jonnyswamp

Caught today 7lb 7oz Silver Bar on Ragworm, gut hooked unfortunately and faffed and about too much unhooking it to put it back which was a shame, will be eaten in honour🎣

This little joy yesterday….
looks like a stress fracture on the prop blade…. 
 
Plan is to order 2 new props and get the old 2 refurbished so that can keep as spares… 
BOAT = Bring Out Another Thousand…. 🫣

3 blade bronze 19" prop, was given to me by a friend who found it while diving off the south coast somewhere 
Tapered shaft approx 35mm at widest, 28mm at narrowest 
Will need a refurb, a small area of pitting that I can see
£50

Went wreckin again to Littlehampton on Sunday - best a few ounces under 15lbs 

They are everywhere…. But hopefully jigs/lures will keep them at bay…

after Storm Nelson on Thursday/Friday there was a very slight break in the weather forecast for Saturday which had us up at the crack of sparrows - for a 6.45am meet at the boat. 
I had the inlaws staying for Easter and my Birthday so Phil joined me and Tim on Tim's boat. 
we tried for mackerel first but failed miserably - so soon headed out to the 'Hot spot' as i'm now calling it - 5miles off, 80ft water, mixed ground - throws up all sorts. 
We fished small baits for bream and were not disappointed - 28 to the boat before we lost count - big ones, small ones, must be feeding up for spawning as they were fat with roe.

we also had pout, whiting, and scad in the mix. 
as the tide slackened off we went with big baits for the scavengers - Phil had his 1st ever Bull huss - Tim had some too - going to 12Lb - also found one pregnant mum - so put her back swiftly. 


Tim also had a Smoothie, and i had congers and thorny instead of a huss.


we of course had dogs - but not too many to spoil the day. 
there was a lot of left over swell making it rather lumpy and making me queasy for most of the day - as the afternoon got on the wind veered to the SE to ruin it for everyone - so we were back in the marina before 4pm. pub for 5pm.
Not sure when we will get out next!
 
 
 
 

Bristol Channel not producing much either side so it seems

First trip out since mid November, just a short one over high. We went up channel a bit looking for a cod and failed miserably. Just half a dozen thornbacks and a strap. I blanked but my lad had a couple of thornies so was worth it just for that. Bit of swell at the start but flattened off a treat and with the sun out was a pleasant few hours out

yeah fair bit done always something to do i hear the fishing as been real bad  probaly going more west this summer  the cutless bearing was not that bad to do its the realigning the engine all the best with yours if you need a hand give me a  call 

That snowballed a bit then 🫣
Well done on sorting it and not just settling on "it'll do"
Got to get mine out in a few weeks time, didn't get chance last Oct/Nov 
Pretty sure the cutlass bearing is on the list too 😭

well boats been on the slip way up our club for just over a mounth now i only brought it in for what  needed doing  boat still there so removed the old cutless bearing as gone real bad it does not help with the real muddy water up hear  its like valve grinding paste thats another story fitted new cutless and realign engine back to the shaft thats all done noticed a little oil leak coming from the exhaust manifold so pulled that of to fit a new one but when i took it of the gasket looked ok so next i took the rocker box of to find all the valve sealed all sitting differnt on the vales so ordered new head gasket top end set pulled the head of and it looks like the gasket give way from a oil port to the outside edge of the gasket took all the valves out new valve stem seals and had the seat all the valves again with valve grinding paste  so put it all back together now just waiting on the big tides this weekend coming to see if its ok happy boating all 

Sorry, only just seen this.
that was outside the haven in St brides bay

well after about 5 weeks of wind we had a very small weather window - of only a few hours. 
Wind was set to die down Saturday morning to single figures and turn horrible again on Sunday morning so we made a plan.
6.45am at the boat and straight out squeaking under the bridge on the top of a 2.2m tide. 
Went in search of mackerel first and was met with more than forecast wind and very cold rain - hoping things would improve - we tried the first entrance, for a few drifts and got nothing, so headed up to the 2nd - where my sabikis found a few fresh mackerel to add to the frozen. 
soon steaming out to the 5 mile mark and got more than halfway when we took the decision to head back inshore= as we got out of the shelter of portland the latent swell from the prior week was big - about 1.5m - but with a cross chop it wouldn't have been comfortable. Swell from the SW, Tide from the NE, and wind chop from the NW - not a good combo.
we got to our inshore mark and while the swell was still there it wasn't anywhere near as bad - so anchored up - proceeded to catch Pout, Whiting, Thornies, Eels and i managed a nice smoothie. 


By lunchtime the swell had calmed down, the wind dropped and the sun was out so we pulled anchor and headed back to our intended 5mile mark. 
for about an hour it was glorious and almost warm. 

We boated more pout, whiting, eels and dogs, plus Bream and a lovely undulate.  steady fish all day. 


I took a bream home for tea and a whiting for freezer fillets. 

delicious - baked on a bed of Mediterranean veg - seasoned with mixed herbs, lemon and chilli
 
So glad to be out!
 

