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Volante Catch Report 22nd Dec 2008
Hi Guys,
Long time....no post.
Due to a combination of bad weather, me working away and Davey spending time in the desert emptying the bank accounts of the now relatively poor Saudi nationals, it was my first trip since the summer.
As some of the older posters to the board will know, winter on the Volante is our favourite fishing time. Nice relaxed uptide type fishing that 90% of the time results in a good day afloat. It also means the skipper can "get the pan on" more often with being at anchor.
Anyway....to the fishing. We just had a half day today. Went out around 11:30hrs and were back on the dock for 16:00hrs. Davey motored the boat up North first to catch the last of the tide. Day started badly for me....I left my grip leads in a small bucket on the garage floor....what an idiot. Thanks to the onboard tackle shop things weren't a total disaster. £5.00 per 5oz gripper is a bit steep though. Usual winter tactics.......anchored over inshore rough ground, 6ft flowing pennel set up traces loaded with enough crab, black lug, lugworm and mussel to choke any fish under 3lbs. We cast the lines around 60m from the boat and waited for action. To be honest things were slow and the poor tides weren't helping. We always seem to get better results with the bigger tides, (over 4.6m). First blood went to me....a nice fresh Codling of around 5lbs. Fishing remained slow so Davey wanted to move us back to home territory just south of the Wear. Again. tucked inshore on a favoured mark, the anchor was dropped in around 4/5 fathoms of water.
The fishing was pretty frantic from the off.......(for me anyway). Got another two fish in quick succession around the 4lb mark. Fought like hell as well......... It didn't take long for Davey to catch up with some nice fish all around the same stamp. Marti chipped in with his usual Bleg and undersize fish as well as missing more bites than is humanly possible. Davey has suggested it may be a good idea to see if we can train a monkey to be more successful....(Ha Ha...sorry Marti)
The pan came out about 13:30. Some nice butchers own Pork Sausage with American Mustard in the first stotties. This was followed up with Bacon and Brown Sauce in the second.....thanks skipper...!!! Nice Mocha coffee to wash it all down with. The skipper certainly hasn't lost his culinery skills in my absence.
The final count was around 17/20 ish Codling to 5lbs........not bad for 3.5/4 hours fishing between 3 people. Most were returned. The weather was great....not at all cold and almost zero wind. The sea state was what a lot of us dream of for the summer and by all accounts is likely to be that way for the next 3-4 days. Davey will be out again tomorrow, I'll join him Wednesday as I'm going to get my nails done tomorrow.
Anyway, it was great to get out again. I've missed fishing more than I thought i had....!!!! It was also good to know that I can still cast further and more accurately than my older fishing mates....(Ha-Ha) who remain novices at best.
Cheers,
Jeff.
Sorry...no photo's....the camera was on top of the Gripper bucket..!!!
Long time....no post.
Due to a combination of bad weather, me working away and Davey spending time in the desert emptying the bank accounts of the now relatively poor Saudi nationals, it was my first trip since the summer.
As some of the older posters to the board will know, winter on the Volante is our favourite fishing time. Nice relaxed uptide type fishing that 90% of the time results in a good day afloat. It also means the skipper can "get the pan on" more often with being at anchor.
Anyway....to the fishing. We just had a half day today. Went out around 11:30hrs and were back on the dock for 16:00hrs. Davey motored the boat up North first to catch the last of the tide. Day started badly for me....I left my grip leads in a small bucket on the garage floor....what an idiot. Thanks to the onboard tackle shop things weren't a total disaster. £5.00 per 5oz gripper is a bit steep though. Usual winter tactics.......anchored over inshore rough ground, 6ft flowing pennel set up traces loaded with enough crab, black lug, lugworm and mussel to choke any fish under 3lbs. We cast the lines around 60m from the boat and waited for action. To be honest things were slow and the poor tides weren't helping. We always seem to get better results with the bigger tides, (over 4.6m). First blood went to me....a nice fresh Codling of around 5lbs. Fishing remained slow so Davey wanted to move us back to home territory just south of the Wear. Again. tucked inshore on a favoured mark, the anchor was dropped in around 4/5 fathoms of water.
The fishing was pretty frantic from the off.......(for me anyway). Got another two fish in quick succession around the 4lb mark. Fought like hell as well......... It didn't take long for Davey to catch up with some nice fish all around the same stamp. Marti chipped in with his usual Bleg and undersize fish as well as missing more bites than is humanly possible. Davey has suggested it may be a good idea to see if we can train a monkey to be more successful....(Ha Ha...sorry Marti)
The pan came out about 13:30. Some nice butchers own Pork Sausage with American Mustard in the first stotties. This was followed up with Bacon and Brown Sauce in the second.....thanks skipper...!!! Nice Mocha coffee to wash it all down with. The skipper certainly hasn't lost his culinery skills in my absence.
The final count was around 17/20 ish Codling to 5lbs........not bad for 3.5/4 hours fishing between 3 people. Most were returned. The weather was great....not at all cold and almost zero wind. The sea state was what a lot of us dream of for the summer and by all accounts is likely to be that way for the next 3-4 days. Davey will be out again tomorrow, I'll join him Wednesday as I'm going to get my nails done tomorrow.
Anyway, it was great to get out again. I've missed fishing more than I thought i had....!!!! It was also good to know that I can still cast further and more accurately than my older fishing mates....(Ha-Ha) who remain novices at best.
Cheers,
Jeff.
Sorry...no photo's....the camera was on top of the Gripper bucket..!!!
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