jonnyswamp

Picked up some rag on Thursday and decided that if when I got up Friday morning I felt ok, I would wet a line for a few hrs

In bed by 11pm on Thursday night, couldn't sleep due to being bunged up (nasally) so got up at 2am

Got my gear together and got to the boat about 3.45, just in time for the 4am lock out

Dark is an understatement, the lock gates opened and I gingerly made my way out into the inky blackness, with the outer perimeter walls barely visible it all felt a bit surreal

I really should've wore my glasses

Decided that I would fish the Coral as this is only a 10 min steam from the locks in the light, took me over 30

The bright lights of Penarth seafront very visable, as was the lights all over Lavernock point caravan park

Neither were any use to me

Got to my mark and breathed a sigh of relief when the anchor went down and dug in

A very small (sub 10m) tide, but quite a strong rip for approx 1.5 hrs before low water and very little wind

Dropped a whole squid on both down tide rods straight off the back and cast out an uptider either side with a few rag and a small squid on each

It was now 5am and time for a cuppa

I was just getting the stove out and noticed the first rod do a bit of a bounce, with one long stride I had it in my hand poised to strike

No need for a strike as the fish had quite obviously realised it had hooked itself  and was none to pleased

Felt a few tell tale head shakes on the way up and with the fish staying tight into the boat, I was sure it was a Cod

It's head broke the surface and I could see it wasn't a bad one either

With the net out of reach I had to hand ball it over the gunwhales and was happy to see it land on the deck

A fat little bugger that went just shy of 6.5 lbs

Sent another squid straight back out, made a cup of tea, ate a Viennese whirl and waited

And waited

Had a good pull down on the other downtide rod about 20 mins later that didn't amount to anything

Then had a small strap on the port side uptider

That was pretty much it for the last of the ebb

Slopped about a bit on slack water then swung into the tide fairly quickly to start the flood

All that happened here for 3 hrs or so, was another 4 Congers that were T barred off at the side until the tide just stopped

and the slight N Westerly swung me a full 360

Wrapped up the uptiders and just used the downtiders with the baits just bobbing along the bottom as the boat swung about

Looking about and the 12 or so boats that were around me were all doing the same sort of thing and one by one they were moving about looking to find a bit of tide 

It was now 10.45 so I packed in, pulled anchor and caught the 11.15 inbound lock

No a red letter day by any means, but got me off to a start for 2024

Apart from a snatched couple of hours out 6/8 weeks ago, I hadn't took the boat through the locks in what felt like 6 months or more

Made a few phone calls, fulfilled a few promises and 5 of us boarded at 7am this morning, ready for the 7.30 outbound lock

Forecast had changed overnight from next to no winds all day, to gusts of up to 20 odd mph North Easterlies until 10 ish

On an ebbing tide in the Bristol Channel this is doable, so wasn't particularly worried as low water coincided with the winds dropping and a 3-4mph wind against a floodiing tide wouldn't present much of an issue (even on a small tide of around 10m)

Plan was to go straight out to a large sand bank a mile or so out of the locks and fish the remaining ebb until low water which was  around 11, the gusty winds would have been directly with the tide and should have been comfortable enough. It wasn't

Got somewhere near the mark and it was clear that mother nature was menopausal and was being a bit of a twat

Plan B implemented and we headed East for calmer waters just off Sully Island and after dragging anchor (very slowly) for half an hour or so, pulled it back in to find a rock the size of an odd shaped basket ball wedged between the flukes and the stem (?) so no surprised it didn't hold

We did pick up a few strap congers and ray or 2 here

Plan C next, so we moved into Sully Bay hoping for some bigger Blondes and while we didn't boat any monsters, we had a steady stream over the gunwales through slack low until mid dayish, just the one small dog, a dozen or more eels to 10-12lb, 5/6 Blondes to low single figures, a couple of Thornies of around the same stamp, a Smoothy of 7/8lb and a small whiting

This was my mates fathers first fish in 25 plus yrs, also his first boat trip in 25 yrs as well

And he only chucked up once

Final move of the day was back up to Cardiff to have a go tight in to the Foreshore looking for a lost Codling or 2

They may have been lost, but we didn't find them

A bit more of the same, fish wise up here, but the wind was slewing us back and forth tangling lines etc, so we pulled the pick and made the 5 min steam into the 2.15pm inbound lock and was back on the mooring by 2.45

Would have been quicker, but I drop the oldies off (and everyone else) at the fuel pontoon with the all the gear, so it isn't so far to carry (pull the trolley) to the van

Not a red letter day and only the one photo, but still enjoyable none the less