VIP day today as Tony and I welcomed Scotty(91) on board for a trip.
Early(ish) start at 4.30am (many thanks to Dunk for transport for Scotty)
With the wind up in the 10mph easterlies for the past few days with a forecast of a swing to NorthWest for today I was concerned as to how it was going to work out "Sea State" wise ... but a quick run to the coast at 4.00am let me give the thumbs up (although we needed to keep an eye on it).
Off and out the piers for about 5.00am'ish with low tide at 6.45am meant we were on target to a get to a 5 mile wreck for mackerel before low then motor off to an 8 mile wreck to do some flowing trace ling hunting with the fresh mackerel....
Not the best of seas today, bumpy with fairly big rollers and the piercing northerly wind .... but still, we did have some sun for a fair amount of the time.
Got to the first wreck and before I could stop the engine both Scotty and Tony were into mackerel 2 and 3 at a time. I found it easier to be a skipper and help out rather than try and join the catching myself. Next drop they were into whiting, then coley ...... then (still with unbaited daylights) scotty was into his first codling of the day.
before I had dropped a trace in the water Scotty was into his second Codling and Tony continued to pull up mackerel, whiting and coley.
This looked to be even better than we could of hoped with fish everywhere ..... and we were just at the mackerel gathering wreck ! and it wasn't even low tide yet ... whoo hooo just wait for the tide to turn past the slack water .......
Right on plan we decided to go further out in search of bigger fish, on the understanding we already knew a hot spot to come back to later .....
What an anticlimax ..................
Apart from a couple of ling to tony and myself another small codling to Scotty and endless whiting for us all (which also eventually dried up) ... that was it for the day. It was as if the switch had been turned at low tide and everything halted, we couldn't even get mackerel in the end ......
We finally, after a round trip of some 47 miles and several hours decided to call it a day but at least were able to feast on fish and chips thankfully to Scotty for his early takings ...... well done Scotty the cod man of the day.
A hard days fishing which, in many ways just reinforces the understanding that catching is not a forgone conclusion ... the main thing today was the good company on board who continued to smile in disbelief of the change of circumstances from the early "frenzy" to the eventual "drought" of catches ...... great day lads, lets do it all over again soon ... (but with more fish I hope ) ...
Just a few pics of the day
Scotty on board Slinky Kate ... for those that have only read his posts
And his first of the Day ...
Tony Mackerel collecting .....
Scotty with a double hit Coley ..
Tony with a typical "Large" whiting ...
Then after a brief spell without fish The winner of the "who's gonna get the next one" competition,
being presented by myself with a "slinky Kate" weight ....
Guess who won with a tiny whiting ...
As ever a great Day out .... buy my this is proving to be a hard season
please wind and rain ... go away ?????
thanks for reading
norm
Early(ish) start at 4.30am (many thanks to Dunk for transport for Scotty)
With the wind up in the 10mph easterlies for the past few days with a forecast of a swing to NorthWest for today I was concerned as to how it was going to work out "Sea State" wise ... but a quick run to the coast at 4.00am let me give the thumbs up (although we needed to keep an eye on it).
Off and out the piers for about 5.00am'ish with low tide at 6.45am meant we were on target to a get to a 5 mile wreck for mackerel before low then motor off to an 8 mile wreck to do some flowing trace ling hunting with the fresh mackerel....
Not the best of seas today, bumpy with fairly big rollers and the piercing northerly wind .... but still, we did have some sun for a fair amount of the time.
Got to the first wreck and before I could stop the engine both Scotty and Tony were into mackerel 2 and 3 at a time. I found it easier to be a skipper and help out rather than try and join the catching myself. Next drop they were into whiting, then coley ...... then (still with unbaited daylights) scotty was into his first codling of the day.
before I had dropped a trace in the water Scotty was into his second Codling and Tony continued to pull up mackerel, whiting and coley.
This looked to be even better than we could of hoped with fish everywhere ..... and we were just at the mackerel gathering wreck ! and it wasn't even low tide yet ... whoo hooo just wait for the tide to turn past the slack water .......
Right on plan we decided to go further out in search of bigger fish, on the understanding we already knew a hot spot to come back to later .....
What an anticlimax ..................
Apart from a couple of ling to tony and myself another small codling to Scotty and endless whiting for us all (which also eventually dried up) ... that was it for the day. It was as if the switch had been turned at low tide and everything halted, we couldn't even get mackerel in the end ......
We finally, after a round trip of some 47 miles and several hours decided to call it a day but at least were able to feast on fish and chips thankfully to Scotty for his early takings ...... well done Scotty the cod man of the day.
A hard days fishing which, in many ways just reinforces the understanding that catching is not a forgone conclusion ... the main thing today was the good company on board who continued to smile in disbelief of the change of circumstances from the early "frenzy" to the eventual "drought" of catches ...... great day lads, lets do it all over again soon ... (but with more fish I hope ) ...
Just a few pics of the day
Scotty on board Slinky Kate ... for those that have only read his posts
And his first of the Day ...
Tony Mackerel collecting .....
Scotty with a double hit Coley ..
Tony with a typical "Large" whiting ...
Then after a brief spell without fish The winner of the "who's gonna get the next one" competition,
being presented by myself with a "slinky Kate" weight ....
Guess who won with a tiny whiting ...
As ever a great Day out .... buy my this is proving to be a hard season
please wind and rain ... go away ?????
thanks for reading
norm
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