East Wind Woe

That was a long spell of easterlies winds, wasn’t it! Best part of four weeks worth with fishing around much of the southern half of the UK well below par, as is the norm with east winds.

Years ago, I looked in to the effects of east winds and high barometric pressure and found that even commercial catches of shellfish suffered as the shellfish burrowed deeper in to the sand and mud and went semi-comatose. The old saying “When the winds in the east, the fish bite the least” was founded on observation and it remains fact today.

The winds have been strong and near gale force in many areas at times too. Charter skippers have lost a load of days recently, but when they’ve got out, again catches have been slow.

I had a trip out with Terry Batt on Vicky Emma (Cacheflow) out of Bradwell Marina a couple of weeks back, right in the middle of the east wind spell. It was a great day out but the fishing was hard with bites from anything hard to come by. We ended the day with a few small bass and thornbacks up to 6lbs, mostly on squid and peeler crab. I’ve a trip out with Terry again in July when I’ll be looking to bag my first stingray, so fingers crossed on that one.

Rob with a nice thornback

The only other trip I’ve managed was a day out with Malc Jones aboard Sea Angler 2 in Plymouth. Again east winds were hammering down the channel and gusting a good force 6 at times.

We started out by the Eddystone and bagged a few launce and herring for bait, plus caught cuckoo wrasse, but we had only three mackerel all day. We went on the pollack and though Malc had had a great day with fish to well over double figures a few days before, we struggled. Best pollack on the day was a tad over 8lbs. We then went on some rough ground and my mate Rob accounted for a decent ling and conger, both about 15lbs, with Mike Jr getting a pollack about 6lbs and a ling. Best I could do was a 4lb pollack and a ling about 8lbs. The boats around us did no better.

Shakespeare's Rob Wyatt with a fine pollack taken on live eel

I’m working away now for a couple of weeks, but when I get back I’m going to hit the beaches for the rays, so something to look forward to.