daio web

@Saintly Fish and I hit the Solent yesterday I the search for an early season cod. A very early 4.30am wake up for me saw us depart the marina not long after 6am and out into a flat calm river and a lovely sunrise.

We'd heard a tip from Neil's pet rumour-monger that a mile-long flock of seabirds had been seen working the Solent for baitfish recently, so our plan was to feather for fresh bait if we spotted any birds.
The Solent was pretty flat as we left the river, but scanning the water for birds was disappointing - nothing doing. We headed towards our mark and made good time. Nearing out mark we saw some fish on the sounder and dangled some feathers, more in hope than expectation, but Neil comes up trumpa with the first Solent mackerel we've seen in ages!

Marv the Mackerel was kept in a bucket as livebait, just in case.
On to the mark and down goes the anchor. Strap conger and smoothounds, but no cod.

The tide was ripping as we fished, requiring 1.5lb of lead to hold bottom. After a while it became clear that no cod were at home, so we headed to a new spot to see if that made a difference to the tide and made fishing any easier.
In short, no. One more strap conger, lots of beam-on rolly wash and an anchor tangle later we headed off to a flock of seabirds that Neil had spotted in the distance.
As we neared the birds the sounder cam alive with fish arches.

Feathers down and they were hit by large scad, mackerel and school bass. Many strings later we had a bucket of baitfish for the winter. A mix of mackerel and scad. A productive way to end the session.

Brief report
Myself and 2 others made the journey to Weymouth for a days Bream/Bass fishing
2 others onboard that were camping locally for a few days down from oop Norf 
Tried for Mackerel in one of the Portland entrances, but nothing for us there, though one of the other charters seemed to be bringing a few up
Went on around the Bill to see if we could pick some up on route to our first mark
We found plenty, but not many sizeable ones, mainly 5/6 inches long
Anyway, first mark didn't produce and the second only threw up a few pout and 1 solitary Bream
We were stuck here for a while trying to retrieve the anchor.....unsuccessfully
Skipper cut it free and buoyed it off, hoping to get it recovered by an obliging diver at some point
The next few marks were better, I didn't have many drops without a fish, my 2 mates were catching fairly regularly and the 2 other lads struggled, only managing a few between them
I put it down to my choice of rig, a yellow and red pop up bead just in front of the hook, only one other was using beads and he also did OK
The weather forecast was about right, pissed down form about 10 ish all day
Didn't take any pics as it was too wet
We finished up with a dozen around 2-2.5lb mark that were kept and we returned probably 3 times as many
A good day with crap weather
 
 

thats the strain from all them cod you where catching 🐳

thats the strain from all them cod you where catching 🐳

Rather be a penknife on a boat than at work, hope you fell better and have a great trip

Club comp last Sunday from Bos, foggy start and a bit of swell. First mark just produced dogs, thornbacks, baby tope and a hound to me. Moved further down channel looking for more hounds but didn’t find any just loads of small thornbacks, more dogs and some slightly better eels to around 15lb and a cracking double figure huss for my brother. Final move to try a new mark and this did throw up an insize Thornback amongst the smaller stuff. 
Back on the beach my brothers huss took first and my hound took second and won the pools so not a bad day.

Was that a bit of high sticking or just a poor quality rod, bent butt rods make it hard for clients to high stick.  You would think the reels drag setting would stop any failure of the rod unless it was either of what I mention. Lucky it was an acid wrap or the line could of most likely broke where the rod had on the rough edge, which may of ended up with the fish dragging the teaser bar bar and line. 
Are you not using circles on the sharks, or did this one get a circle hooked deep somehow. 
Incredible to see watts on offer back there in terms of fishing.

No high sticking, I think the blank must of taken a knock at somepoint. 
 
Totally agree on the bent butt, easier on angler too…
The other 2 were a lot smaller so it’s amazing the different classes of fish that are running at the moment. Hopefully they hang around for the weekend…

Oh really
was they sharking or same lot trying for tuna 

Awesome job to the those guys who chanced it for the tuna off there . First and only tuna on that side in what 60 odd years turned out to be 100inch fish … what else lurks beneath

700-800lb…. Better pics to follow, 18 hour day, got to get to work for 8am tomorrow…. The power of skittles and red bull keeping me going at the moment 😂

 
(all released as in the water next to boat as I didn’t have the phone number for John Smith and I don’t think his cans were big enough 😂) 

Well that's what we're calling it. For some reason mackerel sizes have been going bonkers here with increasing length and girth, biggest this week was a 40cm fish with plenty pushing for the title plus the launce are getting bigger with one weighing 82gm at home on my digital scale so possibly 90gm+ fresh weight. 
Not surprised that a BFT is caught off Whitby really! Just need the herring shoals to get closer in.

