We left Cheshunt at 5.25am for the Hundred mile drive to Newhaven with some of us having reservations on the day ahead.
Looking at the previous posts from last week we saw the "Bloom" had started, I was concerned at the size of the tide, all in all lot's of negative vibes.
Then Terry phoned to say he was running late, was it all going horribly wrong?
We arrived at the Coral Cafe at 7.15am had a great breakfast and boarded Sea Leopard at around 8am.
The sun was shining, the sea was flat calm but still the niggling doubts.
I then unpacked my sunglasses to find them broken, extreem doubts now.
As we cleared Newhaven John opened up Sea Leopard to her cruising speed, we chatted about our prospects for the day and asked about the bloom.
John re-assured us and said we were going further to try and get out of it, he was reasonably happy with the size of the tide, our doubts started turning to optimism. I lookedat the plotter to see 30.2 miles to go, and thought to go that far John must be confident.
We arrived at our destination around 9.45am a variety of lures were sent to the sea bed, Jelly worms favorite at the stern, and a mix of Twin tails and Red Gills down the sides.
First drift and the shout of fish on came from Dave, and seconds later Chris, me too. The first two fish were both Pollack not huge but reasonable at around 6lb
The jelly worms then became the main bait, taking fish after fish with none to any other bait, most of us changed to jelly worms with differing success. I managed 4 pouting and one Pollack, but everywhere else all Pollack, Chris next to me was still catching on a blue and white red gill.
Rob then produced what was to be the only Cod of the day, a nice one in double figures.
Chris caught a Red Gurnard of about 1lb on a red gill, and returned it.
Once the tide died the fishing slowed, but we were still getting the odd fish. The tide started running and the fish returned. Then it was as if a switch had been thrown the jellies stopped producing and a few fish came on the gills.
Again a change in the tide and it did not seem to matter what we put down the fish were hitting them, Terry, Kevin and Rob all bringing in better specimens.
As the day went on we had several more changes of baits as some seemed to out fish the others.
I put a black leadhead shad on, it only hit the bottom then bang Pollack straight away, let down again same thing. Terry seeing these results also put one on bang a 5lb Bass. Soon there were 4 black shads on.
Meanwhile John "Bully" produced his first fish, closely followed by his second, It must have been frustrating waiting that long to land one.
Kevin caught a small Pollack at around 2.45pm we decided we had got enough fish so called it a day, Kevin then said he had heard that if you nick the swim bladder with a hook point the fish would survive if returned, we decided as the fish was effectively dead anyway we would give it a try.
We put a small pin ***** in the swim bladder, waited until it reduced in size and returned the fish.
It took a while for the fish to twitch and swim about, but then two short bursts and it shot off to the depths again.
I would be interested if anyone knows if this is proven to work, it certainly appeared to.
A peek into the fish boxes and the reality of the day we had just had sank in.
We had fourty one Pollack, one Cod and one Bass, returned two Gurnards four pout and one Pollack. Christ now we have got to fillet all of them.
This was done on the journey back to Newhaven, just.
Thanks for a great day John.
Looking at the previous posts from last week we saw the "Bloom" had started, I was concerned at the size of the tide, all in all lot's of negative vibes.
Then Terry phoned to say he was running late, was it all going horribly wrong?
We arrived at the Coral Cafe at 7.15am had a great breakfast and boarded Sea Leopard at around 8am.
The sun was shining, the sea was flat calm but still the niggling doubts.
I then unpacked my sunglasses to find them broken, extreem doubts now.
As we cleared Newhaven John opened up Sea Leopard to her cruising speed, we chatted about our prospects for the day and asked about the bloom.
John re-assured us and said we were going further to try and get out of it, he was reasonably happy with the size of the tide, our doubts started turning to optimism. I lookedat the plotter to see 30.2 miles to go, and thought to go that far John must be confident.
We arrived at our destination around 9.45am a variety of lures were sent to the sea bed, Jelly worms favorite at the stern, and a mix of Twin tails and Red Gills down the sides.
First drift and the shout of fish on came from Dave, and seconds later Chris, me too. The first two fish were both Pollack not huge but reasonable at around 6lb
The jelly worms then became the main bait, taking fish after fish with none to any other bait, most of us changed to jelly worms with differing success. I managed 4 pouting and one Pollack, but everywhere else all Pollack, Chris next to me was still catching on a blue and white red gill.
Rob then produced what was to be the only Cod of the day, a nice one in double figures.
Chris caught a Red Gurnard of about 1lb on a red gill, and returned it.
Once the tide died the fishing slowed, but we were still getting the odd fish. The tide started running and the fish returned. Then it was as if a switch had been thrown the jellies stopped producing and a few fish came on the gills.
Again a change in the tide and it did not seem to matter what we put down the fish were hitting them, Terry, Kevin and Rob all bringing in better specimens.
As the day went on we had several more changes of baits as some seemed to out fish the others.
I put a black leadhead shad on, it only hit the bottom then bang Pollack straight away, let down again same thing. Terry seeing these results also put one on bang a 5lb Bass. Soon there were 4 black shads on.
Meanwhile John "Bully" produced his first fish, closely followed by his second, It must have been frustrating waiting that long to land one.
Kevin caught a small Pollack at around 2.45pm we decided we had got enough fish so called it a day, Kevin then said he had heard that if you nick the swim bladder with a hook point the fish would survive if returned, we decided as the fish was effectively dead anyway we would give it a try.
We put a small pin ***** in the swim bladder, waited until it reduced in size and returned the fish.
It took a while for the fish to twitch and swim about, but then two short bursts and it shot off to the depths again.
I would be interested if anyone knows if this is proven to work, it certainly appeared to.
A peek into the fish boxes and the reality of the day we had just had sank in.
We had fourty one Pollack, one Cod and one Bass, returned two Gurnards four pout and one Pollack. Christ now we have got to fillet all of them.
This was done on the journey back to Newhaven, just.
Thanks for a great day John.
