jonnyswamp

More of a nightmare for the first couple of hrs

Well dangled Nick. Sounds like a busy session in the end. 👍

Good result 🙂 
Its pretty quiet in the channel at the moment but give it a week or 2 and the hounds will be back off Minehead or out in the trenches and loads of rays in sully, hopefully just in time for you to get the renovations done 

With the foreseeable future weekends being taken up I thought I'd take advantage of a slow builder (job not ready til next week) and pop out for few hrs before the winds and rain came in
Just myself and Nipper got through the 7am lock and headed east to Clevedon, a small flooding tide allowed us to drop anchor on the English side of the shipping channel on a mark that's usually pretty good
I had a small thornie on whole squid on the first drop of the downtide rod, and not a twitch on any of the 6 we had out for the next hour. Didn't want to waste any more time here as high water was around 12 ish and the wind and rain were forecast to increase from late morning onwards, so we would only have comfortable fishing up until high water
A quick move out to the "English and Welsh" where we stayed for an hour, again without any success. Not even a bite
Last move was back to the Welsh side just above the Newport Deeps buoy where I'd caught a nice 14.5lb Cod in Dec 21
A slow start here with the odd thornie coming up, then pretty much bang on high water things went very busy
We ended up with 18-20 Thornbacks and 3 small Codling to 3.5lb, the majority caught around slack high water when it's usually just Congers that show themselves
The wind and rain were still not as forecast, so we stayed until we'd used all our bait
This corresponded with the swell and rain picking up, so we caught the 2.15pm lock back in 
A half decent end to a crap start, but some good sport for a few hrs
No pictures cos Aussie Jon would slightly trump mine (if I actually took any that is)
 

With the foreseeable future weekends being taken up I thought I'd take advantage of a slow builder (job not ready til next week) and pop out for few hrs before the winds and rain came in
Just myself and Nipper got through the 7am lock and headed east to Clevedon, a small flooding tide allowed us to drop anchor on the English side of the shipping channel on a mark that's usually pretty good
I had a small thornie on whole squid on the first drop of the downtide rod, and not a twitch on any of the 6 we had out for the next hour. Didn't want to waste any more time here as high water was around 12 ish and the wind and rain were forecast to increase from late morning onwards, so we would only have comfortable fishing up until high water
A quick move out to the "English and Welsh" where we stayed for an hour, again without any success. Not even a bite
Last move was back to the Welsh side just above the Newport Deeps buoy where I'd caught a nice 14.5lb Cod in Dec 21
A slow start here with the odd thornie coming up, then pretty much bang on high water things went very busy
We ended up with 18-20 Thornbacks and 3 small Codling to 3.5lb, the majority caught around slack high water when it's usually just Congers that show themselves
The wind and rain were still not as forecast, so we stayed until we'd used all our bait
This corresponded with the swell and rain picking up, so we caught the 2.15pm lock back in 
A half decent end to a crap start, but some good sport for a few hrs
No pictures cos Aussie Jon would slightly trump mine (if I actually took any that is)
 

No, we weren't near a harbour/port and it's windy as feck on Lanzarote
 

With the foreseeable future weekends being taken up I thought I'd take advantage of a slow builder (job not ready til next week) and pop out for few hrs before the winds and rain came in
Just myself and Nipper got through the 7am lock and headed east to Clevedon, a small flooding tide allowed us to drop anchor on the English side of the shipping channel on a mark that's usually pretty good
I had a small thornie on whole squid on the first drop of the downtide rod, and not a twitch on any of the 6 we had out for the next hour. Didn't want to waste any more time here as high water was around 12 ish and the wind and rain were forecast to increase from late morning onwards, so we would only have comfortable fishing up until high water
A quick move out to the "English and Welsh" where we stayed for an hour, again without any success. Not even a bite
Last move was back to the Welsh side just above the Newport Deeps buoy where I'd caught a nice 14.5lb Cod in Dec 21
A slow start here with the odd thornie coming up, then pretty much bang on high water things went very busy
We ended up with 18-20 Thornbacks and 3 small Codling to 3.5lb, the majority caught around slack high water when it's usually just Congers that show themselves
The wind and rain were still not as forecast, so we stayed until we'd used all our bait
This corresponded with the swell and rain picking up, so we caught the 2.15pm lock back in 
A half decent end to a crap start, but some good sport for a few hrs
No pictures cos Aussie Jon would slightly trump mine (if I actually took any that is)
 

