Flying down the M6 on Friday evening (amazingly clear for a change) I felt like I a five year old getting all excited about the boat fishing trip on Saturday with my brother Mark and his mate Andy. My wife says its not right getting that excited at the age of 52 about a fishing trip. I said its not right that you spend ÂŁ100 on a pair of shoes that are basically bits of string, especially when the ÂŁ100 is mine, so butt out.
Anyway, I digress. Up at 5.30am on the Saturday morning and down to the cafĂŠ for the obligatory gut buster and cup of manky cafĂŠ tea with the lads (I asked for filter coffee, she said whats that, I said tea will do, nuff said) and then a short drive down to Brighton Marina. It was bloody cold at that time of the morning, a reminder of the days to come soon, and by the time we had all the gear on the boat my fingers were actually tingling with cold. The marina waters were absolutely teeming with what were probably sprats about 4 to 5 inches long and if I'd have had my cast net with me I would have thrown a netful in the live bait tank.
A short steam out to an area of rough ground saw us feathering a few mackerel and pouts for livebaits. Then a further short steam out to a mark about three miles off the marina where we dropped down livebaits and lumps of cuttlefish hoping for an early cod as there had been a few reports of the inshore netters having landed some decent ones already. To cut a long story short it was a pants two hours. None of us had a knock apart from a few small whiting which I caught on my "lrf" rod.
So the decision was made to sack the cod fishing and go for plaice back inshore. By now the sun had come out, the temperature had risen dramatically, the wind had dropped to zero and the sea was mirror calm. It just felt good to be alive and doing what I love to do.
We arrived at the mark, blinged up the rigs, baited with half a black lugworm and a long strip of cuttle as a tip, dropped the lines down and started the drift. Thirty seconds later and bang, fish on.
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The first plaice of the day and the average size of the majority of the fish, although my biggest was touching 2lbs. I must have about 20 on the day. My poor brother only had two, while Andy had seven and the only difference was that I was using freshly pumped blacks while they had frozen. We also had a fair few black bream, whiting , gurnards, loads of mackerel, a bonus codling of about 5lbs for Andy and a solitary red mullet (it was very tasty). It was a fantastic day and was topped by a pod of about 30 bottlenose dolphins jumping and playing about 50 yards from the boat. I can't wait to get back to sample some proper cod fishing in a month or two and I have to say, Brighton's fishing rocks. A few more pics of the day.
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Anyway, I digress. Up at 5.30am on the Saturday morning and down to the cafĂŠ for the obligatory gut buster and cup of manky cafĂŠ tea with the lads (I asked for filter coffee, she said whats that, I said tea will do, nuff said) and then a short drive down to Brighton Marina. It was bloody cold at that time of the morning, a reminder of the days to come soon, and by the time we had all the gear on the boat my fingers were actually tingling with cold. The marina waters were absolutely teeming with what were probably sprats about 4 to 5 inches long and if I'd have had my cast net with me I would have thrown a netful in the live bait tank.
A short steam out to an area of rough ground saw us feathering a few mackerel and pouts for livebaits. Then a further short steam out to a mark about three miles off the marina where we dropped down livebaits and lumps of cuttlefish hoping for an early cod as there had been a few reports of the inshore netters having landed some decent ones already. To cut a long story short it was a pants two hours. None of us had a knock apart from a few small whiting which I caught on my "lrf" rod.
So the decision was made to sack the cod fishing and go for plaice back inshore. By now the sun had come out, the temperature had risen dramatically, the wind had dropped to zero and the sea was mirror calm. It just felt good to be alive and doing what I love to do.
We arrived at the mark, blinged up the rigs, baited with half a black lugworm and a long strip of cuttle as a tip, dropped the lines down and started the drift. Thirty seconds later and bang, fish on.
The first plaice of the day and the average size of the majority of the fish, although my biggest was touching 2lbs. I must have about 20 on the day. My poor brother only had two, while Andy had seven and the only difference was that I was using freshly pumped blacks while they had frozen. We also had a fair few black bream, whiting , gurnards, loads of mackerel, a bonus codling of about 5lbs for Andy and a solitary red mullet (it was very tasty). It was a fantastic day and was topped by a pod of about 30 bottlenose dolphins jumping and playing about 50 yards from the boat. I can't wait to get back to sample some proper cod fishing in a month or two and I have to say, Brighton's fishing rocks. A few more pics of the day.
