Sunday 19th Jan Amble

[jonny_s]

Against common sense myself and one of my beach fishing mates Gary launched around 7.30am. Would have been earlier if we didn't have to de ice the boats windows first. There was a bit of a swell inside the harbour and we hoped it wasn't too bad on the open water.

To be fair it was ok to begin with, freezing cold but fishable, we decided to stick around Coquet island as the gusts of wind seemed to be slowly building the swell. I was testing out my new Garmin fishfinder / GPS which was showing depth and features but no fish. Our hooks weren't finding any either.

After a couple of hours moving around our drift was speeding up as the gusts from the south seemed to be getting stronger and me being a novice captain decided it was time to move back nearer home. It was at this point we realised due to the fog, visually we didn't have a clue where we were.

Quick flip to GPS mode and we discovered we were about a mile north of the island and proceeded to return slowly to Amble through the fog, couldn't travel too fast as the hull was really slapping hard against the building swell. Strange to have wind and fog

Only my third trip out and got to experience and survive slightly adverse conditions and test out the electronics I installed. No fish, not even a bite

It was freezing and miserable out there but I'm still glad we tried.

Chatted to a few guys at marina on Saturday and they also blanked, fish didn't seem to be interested at the moment.

I have had enough of winter now

 

[My Alibi]

Hi Jon,

Well done for even attempting it! It really does sound like the fish have taken a long holiday!

Nice report too, many thanks!

 

[Kev1n]

Good try. You’ve learned a bit more about boating at the same time as learning there were no fish there.
I like to anchor and cast big smelly baits held fast on the bottom when poor vis and winter colour is still in the sea. The boat will swing to point into the wind and you'll get some shelter from it by the cuddy or cabin.

It’s always worth slowing down in fog so you don’t come across another boat or a pot marker at speed. Fog can be very disorientating and ships’ engines or fog horns sound worryingly close even when some distance away hidden by the weather.

You managed a trip out at this time of year so it can only get better as the weather and conditions improve.

 

[jonny_s]

haven't tried using the anchor yet, got too many other things to learn first Really looking forward to the spring and summer.