Somehow it was good to see no trace.
The bit of coast I fish seems swept clean of pots.
There was a big bunch over towards Dinas Head, but I don't think mine could have been carried that far by the undertow, though this coast has some strange ways. They look like Fishguard pots, shot there ahead of the storm by the more organised fraternity.
I was curled up in bed at the onset of this blessed cold then, but admit that I probably wouldn't have paddled my pots far enough out to do more than delay their loss.
I hope in a way they are gone without trace. Though there was one newish parlour that I will sorely miss, the rest of them were getting surprisingly ragged. Sit-on kayaks are not ideal creel repair workstations.
I was shocked at the damage the ones that came ashore suffered last month. They sat in a pile in the yard for a fortnight before I could bear to sort the repairable from the terminally trashed.
In this new social regime of recycling, its hard to know what to do with the broken bits of bread basket and mashed twine and rope. We need advanced lessons in plastic technology to know what should go in which bag here.
The definition of 'domestic waste' is unlikely to include fractured bread tray, so I will have to secrete bits in amongst bonafide consumer debris... .
So it's off to the Bakers to beg some old bakery trays.
Scavving them one at a time from the street is disproportionally stressful, when they could probably get 'retired' on food hygiene grounds by the dozen if I went to the right industrial estate door on a Friday afternoon.
I ordered net & twine last week, deciding on twisted rather than braided net, as it's cheaper, and a pot's life working close-in on this coast seems brutally short.
Have also ordered a couple of surface nets to replace the spider-shredded bottom ones.
I have a good supply of oak from a forest that I work in, and am seriously considering inserting a frame of it in to stiffen up the next lot of pots, like in my early fishing days.
Pots used to wear out at Llanrhystud rather than smash up.
Also am wondering whether to run to stainless steel screws to fix the hoops to the side-bars.
The galvanised nails were wrenched out. Perhaps though screws would be too brittle and just snap.
Also need to ponder whether grapnels' would be a help or a hindrance; as I get more pots stuck in silt and sand than get moved by big seas.
I certainly need to rethink and adapt my pots though to survive this coast next year.
When this set of hoolies, and my cold has abated, I will put out a couple more, and concentrate on setting a net or two when the sea looks right.
Where did I put my wetsuit gloves?
The Season is Dead.
Long live the Season.
