davem2005
Well-known member
Managed an afternoon session today at short notice and Northeast1 kindly offered his services as crew at short notice.
I had a few things to do in the morning so a late start was planned and we arrived at sunderland slipway about 11am...almost high tide and a flat looking sea. How wrong that was to prove to be.
The plan for the day ...well basically there was no plan ...but Richie had brought a list of wrecks and a chart with some named wrecks on it. Since my last three trips had been wreck finding missions it seemed sensible to continue this with a final destination of a favourite wreck of his "that always produces"
This was about 8 miles out and a good target based on the sea we could see. As we ran out to the targeted wreck we made detours to check out others we were passing that showed up on the plotter. A few drifts on each with various tactics...me on large mackrel baits and richie fishing baited twin tail. A few whiting to the twin tail was all we had to show.
As we got further out the swell was picking up in the fairly strong nw'sterly. It was not a big swell but plenty of white horses and a very close wave pattern meant we were getting wet every time we turned back into it. The wind was also against tide which made planning a drift over a wreck very hard , the drift direction seemed to change every time.
After about 5 wrecks we finally found one that produced each drift. A few strap ling to 4 lb came aboard so we decided to spend a bit extra time at it. Also the rising swell was starting to make me wonder if a 8 mile offshore target was a good idea as although I considered it safe to be there it was going to be a very uncomfortable and damp ride back.
It is intresting that althought the majority of fish fell to the baited twin tail..about seven ling in all to 5 lb...the largest fish was to a full mackrel flapper on an 0/10 hook ( I like big baits
) It weighed 16lb and scrapped well. Picture will be added tomorrow.
Thats two sixteen pound plus ling in my last two trips...seems it may be worth sticking it out on large baits to get away from the tiddlers. It does upset me that returned ling go belly up when fishing in 180' plus. Does anyone have a fool proof way of returning them ? cos it a shame to see a returned fish float up and get pecked by seagulls for your conservation efforts.
After that it was not much to report...we ran inshore and got wet on the way as expected...had an hour at anchor with a few scotchies to show...and then spent an hour replacing the lost defrosted mackrel so I have a stock in for spring skate trips.
Great day out in good company...you never know who you may meet on what is effectively a blind date from this site...but it was fun and we got a few...shame the sea was so rough..but we should be getting used to that by now.
Cheers
Dave
I had a few things to do in the morning so a late start was planned and we arrived at sunderland slipway about 11am...almost high tide and a flat looking sea. How wrong that was to prove to be.
The plan for the day ...well basically there was no plan ...but Richie had brought a list of wrecks and a chart with some named wrecks on it. Since my last three trips had been wreck finding missions it seemed sensible to continue this with a final destination of a favourite wreck of his "that always produces"
This was about 8 miles out and a good target based on the sea we could see. As we ran out to the targeted wreck we made detours to check out others we were passing that showed up on the plotter. A few drifts on each with various tactics...me on large mackrel baits and richie fishing baited twin tail. A few whiting to the twin tail was all we had to show.
As we got further out the swell was picking up in the fairly strong nw'sterly. It was not a big swell but plenty of white horses and a very close wave pattern meant we were getting wet every time we turned back into it. The wind was also against tide which made planning a drift over a wreck very hard , the drift direction seemed to change every time.
After about 5 wrecks we finally found one that produced each drift. A few strap ling to 4 lb came aboard so we decided to spend a bit extra time at it. Also the rising swell was starting to make me wonder if a 8 mile offshore target was a good idea as although I considered it safe to be there it was going to be a very uncomfortable and damp ride back.
It is intresting that althought the majority of fish fell to the baited twin tail..about seven ling in all to 5 lb...the largest fish was to a full mackrel flapper on an 0/10 hook ( I like big baits
) It weighed 16lb and scrapped well. Picture will be added tomorrow.Thats two sixteen pound plus ling in my last two trips...seems it may be worth sticking it out on large baits to get away from the tiddlers. It does upset me that returned ling go belly up when fishing in 180' plus. Does anyone have a fool proof way of returning them ? cos it a shame to see a returned fish float up and get pecked by seagulls for your conservation efforts.
After that it was not much to report...we ran inshore and got wet on the way as expected...had an hour at anchor with a few scotchies to show...and then spent an hour replacing the lost defrosted mackrel so I have a stock in for spring skate trips.
Great day out in good company...you never know who you may meet on what is effectively a blind date from this site...but it was fun and we got a few...shame the sea was so rough..but we should be getting used to that by now.
Cheers
Dave
