Since suddenly and unexpected 'bursting' onto the international news scene back in 2004 when a flash flood quite literally swept parked cars into the sea and RAF Sea King helicopters had to be used to rescue around 100 people, the tiny village of Boscastle is a name most visitors to North Cornwall will be very familiar with. It's other big claim to fame is that of being the most invisible and regularly missed harbour in the British Isles. Even where you are quite literally on top of the entrance, you still can't see it because of its peculiar S-shaped passage way through the rocks and on into the harbour itself. So invisible is it that a small white painted lookout station has had to be constructed on the head marking the south side of the entrance point as a sort of a sea going sign post. Once through the S-bend, Boscastle harbour is a long thin tiny affair at the base of a natural ravine through which the combined volume (which isn't much) of the rivers Valency and Jordan flow. As a result, the inner part of the harbour itself all but dries out at low water. As Boscastle looks out onto the open Atlantic and is the only boating safe haven between Bude and Port Isaac which is about 25 miles on what can be quite a hostile stretch of coast in bad weather conditions, the main pre-requisite for any day afloat is therefore always to first check the weather forecast before heading out. Once the water has pulled away from the slip, it wont be back for at least 10 hours, though on a making tide, especially a neap, you may be able to get some shelter by entering the S-bend of the inlet. Failing that, you would need to tuck in behind the small island known as Meachard Rock a couple of hundred yards out in the open sea and wait for the harbour to start filling up again.
Getting There
Boscastle in on the north coast of Cornwall a little over 14 miles by road to the south of Bude travelling along the A39 Atlantic Highway, then on to the B3263 passing through the centre of the village which lies at the base of quite a steep road down to the bottom of the ravine. A small bridge channels river under the main road then runs alongside what appears to be a narrow tarmac footpath leading past the Witchcraft Museum to the harbour. At barely a cars width, if you get there early enough, there should be no other vehicles parked along it. This leads directly onto a tiny, not very well kept slip. Just before the slip there is a small area where, if you un-hitch the boat, you can turn around and re-hitch up the trailer which is infinitely better than reversing the whole way down. In terms of getting there early, actually you will have very little say in the matter because the slip only has 'usable' water on it for around 45 minutes either side of a high tide, which if you want to go out in the morning on a weekend means choosing a spring tide to get an early morning high. A 4WD vehicle would extend that time to some degree. Launching in the afternoon is not advisable as you would end trying to find your way back in during the dark which is strongly not recommended for reasons already explained. Once the boat is afloat the pressure is off. You don't have to exit the harbour immediately. That said, it will still take the best part of half an hour before you can go as the trailer needs to be parked up on the grass behind the ropes/chains on the opposite side from the slip, with the consent of the harbour master. To drive to this spot you will need to go back to the main road bridge then down the other side of the harbour. The car then needs to be parked up on the main car park which costs £4.50, and the harbour masters palm crossed with silver (£5 actually) for use of the slip. At face value, not perhaps the best or most persuasive sales pitch ever made. But the quality of the fishing when you do finally exit the harbour entrance will more than make up for that.
