jonnyswamp

Nice Mike, well done to Tim too !

I'm going to have to book a trip or two down there now

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 🤞

20 hours ago, LostPiker said:

Got out, boat actually worked for once. Sadly my brain didn't and while drifting by the needles got snagged rod bent over double and the drag was too high and snapped the tip off.

2 drifts later, did exactly the same with my other rod except this one snapped by the handle. 

 

Luckily I had 4 rods so could carry on. Wasn't very productive, really need to learn how to find spots and anchoring them to find the fish. Caught a few nice mackerel and bream push a few small doggies

Also the trailer winch cable snapped as the trailer was pulled up the slipway so we had an involuntary re-launch and had to Mcgyver the boat back on using rope and a ratchet strap

Christ, haven't smashed a mirror have you ?

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

7 hours ago, daio web said:

yeah that was me mate fishing was poor down that way  only managed a few  👍

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 

On 7/1/2024 at 3:30 PM, KennyPowers said:

I thought the admin invested another £2 a year each for unlimited picture size now we are having to re size them again, I feel like I am being punished for being a rich successful competition winner with a nice phone🤣🤣🤣🤣

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 ?

19 hours ago, Odyssey said:

I’ve had to walk past it for 2 years…. He kept nagging but I resisted… but we came to a gentleman’s agreement and now im skint 😂😂😂😂

Has he got a new boat then ?

Rob I mean

On 6/29/2024 at 8:31 AM, Dicky said:

Hi Jonny

How come you didn't fish the Nash, i hear it's fishing well for bass and tope not to far away.

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 

23 hours ago, GPSguru said:

Yes the trip info is readily available on your 7410 plotter, however, the fuel used info will require an input from the engine (I use a Mercury CAN bus to NMEA black box), but generally I red this infor diect from the mercury smartcraft gauges. When we are moving, I have the smartcraft set to show me fuel burn per hour and litres used since last fill up.

But the trip distance, odometer, time moving, avg speed, max speed etc is all in the plotter.

RTFM 🤣 ........... page 114

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

23 hours ago, JonC said:

The Waverley is often in the Thames, sometimes off Southend pier. 

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

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