Out on White Waters in Neyland yesterday. Left home at 3am for a 7am sail. 5 of us onboard for a shark trip with 2 shark virgins in the crew. We steamed out around 35 miles off the heads, loads of wildlife on the way out as usual. We drew lots with the newbies getting 4 and 5 but I was confident we would all get a couple😂😂, how wrong was ! There was no wind and a small tide so we were virtually stationary with the baits coming back towards the boat at times. The morning was dead with no runs but once the tide picked up and the breeze increased the chum started working and the baits all sat nicely in the slick. 4 sharks in the afternoon and we made sure the newbies had a fish so unfortunately it meant my bro missed out. On the steam in the Andy made a bit of a detour to where he had seen tuna the day before and sure enough we found a couple of busts. They ignored the popper but couldn’t resist the livebait and we soon had a hook up. We had already agreed to share the fish so everyone had a go on the rod and 45 minutes later a bluefin around 500lb was was boatside. Once revived after a successful release we still had 26 miles to get back to the heads. Got tied up on the pontoon at 9.15 and crawled into bed at 1.45 best part of 23 hours later🤣🤣🤣. The wildlife out there is truely amazing and is a special fishery.

1 of 2 and a few blues today
we ride again at dawn…. 

Following the constant wind on my week off and the typical flat calm on my 1st day back - i though sod this - im going out after work - working from home and being 2 mins from the marina meant i can be off the pontoon shortly after 5pm. the plan was to drift the inshore sand for plaice, and tow a float for anything else
as it was such a lovely evening my other half Kate wanted to join - this usually means keeping the bait and fish away from her as she 'hates' fish and just wants to bask in the peace.... however after seeing me catch a couple of mackerel on the float (it was her that spotted the float go under too) she asked if she could have a go at feathering - as long as i helped her. 
I was fishing 3 rods - one spinning rod for the float off the back for mackerel/gar, one plaice rig with rag in the off chance, and i chucked the squid jigs over for an even slimmer chance of an early squid in the sea grass.
I had managed 2x mackerel in the first 2 drifts when Kate said she wanted a go - so i rigged up a 4th rod for her with tinsels. and bang - shortly after dropping down she reeled in a small pollock, followed by another,  then a pout, then 3 mackerel, then another pollock and i think lost a pout at the surface...... 



(trust me she isn't holding them at arms length to make them look bigger - she did not learn that from me - that's just to get them as far away form her as possible!!!)
in between unhooking her fish i was playing with a cuttle fish - it followed my jigs up so back down i went, and it was on, dropped at the surface so i grabbed the net, it then let go at the surface another 3 times before it gave up. 
never mind. 
5 mackerel for the bait freezer, and full bragging rights to the newbee.........
happy for her to overcome her fear and get to see the Buzz around landing a fish!
 
cracking evening

So i've seen quite a few reports of the squid being in early across the south coast - and despite failing form the boat on Tuesday, Thursday evening looked good for a spot of squidding form the shore. 
I got back from the office around 6.30 and was on the pier by 7pm - i was the only squidder amongst lost of other fisher men mostly targeting mackerel and it was very quiet for the 1st hour. 
I was using one jig under a float drifting in the breeze and a variety of casting jigs, switching colours every 20 mins or so. i use a variety of £15 yamashitas, mid range DTD, and cheap Chinese 50p jigs - all work equally on their day.
as the sun set the pier started to empty so i moved to the end where the rock changes to sand and seagrass and the water gets a bit deeper - I spotted a couple of ink stains on the pier next to me ..... i was more hopeful now 
wasn't long before the float started moving against the wind - a tell tale sign - as Squid don't pull the float down - and bang - first squid of the season landed. on a mid range DTD Jig.

i cast straight back out and let the float drift - on retrieving, i saw a quid on the surface following the lure so i stopped my retrieve and watched the squid attack the lure on the drop - bang off the float went back out.... bang 2nd squid in. 

despite trying again that was it -  2 squid within 5 mins during the 2hrs i was there and both were just as the sun dipped. 
A young lad next to me just lost a mackerel and a lure, then had a squid chase his 2nd lure, so I donated a squid jig to him to have a go - i have no idea if he got one or not as i left him with it. fingers crossed he got one!
Home at 9.30pm and pan on for fresh squid rings! the other one in the bait freezer!


a lovely evening!

