A Nice Mixed Bag

I finally got out on the boat yesterday for the first time this year, joined by my mate John.

First off, we ran along the bays looking for a few Bass. There wasn’t much around until we got to my banker mark of last year and had half a dozen each to Savage Gear Sandeels. Most were in the 2.5lb to 3.5lb range; good fun on light lure gear. This was the best of the day, probably over 4lb.



All went back to fight another day. The bites began to dry up as we lost the tide, but not before we had a Coalfish of about 2lb from virtually underneath the boat.

As the tide turned we moved on to the next bay. First cast, still on the light lure gear and I’m straight in. After a spirited scrap and a few crash dives as it approached the boat I managed to net this Pollack of about 5lb.



Strangely, that was it. We didn’t get another bite there. So we moved on again.

Next stop was to anchor up and switch to dirty bait on another mark that has been kind to us over the years.

We both dropped a big bait down, hoping for a few Tope. We also cast out a small set of baited Sabiki’s to see if there were any Bream about. We didn’t have to wait long as the rattling bites came on the sabiki rods And up came the first Bream of the season. Nothing big; typically around 3/4lb to a 1lb.



As the Bream moved on, we started getting a few doggies on the Sabikis until we final got some interest on the big baits. Clearly not a Tope, but a reasonable weight, we were not surprised when a nice double figure Huss appeared from the deep. We had quite a few each over the next hour or two. The biggest was probably 13-14lb.

The Sabiki rods started to go quiet, but not before I had a trio of pretty little red Gurnard on them.

All too soon it was time to head in and start planning the next trip. The beer tasted good last night!