Josh

Me and the lad set off 2 hours later than planned for a leisurely drive to Poole. Because of the lateness and being due to meet up at 7, wasn't that leisurely either, but crossed country without and issues, didn't want to face the M4 tailbacks likely due to school hols and people getting away. So we checked in the hotel, threw the gear in the room and legged it down to rancho's.
Despite the restaurant trying their damnedest to annoy us, a solid night out fueled by the odd bevvy or 5. Finally retired to the room around half eleven (that wouldn't have happened a few years ago!!) ready to meet the alarm clock at 6am....... Self service breakfast, a stock up at Tesco's express, backwards and forwards to the car park  as kept forgetting stuff, and before ya knew it, we were on Ocean Runner and heading out......
Despite the gloomy skies and the cold breeze, conditions weren't too bad and we were soon on our first drift just off Bournemouth beach. With no joy there, we steamed off toward the isle of Wight where we had our 1st anchor up.
Several strap eels were caught with Andy having a nice one, but despite several moves, the dogfish king really struggled, and it wasn't til late in the day he landed his first doggy of the day. There were a few small pouting boated and I had a pb that came home, a couple of smoothound pups. The lad thoroughly enjoyed himself despite succumbing to feeling ill after all the ginger biscuits Neil fed him and Leo..... Ryan the skipper made the best out of poor days fishing for the time of year due to unsettled weather, but that didn't really matter, we were out and having a laugh.
another 4 hour plus journey home and that was it, weekend done. Great day out with some good company. Met Jon and Mike and Andy for first time, good people, good fun had by all. Pete had a good birthday, and of course, can't thank Neil enough for offering to fleece even more OAP's to completely finance the next one 🤣
Cheers guys, see you all on the next one hopefully 👍

True, but I can hold 10lb with one hand 😉, which is better than your usual contribution of mini pout, straps, and pin whiting.

So a drive through the night in an attempt for a day on the reefs and wrecks to couple up with a second day on the sharks. We pulled out of second day. Looked too rough. 
Stunning day it really glassed out out there.
not loads of fish but fish at most stops. This was a the best of bunch a nice double will  be filleting up along with the others for the fryer

 

Nice one buddy
 

Yeah, my favourite for bronze slabs usually some kind of sandeel or curltail 

So a drive through the night in an attempt for a day on the reefs and wrecks to couple up with a second day on the sharks. We pulled out of second day. Looked too rough. 
Stunning day it really glassed out out there.
not loads of fish but fish at most stops. This was a the best of bunch a nice double will  be filleting up along with the others for the fryer

 

So a drive through the night in an attempt for a day on the reefs and wrecks to couple up with a second day on the sharks. We pulled out of second day. Looked too rough. 
Stunning day it really glassed out out there.
not loads of fish but fish at most stops. This was a the best of bunch a nice double will  be filleting up along with the others for the fryer

 

Hi Malc
these wer on soft plastics mate 
I want to get into Jigs
but just stick to what worked before.
I don’t doubt jigs work just one of those things 

So a drive through the night in an attempt for a day on the reefs and wrecks to couple up with a second day on the sharks. We pulled out of second day. Looked too rough. 
Stunning day it really glassed out out there.
not loads of fish but fish at most stops. This was a the best of bunch a nice double will  be filleting up along with the others for the fryer

 

Nice lump 🙂 
They have arrived early out of wales so can’t wait for free time/weather/tides to come together and get on the offshore reefs 🙂 
I see Dan Hawkins had a porgie…. Won’t be long before I’m heading offshore to hopefully find a few 🤩🤩🤩🤩

Nice, are you using jigs or soft plastics?

So a drive through the night in an attempt for a day on the reefs and wrecks to couple up with a second day on the sharks. We pulled out of second day. Looked too rough. 
Stunning day it really glassed out out there.
not loads of fish but fish at most stops. This was a the best of bunch a nice double will  be filleting up along with the others for the fryer

 

So a drive through the night in an attempt for a day on the reefs and wrecks to couple up with a second day on the sharks. We pulled out of second day. Looked too rough. 
Stunning day it really glassed out out there.
not loads of fish but fish at most stops. This was a the best of bunch a nice double will  be filleting up along with the others for the fryer

 

So a drive through the night in an attempt for a day on the reefs and wrecks to couple up with a second day on the sharks. We pulled out of second day. Looked too rough. 
Stunning day it really glassed out out there.
not loads of fish but fish at most stops. This was a the best of bunch a nice double will  be filleting up along with the others for the fryer

 

