Fishing Marks: Douglas Head
Location and description
Douglas Head, situated on the east of the Island, is a popular year round spot to fish which fishes well at most states of the tide. It is accessed from the small road that runs up behind the coastguard station at the very start of the Battery Pier. It is a short walk from the parking area toward the back of the lighthouse along a well defined path.
There are numerous places to fish from, with options available on the cliff tops or lower down on ledges at the bottom of the cliffs. This is a deep water mark, and there are strong tidal currents which at times sweep even a 6oz weight along very quickly. The ground itself is quite mixed. Some days you can get away without losing any tackle at all, but other days you could get snagged half a dozen times. There are less snags in winter when all the weed has died back or been uprooted by winter gales.
Species
There are a wide variety of species to be caught here, and given the very deep water there is always the chance of something different turning up out of the blue. Codling, whiting, dogfish, pouting, rockling, coalfish, mackerel, callig, ballan and congers can all be caught here depending on the time of year.
Tackle required
When fishing the big rod, I opt to fish with 25lb mainline + leader, with a single hook trace and a rotten bottom set up. I find that this minimises my tackle loses to an acceptable level of just the odd hook and weight. This results in a quick recovery from any snags that do turn up as it is simply the case of replacing a weight or a hook. Some anglers fish with a conventional set up (ie 15lb mainline, no rotten bottom) and get away with it for a while but then have to tie on a new leader and clip on a whole new trace when they do get caught up. A light spinning rod can be used for sport on the small callig and wrasse, but a slightly heavier outfit will cope better with bigger weights that get the trace down deep enough to tempt the better specimens.
Best fishing
Fishing behind the head falls into one of two categories: winter and summer.
Winter fishing is a harsh affair, with anglers usually fishing a large single bait in hope of a codling in amongst the large numbers of dogfish. Best fishing is to be had at night, and a quality headlamp is required. A stiff rod helps to cope with the big baits and 6oz leads, and also helps to bully fish out of the snags. Codling will happily take sandeel and mackerel baits, but so will dogfish. Lug/mussel cocktails can be used to target codling without being overrun by doggies, but it can be a waiting game. This mark really does come into its own in the winter, offering consistent fishing with the chance of a codling. It even fishes relatively well in daylight at times when other marks are almost devoid of fish.
By contrast, summer fishing is much more gentile. As a result, it becomes a very popular spot for casual anglers with spinning outfits. Unfortunately, a lot of these so called anglers think there is nothing wrong in leaving their litter behind when they pack up, leaving it instead simply for the wind and waves to carry it away, or for another angler to clear up after them. I tend to leave the louts to it in the summer, happy in the knowledge that there are better places to fish at that time of year.