Beyond the Harbour
Depending on what you want to fish for and how you intend to go about it, I would suggest stopping off close to the seaward face of the island (Meachard Rock) to feather for a few fresh mackerel. The water is quite deep around here and mackerel, along with small pollack and possibly a few scad can be quite prolific over the summer months. Unless you are after pollack and bass, then mackerel are a must, including some for rubby dubby if you haven't brought a supply of old soft mackerel or trout with you. What you then need to do is find yourself a nice patch of heavy reefy ground in between say 30 and 50 feet of water, which shouldn't be that difficult as heavy ground dominates in these parts as evidenced by the numbers of pot markers you will need to avoid en route. That said, there is reefy ground and there is reefy ground. The heavier and more dramatic the picture on the sounder screen the better. It doesn't want to be too deep either, nor does it want to be too close to the shore if there is any sort of wind or swell pushing in creating a backwash off the rocks. There is heavy ground all the way from Tintagel Head a few miles to the south through to Cambeak (and beyond in both directions) to the north, and all of it to some degree will attract fish. That said, really productive inshore marks in these parts can be quite discrete, so it pays not to dwell for too long working an area that doesn't turn out to be encouraging early on. To some extent it depends what it is you are looking for. The bass and the pollack tend to favour the grounds closer to shore, whereas the tope, huss and conger can be on the slightly deeper marks a little further off. One fish that can turn up quite literally anywhere between just a few hundred yards off and a couple of miles is the porbeagle shark. So it's always worth putting a bigger bait out as well and fishing with wire because these fish can and will also take baits intended for other species too
Mark No. 1
Arguably, the best inshore bottom fishing spot within easy striking range of Boscastle is the headland of Cambeak around 4 miles to the north of the harbour, where there is deep water right up to the head itself (see Admiralty Chart No. 1156 - Trevose Head to Hartland Point). This is the inner reef mark. The GPS numbers I am providing are not the actual fishing coordinates. What they are is the position to sail to when leaving Boscastle just off Cambeak Head within safe visual distance of it. There for two important reasons for this. The first is that from a precise fishing perspective there are no GPS coordinates. The whole area around the base of Cambeak is well established reef capable of attracting and holding all manner of fish. Positioning here is visual with favoured marks likely to change on a day to day, possibly even tide to tide basis. I am also loathe to provide a precise set of sailing coordinates for safety reasons. Where it is wise, or more to the point, where it is safe to take the boat will again vary on a day to day basis governed by a combination of prevailing sea and weather conditions, coupled to personal boat handling experience. If there is a bit of swell pushing in and back washing off the cliffs, or if as sometimes happens tidal disturbance kicks off, then only you on the day can decide where to position the boat. The reef itself runs out at a slight angle. A big tide can also whistle through at 1 knot and more, producing tide rips and boils where it contacts the reef providing a visual indicator of its position. A good starting point however is the area just off the point itself where the depth on the chart is shown as 119 metres in the 'un-surveyed' strip running from Buckaton around the head and on past Crackington Haven. For some reason, this area tends not to fish well on a flood tide, which isn't much of an issue launching at high water and with lots of other marks in the area to visit later that do fish on the flood. The two remaining questions then are what fish to target, and how to go about catching them.
What you need to be looking for here is interesting features, and in particular pinnacle rocks showing at between 25 and 45 feet on the sounder screen. And what you should also be keeping an eye out for is any slight changes in surface sea conditions which might become magnified when they hit the reef. What you certainly don't want is for a rogue swell to catch you out here. These pinnacles may well be small targets, but that doesn't matter. Find yourself an interesting piece of ground that can be fished comfortably on the day and drift it. Pollack are probably going to be the dominant fish. But there are enough bass in this area for them to be a proposition too, and a good way of hedging your bets and approaching both of them at the same is drifting with a lure on a flying collar rig. Two advantages immediately spring to mind with this approach. The first is that you won't need to bother yourself with sorting out bait, the second being that fishing in this way, for the most part in open snag free water, reduces the potential for tackle losses at a stroke. Normally when fishing with a flying collar rig (a long mono trace from a french boom with a light lead attached), the longer the distance between the lure and the trace swivel, the better. Twelve to twenty feet is not unusual in deep water. But this isn't deep water. So if you do prefer to use a very long trace, then continue retrieving until you can see the lead before dropping down again to cover as much of the water column as possible. Alternatively, shortening up on the trace to around 6 feet appears not to have any sort of detrimental effect on catch rates. And because the idea here is to touch, but not to hold bottom, leads need be no more than a couple of ounces. Redgills, shads or jellyworms can be used. One good tip is to go for a rubber worm such as the fire tail as these can be retrieved much more slowly giving them extra time in the killing zone. Another tip if you find a particularly productive piece of ground would be to put down a grapnel with a dan buoy attached as a drift positioning target.