So a drive through the night in an attempt for a day on the reefs and wrecks to couple up with a second day on the sharks. We pulled out of second day. Looked too rough. 
Stunning day it really glassed out out there.
not loads of fish but fish at most stops. This was a the best of bunch a nice double will  be filleting up along with the others for the fryer

 

So a drive through the night in an attempt for a day on the reefs and wrecks to couple up with a second day on the sharks. We pulled out of second day. Looked too rough. 
Stunning day it really glassed out out there.
not loads of fish but fish at most stops. This was a the best of bunch a nice double will  be filleting up along with the others for the fryer

 

So a drive through the night in an attempt for a day on the reefs and wrecks to couple up with a second day on the sharks. We pulled out of second day. Looked too rough. 
Stunning day it really glassed out out there.
not loads of fish but fish at most stops. This was a the best of bunch a nice double will  be filleting up along with the others for the fryer

 

So a drive through the night in an attempt for a day on the reefs and wrecks to couple up with a second day on the sharks. We pulled out of second day. Looked too rough. 
Stunning day it really glassed out out there.
not loads of fish but fish at most stops. This was a the best of bunch a nice double will  be filleting up along with the others for the fryer

 

Without a photo, according to JonC, it didn't happen. He must not fish anymore!!!!!!

For the bigger stuff I use Fin-Nor 2 speed multi's loaded with 375m of 80lb braid and a topshot of 50m of 80lb co-polymer shockleader. The Top shot to braid knot is a PR, and the top shot to wind-on leader is a multi twist loop knot
The only time the reels go into low gear is when the fish are circling deep below the boat, the low gear gives that extra bit of 'grunt' to get them moving through the water column.
Today I have been mixing chum (burley), and freezing it down ready for a season start in Mid to late April 👍, it's a shite & smelly job, but good for clearing out the bait freezer ready for some fresher baits to be frozen down.

Many boats are catching around 10 marlin per day but the way they do it isn't the way I like targeting them. When some boats find marlin feeding on bait they use very long wind on 200lb traces which as soon as they touch by hand counts as a capture. The mono is then held and pulled until either the hook straightens or the fish is handled to the boat. Its very quick and allows the anglers to pull more marlin of single bait balls rather than motor away fighting a fish for a photo like we do. Its good in some ways as the fish barley realises its been hooked and the skipper who's caught the most per day has the biggest penis☺️.

If I was a paying customer, I think I would at least like a look of the fish up close rather than a quick look at one jumping some distance from the boat. Its much the same on mako comps where some boats can capture 20 sharks in a day on light line class. 

What are other peoples thought on this style of catch and release ? Would you like to bring your porbeagle, blue or thresher to the boat so you can have a good look but with a longer fight where you get to see it and possibly grab a few quick photos, or chase it with the boat and grab a 9m leader to break the fish off so you can get back to catching another. By the way marlin are considered pretty hardy according to catch and release statistics. 

The weather was too bad to launch from my local ramp and harbour so I headed up the coast to larger harbour with a wider river mouth less effected by swell and current.

Around 60 boats had all planned the same move but launching with experienced boaters means you seldom need to wait, we didn't. Having trailer boats means we can easily follow fish or simply target different species anywhere around the coast or even on the inland rivers, dams and lakes etc. Launching at various different locations keeps you on your toes in regard to navigating and boating skills, also stops the kids getting bored of fishing the same location week after week. 
We took just two frozen mackerel incase we couldn't find fresh bait, sure enough finding mackerel was tough on this trip. The frozen baits had been setup on the outriggers as skip baits and was was hit instantly but unfortunately the trace was sliced through, most likely mako.
Luckily we found some bait, the hard bit was getting it up from 180m using big leads to get the bait jig to the bottom.
Water temps were a touch high for stripped marlin, the more common at the moment, however it wasn't long before we hooked into the first black marlin of the day. We had the fish traced at the side of the boat in minutes but the young 13yr old lad couldn't hold onto to it so a deep water battle then persisted for his 15yr old older brother!!!!!...It's good getting the kids to drive the boat and do all the hard work!!!!!...by the way the kids should have been at school😶
Once that one was released it was time for my youngest daughters boyfriend to take the next fish. Again another lively black marlin was soon found using my incredible fish finding skills🤣 and he was into marlin number for his third trip and 11 for the boat. Again this stubborn little black kept wanting to fight deep using the current to help keep its head down and draw out the fight for around 40mins. Left the fish biting again and headed home with the left over baits for another quick beach sharking trip.


Had today off as I was starting to feel shagged!!!!!....might be up for an afternoon trip tomorrow if the swell backs off.

 

 

 

 

 

Just a few more. Should be back out there in a couple of days.