Lots of fish around by all the reports (and ours as well of previous weeks), so we couldn't fail could we, fish anytime ... with the tide hitting bottom with slack water at 6.25 am ish then we thought we'd have a lie in, let the tide turn and be out the piers for 7.00am and fish the tide up ....... that was the plan ..... lol a lie in with a 6.00am meet up.
All was well until late friday evening when I got to thinking ....... A Friday nights sleep is always bad, wanting to get out, worrying about sleeping in, not getting to sleep , listening for the alarm clock ........ So, I thought why put ourselves through 6 hours of bad sleep when we could just have 3 hours of bad sleep .
So, a quick call to Tone to explain that the lie in for 6 was cancelled and the 3.30am meet-up reinstated ... and so it came to pass 3.30am Royal Quays marina
Once again XC Weather kept its word with a freshening westerly and we were off to the piers by 4.00 am with 2.1/2 hours of the ebb left.
The Shady crew (with Wolfie) were land locked with a comp that didn't start until 8.00am so we were a good 4 hours in front of them and thoughts of heading straight out to the known areas of catch were keen on our minds.
Great sea with a westerly wind so we headed to the 3 mile wrecks to "fill our boots" .... errrr but forget to tell the fish, not a bite at the first well known wreck .... out further to an even more "prone to catch" wreck .. err still not a bite.
By now the tide was well down as it was 5.30 ish with just an hour before slack water, and still not a fish in the box. Nothing for it but to push on and head further out in hope of a turn on.
Got to next wreck just on 6.00am by which time the tide had almost bottomed and the fear was that that would turn off the "yet to turn on" fish.
Somehow the science of fishing (oh well if there is such a thing) was just all wrong, within an instant of touching bottom on this particular wreck we were both into fish, and so it continued for an hour or two, so good in fact that we missed out on taking so many pics as the fishing was frantic with shads doing the business time after time.
What had started to look like a bad days fishing suddenly turned into a superb day while we continued to fill a box between us with prime cod from 3 to 7 lbs., Then as quick as it started it stopped .......
We travelled around a bit bit didnt pick up another single fish - anywhere -
Luckily we had the box filled so ended up as happy fishers but .................. IF ..... we had had our lie in then the day would have been a blank, we would have missed the hot spot by an hour or so.
Maybe they turned back on later, I'm sure we'll hear from others, but with a freshening wind and a building sea (and a fair bit of a suntan) it was time to return around 11.00am, happy in the knowledge that we did have yet another fantastic day afloat.
fun point of the day (see the last picture) was Tonys prinde in his increasing filleting skills when he announced that by calculation he had managed to fillet 1 to every 2 that I had filleted..... thus hes up to half the speed now ....... well , not quite, take a look at the picture .... somehow all the smaller fish ended up in Tonys box for filleting bless.
Thanks for reading,
just a few pics of the day
sunrise hadn't even occured as we passed the piers ... and I think the first Coddy to Tone
......
A Nick pollack for myself and another coddy for Tony
......
and the ratio of filleting,
A Note to the Scots ......... Mark, Lynn, I think this more or less forces a 3.30am Start Next Weekend see you then.
norm
All was well until late friday evening when I got to thinking ....... A Friday nights sleep is always bad, wanting to get out, worrying about sleeping in, not getting to sleep , listening for the alarm clock ........ So, I thought why put ourselves through 6 hours of bad sleep when we could just have 3 hours of bad sleep .
So, a quick call to Tone to explain that the lie in for 6 was cancelled and the 3.30am meet-up reinstated ... and so it came to pass 3.30am Royal Quays marina
Once again XC Weather kept its word with a freshening westerly and we were off to the piers by 4.00 am with 2.1/2 hours of the ebb left.
The Shady crew (with Wolfie) were land locked with a comp that didn't start until 8.00am so we were a good 4 hours in front of them and thoughts of heading straight out to the known areas of catch were keen on our minds.
Great sea with a westerly wind so we headed to the 3 mile wrecks to "fill our boots" .... errrr but forget to tell the fish, not a bite at the first well known wreck .... out further to an even more "prone to catch" wreck .. err still not a bite.
By now the tide was well down as it was 5.30 ish with just an hour before slack water, and still not a fish in the box. Nothing for it but to push on and head further out in hope of a turn on.
Got to next wreck just on 6.00am by which time the tide had almost bottomed and the fear was that that would turn off the "yet to turn on" fish.
Somehow the science of fishing (oh well if there is such a thing) was just all wrong, within an instant of touching bottom on this particular wreck we were both into fish, and so it continued for an hour or two, so good in fact that we missed out on taking so many pics as the fishing was frantic with shads doing the business time after time.
What had started to look like a bad days fishing suddenly turned into a superb day while we continued to fill a box between us with prime cod from 3 to 7 lbs., Then as quick as it started it stopped .......
We travelled around a bit bit didnt pick up another single fish - anywhere -
Luckily we had the box filled so ended up as happy fishers but .................. IF ..... we had had our lie in then the day would have been a blank, we would have missed the hot spot by an hour or so.
Maybe they turned back on later, I'm sure we'll hear from others, but with a freshening wind and a building sea (and a fair bit of a suntan) it was time to return around 11.00am, happy in the knowledge that we did have yet another fantastic day afloat.
fun point of the day (see the last picture) was Tonys prinde in his increasing filleting skills when he announced that by calculation he had managed to fillet 1 to every 2 that I had filleted..... thus hes up to half the speed now ....... well , not quite, take a look at the picture .... somehow all the smaller fish ended up in Tonys box for filleting bless.
Thanks for reading,
just a few pics of the day
sunrise hadn't even occured as we passed the piers ... and I think the first Coddy to Tone
......
A Nick pollack for myself and another coddy for Tony
......
and the ratio of filleting,
A Note to the Scots ......... Mark, Lynn, I think this more or less forces a 3.30am Start Next Weekend see you then.
norm
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