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or re-titled, ..... When a Plan Comes Together .......
Many thanks to my crew today Tony and Keith (The Great Wallsendo and KeithB)
Today seen us start early due to both Tide and Weather predictions ...
I'm pleased to say we stuck to our guns and so did everything else in the plan
The tide was a given, it would hit High at 4.49am at a height of 4.91 metres (fairly high in the cycle of spring/neaps with no other tide beating it during the month of May) no changing that !
The Forcast, well thats for each and everyones interpretation ... for us we took a number of forcasts into consideration and weighed up against previuos forcasters records ....... our prediction from this was :-
A westerly Friday which would flatten the sea for Saturday Morning ... and it did....
A quiet no wind start to the day if we went out early enough ..... and it was .....
A bright sunny start to the day ... .. again , it was ...
A cooling off with a wind build from the south by lunchtime ..... and it did ...
Then maybe some rain in the afternoon ...... well, it did drizzle a little about 12.00 ish ...
The Fishing .. well that would be anyones guess .....
Luckily I can report that after an early 3.30am meet up we exited the piers by about 4.00am and tried our luck at a close in mark which has proven good in the past ..... 10 mins went by here with nothing but scotchies ....
So it was off to another favourite mark .........
WOW before the sun came up and before I had my hook baited (well someones got to drive) Both Keith AND Tony had boated their first of the day .....
Well that was it, we were off "we were Fishing" We had a couple of hours of non stop Wall to Wall Fish of all types and sizes...... excellent stuff !
While the sea was good,nice and calm with virtually no drift, the sun rose and warmed us up (although not that we needed warming up with all the work we were doing)
For the first time we could actually see the frenzie going on below us on the sounder ..... coalies, cod , scotchies again and again ...........
I've never seen such detail on the sounder before and all this over a mark we fish often so we have recolection of what it normally looks like ... ie nothing like this...
Luckily since the weather had turned out so good and the tide was close to top then there was very little drift so we could have several drops each pass.
We all used different lures and different baits but all caught equally (well maybe a bit more equal than some in Keiths case .... ) but not a lot.
Doubt did creep in at one point as to whether we would have enough rooom in just three large fish boxes for todays catch
As quickly as it started it ceased .......
We travelled a few mile, tried a few wrecks , tried a few hard ground marks and although we added to the tally, nothing today could match that hour or two of sheer bliss .......
As time bore on and it got late (8.30am ) we thought of all the cleaning and filleting and headed slowly back stopping off here and there for the odd dip, but as ever the forcast was once again right on cue and as lunchtime approached, so did the wind and with it the unworkable drift ....
So that was it we called it a day at about 10am ish (right on Plan) and headed back with our ample catch of over 40 good keeper fish between us the best to about 5lbs and dozens of memories of others returned to grow a little more ........... boy was the filleting hard work !
as ever a few pics of the day :-
Sunrise, as ever, today at about 4.30am (well after the first fish were caught )
Still at sunrise, Tony with a nice codling (not his first of the day by any means)
Then just to show we could also do it Keith and myself with nice pan sized codling
Surprisingly today these two ling were caught over close in hard ground and not from the usual wrecks
Then, finally after several plays through of the obligatory "Hotel California" (the album not the single) , the end result of todays keepers.
I for one will have a happy set of family and friends tonight
Many Thanks for reading .....
And once again, many thanks to the crew.
norm
Many thanks to my crew today Tony and Keith (The Great Wallsendo and KeithB)
Today seen us start early due to both Tide and Weather predictions ...
I'm pleased to say we stuck to our guns and so did everything else in the plan
The tide was a given, it would hit High at 4.49am at a height of 4.91 metres (fairly high in the cycle of spring/neaps with no other tide beating it during the month of May) no changing that !
The Forcast, well thats for each and everyones interpretation ... for us we took a number of forcasts into consideration and weighed up against previuos forcasters records ....... our prediction from this was :-
A westerly Friday which would flatten the sea for Saturday Morning ... and it did....
A quiet no wind start to the day if we went out early enough ..... and it was .....
A bright sunny start to the day ... .. again , it was ...
A cooling off with a wind build from the south by lunchtime ..... and it did ...
Then maybe some rain in the afternoon ...... well, it did drizzle a little about 12.00 ish ...
The Fishing .. well that would be anyones guess .....
Luckily I can report that after an early 3.30am meet up we exited the piers by about 4.00am and tried our luck at a close in mark which has proven good in the past ..... 10 mins went by here with nothing but scotchies ....
So it was off to another favourite mark .........
WOW before the sun came up and before I had my hook baited (well someones got to drive) Both Keith AND Tony had boated their first of the day .....
Well that was it, we were off "we were Fishing" We had a couple of hours of non stop Wall to Wall Fish of all types and sizes...... excellent stuff !
While the sea was good,nice and calm with virtually no drift, the sun rose and warmed us up (although not that we needed warming up with all the work we were doing)
For the first time we could actually see the frenzie going on below us on the sounder ..... coalies, cod , scotchies again and again ...........
I've never seen such detail on the sounder before and all this over a mark we fish often so we have recolection of what it normally looks like ... ie nothing like this...
Luckily since the weather had turned out so good and the tide was close to top then there was very little drift so we could have several drops each pass.
We all used different lures and different baits but all caught equally (well maybe a bit more equal than some in Keiths case ....
) but not a lot.Doubt did creep in at one point as to whether we would have enough rooom in just three large fish boxes for todays catch
As quickly as it started it ceased .......
We travelled a few mile, tried a few wrecks , tried a few hard ground marks and although we added to the tally, nothing today could match that hour or two of sheer bliss .......
As time bore on and it got late (8.30am
) we thought of all the cleaning and filleting and headed slowly back stopping off here and there for the odd dip, but as ever the forcast was once again right on cue and as lunchtime approached, so did the wind and with it the unworkable drift ....So that was it we called it a day at about 10am ish (right on Plan) and headed back with our ample catch of over 40 good keeper fish between us the best to about 5lbs and dozens of memories of others returned to grow a little more ........... boy was the filleting hard work !
as ever a few pics of the day :-
Sunrise, as ever, today at about 4.30am (well after the first fish were caught
)Still at sunrise, Tony with a nice codling (not his first of the day by any means)
Then just to show we could also do it Keith and myself with nice pan sized codling
Surprisingly today these two ling were caught over close in hard ground and not from the usual wrecks
Then, finally after several plays through of the obligatory "Hotel California" (the album not the single) , the end result of todays keepers.
I for one will have a happy set of family and friends tonight
Many Thanks for reading .....
And once again, many thanks to the crew.
norm
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