THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

Then suddenly it would all kick off
again, a pattern which on this day
persisted for a few hours producing lots
of good action and fish.
Birds working the bait fish
So much so that we got a bit blasé about
it and nipped over to Two Boats for
some cooked food, which is something
of a rarity on Ascension, as the few
potential food outlets there are always
seem to be closed when anglers
typically find time to feed. But not this
day, so we grabbed our chance, and
when we returned you could not have
bought a bite. It was hard to believe we
were back at the same place.
On another occasion, we spent a couple of hours driving from beach to beach looking for bird activity
and saw nothing. With experience of the previous encounter etched on our minds, we were becoming
despondent. We wanted to fish, but not simply to stand there flogging the water for nothing.
In the end however, that was the only alternative left open to us, so at a short finger of rock in front of
the desalination plant, again at Pan Am, we decided to bite the bullet and give it a go. Not a bird could
be seen anywhere. Yet as soon as we started casting it was absolute carnage, which as you would expect,
we looked to repeat on subsequent days, yet caught nothing.
We made our visit in September running on through into early October. Having taken a very wide cross
section of advice on the various options available on and around the island, this seemed to be the best
compromise.
The main scad run, which can never be accurately predicted, and in some years doesn't even happen at
all, is usually around June-July time. So it's a difficult one to call. That said, the man who really set the
shore fishing scene alight here, an English chap now living in Switzerland called Grant, was also there
at the same time as us. So read what you will into that one.
In the not too distant past, Grant had become the first person to land a yellow fin tuna in excess of 200
pounds from the shore. It's been done a couple of times since from the same spot, but Grant was the
man, and we'd accidentally stumbled across him fishing his favoured deep water mark.
In fairness to him, I'm not going to
disclose its location other than to say
it's a rock mark between Long Beach
and English Bay, and while the fishing
platform at the bottom over-looking
very deep water is a good one, the
climb down is treacherous and
daunting to say the least, even with
both hands free by not carrying fishing
tackle.
I was lucky in that I had a four piece
popping rod made for me by artico in
Italy courtesy of Neil Bryant at
bluezone tackle. Along with my
Kev McKie, shore caught Tuna
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