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Well, it is the latter part of May so obviously the sun should be bearing down, the water warm,
the sunrises fantastic, the winds light and from the west and the fish should be "jumpin"
..................... hmmmmm well, not quite !
Tony and I met up at 4.00am in Royal Quays Marina with a bit trepidation as XCWeather had
all week been forecasting south to south west winds increasing as the day goes on with rain
heading in during the afternoon. Hence the early, for a change, start ..
We were out the piers by 4.30 am and dropping lines in the water minutes after .................
XCWeather was right by the way, exactly right.
It was at this point I realised I had misjudged the tide by forgetting to add the BST 1 hour
so what I thought was an hour into the ebb at 4.30am was actually right smack
on slack water on a big tide .......... no wonder the Shady lads were having an hour lie in .....
As can be imagined this produced nothing but a bad back fighting against the ever present
southerly wind and rough seas.
We gave it 30 minutes or so but as the plan today had always been to try St Marys
we decided to have a run north and give the tide a chance to start building pace.
We stopped at a little spot we usually find fruitful, well when I say we stopped "at" what I
really mean is "close", unfortunately the backup battery packed in a few weeks ago on my
Garmin (and its only 8 years old) and I had to get a new one and solder it in a few weeks ago,
hence ..... no more marks, all erased ...... never mind we'll get them back in over the coming weeks.
Anyway back to the stop ... did I say fruitful spot? not in the slightest, nothing zero zilch just (as
expected with the forecast) lots of lost tackle in the now increasing tidal current.
We almost called it off after agreeing it would be pointless going wrecking as the sea was looking
bigger by the minute.
A last chance saloon found us drifting the area just outside of the yellow can .... then bit by bit we
started to catch, most of which were returned as too small to keep but now and again they got bigger
so much so that the box was at last beginning to fill.
Then ... all quiet again, we moved and we moved but nothing more.
We were on the edge of calling it a day when the wind seemed to drop right off.
With that and a twinkle in our eyes we decided to head out east, not far just the 4 or 5 mile wrecks,
if the wind picked up we'd simply turn around and go home.
Good point in time for me to start plugging in the wreck marks again so we visited three fairly close
wrecks (joined on one of them at this time by Allan and his party on the JFK Two)
At last we found fish, and the decision to go wrecking was a good one (and I found the wrecks and
re-marked them).
Most startling was a drop down with instant snag and as I held tight against the wreck I pointed out to
Tony that there was even a fish on but I was fast held .................. at which point the fish must have
swam out the wreck and released me to enjoy the fight to the top of a fine 4lb Pollack.
Again, like a switch, it all went quiet .....
That was it, we had had the best part of five hours, marked some wrecks caught some fish and exercised
Slink Kate ready for the coming season, time for home before most of the population had awoken .......
Great Day as ever, controlled by the forces of nature once again, but I'm sure we will get some fine dry
sunny days soon
Many Thanks to crew Tony once again first class today
A few pics of the day ...... notice the sea was not that of a nice spring morning
The closest we could get to a sunrise
My First Take of the Day, a little Coddie
Tonys First, another coddie
Then, Just to show he can still do it .... a scotchie
friends fishing close by Allan and his Party on JFK Two
And a nice Pollack
And just to finish up anothe nice codling for Tony
Many Thanks for taking the time to read
Regards
Norman
the sunrises fantastic, the winds light and from the west and the fish should be "jumpin"
..................... hmmmmm well, not quite !
Tony and I met up at 4.00am in Royal Quays Marina with a bit trepidation as XCWeather had
all week been forecasting south to south west winds increasing as the day goes on with rain
heading in during the afternoon. Hence the early, for a change, start ..
We were out the piers by 4.30 am and dropping lines in the water minutes after .................
XCWeather was right by the way, exactly right.
It was at this point I realised I had misjudged the tide by forgetting to add the BST 1 hour
so what I thought was an hour into the ebb at 4.30am was actually right smack
on slack water on a big tide .......... no wonder the Shady lads were having an hour lie in .....
As can be imagined this produced nothing but a bad back fighting against the ever present
southerly wind and rough seas.
We gave it 30 minutes or so but as the plan today had always been to try St Marys
we decided to have a run north and give the tide a chance to start building pace.
We stopped at a little spot we usually find fruitful, well when I say we stopped "at" what I
really mean is "close", unfortunately the backup battery packed in a few weeks ago on my
Garmin (and its only 8 years old) and I had to get a new one and solder it in a few weeks ago,
hence ..... no more marks, all erased ...... never mind we'll get them back in over the coming weeks.
Anyway back to the stop ... did I say fruitful spot? not in the slightest, nothing zero zilch just (as
expected with the forecast) lots of lost tackle in the now increasing tidal current.
We almost called it off after agreeing it would be pointless going wrecking as the sea was looking
bigger by the minute.
A last chance saloon found us drifting the area just outside of the yellow can .... then bit by bit we
started to catch, most of which were returned as too small to keep but now and again they got bigger
so much so that the box was at last beginning to fill.
Then ... all quiet again, we moved and we moved but nothing more.
We were on the edge of calling it a day when the wind seemed to drop right off.
With that and a twinkle in our eyes we decided to head out east, not far just the 4 or 5 mile wrecks,
if the wind picked up we'd simply turn around and go home.
Good point in time for me to start plugging in the wreck marks again so we visited three fairly close
wrecks (joined on one of them at this time by Allan and his party on the JFK Two)
At last we found fish, and the decision to go wrecking was a good one (and I found the wrecks and
re-marked them).
Most startling was a drop down with instant snag and as I held tight against the wreck I pointed out to
Tony that there was even a fish on but I was fast held .................. at which point the fish must have
swam out the wreck and released me to enjoy the fight to the top of a fine 4lb Pollack.
Again, like a switch, it all went quiet .....
That was it, we had had the best part of five hours, marked some wrecks caught some fish and exercised
Slink Kate ready for the coming season, time for home before most of the population had awoken .......
Great Day as ever, controlled by the forces of nature once again, but I'm sure we will get some fine dry
sunny days soon
Many Thanks to crew Tony once again first class today
A few pics of the day ...... notice the sea was not that of a nice spring morning
The closest we could get to a sunrise
My First Take of the Day, a little Coddie
Tonys First, another coddie
Then, Just to show he can still do it .... a scotchie
friends fishing close by Allan and his Party on JFK Two
And a nice Pollack
And just to finish up anothe nice codling for Tony
Many Thanks for taking the time to read
Regards
Norman
Family life must be tiring your crew.
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