Mark No. 2
This is the offshore reef mark. As the inshore reef under Cambeak starts to get deeper, it also starts to loose many of its more rugged features, eventually flattening out at around 60 feet. It isn't completely flat and nor does it loose its ability to be a tackle graveyard. However, compared to the shallower inshore stuff it is much less severe. This makes for very good anchoring territory. But you must use a disposable grapnel type anchor, which if you trip it with a cable tie, you stand a fair chance of retrieving if you would rather not have to bend the grapnel wires out. Attaching a rubby dubby bag to the top of the anchor chain can also help things along. This is quite a sizeable area where again precise GPS coordinates are not necessary. Aim to be fishing in between about 70 and 90 feet of water. As a guide, the GPS coordinates shown below are as good a starting point as any at around 1½ miles west of Cambeak Head. Here outfits will need to be heavier than the light tackle stuff inshore with baits going right down to the bottom. Well, I say that, but that need not be strictly the case. It depends very much on what you want to catch. It its conger, which are best fished for as the tide starts to ease on into the slack water period, then a short heavy mono flowing trace baited with a mackerel flapper hard on the bottom is an excellent approach. This will be equally as successful with the bull huss which grow particularly big in these parts, and, if the trace mono is of commercial strength and long enough to prevent abrasion to the reel line, it will also do the business with the tope. But baits don't have to be actually on the bottom for the tope. Having shown themselves more than willing to move up the water column to take shark baits suspended under a float, winding the bait up a few feet from the bottom to clear the snags is not going to put them off here. And what they have in numbers, they also have in size. There are tope all over the place right along this stretch of coast including some of the biggest male fish you are ever likely to see. Small baits rarely get tried down on the outer reef, but when they have been, these have produced some huge pouting, and with a bit of exploratory effort, would no doubt produce black bream too.
......And the Sharks
For those that might be interested, this area is also prime porbeagle shark country from right in up to the shoreline to several miles off. So whether you like it or not, big baits are constantly in threat of being taken by sharks, particularly when lifted off the bottom for the tope. So if the prospects of a porbeagle encounter appeal, why not do something about it. There are better marks and more specific holding areas than Cambeak, certainly for numbers of fish. But we are fishing it here for reasons other than shark. So why not treat them as a potential bonus by putting a whole mackerel out under a balloon about two thirds of the way down. Rubby dubby bags tied too the side of the boat will undoubtedly improve your chances. Rods and reels would need to be stepped up in size to 50 pounds class, and traces would need to be a good 5 feet of 400 pounds bs wire linked to 8 feet of 400 pounds mono using a 4/0 barrel swivel with another barrel swivel obviously at the line attachment end, and a de-barbed 10/0 Seamaster hook down at the business end. Traditionally, shark fishing is done on the drift. But as this is no more than a bonus, still go for it at anchor. We have picked up porbeagles at anchor on a number of occasions. As the tide can run hard here which will lift a bait suspended under a balloon, you will need to add 3 or 4 ounces of lead at the bottom end to help keep it down. Whether you decide to bring any sharks in to the boat is up to you. A far better bet is to have your fun, touch the fish in the water, then use wire cutters on the trace as close to the hook as possible without attempting to lift the fish on board.
Accommodation – being a major tourism centre, bed and breakfast is available in the area though it isn't cheap. Alternatively, for £5 per person per night, you can either camp or set up a touring caravan with full facilities at Lower PennyCrocker Farm which is down a sign posted track on the left as you run up the hill from the harbour on the B3263.
Shop – The nearest shop selling fishing tackle is Boat Angling Supplies in Queen Street, Bude.
Eating Out – Pubs serving evening meals up to around 8.30 pm are common place. There are also fast food outlets in Bude.
Fuel – Outboard tanks can be filled at the top of the village on Tintagel Road and on the A39 heading in to Bude. The cheapest fuel however is at the Morrisons supermarket in Bude.
Mark 1 – Cambeak Head. The GPS coordinates to run out to are 504420 – 044000. From here you need to motor in towards the head on visual, and depending on prevailing conditions, get as close in as safely possible looking for nice patches of pinnacle rock in between 25 and 45 feet of water.
Mark 2 – The outer reef. This is a large expanse of flat reef stretching for some way both seawards and along the coast, any part of which is as likely as any other to produce fish. GPS coordinates as a starting point are 504440/044250.
Tidal predictions - Admiralty Easy Tide
Safety – Falmouth & Swansea Coastguard. Small inshore station at Bude.
Weather – Falmouth & Swansea Coastguard, or Met Office
Harbour Master – Chris Key Tel. 01840 250200.
RATINGS
Location and travel ****
Facilities – **
Tackle Shop ***
Location Safety ***
Fish Quality *****
