends throughout all
Page 279 and 280: exaggerated long filaments stretchi
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sometimes lighter vertical bars on
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GREATER WEEVER Trachinus draco Buck
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SHORT SPINED SEA SCORPION Myoxoceph
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The anal fin follows a similar patt
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Colouration is sandy brown with a s
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By far the biggest numbers I have e
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RED BAND FISH Cepola rubescens Buck
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FIFTEEN SPINED STICKLEBACK Spinchia
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After spawning, the adults drop bac
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So not a likely repeat prospect for
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As for mirrors, commons, leathers a
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That was it. We would film a demons
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Granted, Richard Walker was from a
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Anglers however tend to have mixed
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It took us some searching to locate
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RUDD Scardinius erythrophthalmus Bu
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Match anglers love them too, as all
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ait on their heads and immediately
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BARBEL Barbus barbus Bucket List st
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In addition to that, Mike also had
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More towards the back-end however,
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Looking at recent reports of catch
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Let's start with the feel of the fi
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distances on a regular basis to fis
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I'd never been to East Anglia befor
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Phill Williams, small Zander locati
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Not exactly a fish to set the world
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Dave and Paul went straight for the
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For a whole range of reasons you co
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Let's also not lose sight of the fa
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You only have to look at the wider
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villa I stayed in. Using worms boug
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THREE SPINED STICKLEBACK Gasteroste
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Included in the adipose finned spec
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Other boats also came ashore with s
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Theoretically, a very straight forw
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particular tenkara fly fishing come
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A scale count from the adipose fin
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Living in a three dimensional world
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the hook inside a small ball of the
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Colouration is typically dark green
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In Grayling circles, I have to say
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around one hundred and forty or so
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across the lake, and would therefor
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There were certainly less fish abou
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One day, Bob Fitchie and I decided
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Inspired by Wally's catch, John and
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PART TWO BEYOND HOME WATERS THE CAT
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Cape Cod is a venue where bass in t
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The obvious problem was that Dave,
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FLORIDA - BISCAYNE CANAL When I fis
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So why go to the trouble of fishing
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It's just a pity that the hundred o
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This is controlled by a single lock
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idea was that as the light faded, t
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You could drop a live mullet or blu
Page 393 and 394:
Having fished there on a number of
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getting access to big fish too for
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and reels supplied on-board, which
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Paul Bennett hooked up a huge snapp
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As one local party boat angler put
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The entrance can get quite busy wit
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Each morning at breakfast we would
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407 What we had not expected was ei
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cameras, this went into a rucksack
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The fishing itself was straight for
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ottom. It was all bait fishing with
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Smaller asp on the other hand tend
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also run this river in their millio
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Surprisingly, for the size of these
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Eventually it appeared within reach
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On one occasion, as soon as I touch
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shark, which, along with a fish I h
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fixed spool reels. Fortunately we h
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As it would turn out, this was the
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A stretch of land separated from th
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The food was very nice. Fresh lobst
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What you needed to do was cast as f
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He in turn blamed the local lads on
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against the concrete above us and h
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The one remaining option was to go
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More important still, so too were t
Page 445 and 446:
Our problem was catching the necess
Page 447 and 448:
Unfortunately, everything seemed to
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was emptied, carried to us by scant
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me there from Calangute where I was
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In less than half an hour it was mi
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said, as I'm not one for aimlessly
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This happened a couple more times b
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inside edge of the reef. As the sto
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limited time, we were satisfied, an
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Phill Williams, Puerto Vallarta Jac
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Some days he would even walk into t
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Were it not for the many bite-offs,
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Gurnards very similar to our tub gu
Page 471 and 472:
Cod though were always the number o
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up into the jungle. So late in fact
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As was often the case, the chat wen
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things turned out, it was nothing o
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SPAIN I've only ever been to mainla
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These eventually turned out to be f
Page 483 and 484:
In terms of approach, we used a ver
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PART THREE INDIVIDUAL TARGETS THE C
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Dove-tailing very nicely into this
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I suggested in my representations,
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Fortunately, most of the recorded s
Page 493 and 494:
not mentioned in this section of th
Page 495 and 496:
Opportunities to realistically and
Page 497 and 498:
Hamish Currie is the only home wate
Page 499 and 500:
through holes in bushes, around sub
Page 501 and 502:
to adjust the working depth, depend
Page 503 and 504:
One of the recorded audio interview
Page 505 and 506:
Wels Catfish - now excluded from th
Page 507 and 508:
Okay, so you can access much of it
Page 509 and 510:
With this mind we motored off down
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As a sort of prediction as well as
Page 513 and 514:
Phill Williams & Johan Burger with
Page 515 and 516:
Let's look at the pro's and con's o
Page 517 and 518:
It may surprise some people here wh
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kayaks tied up to some of the buoys
Page 521 and 522:
Because of the geography involved,
Page 523 and 524:
I even tried bottom fishing with sm
Page 525 and 526:
PART FOUR OTHER STUFF PERIFERAL & H
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magnetometer behind the boat as the
Page 529 and 530:
Luckily, Pete had installed a bilge
Page 531 and 532:
But endless pages of print unfortun
Page 533 and 534:
And now here we are with the bucket
Page 535 and 536:
with no relevant qualifications, I
Page 537 and 538:
Deformed surviving Tope Most other
Page 539 and 540:
you dip the sampling can in at the
Page 541 and 542:
acteria feeding on it, or other inp
Page 543 and 544:
separate bucket for reintroduction
Page 545 and 546:
RESIDS 0.18 0.16 0.14 0.12 0.10 2 3
Page 547 and 548:
An asteroid impact 66 million years
Page 549 and 550:
As a point of balance, I should als
Page 551 and 552:
a vested financial interest in mopp
Page 553 and 554:
Podcast Interview 8: Graeme Pullen,
Page 555 and 556:
Podcast Interview 33: Zyg Gregorek,
Page 557 and 558:
Podcast Interview 55: Dave Beecham,
Page 559 and 560:
Podcast Interview 74: Justin Anwyl
Page 561 and 562:
Podcast Interview 95: Sven Hille, B
Page 563 and 564:
shore, and a 1000 pound fish from a
Page 565 and 566:
Podcast Interview 134: Mike Heylin,
Page 567 and 568:
Podcast Interview 155: Ally Gowans,
Page 569 and 570:
Podcast Interview 176: Terry Mosele
Page 571 and 572:
his job had to fish with many of th
Page 573 and 574:
Smoothhound at surface: Photo Phill
Page 575 and 576:
Dave Devine Haddock trio: Photo Phi
Page 577 and 578:
Gibraltar harbour: Photo Phill Will
Page 579 and 580:
Anchovy: Photo Phill Williams. Phil
Page 581 and 582:
Grass Carp: Photo Bill Rushmer. Vir
Page 583 and 584:
Char in breeding livery: Photo Phil
Page 585 and 586:
Danny Cove 200 pound Stingray: Phot
Page 587 and 588:
My angling hero & mentor, Davy Agne
Page 589:
The Lesser Spotted curse: Photo Phi
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