 

queues already forming for Oasis tickets, apparently you just got to roll with it and not look back in anger….

Was sat at work yesterday watching the trees bend at some serious angles and nervously checking Windy every hour. Windy gave us NE 6knt wind and sunshine......
Arrived at quayside this morning with a full boat ready to rock. Once the fuel boat had passed High Flyer2 departed her moorings and we were off.....
Mackerel were a struggle to say the least, first 3 marks and we had boated less than half a dozen. Possibly attributable to yesterdays winds. Last maccy spot and I had a string of 4, a couple of others boated and we were away for the tope. Didn't have long to wait, my rod being away in the first 20 minutes. a small but feisty 15-20 in the bag....

Then it went quiet. We moved to another nearby spot and within 2 minutes another rid was screaming..... Another around 20lb and again went quiet. Almost at the death of the ebb, we had 3 in quick succession, one that wrapped 4 lines up without tripping a single reel ratchet!!
All too soon it was over, we headed back in a happy bunch on a beautiful day. For once the forecasts were spot on, even the switch to easterly around 4pm which killed it stone dead......
That was the last of the tope trips booked for this year, hard work but we got there in the end. I may be lucky and catch the tail of the summer in my own boat, working towards that as fast as possible.....

Early start on Sunday morning for a jigging trip. Plan was to be on the mark for low water. A foggy start saw us taking it slowly to begin with.

Conditions soon improved and we made good time to the mark. Wind was a bit stronger than forecast and kept us on our toes on the drift.
I had a decent bass early doors

But not alot else came to the boat, so we moved mark and dropped the anchor for an hour or so in a shallow water mark for smoothounds and bream. Neil got snapped off by a large Hound that took his bream rig. It made it to the surface then turned round and buggered off. Wasn't long though before Neil hooked into another.

We had a fair few bream too. No pics but one went home with Leo for tea.
On the way back home we saw a huge flock of seabirds working around Lepe and Calshot, so we paused and dropped feathers and lures. It seemed to be bass pushing sandeels to the surface, and we managed a schoolie on a slow jig on the end of some feathers.

Another good session aboard Tarlach Too. Thanks always to @Saintly Fish and Leo for skippering 👍.

That's what happens when you book time off work, the weather is shite
Just throw a couple of sickies whenever the weather is good 😁

Apologies for the recent winds, I took a week off work to fish - so of course it blew up.
Saturday 17th August - Me, Tim and my father in law Phil out on Tim's boat - with fresh baits sorted we picked a new spot south of the shambles in 100ft of water, reportedly good for big rays, the hour long steam out was made better by the arrival of a pod of dolphins who played with us for about 5 mins. 


on arrival at the mark we were comforted by the fact 3 charters were there too - hopes were high! 
down went the fresh mackerel baits - pretty soon phil was into a run of pout - some of them pretty big, 

I had a big tope, which put up a good fight - it was t-barred at the side so no pics. we also had eels and dogs.
pretty soon the charters moved off and we soon found out why - the tide was ripping and half pound of lead wasn't holding - so we moved too.
The new mark showed up some rays, more conger and dogs, plus bream

with the wind blowing 15-20mph the rest of the week we didn't have many more options other than to take my boat Pugwash out and stay close in fishing the inshore reefs wrecks and sand. we managed a few afternoon trips and had mackerel & Gurnard.  

plus we got papped going out under the bridge!

I was sent it to test from a manufacturer in Norway and it seems to work very well. There are three flavours, where this one caught all the fish and other fish species I didn't keep. The snapper have been very quiet to catch lately, to the point I caught more using this yesterday than my daughter has in her last three charters. Normally I don't use any of these products as I like the fact lure fishing is so clean not having to handle bait but this turned what I believe would of been a no action day into a quality catch. 

In regards to the species, some call them red snapper, some pink snapper but really they aren't snapper at all but more part of the bream family. 

Gave the boat some exercise and brought home a few meals. All soft plastic work in 65m of water.

  
 



 

By attaching a small 2oz weight and holding the swivel it does make things a tad easier as you only have to untangle the snoods, and not the main body too. 

I thought there was a thread "Who's out midweek" but can't find it. 
Anyway i'm out Friday (start of the weekend) from Neyland on White Waters sharking