After a winter of few chances to get out, the past 3 weeks I seem to have been out fishing every day. Well it certainly seems like it.After seeing a post on Facebook by Roker Ron moaning about the perfect forecast and the fact that his boat was out of the water for its annual maintenance I offered a day out on Sea Mistress. He was quick to accept and then a few minutes later called back and asked if Aquabell could come and hold his hand:wub:.The last time the two of them came out with me it was a tad choppy and they have not let me live it down with constant digs about Chiropracters and Dentists:crazy:.With the forecast looking like it was going to be flat calm I thought it would be a chance to show them that it can also be a pleasurable day afloat on Sea Mistress:boat:.The pair of them were supposed to arrive at my place in Tonbridge for 6.30 for the 1 hour drive down to Newhaven, but arrived 45 minutes early. They must be keen!They grabbed breakfast at the cafe while I loaded up the boat. While I was doing this Frank Shaw, skipper of Carrick Lee, turned up and we had a chat about various things including the problem between us at the Pollack Comp on Monday. He has been extremely apologetic about this and we have now put this behind us, but I was disgusted at some of the text messages that he showed me he has received, from people maybe thinking that they were supporting me
. Come on guys, if you are one of those that have threatened him please lay off. We all know that Frank is one of those guys that you either love or hate, but there is no need for nastiness:nonono:.He told me to pop over to his boat on the way out and he would give me a mark that he thought would produce some fish for us in the area we were planning to go, so we did this, and headed straight there.Some 20 miles or so later and first drift Ron got the first fish of the day, things were looking promising, and his pollack weighed in at just under 10lb although it looked bigger
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John then got a smaller one a couple of drifts later
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Then slack water came and the fishing died completely. We tried other wrecks but with limited success. The odd small pollack between 3 and 6lb came aboard but it was hard work trying to find any fish. We tried every kind of lure but it was obvious we would need some tide for them to come back out to play. We waited, and waited, and waited. It must have been 3 hours before there was any kind of movement in the water again :giveup:.However with scorching sunshine and barely a wisp of a breeze it was a pleasure just being out there with no phones ringing, sunglasses on and being able to fish in a T shirt in mid March. You could not wish for more.Eventually the fish started to show again but not in any numbers. I got my first codling for months with a couple around the 2-3lb mark but big enough to give me four meals between them.
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Total tally was 2 Codling and 3 Pollack to me, 2 Pollack to John and 3 Pollack to Ron although one of those was on my rod that I let him reel in because he was going through a spell of every fish being a pout and thought he needed a change!Every wreck seemed to be full of pout and the seagulls that waited expectantly around us all day did not go short of grub.We must have tried in excess of a dozen wrecks throughout the day, and as we arrived near one out of the mist that hampered visibility I saw Carrick Lee already fishing it. As it was a small wreck and only really able to support one boat fishing it I made a wide berth around it and left Frank and his crew to fish it in peace.Speaking to another charter skipper while on our way home it seems we did rather well on the day with most of them blanking completely, and others only boating one or two fish. The May Bloom has arrived early and is starting to affect catches already it seems, so for those planning a wrecking trip in the next few weeks it may be best to get some bait and go for the Plaice instead. There have been some very good catches of the spotties already and as they start to fatten up after spawning they are likely to be a more prolific target than the Cod and Pollack on the wrecks.We headed back in arriving at about 5.45pm and then spent about another hour filleting and cleaning up before heading home knackered but suntanned.
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I also put together a short video of the day using my new GoPro camera. Due to a problem I am having uploading it at the moment I will add this to the thread later.
. Come on guys, if you are one of those that have threatened him please lay off. We all know that Frank is one of those guys that you either love or hate, but there is no need for nastiness:nonono:.He told me to pop over to his boat on the way out and he would give me a mark that he thought would produce some fish for us in the area we were planning to go, so we did this, and headed straight there.Some 20 miles or so later and first drift Ron got the first fish of the day, things were looking promising, and his pollack weighed in at just under 10lb although it looked bigger
John then got a smaller one a couple of drifts later
Then slack water came and the fishing died completely. We tried other wrecks but with limited success. The odd small pollack between 3 and 6lb came aboard but it was hard work trying to find any fish. We tried every kind of lure but it was obvious we would need some tide for them to come back out to play. We waited, and waited, and waited. It must have been 3 hours before there was any kind of movement in the water again :giveup:.However with scorching sunshine and barely a wisp of a breeze it was a pleasure just being out there with no phones ringing, sunglasses on and being able to fish in a T shirt in mid March. You could not wish for more.Eventually the fish started to show again but not in any numbers. I got my first codling for months with a couple around the 2-3lb mark but big enough to give me four meals between them.
Total tally was 2 Codling and 3 Pollack to me, 2 Pollack to John and 3 Pollack to Ron although one of those was on my rod that I let him reel in because he was going through a spell of every fish being a pout and thought he needed a change!Every wreck seemed to be full of pout and the seagulls that waited expectantly around us all day did not go short of grub.We must have tried in excess of a dozen wrecks throughout the day, and as we arrived near one out of the mist that hampered visibility I saw Carrick Lee already fishing it. As it was a small wreck and only really able to support one boat fishing it I made a wide berth around it and left Frank and his crew to fish it in peace.Speaking to another charter skipper while on our way home it seems we did rather well on the day with most of them blanking completely, and others only boating one or two fish. The May Bloom has arrived early and is starting to affect catches already it seems, so for those planning a wrecking trip in the next few weeks it may be best to get some bait and go for the Plaice instead. There have been some very good catches of the spotties already and as they start to fatten up after spawning they are likely to be a more prolific target than the Cod and Pollack on the wrecks.We headed back in arriving at about 5.45pm and then spent about another hour filleting and cleaning up before heading home knackered but suntanned.
I also put together a short video of the day using my new GoPro camera. Due to a problem I am having uploading it at the moment I will add this to the thread later.
