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| Dave Lewis writes ... |
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Cerys Matthews hardly fits most peoples stereotype of an offshore angler. Indeed when you first meet the husky voiced one time lead singer of Catatonia, you’d probably think that a day shark fishing many miles off the Welsh coast would hardly figure on her list of ‘great days out’; but you’d be wrong. I confess that when I first met her on the dock side at Milford Haven I honestly thought that we’d end up rescheduling the planned days sharking for a couple of hours sheltered fishing somewhere within The Haven, perhaps catching a few pollack and a wrasse or two for a couple of quick pics before heading back to port; how wrong I was!
When finally we did return to Milford it was as the end of ten hours serious offshore angling, ten hours during which Cerys had demonstrated that not only is she’s one tough lady, but she posses a genuine passion and enthusiasm for our sport, along with an almost obsessive will to learn and get involved. It would also be true to say that in terms of angling ability she had proved herself to be more than capable at handling a fishing rod, and the fact that already she was asking when could she come again, confirmed that for Cerys the day had been more than simply some fancy choreographed PR stunt. Two days later she made a guest appearance on the Jonathan Ross show, and guess which subject she talked most enthusiastically about: fishing!
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Rhys Llywelyn, fishing marketing and training officer at Visit Wales, had arranged the day. Back in the 1990’s Rhys had shared a house with Cerys in Cardiff, during the time when Catatonia made it big and Cerys became a household name. “Often we used to find news reporters and photographers from various tabloid newspapers staking out the front door or even climbing over the back fence,” he recalled with a chuckle. “Cerys was big news and always in the papers and appearing on various TV shows!” This year Cerys was back in Wales promoting her new solo album, ‘Never Said Goodbye’, and when Rhys met up with her following a gig in Cardiff and offered her and husband Seth the opportunity to go fishing, they both jumped at it.
I was already booked to fish aboard Andrew Alsop’s White Waters, which in recent years has established itself as easily the number one sharking boat in Northern Europe, so our plan was complete-Cerys and Seth were going shark fishing!
On the day the weather forecast was OK, not brilliant, just OK, and as White Waters punched her way through heavy seas in the tide rip off St Anne’s Head and headed on first to the infamous Wild Goose Race off Skomer, then Grassholm and finally to the boiling turbulence at the Hats and Barrels Reef where we traditionally stop to catch bait, I know I wasn’t the only one quietly worrying to myself how Cerys would cope with the grumpy sea conditions?
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Luckily the reef was loaded with mackerel and pollack, and in no time at all everyone were hauling full strings of wriggling baitfish over the gunwales. “So when was the last time you fished in Wales”, I asked as Cerys steadily worked another full string of mackerel up towards the boat. “When I was heavily pregnant with my first baby,” she replied with a beaming smile! “We played at Glastonbury Festival that summer then as planned I stopped working three weeks before Glenys was due on August 10th. I went to stay with my parents who live on the coast in Pembrokeshire and every day I used to go mackerel fishing! I can remember the worried looks on the skippers face, as I’d climb down the dockside ladder onto the boat! In a way I suppose you could say that whereas some women might crave certain foods, my pregnancy fix was boat fishing!”
Cerys and Seth live in Nashville, Tennessee, a land locked state that’s a long drive from the coast, so I asked Seth when if ever did they get the opportunity to fish in the sea? “I was brought up on the coast in Carolina, where we used to spend our time stalking redfish and other shallow water game fish amidst the labyrinth of sheltered coastal waterways around Edisto Island, it’s great sport,” he confirmed as he did his bit to contribute to the days bait supply. “My parents still have a house and a fishing boat down there, and often we go and see them and invariably we all go fishing.” “I love catching mahi-mahi, Dorado,” chirped in Cerys, “they are so colourful and jump all over the ocean when you are fighting them; and great eating too!”