That shouldn't be funny, but I had a little chuckle to myself when I read it 😁
 

Low ball.... a very low ball

I seem to have developed a stutter

Interestingly, the podiatrist said she has removed Golf Tee's and self tapping screws from feet and the people involved just thought they had a thorn in the sole of their foot !, so I am not the only thick bast'id in the village. 🤣
She told me I was lucky that it missed some important stuff as it went in.😲

2 of us out for 4 and a half hours, not a bite
That's 3 blanks in a row
Getting embarrassing 

Well, I couldn't see the wound without mirrors, but I dressed it with iodine and a very tight bandage to stop the bleeding (there was lots of blood). After a couple of days I took the bandage off and got the Mrs to look at it, and she took out a small obvious piece of glass.
I would be OK in the morning, and it would get progressively more painful as the day went on, but the wound was refusing to heal, and over a month had passed since the injury. The Mrs was getting worried about infection setting in.
I went for a routine blood test at the surgery and the nurse looked at it and decided I was high risk due to being immunosuppressed and mild type 2 diabetic, so she sent a message to Podiatry, who rang me within 24 hours and arranged an appointment for a couple of days later. The podiatrist quickly saw the issue and did the business, although she did offer to send me to a surgeon, I told her to get on with it.
She gave me a bollocking ! , which I probably deserved.
It feels heaps better now.

Nothing to scale it to
Could be miniscule, or the size of a Ford Anglia quarter pane window 

Don't worry Nick, we won't tell anybody!!! 

2 of us out for 4 and a half hours, not a bite
That's 3 blanks in a row
Getting embarrassing 

Starting to get go grips with the new (to me) boat.
fished a couple of reef marks looking for decent tide rips, not to difficult on the big springs.
using portland rigs and soft plastics I managed plenty of small pollack along with a codling coalfish and a decent pollack.
the finder was alive with bait fish which after downsizing the hooks proved to be herring.
also navigated the renowned Jack Sound for the first time, not as bad as I anticipated, especially with the aid of navionics relief shading. 

Just finished spooling up the reels I bought. Fin-Nor Marquesa 12 for the 15-25 lb downtider, and a bargain of a secondhand, but as new condition, Fin-Nor Primal 12 for the uptider, which came fully loaded. Can't wait to get out now.

Cold, but it looked doable, so Kyle and I launched in the dark at 0700. Launching was easy on the top of the spring flood, with the water almost to the top of the slip. Temp was 2C so not too bad.
One of the big issues with an open boat is that there is nowhere to hide !, so we were both wrapped up in multi layers to ensure we retained some temperature.
First stop (still dark) was the Orestone for some fresh Mack. We only had about 30 mins to spare as I needed to get the correct drift pattern on the Skerries.
We could see plenty of activity on the sounder but no takers, also the drifts were fast as it was the top of the spring tides. Kyle managed a couple of small whiting before we moved on.
Sea was flat calm, but I kept the speed down to 26kts in order that we minimized wind chill.
30min later we were on the banks, but still needed to motor right down to Start point and the tide rips as our plan was to drift for a winter turbot. Once at the chosen mark, the tide was ripping through and the sea was quite rough in the designated tide rip / overfalls area, but at no time did we feel unsafe.
Unfortunately the drift speed was way too high, so after another 45mins we decided to move back to a Plaice mark, however, Kyle did get a dogfish, which luckily was the only one of the day.
3.5Nm took us back to our Plaice mark on the inner edge of the banks, it was mirror flat and the sun was beginning to peep through, adding a little warmth. The Plaice baits went down and were almost immediately taken by Whiting, but the stamp of these fish was 1 ½  to 2lb, so good sport on Plaice gear, with the biggest going a little over 2lb.
At 11:45 it was time to move to our Ray mark and drop the pin as the tide was beginning to pick up after slack. Although it was mirror flat the spring tide was racing through the banks, so I dropped the pick in 55ft and then l let out 70m (200ft), which not only made sure the pick would hold, but it also put us fishing in 90ft.
For bait, we had frozen mack, frozen cuttle, squid, and Prawn. Cocktail baits went down of cuttle head and mack fillet. Within a minute or two the rods were nodding with whiting trying to demolish the baits. Kyle had the first proper bite, and it came off on the surface near the stern, and we both assumed it was a smallish smoothound. 15 minutes later and Kyle was in again and this time it came to the net OK, and was a Spurdog of about 4lb. I mentioned to Kyle that we should go to 100lb hook lengths as the Spurs will bite off, and that is exactly what happened on the next fish. That is pretty much the way it went for the rest of the session, with the pack hunting Spurs picking up the Ray baits, and we didn't lose any more with 100lb snoods.
At 2:00pm it was time to pull the pick, and I could feel the strain when we motored around the pick with the strong tide bowing the warp, but it pulled OK, and we were soon motoring back.
We landed back at the all tide sand slip at 3:00pm, and we didn't run aground 🤣, low tide was 2:47pm, and it was very low at 0.6m. The sand slip was muddy with the tide that low, and I had to be careful of the dropoff with the trailer. The boat loaded easily and a bunch of gig rowers were taking bets as to whether we would tow out OK, little did they know that I am Land Rover trained and also hold a BORDA off road training certificate. Kyle was well impressed as I selected 4 low in the Jeep (Select track transmission), and just tickled the auto box to pull us straight up the slip without any wheel spin from the all terrain tyres, as they moved us through 3" of soft estuary mud
So, not a great day, but an OK day, with 24 Whiting to a little over 2lb and 7 Spurs to 7lb. Kyle took 4 of the whiting for eating and the rest went back. A long day, and a round trip of almost 50Nm.
Kyle with one of the spurs

 
The stamp of the Whiting, this one is about 1½ lb