Each summer, Neil, the landlord of the Royal Exchange in Torrington organises a sea fishing trip for his regular customers. Neil is now infamous as the captor of the British Record greater amberjack on the 2009 trip. The trip commenced from the Royal Exchange at 7am, and the convoy headed to Clovelly. When we reached the quay, we split into two parties of six on each boat. I was on the Independent with Phil, Rolf, Sean, his son Paul, and son-in-law, Chris. The day was warm and overcast as we sailed out just a short way to try and catch a few mackerel for bait. Rolf had his rig all made up and had three on his first drop. Then Paul and Chris caught a couple each before Chris was taken ill with sea sickness. The sport was slow so Clive, the skipper of the Jessica Hettie, who was lead captain, suggested that as Lundy had not been fishing well, we should go around Hartland down towards Welcombe.
Clive stopped early at a mark, whilst Doug and Dave, our skippers on the Independent went straight to Welcome and anchored just under a mile offshore. Sport was slow initially. I had a couple of pollack, the best around 4-5lb on a carp rod with feathers, but the tide was running too strongly and the line kept getting snagged, so I changed to a running lead with a strip bait. Sport was patchy as the tide weakened, but this allowed Sean to fish with feathers again and his mackerel catch rate increased until he caught one or two fish every drop. He caught one fish I hadn't seen before; a horse mackerel (scad), which looks like a mackerel, though less stripey. It has a spot on its head and more spines. Sean stopped after catching his quota and allowed me to try. His approach had been nonchalent; he just dropped it and wound a bit, catching fish straight away. Initially I really focussed but caught nothing, so I decided to follow his example, looking around as the lead hit bottom. Sure enough, I started catching so many mackerel (and a few scad) that I was shaking them off the hook without touching them to ensure they were returned to the sea, without being damaged. I used this method and caught a few small pollack to a couple of pounds; these were also flipped off the hook.
Like Sean, I caught my quota and we had plenty for bait and food, so decided to try for tope with a nearly whole mackerel on a larger hook legered on the bottom.
The sun broke through as the tide turned and we all basked in the warmth on a near flat sea, but poor Chris was still being seasick. I haven't seen anyone suffer this badly before and we all felt empathy for him. As the tide turned the catch rate improved, although there were also one or two dogfish turning up now, not our favourite fish. I persevered with a larger bait and eventually felt the knock of a better fish and struck into a good bull huss of between 10.5 and 11lbs. I was going to return it, having tried to skin one before with great difficulty, but Rolf said he liked them, so Doug depatched it and put it in the fish box.
One of the more amusing aspects of the day for me was lunchtime. Sandy had volunteered to get up at 6.30am to prepare my lunch, which I thought was a very kind gesture. I should have known better. I opened up the rather large parcel to find a huge Bloomer, half of which was filled with SIX pork pies!!! I'll ask her to give the recipe for what she said was: 'A Darracott Pastie' - Torrington's answer to the Cornish Miner's Pastie.
Sport was continous but slow, so Doug suggested we drift Hartland Race. This is NOT something to do if the sea is rough, as the swell is always sizeable, even on a calm day. We were drifting at over three knots and although I managed a small pollack, we lost quite a lot of tackle which kept snagging and being cut off by the rocks.
After the first drift, we moved a little further into Bideford Bay and anchored using a marker bpuy. Sport was slow initially but as the tide started to reduce Phil caught a couple of black bream, one being an absolute cracker of nearly 4lbs, horse mackerel kept coming, some of a good size (1lb plus) and a few pollack were caught.
I persevered with my big bait for tope and was "rewarded" with another smaller huss of around 7lb before my line tightened and I thought I had caught the bottom. As I wound in the weight didn't seem to change and yet I'd gained a few feet. I thought that I'd snagged another line, but then the rod started kicking and up came my first conger of around 7lb. We took a photo before dropping it back into the sea. By this time Clive had reappeared; they'd managed a few more pollack but we had a few more mackerel, and the bream and one or two bigger fish, so honours were even. We motored back to the harbour and unloaded the catch and tackle, and once back on dry land, Chris quickly recovered. We quenched our thirst with a quick pint in the Red Lion, the quayside in at Clovelly, before heading back to the Royal Exchange where Neil and his wife Bridget had organised a barbecue for the fishermen, filleting and cooking the fish we had caught.
I'd previously booked tickets to see Phil Jupitas that evening at the Plough Arts Centre, so missed the barbecue, but arrived after the show. Luckily Bridget had saved a few tasty morsels of fish - a good end to an excellent day's fishing, although there were no record breakers this time, so Neil's amberjack story continues to grow infamously!
Keith
And just in case anyone would like to prepare the Darracott Pastie, here's the recipe:
Take one large fresh Bloomer (loaf, that is, not half a pair of drawers!)
One dollop of Lurpak butter, nicely softened.
One pack of premium pork pies, Melton Mowbray will do.
Several slices of strong cheddar cheese.
One large dollop of Branston Pickle.
Method:
Slit the Bloomer from end to end.
Hollow out exactly half of the loaf, top and bottom, leaving only the crispy crust.
Lavishly slap on the butter.
Remove the porky pies from their wrapper
Arrange all six pies artistically in one half of the Bloomer.
Slice the tasty cheddar cheese thinly (that's the way Keith likes it)
Arrange geometrically on the other half of the Bloomer.
Dress with dollops of Branston Pickle, and there you have it; Torrington's answer to the Cornish Miner's Pastie.
Before anyone points out; yes I do know that half of the Pastie should contain pudding, but I didn't think Keith would appreciate a squashed banana in his 'Pastie' so I kept this separate.
Finally, wrap the 'surprise' pastie carefully in three layers of foil so that it's contents cannot not be detected ahead of lunchtime. (He should have suspected something was wrong because it weighed kilos!)
Keith tells me he laughed out loud when he saw it and he also says that, not only did he eat the contents, he consumed the loaf as well. That speaks volumes about his constitution!
Wonder what I can fill it with next time!!???
Sandy x