Dungeness crabs and shellfish
On Friday the 15th, low tide is at 10.00 am, so I don't want to be late. It's daylight from 08:00, so I choose a launch as close as possible to my spots and take my little kayak paddle to shorten the preparation time. The coefficient isn't huge, 98, but it's enough for picking. The weather is superb, and there's no wind. 20 minutes after launching, I'm off to work.
As usual, I start with the big clams, picking about fifty of them. Then I move on to the clams, picking up a good thirty of these sweets in just a few minutes. Most of the available time is spent looking for scallops and Dungeness crabs. The shells are discreet, but I find a few. Dungeness crabs, on the other hand, are very much in evidence. In the video at the end of this article, I demonstrate my method of finding them without lifting a single stone...
Sea Hare
One observation on this first day of tide: there are a lot of sea hares on the foreshore, or Aplysia as it's known. It's a large brown/red slug, a gastropod like a snail. This mollusc defends itself like cuttlefish, sending out a jet of violet ink, giving it the nickname of "red wine piss" or "vinegar piss". Its eggs look like a packet of yellowish spaghetti stuck to a rock. It can also fly through the water, hence its other nickname, the winged slug.
Pretty Dungeness crabs
On Saturday 16th, the tide is a little later, at 11:05 a.m., with a coefficient of 102. This schedule allows me to leave from further away and fish for an hour. I took my Alboran stepper kayak and a rod. I'll soon be catching two sea bass on swimming fish. An hour later, I'm on the foreshore.
Same pattern as the day before, I start with shellfish and then move on to Dungeness crabs. Moving from pond to pond, I find a good twenty or so large Dungeness crabs, many of them females who stay in the water, but I still manage to keep five nice males, two of them very large. The meat of these crabs will make excellent verrines for the festive season. Still lots of sea hares, but as far as I know, they can't be eaten...
I'll finish my session with a nice foreshore picnic on November 16th at the tip of Brittany. On the way back, I'll make a few casts along the harbor riprap with a Rafale lure (Trèfle création France distributed by Flashmer), one of the new trendy lures. I'll make a few small subjects.
High tides 2025
For 2025, there will be great opportunities in terms of tidal coefficients on the headland. Here are the dates and tidal coefficients for Brest:
January
- Friday, January 31: coefficient 96/98
February
- Saturday, February 01: coefficient 99/98
- Sunday, February 02: coefficient 96
- Friday, February 28: coefficient 99/104
March
- Saturday, March 01: coefficient 108/110
- Sunday, March 02: coefficient 111/109
- Monday, March 03: coefficient 107/102
- Tuesday, March 04: coefficient 96
- Friday, March 28: coefficient 97
- Saturday, March 29: coefficient 104/109
- Sunday March 30: coefficient 112/114
- Monday, March 31: coefficient 114/111
April
- Tuesday, April 01: coefficient 107/102
- Wednesday, April 02: coefficient 95
- Saturday, April 26: coefficient 96
- Sunday April 27: coefficient 101/105
- Monday, April 28: coefficient 108/108
- Tuesday, April 29: coefficient 107/105
- Wednesday, April 30: coefficient 101/96
May
- Tuesday, May 27: coefficient 96/97
- Wednesday, May 28: coefficient 96/95
August
- Monday, August 11: coefficient 95
- Tuesday, August 12: coefficient 95/95
September
- Monday, September 08: coefficient 97/101
- Tuesday, September 09: coefficient 104/106
- Wednesday, September 10: coefficient 106/104
- Thursday, September 11: coefficient 101/96
October
- Monday, October 06: coefficient 98
- Tuesday, October 07: coefficient 103/107
- Wednesday, October 08: coefficient 109/110
- Thursday, October 09: coefficient 109/106
- Friday, October 10: coefficient 102/96
November
- Tuesday, November 04: coefficient 96
- Wednesday, November 05: coefficient 101/104
- Thursday, November 06: coefficient 106/106
- Friday, November 07: coefficient 105/102
- Saturday, November 08: coefficient 98
The program looks like it's going to be a good one, and I'll be sure to put up an article on foot fishing regulations when the 2025 contours are defined, and don't forget to be careful when you go out on the foreshore, good tasting ...