With an ample bait supply aboard we headed offshore to the sharking grounds, and thankfully once we got away from the influence of islands and reefs, out into deeper water, conditions started to settle down. We left the morning rain behind and for a while the sun even made an appearance.
After maybe an hours steaming Andrew throttled back and cut the engine, and we started our drift. Two bags full of oil enriched rubby dubby were quickly hanging over the side, and an oil slick and group of attendant sea birds soon starting to stretch out behind us in our wake. White Waters gently wallowed in the moderate ground swell and I knew that if Cerys were going to succumb to seasickness, then it would be now. But Cerys remained in high spirits and was obviously genuinely interested in what was going on, eager to help as we rigged the shark rods, baited up and put the lines to work.
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The first run came on the rod fishing furthest from the boat, a heavy 50lb class Andrew uses specifically for fishing big baits for big fish, but unfortunately the fish came unstuck a few minutes after Cerys started fighting it. “Don’t worry, you’ll get plenty more chances,” we all encouraged her. And sure enough within twenty minutes the ratchet on a reel screamed in classic fashion as what was clearly a very good fish took a bait and raced off at high speed. This time Cerys was on the rod in a flash, the lightest rod we were fishing, a Tiagra 20 Speed Master 20-30lb class combo loaded with 20lbBS line; now she was going to have some real sport!
And it was during that first blistering run that I managed to snap off the shots I was telling you about at the start of this article. As Cerys held onto the rod there was absolutely nothing she could do as the fish dumped upwards of 100 yards of line off the reel. Her face lit up and she screamed out loud with excitement, as I snapped away with my cameras and Andrew stood calmly behind her and offered a few words of advice and encouragement.
From the start it was obvious Cerys was hooked into a very good fish and initially we thought it might be a porbeagle, as after two or three long runs it went deep, a classic porgie tactic. Cerys did brilliantly and within a very short time she was skilfully working the fish with a subtly and rhythm rarely seen from even experienced anglers when fighting their first really big fish. After maybe half an hour we got our first glimpse of the fish confirming it was in fact a blue shark, and a very big one at that! Eventually Andrew was able to reach out with a gloved hand and take the leader, at which point the fish went ballistic, thrashing the water alongside the boat to foam. But Andrew held on, the hook hold was good, and when the fish finally calmed down Andrew, assisted by Rhys, was able to haul Cerys’s shark aboard.
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The barbless hook slipped out easily and Cerys was soon proudly posing with here fish along with Seth, who clearly was as proud as punch of his girl. We never actually weighed the fish or bothered to take accurate measurements but Andrew and I have both seen more than enough big blue shark to be able to confidently predict that the fish was comfortably over the magical 100lb mark, and probably weighed in the region of 120-130lb-that’s around 6X the breaking strain of line she was using; at this stage I honestly don’t know who was the most excited angler aboard the boat!
We finished the day with a respectable five sharks brought to the boat and released, along with a few others missed for various reasons. By the time for lines in approached late in the afternoon Cerys was working the deck like a seasoned angler, helping to handle the fish as they came aboard, cutting and preparing fresh baits and even helping to mix the foul smelling rubby dubby and set new bags to work. During the day I prepared a few plates of mackerel sushi, something I only recently learnt (watch out for the article with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall), and Cerys obviously loves eating fresh fish, she was even pinching and eating raw slices of fish as I worked, with nothing added!
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So that’s my story of one of the most fun filled days I’ve spent offshore for a long while, a day that will be remembered by all lucky enough to be there for a long, long time. Clearly both Cerys and Seth are hooked on sea angling and as I write plans are being put in place for more trips, so don’t be surprised to see Cerys’s lovely smiling face beaming out at you from the pages of future issues of Sea Angler!
To book a day aboard White Water contact Andrew Alsop on Tel: 01446 710815 or Mobile 07970 936443 or visit www.whitewatercharters.co.uk
For more information on fishing throughout Wales, visit www.fishing.visitwales.com or Tel: 08701 211250 for your free copy of Fishing Wales.
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