Tweet
At Last !!! a weekend with kindof fishable weather with full crew and guest aboard.
Guest for the day Kayos (Mark) .... welcome mate.
Been watching the weather for weeks but what with bad spells at weekends and holiday in between (and lots of other work to do at weekends
) this is the first "proper" fishing trip of the season for Slinky Kate.
We had a little earlier than usual start this week to catch as much of the ebbing tide as possible and were heading out between the piers for close on 4.00am with a fairly strong south westerly behind us.
Full of anticipation since it is of course July, we stopped off at a spot not too far off the south pier ...... just for a try.
I had an instant hook up .... a mackerel taking my cod lure, then as i was reeling in Tony struck into the first cod of the day, and a nice 5lb it was, Mark at this point was just releasing his tackle to the bottom (must remind him to be "ready" for the stop and drop )
within less than a minute I too was into a nice coddy of around 5 or 6lb, just as I was unhooking, Mark too struck into his first of the day again a nice coddy of 3 or 4 lb
So there we were less than 5 minutes into the trip half a mile out and 3 good fish plus mackerel in the box ......... boy was this going to be a good day .
The SW Wind in combination with the ebb tide meant that when trying to hit a certain spot of ground or wreckage the drift was such that you could only judge one drop into it then quickly turn around and have another drift.
After the amazing start it all went quiet .... so we decided on a grand circle wrecking trip. I have just changed the battery in my Garmin GPS so had lost all the marks we ususlly fish however my backup GPS still retained them so this was a good time to hit several wrecks and being guided by the back up set, re-plot the marks again.
We fished several wrecks, which were not as fruitfull as we had expected but bit by bit we filled the boxes (and I filled my GPS with fresh marks)
At one point I dragged a fish from the wreck and with the weight of it on the way up and the fight, I was almost about to call a double ... until it hit the surface and was found to be a medium sized ling foul hooked in the tail (they certainly don't like to swim backwards), it was returned to be caught at a later date.
best effort of the day was Tony on the first drift over another wreck some 6 or 7 miles out, as both Mark and I were instantly snagged in the fast drift Tony was seen to be struggeling with .... was it wreck, was it weed , no it was a fish .... The look in his eyes said he was dying to call its a double and it took forever to bring to the surface, but eventually when it broke the waves it was a fabulous brace one about 7 lb hooked in the lip and the other about 6lb hooked sideways (hence the drag), anyway collectively it was more than 10lb so a double header rather than a single doubler.
As time went on we slowley filled the boxes with Tony taking 6's at a time on mackerel strings, but boy it was cold for July and rough, very choppy past 6 miles
As time wore on and all three of us were beginning to suffer broken backs with the rocking and rolling we decided to head in, against the wind which made for an exciting serious spray ride back
All in all a great Day with Many Thanks to Tony and Mark for the excellent banter all day .... yes the season for Slinky Kate has begun, we would just like more than 12 seconds over a wreck ..... just to give us a chance.
Nice catch today all decent stamp of fish and all exceptionally clean
just a few pics to back up the story
As ever a glorious sunrise ....
Tonys first of the day ...... within 2 minutes of boat stop
My First (cod) of the day within 3 minutes of boat stop .......
apologies for the weird stance but my was it bumpy ...
And Then Just not to be outdone Marks first of the Day within 5 minutes of boat stop
Tones Brace of a 7lb and 6lb cod
Crew at workstations on way back in .......
Thanks for reading, and a big Thanks once again to Mark and Tony
Norm
Guest for the day Kayos (Mark) .... welcome mate.
Been watching the weather for weeks but what with bad spells at weekends and holiday in between (and lots of other work to do at weekends
) this is the first "proper" fishing trip of the season for Slinky Kate.We had a little earlier than usual start this week to catch as much of the ebbing tide as possible and were heading out between the piers for close on 4.00am with a fairly strong south westerly behind us.
Full of anticipation since it is of course July, we stopped off at a spot not too far off the south pier ...... just for a try.
I had an instant hook up .... a mackerel taking my cod lure, then as i was reeling in Tony struck into the first cod of the day, and a nice 5lb it was, Mark at this point was just releasing his tackle to the bottom (must remind him to be "ready" for the stop and drop
)within less than a minute I too was into a nice coddy of around 5 or 6lb, just as I was unhooking, Mark too struck into his first of the day again a nice coddy of 3 or 4 lb
So there we were less than 5 minutes into the trip half a mile out and 3 good fish plus mackerel in the box ......... boy was this going to be a good day .
The SW Wind in combination with the ebb tide meant that when trying to hit a certain spot of ground or wreckage the drift was such that you could only judge one drop into it then quickly turn around and have another drift.
After the amazing start it all went quiet .... so we decided on a grand circle wrecking trip. I have just changed the battery in my Garmin GPS so had lost all the marks we ususlly fish however my backup GPS still retained them so this was a good time to hit several wrecks and being guided by the back up set, re-plot the marks again.
We fished several wrecks, which were not as fruitfull as we had expected but bit by bit we filled the boxes (and I filled my GPS with fresh marks)
At one point I dragged a fish from the wreck and with the weight of it on the way up and the fight, I was almost about to call a double ... until it hit the surface and was found to be a medium sized ling foul hooked in the tail (they certainly don't like to swim backwards), it was returned to be caught at a later date.
best effort of the day was Tony on the first drift over another wreck some 6 or 7 miles out, as both Mark and I were instantly snagged in the fast drift Tony was seen to be struggeling with .... was it wreck, was it weed , no it was a fish .... The look in his eyes said he was dying to call its a double and it took forever to bring to the surface, but eventually when it broke the waves it was a fabulous brace one about 7 lb hooked in the lip and the other about 6lb hooked sideways (hence the drag), anyway collectively it was more than 10lb so a double header rather than a single doubler.
As time went on we slowley filled the boxes with Tony taking 6's at a time on mackerel strings, but boy it was cold for July and rough, very choppy past 6 miles
As time wore on and all three of us were beginning to suffer broken backs with the rocking and rolling we decided to head in, against the wind which made for an exciting serious spray ride back
All in all a great Day with Many Thanks to Tony and Mark for the excellent banter all day .... yes the season for Slinky Kate has begun, we would just like more than 12 seconds over a wreck ..... just to give us a chance.
Nice catch today all decent stamp of fish and all exceptionally clean
just a few pics to back up the story
As ever a glorious sunrise ....
Tonys first of the day ...... within 2 minutes of boat stop
My First (cod) of the day within 3 minutes of boat stop .......
apologies for the weird stance but my was it bumpy ...
And Then Just not to be outdone Marks first of the Day within 5 minutes of boat stop
Tones Brace of a 7lb and 6lb cod
Crew at workstations on way back in .......
Thanks for reading, and a big Thanks once again to Mark and Tony
Norm
Comment