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The outings are not over yet, but at the end of the year with this capricious weather, they are rarer. This 2024 balance sheet will not be overly impacted by the few upcoming outings.
The 2024 season has been a rollercoaster ride, with several factors having an impact, such as the weather, of course, but also the regulations, which evolve over the months and require us to review our fundamentals, such as location, for example. In terms of the number of outings, I went out on the water around 90 times with my kayak, and a dozen or so sessions dedicated to shore fishing. That's my usual average. But I had more eventful conditions than before.
Fishing on foot
As far as foreshore fishing is concerned, with quite a few days of high coefficients, it was a good year. Not so much for scallops, as harvesting was banned for sanitary reasons for most of the year. On the other hand, the shellfish was excellent. Large clams at every tide. Excellent for sleepers, with very large crabs all year round, until the last tides 15 days ago. Lots of crabs too. I also did my abalone picking for this year, with the finding of lots of abalone under the mesh and of course, left behind, which is encouraging for next season. For completeness, for the sleeper, above the 48th, the mesh has been reduced to 15 cm.
Kayak fishing
During the first quarter, thanks to almost spring-like weather at times, the outings to the shallows were carried out in complete safety. Lots of squid all over the place until the end of January. Some nice sea bream, a few dogfish and some good pollack fishing until the restrictive regulations were put in place. Despite what has been said, for the place, it was one of my best years. Not in terms of catch, since we were soon limited to 2 authorized catches, but in terms of catch size. With the majority of fish between 60 and 80 cm and a few nice specimens over 80, which is pretty good for kayaking.
Spring, right through to early summer, remained on the same dynamic. With the arrival of the sea bass from May onwards, even if I was still hooking one from time to time before then. In the Brest harbor, I didn't catch any very large specimens, averaging between 50 and 55 cm. I caught my biggest in the 44, near Pornichet, with an average above 60 and a nice 74 cm specimen.
As in the previous year, bonito were very much in evidence throughout the summer. There were some good runs from the end of July/beginning of August, most of them with swimming fish. Strangely enough, the sea bass season calmed down a little. The summer also saw the massive presence of emissoles, with over 1100 specimens marked and released by anglers participating in this marking operation. More than 300 individuals were tagged during the special day organized by APECS. The end of summer and beginning of autumn confirmed the high density of pretty coalfish in the shallow waters of the Abers. Atlantic mackerel, Spanish mackerel, horse mackerel, sea bream, paddlefish, oldsquid, squid, cuttlefish and even some pretty curly rays were among the catches.
This autumn has confirmed the massive presence of squid at the tip of Brittany. This windfall will benefit the predators, who will be fattening up before winter. It also got me thinking about next season and the 2024/2025 winter fishery, with cod targeting replacing the dedicated pollack fishery. This one will be closed to us until May.
In conclusion, I'd describe this year as fair, not exceptional, but good. With over forty species kayaked, in terms of diversity, it's in the upper range. For 2025, we'll have to review our methods and techniques a little to adapt to the regulations. No kill is forbidden on the site until May, which means that a responsible hobbyist won't be targeting it to release it dead...
That's what fishing is all about: challenging yourself every season and adapting.
