Josh

Managed to get out offshore one day 
No takers on the big rods but saw tunas and one thresher jump clean out the water.
 
whilst drifting Ed started hitting into pollack on the feathers slightly better ones so I switched over the squid rod for a sidewinder and left it just off the bottom 
 
instantly a pollack of similar size 
 
little while later rods goes over 
Spinning rod so light setup  Ed said Uv got a good fish on there I said could be just a channel whiting mate.. surfaces …big bass ! get the net !!!! 6 n hlf lb ! Thankyou !
Then I gave the rod to Ed for a go . Next fish another decent bass tad smaller !
fantastic! 
 
 


 
 

 
such bad weather so we had one day in the harbour on surface lures . But we was supposed to be trying for gilts … but the bass were too appealing 
amazing fun really surprised as we was expecting tiny nursery bass but there was some lumps in there and I imagine with a little more time in there we could winkle out some more .
tryed rag , sinking lures , but the surface poppers won… snatching them so aggressively good sport .
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 




 
think we’re on…
mackerel, Scad ,Pollack ,Pilchard
Pout , Whiting , Bass, Cod,
Cuckoo wrasse
Squid, Weaver, Dogfish, Blenie ,
wish us some good weather and hope for a few big boys or girls …
 
Josh
 

First trip out on the 10th was springs. Set out early only to be pushed aside by a cargo ship being pushed and pulled by tugs. It was a sight to see to watch the skill involved with the back end of the ship being at a guess, 7-10ft from one of the bigger offshore boats moored close by.

We got on our way pretty quick straight out to Hope's Nose to bag some Mackerel, got a few then tried round the corner near Thatcher Rock. All the macks were quite small here so we moved off to Tucker Rock reef and had a go there. I was hoping for a Red Gurnard for our group species hunt but it was my mate Woj who bagged quite a good one.

After that it was just Mackerel and Scad so we motored over to the rougher ground straight out from Teignmouth about  6 miles or so. We set a drift over a deep depression and continued to catch on the jigs, feathers etc but also put a squid rig down with 3 jigs attached and Woj pulled out a nice Cuttlefish.

He also managed two full string of decent macks which seems to be a rarity nowadays....

I did catch a few myself....
I'll add the pics afterwards as I've run out of Kb's/Mb's 🙂
Anyway, We had Tub Gurnards as well, Greys and the ubiquitous doggies on the baits and even a small Smoothie.
The following week saw us heading out early again an this time towards Dartmouth which is new territory for me. Stopped at Hope's Nose for 9 macks then off to Berry Head for a shed load more but the size was down so we stopped and headed off to recce the area beteween Berry Head and Scabbacombe Head. Woj pulls out a nice Tubby amongst the vast shoals of small macks so we changed tack and drifted the reef called Mudstone ledge with worm baits for Wrasse. Again, he's in straightaway with a 2lb Ballan and after 3 drifts increases his tally to 3 of similar size whilst I caught sweet fa!
After this we headed South to look at some banks off Scabbacombe Head in deep water and popped some big mackerel baits down but the current by this time was non existant and we hardly moved... we did catch some very small Whiting here though. Nothing to be proud of...
We took advantage of no current to head back towards home and saw a pod of Dolphins on the way but were a bit slow with the camera and despite doing a U turn to try and persuade them to play they weren't interested. We kept going and anchored up over the reef behind the Ore Stone which was a total balls up becaues the tide didn't pick up enough, the wind did and we literally floated from side to side in the wrong place.... However, we did catch on the baited rods, lots of Doggies and a nice little Smoothie for Woj, he also caught a Scallop, foul hooked on a Slipper Limpet on It's top shell.
Not as good as the week before on springs but still a great day out, the boat doing well nearly getting 20kts for the vast majority of the trip... happy with that!
 

2 days out west… didn’t get what I wanted but managed, spurs, blue whiting, blue sharks, pollack, pouting, wrasse, mackerel, scad, weever, whiting…. Best mackerel just under 2lb, most pollack in the 3-5lb catagory…. So nice eating size. Hopefully I’ll get some this time as usual word gets out I’m bringing back fillets and neighbours family get promised fresh fish and I’m left with one fillet! 😮😮😮 
Beer battered pollack and chips soon as celebration in a few weeks me thinks 🙂 (no fishing on 22nd October… getting wed, so fishing will be perfect all weekend I’m sure 🤣🤣🤣)
did some fantastic whales breaching, dolphins, we I’ve had enough of flipper and his mates getting my hopes up… thousands of them! 
 
