Saintly Fish

Jealousy?? No Pete, definitely not. He nearly always has a strop that he can't catch or it's cold or whatever.... he needs to man up a bit and be more Jeremy Wade!

I find that surprising, because on TV he comes across as a highly strung pre Madonna. Always moaning, and he has one of the best jobs.

Did you get a screen shot?

Sure was Steve, smiles all round.

My mate had one on Thursday and then two yesterday 6 and 9lb.

So after Fridays disappointing day aboard Jersey Girl with @Andy135, I needed to shake off the monkey and prove to myself that it's not me, and that I can catch fish. So, first mate LB and I set off from the Hamble at 8.50am, re fuelled at 9am and then set off to the Solent with an intent to catch a cod. We got to our chosen mark, circled around a bit looking at the sea bed on the "fish eye" feature of my Garmin 8410 (now my new best friend for anchoring). We baited Leos rod first and he dropped it down into a tide that was starting to run hard west. The bait hit the floor and instantly the rod rattled, Leo must have hit this strap conger on the nose with his bait. Blank saved before the day had started. I dropped my line in and waited, and waited, and waited. For the next three hours nothing. Around 12pm the tide eased and 3/4lb lead was deployed with devastating results, bang, fish on. Well ok, it wasn't a cod, but a welcome sight anyway and a healthy 7lb. Then it was a precession of strap congers topping out at just shy of 9lb the biggest. As the tide slacked right off so did the bites, until the tide swung and we fished hard again. Leo was made up with his codling of about 2.5lb, it's another new species and another PB for the little man. Unfortunately that was the only one we saw, and Leo insisted on it going back too. To grow for next year. It was touch and go, but after floating and flapping on the surface for a couple of minutes, he managed to dive down to rejoin his family!! The tally for the day was 8 snakes, 1 hound and 1 codling. Just goes to show it's all down to the skipper to find the meat, eh Andy? And as now it's the custom, Leo took us home.

We got one today too Scott. Probably the son of the one you caught but still....

😁 'spose we will find out soon.

Bet you can't wait to fish for bait next week!!

Well done indeed. That's not a bad haul at all! And nice to see alternative tactics work. Good luck on Sunday. Ps, I have deleted your duplicate post without the pictures.

@GPSguru I never said no fight, it just wasn't a frantic fight like a snake. There was a good pull down, then a couple of hard head shakes. Then weight. Ive caught cod before and this was how they felt. TBH if it was a cuttle, I'd have been just as chuffed.

I did catch....... just didn't land.. ☹️

Good luck Scott, hopefully you get more success than @Andy135 and I did today!

In your own words.... "I can't see myself taking a weekday off in the near future". Or summin like that.

@Andy135 and I met at 07.00 this morning for another crack at mastering cod catching from the Gilkicker hole in the Solent. Anchor was dropped at 8am, rods baited and down the offerings went. within 2-3 minutes I had a cracking pull down bite that snagged a fish. This was not the normal strap conger bite that I though it would be, this beast held its station low in the water. A heavy nod here and there then nothing just weight. Cod was the thought and I'm convinced by the fight that that's what it was, unfortunately though it bit me off before I could get it to the boat. Around 2m from the top the weight on the line vanished, up came half a cuttle fish with the top pennel hook still in it, but the bottom hook and head section of the bait was gone. ☹️ And that was that, for the rest of the time we were out not even an annoying mini bream rattle was seen. dejected we went back in at 13.30! It was a lovely day and the sun danced well through Andy's ginger locks...

I think what @Andy135 means pete, is when are you going to convert your boat from a garden ornament to a floating platform??

Talk to @Odysseyand see if he has enough for all!!

At worst case, Pete has a twin room with only one bed going to be needed. So there is always going to be something to lay on!! Just get pissed Saturday then you'll not hear his snoring!

@headlight or @Andy135 ??

I'm glad to hear that the surgery went ok Ian. But as for the Glaucoma well, at your age these things are to be expected I suppose!?! 😬

I fitted one like this one on eBay 133694440685. Just change all the Clips and the fuel line. mines been in 18mints now and starts straight away and heats perfect. I used the eberschpacer ducting and insulation, it's a bit more costly but the whole install still came in under £300! At that price you cannot go wrong.

Shouldn't knock it til you've tried it!

Good lad !!

So @Andy_B what's the cod secret??

Love that sail fish, well worth the effort to re post!!