mike farrants

wow what a day - non stop action from the first drop to the last........ Forecast weather window for the weekend had northerly 15mph on Saturday - northerly is off the land so 15mph is just about do-able. Small tides so expectations were low. Met at Tims boat for 7am to get out before sunrise - no messing about trying to find bait- straight to the 5nm mark with frozen baits in case the wind strengthened. Target - Whiting on the small gear- rays on the big stuff. dropped the hook, wind and tide not quite aligned but was ok bit bumpy an swinging a bit - dropped the small rigs first while the boat settled and was straight into the fish - literally as soon as the lead touched down. We had so much action on the small rods it was hours before we put the big ones out - Pout, Bream, Whiting, scad, dogfish. I have never put back so many decent bream - we must have had over 20 to the boat - all decent size. Some of the pout were bigguns too - great non stop fun! eventually we tired of that and had we already had 2 decent bream and 3 big whiting for the table - so we put out the big baits only to find the Pout, whiting and bream hitting them too - Tim had a big Bream on a 6.0 hook and mackerel fillet!! - these fish were ravenous, either stripping the mackerel baits or hooking themselves! I put down a mackerel head hoping the bait would last long enough for something bigger and I was rewarded with a big angry double figure Bull Huss. I also managed a Scallop on the big rod - must have taken a fancy to my muppet...... 🤣 perfect for a starter! On the way home we were escorted by a pod of Dolphins - always amazing to see. Bream and Scallop for tea, with the whiting done in chunks for sunday lunch fish wrap!! a pretty special day afloat to kick start the year - I was knackered though - combination of cold and all day action on a constantly moving boat really tired me out - I must be out of practice! 😜 Lets hope this is a good sign for the year ahead!

good report and cracking fish! nice one!

Shhhhhh…..

i don't want to jinx it so i'm saying nothing other than i've moved some frozen bait from the shed freezer to the main kitchen one and set my alarm for 6am tomorrow. make of that what you will........

Agreed Sevens, i liked the fact that private and charter were separated, however i have a kayak - so that might have held me back a bit. I also found it a little frustrating that BFT was on the list and that's not exactly accessible = yet small species like Sea scorpions, blennys and gobies that everyone can catch weren't. plus regional specific fish are or aren't included - black mouth dog fish was on, but red band fish wasn't. still im not complaining - roll on 2024!

MOT exempt? nice!

Not much going on at them moment so i'll share this. I took part in the 'Small Boat Sea fishing' groups species hunt and did ok - the rules are simple - small private boat or charter boat (but cant be a mix), no kayaks, the fish are on a list (only fish on the list count), photo the fish with your card to count - no min size) I ended on 23 species, and came 19th out of over 100 entrants - my prize was a lure bundle from Lureshed UK - soft plastics and jig heads! some very well made lures! my 23 species were.... Mackerel, Garfish, pouting, conger, Ballan, Corkwing, pollock, poor cod, dogfish, scad, whiting, smoothound, spotted ray, thornback ray, blonde ray, undulate ray, tope, red gurnard, tub gurnard, black bream, cuckoo wrasse, bull huss, thick lipped mullet. Notable species for me this year were a few firsts - first ever undulate, bull huss and thick lipped mullet - and I always enjoy a cuckoo wrasse I missed out on a few relatively easy fish that I've had in the prior year - they just eluded me! - Bass, Launce, Turbot, Grey gurnard and small eyed ray - would have seen me on 28 and in 10th! I should also be able to get plaice, spurdog, brill. so I must try harder next year! the winner was Jake Davison from Muscle fishing (youtube channel) and he had 38 - he was fishing from a tiny Polycraft tuffy and was able to travel the entire country with it on the roof - from Cornwall to Scotland for the Skate. thoroughly enjoyable to take part through the year as it makes you try for species you might not normally target, and with a wealth of prizes - over 30 this year - there's a real incentive to keep on it!

thanks everyone - i'll give it a try sometime!

weird thing was it wasn't cold - phil was in shorts lol it was dark early though!

thanks ian - so 3oz ball lead, portland rig, at 2knots redgill type lure? soft plastic?

great thanks - i've drifted with a Portland rig before but not trolled - and with a paravane what's the set up there?

Yeah its full displacement so up to 6 knots on a good day - just wondered what trolling speeds are generally as i haven't ever done it - but its suits Pugwash perfectly on a nice day in Weymouth bay!

that's why i'm asking - surely I wont need a weight at all lol 🤣

Finally a very short window in the weather allowed a few hours out on boxing day. Had the in laws down for xmas and managed to get a pass for boxing day. Didn't get up early doors as didn't want to curtail any festivities - so it was down the boat for 11am armed with turkey sandwiches and a flask of coffee Phil had a new rod and reel for his birthday back in Sept that he still hadn't christened so that was the plan - get phil a fish - any fish - he now has a very nice 8-12lb Ugly stick GX2 paired with a Penn Rival 15LW. for the inshore lighter stuff (his 30lb Penn Squadron is like a broomstick) Plan was to drift Portlands entrances and inshore reefs with baited feathers and chuck some squid jigs over in case they were still about. target mackerel, Gurnards, Pollock, whiting Rigged up Phils new rod with brand new feathers - for the best possible luck. Headed out into what was pretty much flat calm. was treated to flat seas and fantastic cloud patterns but sadly not many fish and no squid. Even tried baited feathers to no avail. Phil did manage 2 mackerel and therefore christened the rod. so that part was a sucess Come 3.30pm we were losing light and headed back to the harbour - not the best fishing, but we were just glad to be out, and good to give the boat a good run got to the pub just before dark not sure when the next weather window will be - Easter maybe........

well done! sounds like a niceday! did the fish come home for tea?

and what speed do you troll?

merry Christmas Pete - yes did get out - briefly! Happy new year all!

you can just about make me out ..... catching nothing on chesil as usual!

she shifts then - very nice! always liked these!

i'll keep an eye out for her for you - i'm only up the road from west bay and we often go there for a wander about!

nice one - lots of good fishing around that area id imagine! Odyssey will be along soon - he'll be a fountain of knowledge for you!

didnt know you were into skateboarding Ian.......

nice one!

nice one - i also love eating whiting - nice in a wrap for lunch! is octopus any good as bait? you could have scooped up some free bait?

looks like a cracking trip even if it wasn't what was intended!