Oversll enjoyable 2 days 🙂 
 
 

Neil, Leo and I set off bright and early yesterday on a cod hunt to the Spoils, south of the Nab Tower. The forecast was ideal all day, with light to no winds and a very small tide. We arrived on the mark in time to fish the majority of the ebb, and with anchor and baits down we waited. And waited. And waited. Not much at all for the first couple of hours, before a strappy conger came aboard to start off the tally.

 
Closely followed by a good sized spider crab, which had taken a liking to my cannonball lead and wouldn't let go.

 
A smoothound followed shortly after.

 
and a decent thornback.

 
The bites started to dry up at slack, so we had a choice to make. Do we head inshore and fish a reef mark for smaller species, or do we stick it out at the Spoils to see what the turn of the tide might bring? The latter was our choice, so we spun the boat around and re-anchored for the flood. The wind had dropped off to almost nothing, and combined with the small tides we had beautiful conditions.

Fishing the flood proved to be the right choice, for as the tide began to run we had a magic hour of frantic fishing.
More smoothounds and rays - spotted and thornback




 
(spot the joker in the next photo... )

 
and best of all, my favourite!!

 
We also rustled up a couple of scad and, amazingly, a string of mackerel to the boat too! Leo added to the species tally with an immense example of a rare (to us) species - I'll let @Saintly Fish add the details and photos. Suffice to say it was a cracking fish!
As the tide picked up the bites slowed, so we headed back in not long after we saw @Scotch_Egg2012 whizz past us heading home on a friend's Osprey. How did you get on Scott?
All in it was a great day out, with amazing weather and brilliant company. As we headed into the marina we could see the dry-stack pontoons were almost fully taken. A couple of under-sized openings but not much that was Jersey Girl-shaped. Cue some delicate close quarters handling and crewing to get us snugly into a berth.
 

It is a little over a month since I have been out, but the forecast was good, so a trip to the Skerries it was.
The crew for the day was Kyle, and the Skerries are probably his favourite mark.
I picked up Kyle at 7:00am and the outside temperature was 7C, so quite chilly. We launched and were making our way out to sea at 7:40am.
The sea was flat, so it was a very comfortable run to the mark at a steady 25knts. At 08:30 we were on the Skerries and ready to fish.
I was expecting more boats to be out, but there were only a handful. I guess in some quarters, going fishing on the funeral day of our Queen would be frowned upon, however, I wasn’t exactly on her Christmas card list and TBH we have had enough of our own family despair and a funeral over the past month.
The Skerries is a mark where you really need a neap tide, and that was exactly the conditions we had today. Our first drift took us diagonally across the banks at 1.2knts, 223 degrees true. Although we had plenty of frozen Mack, I dropped the tinsels to see what was about, and had a full string before the tinsels hit the bottom. Another few drops saw us with plenty of bait and enough to replenish the freezer.
I was first in with a decent Plaice of 2½lb, and that was to be the stamp of the larger keepers. We were also getting a huge number of smaller Plaice that were quite plump, but we decided to release them. Kyle is the king of the postage stamp Plaice, and he had a few of those.
Also in the mix were the usual hordes of Gurnards, however, Kyle caught a really decent Grey that went just over a pound, and for a Grey that is a stonking fish. Interestingly, Kyle and I were using different baits for the Plaice as an experiment, but that also had an effect on the Gurnards, he caught all Grey’s and I caught all Tub’s.
By 1:30pm we had 9 keeper Plaice, and a shed load of Mack in the coolbox, so we decided to call it a day and head for home, which was an uneventful trip at 27knts. A total trip of   44nm.
 
A decent Grey for Kyle

The average stamp of the keepers

To give you an idea of the Skerries banks size, that is the charter boat Gemini on the outer edge of the banks, we are almost in the middle of the banks.

