Well, this was meant to be a report stuffed full of monster wreck conger and double figure cod... but clearly the fish and the weather missed that particular memo.
@Saintly Fishand I set off from Gosport this morning full of anticipation and enjoying the calm conditions to the east of the IoW.
But we arrived at the Camberwell to find a nasty 1m swell rolling in from the SW which made for a couple of very uncomfortable drifts. We gave up on the idea of anchoring the wreck and instead sought shelter in Sandown Bay. We had a quick chat with @iowspence on the way in and he suggested a mark for us to try (Thanks Spence 👍). We dropped the hook and within moments we had a pout on a worm bait, followed by several strap conger - blanks avoided!
Just as the mark seemed to be warming up the bites dried out, so instead of waiting it out, we headed back east to Dean Tail to a favourite mark of mine - I call it the Kennel. No sooner had our baits touched the bottom than we were into a pack of dogfish... I was in seventh heaven! 🐶
To punctuate the dogfish, and to our surprise, we both reeled in spider crabs, a few casts apart. Could even have been the same crab, as they both had two missing legs.
A couple more strap congers each and we called it a day. A bit underwhelming, frankly, but let's face it... a day on the water is never wasted.
@JonC, it was a shame you couldn't make it (he stood me up for a better offer), but you didn't miss much. We looked for you as we passed Blockhouse this morning but I'm guessing you were still tucked up somewhere snug with @Tadpole??