jonnyswamp

Sounds like a great trip 👍 A good stamp of fish too, certainly not small Do you find certain areas hold better fish, with others just mainly smaller/juvenile fish ?

Ah no, they're too cool I did try and educate them

I actually had factor 50 on 🤣

Cracking forecast and good tide, be a fool not to go The future sons in law mentioned a week or so ago that none of them had ever been boat fishing before (2 had never been sea fishing at all) so I said anytime you all want to go, we'll get something sorted, also I never asked you as I never thought they were interested Jeez, we've been waiting years for you to ask us, they said in unison So today was the day Got the 8am lock out to a flat sea and sunshine, didn't want to punch the tide and head West (would've preferred Aberthaw area, but hey ho they were happy to be out) so settled into a mark out on the coral Can usually guarantee fish here (except for 3 trips earlier in the hear when not even a bite was found on all 3 days) Anchor down and set them all up with a downtide rod each, did a short baiting up and dropping off the back demonstration (the trotting back in the tide would be lesson 2) I set up 3 uptiders and got them in the water, nominating 1 for myself and the other 2 being pool rods which would be taken in turn whenever a bite materialised Bait was a 5lb box of Calamari and some frozen local caught mackerel from a few weeks ago 2 Metre Jack was first in with a small dog, followed by a small Spotted Ray on his next drop, both on his own rod To say he was buzzing would be the understatement of the year, 1 for actually catching a fish and 2 for beating the other 2 for the first fish, not necessarily in that order either Next up was Owen with a small dog, also on his own rod After couple of missed bites, Justin got his first, a strap Conger that he thought was huge I had a dog or 2 in between baiting up, netting and casting out (none of them fancied casting, as they were getting the odd nest just dropping down) Mission accomplished as they'd all caught and had turned into excited 7 yr olds 🤣 It went a bit quiet and as the tide had eased a bit, I thought I'd try and get them on a some Blondes Anchor up (from inside the cabin I might add, as my invention is still doing the business) and we moved up to the top end of a large sandbank a mile or so off Cardiff that usually produces some good Rays Good move, as no sooner were the baits down, Jack was into what was obviously a nice Ray It was indeed a Ray, but only around 8lb and it came in tail wrapped This was the story for the rest of the morning/early afternoon, with the size of them getting steadily bigger Ran out of bait and got the 2.45 inbound lock to make it home before 4 👍 Having 2 and 3 fish on at a time kept me busy and even my rod turned into a pool rod as they were just loving it Watching them get the bug absolutely made my day and they're all good blokes as well, which is a massive bonus these days Don't think I'll ever be short of crew now A couple of pics of a great day Owen with his first Shark Justin, Jack and Owen with 3 decent doubles Jack and Owen in sync In amongst baiting up, casting, netting and making tea I did manage a few

Was booked for a Skerries trip tomorrow on "Spot on" out of Brixham, but crap weather etc decided otherwise Just read a report from a guy who was on the Skerries today and he had 10 Plaice with only 2 keepers, 12 various Rays to 13lb, Gurnard, mackerel and a Spide crab I'll maybe leave it a few more weeks so they can fatten up a bit May try and get out on my own boat Sunday 🤞

Christ, haven't smashed a mirror have you ?