With the foreseeable future weekends being taken up I thought I'd take advantage of a slow builder (job not ready til next week) and pop out for few hrs before the winds and rain came in
Just myself and Nipper got through the 7am lock and headed east to Clevedon, a small flooding tide allowed us to drop anchor on the English side of the shipping channel on a mark that's usually pretty good
I had a small thornie on whole squid on the first drop of the downtide rod, and not a twitch on any of the 6 we had out for the next hour. Didn't want to waste any more time here as high water was around 12 ish and the wind and rain were forecast to increase from late morning onwards, so we would only have comfortable fishing up until high water
A quick move out to the "English and Welsh" where we stayed for an hour, again without any success. Not even a bite
Last move was back to the Welsh side just above the Newport Deeps buoy where I'd caught a nice 14.5lb Cod in Dec 21
A slow start here with the odd thornie coming up, then pretty much bang on high water things went very busy
We ended up with 18-20 Thornbacks and 3 small Codling to 3.5lb, the majority caught around slack high water when it's usually just Congers that show themselves
The wind and rain were still not as forecast, so we stayed until we'd used all our bait
This corresponded with the swell and rain picking up, so we caught the 2.15pm lock back in 
A half decent end to a crap start, but some good sport for a few hrs
No pictures cos Aussie Jon would slightly trump mine (if I actually took any that is)
 

I use navionics on phone and a tablet. 
to search out ground, plot all my fishy hotspots, measure my speed accurately etc
but its most useful for checking the anchor is holding!
 
i also us it to position myself on chesil beach exactly where the fish arent...... 
 
 
 

Don't think I'll be out this weekend as it looks a bit windy and apparently I have decorating to do.
 
Good news is the engine is sorted and running sweetly so fingers crossed for next weekend. The shift rod was bent and the fuel rail and pressure regulator was leaking, £2200 later but its done and I'll forget the cost when I finally get out in it

Nice one Mike, I've done similar off the wrecks a few years ago
Brought up a Cod with my own bright orange sidewinder in it's chops, the very one I'd lost the drift before (Hit into a fish and snagged the wreck at the same time, the weight slid free and I had the fish and my lure back)
Can't say It comes close to catching the same fish thrice though 👍

Nice one Mike, I've done similar off the wrecks a few years ago
Brought up a Cod with my own bright orange sidewinder in it's chops, the very one I'd lost the drift before (Hit into a fish and snagged the wreck at the same time, the weight slid free and I had the fish and my lure back)
Can't say It comes close to catching the same fish thrice though 👍

