Catch report 22/05/16 "Jules"

[drifter]

On Sunday morning I left "Grace" on her mooring and hitched a ride on "Jules" a very smart Arvor 250, and my berthing neighbour in Royal Quays. We met "big Trev" at Royal Quays and headed over to Mill Dam where we picked up Davy and Mr G.
The day started with very little wind and a slow drift so some of the guys began fishing with daylites tipped with prawn which proved to be a good choice. We headed North and picked up fish at every mark with the ground off Blyth being the most productive and by lunchtime with a freshening Westerly we had registered perhaps 40 or more decent keepers. The flowing trace was now the weapon of choice with twintails and shads doing the damage and at slack water we headed to Newbiggin where we picked up a few more decent fish.
The weather changed and the Cod switched off as the wind turned into the East and played havoc with our drift as well as Mr G's Bobby Charlton "comb over" which kept flipping up like a pedal bin lid.
We headed back to St Mary's in the driving rain where we spent the last hour and picked up a few more decent fish which we all returned.
It was a cracking day and we must have had over 60 keepers between 3lb to 7lb, most of which were returned.

[Tadpoleman]

Superb ! well done chaps

[canman]

Nice one lads, the fish seem to be certainly on the feed now. Nice pan size too.

[Kev1n]

Brilliant, you paint a great picture of the pedal-bin comb over. Were you on the wrecks or ground?

[drifter]

Hi Kev, We tend to favour the rough ground but we will pop out to the local wrecks during slack water if the bites dry up. The wreck lads have had a difficult time lately so we decided to drift the ground all day. During slack water I tend to induce some movement into my end gear by "hopping" the shad or twintail and on Sunday it worked quite well.

[hulme6612]

Nice one Tony, well done.
I fished the wrecks Sunday on me mates boat and we struggled.
Should have went on the ground i think.

We were mainly just trying to mark wrecks out, as he hasn't really done much
wrecking.
Do you just pick a spot and drift the rough ground, or you got your 'little' marks?
The lads GPS is an old one without maps so doesn't show the contours.

[drifter]

Hi Chris,
Every area of rough ground has it's own "fish holding" features such as ridges, drop offs, gulleys, pipe ends etc and these features can be very productive when fished correctly. Just drifting on the tide will generally get you some fish but as with the wrecks, it is important to know the orientation of the rough ground gulleys and features that you intend to target. It's a bit of a science because a gulley lying North East / South West would only fish on an ebb tide with a West wind but a ridge lying due North / South would fish well on the run in or run out. If your mate has a boat in the Royal Quays tell him to look me up and I'll be happy to give him some rough ground co-ordinates. There's plenty of wrecks out there that on any given day may hold fish but the weather gods need to be on your side. The wrecks can be exciting but they've not fished well of late and there's considerably more fish holding marks closer to home that if fished correctly will give you a better return.

[hulme6612]

Hi Chris,
Every area of rough ground has it's own "fish holding" features such as ridges, drop offs, gulleys, pipe ends etc and these features can be very productive when fished correctly. Just drifting on the tide will generally get you some fish but as with the wrecks, it is important to know the orientation of the rough ground gulleys and features that you intend to target. It's a bit of a science because a gulley lying North East / South West would only fish on an ebb tide with a West wind but a ridge lying due North / South would fish well on the run in or run out. If your mate has a boat in the Royal Quays tell him to look me up and I'll be happy to give him some rough ground co-ordinates. There's plenty of wrecks out there that on any given day may hold fish but the weather gods need to be on your side. The wrecks can be exciting but they've not fished well of late and there's considerably more fish holding marks closer to home that if fished correctly will give you a better return.

Cheers Tony, the boat is on a hard stand at Friars Goose.
Its me that tries to find the marks/wrecks etc, he's not to good with the GPS
If you could text me some co-ordinates i would appreciate it