Nice mate, I've got the same one our of Cardiff, where abouts are you based

The further West we went, the fish became scarcer Another waste of fuel 😪

A look at the tides and weather Thursday swayed me towards a trip heading West towards Nash for a crack at some Bass Just myself and Nipper onboard and was through the lock with hardly time to tie up as it coincided with high water The forecast was chance of a bit of drizzle and 6/7 knot winds early on, dropping off in the afternoon The sea started off choppy and by the time we got to Barry we were down to around 12 knots as the swells were getting worse The wind was supposed to be N Westerly and light, they were closer to 20 and from the West, which wasn't pleasant and against the now ebbing tide We got as far as Fontygary and gave up on Nash as it would've been pretty much unfishable We tucked in out of the wind and drifted for a while, picking up half a dozen small Scad and a few Mackerel After about half an hour or so, the wind buggered off and the sea flattened, so back to plan A We tried in tight, out wide and every where inbetween, nothing, not even bait fish there Made our way back up the coast, stopping for a drift here and there without much success, then saw a small Wilson type in close pulling up a string of mackerel We picked up some Macks here for the bait freezer, then headed up to the Coral to anchor up for the last hour Here we had 3 Blondes to 14lb and a shed load of dogs, Nipper had the Blondes and I had the dogs (pretty much the story of my teens) and got the 3.15 lock back in So no luck with the Bass, have they followed the bat fish out to deeper waters ? Coming back up past the Knap I spotted what may have been @daio web ? I did give a toot of the horn, but only one trumpet works and it aint very loud

Plenty of fish and Cod for tea, result !

Looks the biz mate, fair play

I thought you came 2nd

I don't believe a word either of you 2 type on here But I'll offer congratulations anyway Is that a young Harry Hill next to JonC ?

Seems to be the go to place for Mackerel down there, the Portland entrances All the charters try there, aren't there any other spots that they are caught ?

Has he got a new boat then ? Rob I mean

Did think about it, but the amount of boats heading down that way on the morning meant it would've been like the M25 at rush hour Had the Foreland trip planned for a couple of weeks In hindsight, Nash would've probably been more productive

Nice sesh dicky, we went from Cardiff over to Foreland, then on down to Copperas rock trying a few reef/rock marks as we went All we had to show for our efforts was one Bass off Foreland (56cm) and a Pollock of around the same size off Copperas Shit loads of Mackerel around though

That's great, something else for me to piss about with 🤣

The screen picture that you have posted, is that available on most garmin mfd's I have a couple of old 5012's and a slightly newer 7410 XSV, can I get that info on any of these BTW, looked a nice few hrs out 👍 EDIT I assume that it's linked to the outboard and not an option for me

Well done that man, great days fishing and a belter of a bass 👍

Not a criticism in any way, but wouldn't it be easier to bring a fish in with your left (rod) hand above the reel ? You'd get more leverage, making it easier, especially on something that wants to put up a bit of a scrap

It's back up your way end of Sept until mid October

Can't remember the last time I fished from my own boat, it's been that long Decided on a short trip West to target the Smoothhounds In the 7.30 lock was just ourselves and another (ex) CBYC boat, they were heading further West to Nash and we were staying closer to home just West of Barry We got the pick down by about 8.15 and waited, I was first in with a small blonde after 30 mins or so, closely followed by a dog That was pretty much it for the first 90 mins, so we moved out wider. A small tide meant we could fish and anchor comfortably in just over 50ft at slack low I was first in again with a small hound of around 6/7lb, with crewman will boating its sibling pretty much straight after This was the story for the next few hours, with hounds coming in 3's and 4's of similar size periodically, and the odd few just making double figures We also had quite a few dogs and Rays (Blonde and Thornies) which were mostly juvenile and pretty unexciting We moved when the anchor starting slipping in 70 odd ft and had the last hour on the Coral, near Penarth On a plus note, my bit of stainless tacked to the "prong" on the windlass, worked a treat Had my normal "windlass man" up front on first anchor retrieval just in case, and he wasn't needed The 2nd and 3rd retrievals were both done from the cabin Also both the new temp guage and new oil pressure switch work spot on No pictures of inferior fish today, but did get a couple of this old girl on the way in, parked up on the end of Penarth pier The Waverley, doing a bit of a tour around parts of Britain

Update, had it all apart and everything seems to be working on that score I think I am expecting too much in the way of acceleration I'll have to have a go in another boat like mine to compare, put my mind at rest

Try experimenting with rudder position when at anchor, full lock one way or the other (depending on wind direction) can sometimes counteract the wind and help keep the boat steady