If it's in a refuse bag from B&Q it's yours! 🤣

@MegaByte if you like you can borrow this card to send to @suzook12!! 🤣

Another weekend another trip out - on Tims boat seadog. 
Met at the marina at 7am, loaded up and off out under the bridge. 
tried for mackerel in all the usual spots but only found 2 - compared to last weeks 40...... (turns out they were on the wreck of the Hood - bit of a steam in the wrong direction for us)
never mind we had plenty of frozen bait with us and the 2 we had were decent size. 
We decided to try a new mark, 80ft of water, in the middle of the bay around 5miles out - the areas of ground looked interesting so we dropped the hook. 
wind over tide made for a lively day - with the WNW fresher than forecast - lively but bearable
Tim went small rigs on both rods and was straight into the whiting
I went one big one small. 
Not long into the session i get a faint bite on the big rod (fresh mackerel fillet) and sure enough fish on - however it got heavy, it got light, it took line it went slack - it didn't really fight and soon enough a big conger surfaces - easily +20lb - but with a strange but very distinctive pink scar on its head. Quick pic and he's T barred off at the side.
fresh bait and back down the other mackerel fillet - within a few minutes i get another bite - very similar soft bite but heavy weight - up comes another big conger....
THE SAME CONGER!!! with the same pink scar on its head - what are the chances - of catching the same fish twice? i understand in a pond - but in the sea at anchor in 80ft of water?
anyway down goes the mackerel head this time......
another bite..... and you guessed it - Mr Conger again - the same one!
I caught the same conger 3 times in a row. what are the chances......
I must be putting my bait right at his front door - he had all 3 bits of the same mackerel too!
We both got bored of that so luckily he or we moved on!

Next up was a couple of spotted rays followed by a couple of thornies. 



I had a steady run of Whiting on the small rod but Tim had whiting and plenty of small Bream too - only one bream of size, and not the usual stamp of whiting. 
the wind took control of the tide as we approached low water and we started drifting back over our anchor warp so we upped anchor a bit earlier than usual at 2.30.
 A cracking day and a story to tell that no one but Tim will truly believe!

yeah spotted - lovely looking fish!

Normally in the winter it's cod and a few associated species, not today!
Set off from the marina at a sensible time and passed HMS Enterprise and as an ex matelot I thought that it would be excellent fun being onboard if your name is Kirk, Scotty etc.


Anyhoo, out the piers and hang a stbd and drop the pick into 20 ish metres of oggin on a mixed bottom between rocky outcrops. As the tide was just ebbing nothing happened for 25-30 minutes and then I had a take able whiting which would have been good but then my mate struck into a fish which put a decent bend in his rod and we expected a decent cod as he had really big baits on. Here he is giving a cuddle to his first NE coast thorny. 

The tide hadn't really started and he followed it up with a doggie, and they are getting quite a regular catch on bait here now. When the tide gatherer pace we were getting shoals of codling and whiting coming past and it would get hectic for a short while. 



There were more dogs, whiting and codling at times throughout the day and eventually we packed up. Porpoise were around us throughout the day which was nice as well as guillemot and razorbill and the whiting were stuffed with sprats and the cod we kept, deep hooked, had crab in them, so lots of activity and lots of food for all. We didn't keep count but about 6-7 whiting, 12-15 codling, 7-8 dogs and a thorny. Some of the dogs were just mouthing the baits so were easy to return and we kept 3 whiting and codling. 
The fun didn't stop there, got home to a cuppa and a warm up before the rugby started and some snacks and a couple of beers watching England get a win!
Happy days!

Had a mate staying down and the weather looked perfect for a trip out in pugwash on saturday. 
Light winds off the land all day. the plan was to get bait first in portland entrances then go and anchor up on the Hotspot - for whiting and rays. 
the trip almost didn't go to plan as leaving the pontoon there was a grumbling/vibration from the prop = quickly into reverse and it stopped - so a bit of forward and backward and it seemed to clear - having not moved the boat for a few months we put it down to crud on the prop - and continued out of the marina cautiously - by the time we passed under the bridge it had stopped. and during the day it didnt come back, even at full chat 6knots (can i assume it was crud on prop? not worse?)
We made our way out to portlands North entrance - in search of mackerel - and wow! bang straight into them - full strings - it was bonkers - they were right under the boat at one point and you could see them hitting the feathers as we dipped them in - not sure how many we had but we came home with 35 after a days fishing with them! so easily had 40-50.

we quickly moved on to the hotspot and anchored up - slightly early as the tide hadn't quite started to drop - the light wind pushed us round a bit and held us off the mark for the first hour - we chose to fish only one rod each with a whole flappered mackerel until the tide picked up and put us on the mark - didnt seem to matter as shane was almost straight into a 12lb thornie - poss his biggest ever fish - deffo his PB ray.

he soon had another Ray and a couple of conger one was double figures = i had a smaller conger = we both had dogs.

as the tide turned we dropped a 2nd rod each with smaller baits for the whiting and they obliged in numbers - but not size - nothing over 1lb
Shane had a 3rd Thornback, and was beginning to rub it in when i pulled into a big ray myself - im guessing double figure!


as the light started to fade we called it a day and pulled the anchor - headed back in under a beautiful sky - all told it must have been over 70 fish to the boat!
lets say 45 mackerel, 20 whiting, 4 rays, 3 conger, and a few dogs

 

Be careful, it's addictive, but what a buzz when you get hit by a decent fish
And bloody expensive

My 520 was a little underpowered with a 25 4T on the back. I had a 2.5 aux engine which pushed it along nicely if needed( which it did a couple of times) but the extra weight at the stern bogged it down a bit.
I moved the aux under the cuddy strapping it on top of a seat box and always carried the second fuel tank up front too when full( vent closed)
I didn’t have a stove but these two actions trimmed the boat up nicely and gave me a couple of extra knots.
When o did need the aux, it was light enough to easily manhandle on to its bracket( also kept it in better shape stowed up front.

A very decent weather window was forecast for both Friday and Saturday, however, the tides suited me better for a Friday morning session. Crew was James (Brother in law) and at 07:00 it was -4c when we left my house. Once we got to the slipway, it was -2c, and we could see frost on the estuary sandbanks. For safety, I cleared the frost from the tubes, as they can get very slippery. The sea temp was 8c, so you wouldn’t want to be in there very long !
I decided to head for the wreck at 12 miles, which gave me the Codling last Saturday. The sea was flat, and we cruised at 28knts, the last 6 miles we were accompanied by a pod of Dolphins.
We made several drifts over different parts of the wreck, and it was devoid of life, even the Pout were not at home.
I decided to move to a smaller wreck at 10 miles out, as it was close by. What a difference, immediately we were into Pout, and James managed to snag the wreck about 6 times.
The slow jigs worked well for me with 3 Pollock, all around the 5lb mark, and also a Ballan wrasse of a little over 3lb. I lost count of the Pout, but it must have been 20+.
Soon it was time to head back in to catch the tide for the slipway (falling springs).
 
The stamp of Pollock (a little over 5lb)

 
A decent Wrasse of about 3lb

 

No, just a bit of extra info
And the midweekers are a little bit sweeter as I'm supposed to be in work

Just myself and Nipper for todays adventures
Made the trip down to Cardiff this morning full of optimism and anticipation, got the 7.30 lock out and had the anchor down for the first of the ebb on the inner coral out of the worst of the rip
I did consider a trip up to the English and Welsh to try and emulate diao's weekend trip, but thought the bigger tide would have caused me a few issues as it can really rip through there
Beautiful crisp morning that lasted all of half an hour, then the mist rolled in and the visibility dropped to about 100yds
6 rods out with Dirty squid, rag and frozen blacks the order of the day that all came back untouched.....Apart from a small Codling that had impaled itself on one of Nippers hooks and didn't give any indication it was on until by the side of the boat
That was the only "action" here, so when the tide had slackened a bit we moved out into a very promising looking gully
This mark was very similar to the first, in fact it was identical in the pissing fog
I had one bite about 30 mins before slack low and pulled in a fat little 3lb 4oz Codling, so that was it for the whole tide...two bites
The boat swung around, the mist rolled out and we buggered off back in on the 3.45 lock
There were 3 other boats in the lock with us and they had done a bit worse than us
I'm raiding the English side next time I get out
 

just keep on trying and enjoyoing what you are doing nick good times ahead mate we all get days like that my mate was out last saturday on another boat and they all blanked good luck for next time 

That's sounds like a good trip Dai, were you local to Newport or further afield