Having watched numerous YouTube videos of Shetlands trips we were well prepared for what was in store.
We had no plans to fish Pirk and 2 Gummie Macks - we were going “sporting” so one hook be it jig or soft plastic shads.
Rods we’re jigging rods capable of 200-400g, Reels small narrow spools loaded with PE 1.5 to PE2. Fishing 100 to 200m deep with a fairly fast drift. Jigs 300-500g preferred Shadvwas Cutbait 480g in Puffin.
Also made up 2 hook rig for Haddock and a 1 hook wrecking rig for Ling.
I drove up from Oxford to Aberdeen and then took the overnight ferry to Lerwick, I took the rod reels of the other 3 guys and they flew up from Heathrow via Glasgow on the Thursday. After meeting up at Sumburgh airport we headed to Tesco for supplies and then off on another short ferry ride to Mid-Yell, then it was a 30 min drive to the chalet, 4 bed en-suites 5🏅
 We we’re fishing on Oberon docked at Cullivoe harbour - 10 mins from the accommodation.
When we were unpacking and prepping our gear at the chalet the other group who had been there for 4 days appeared back from their final day afloat - they looked whacked !!!
 
Friday was our first day afloat - Kenny the skipper had a wry smile when he saw our gear and remarked that he had x8 80lbs outfits in the wheelhouse if we needed them. Day 1 was Cod, slow start with some 8lbers until the tide picked up then it got going. The 8lbers soon became doubles then we got the first 20lber. It was a struggle getting through the 15lbers to get to the 20s but they were there. 3 of us managed 20lber+ luckily I had the biggest at 25lbs. Disappointingly throwing back 18lbers as they weren’t 20s again again and again. 
 
Saturday we decided to hit the wreck - longer steam about 1.5 hours against the tide. Wasn’t much of a wreck on the sounder U boat from WW1. Down went Shads, jigs and mackerel baits. I started with a jig and had a few Cod, some 15lbs Ling then came up. I changed over to a mackerel bait hoping for a big Ling and ended up with a 28lbs Coalfish that spat out 2 mackerel - it had the bends! The Coalfish had found us - every drop was smashed mid-water all 20lb+ fish. Kenny then had the idea of starting the drift well off he wreck and the Coalfish so we could get our baits to the bottom - that worked I had a 29lber and Andrew a 32lber - both PB on the same drift. Neither the Coalfish or the Ling can go back so we moved off to a Haddock bank - they had them to 10lbs a few days back. We had haddock but nothing over 6lbs but the Cod showed up and the haddock disappeared.
Sunday was our last day and the wind changed direction so we got to fish the east of Muckle Flugga - we were doubting the skipper but we assured us they would show up on the bank. First 2 hours only a few fish in the hold, 8lbs Cod good eating size. Then they appeared as if by magic every one 15-22lbs range every drop for 3 hours non stop.
We’ve booked for 2023, 2024 and 2025. We’re going in July and August next time as the Mackerel don’t get thick until then so there’s a chance of a record Cod, Coalfish and Ling. Shetlands holds U.K. record for Cod and Ling and there must be a record Coalfish up there too.
 

So weather was perfect last Friday to get back offshore. Nice late start at 07:30 to pick up Ian ( @headlight ) on way out. Was going out with a mate to be his buddy boat as it was first time to the deeps.
quick 2 hour steam out and saw some birds working the surface so motored around for an hour or 2 but nothing busting or taking. 
 
Got the baits out. Nice steady stream of blues to 110lb but a slow drift meant slow results. No more bird activities so no tugging plastic. Headed back in for 19:00 lock. 
 
Met up with charter skipper and crew for the Welsh CHART kick off. Had a few beers and swapped tales of sea monsters and such like. Early start at 5am to meet the scientific observer. A lovely lady who is a fisheries enforcement officer for Welsh Government. Lots of stores of crab wars between the commercials… but was good to understand them and gif her to chat to us and see how we operate. Was a bit gusty at this point but nothing too bad…. 
 
Trolled spreader bars for a couple of hours but swell was too big… it was a good practice run but I kind of knew we wouldn’t get fish… 
Skipper and myself only ones not seasick. Good job I had full weather gear on… for the horizontal rain in now 35knt gusting wind and the chunks blowing around the boat….
Interesting run home in 3m+ swell with wind over tide near haven… Skipper did a great job and got us back safely. Was nice to jump in shower and warm up as I was working the deck making sure spreader bars weren’t tangling while being hit sideways by waves and rain….
Poor result but we tried…
 
Im making a concious effort not to post any shark pictures on social media. These are likely to manipulated by the anti brigade and not providing any ammunition… however, all fish released boat side and lip hooked using barbless circles… we did have one fish hooked twice (I saw the tag) so I know they are ok post capture…
 
Just waiting for COVID to bugger off (tested positive Monday morning), westher to improve and can get back out there either as crew or on my own boat to see if can find some more fish 🙂 

Had a club comp last weekend, a species hunt with no minimum sizes just a picture required of each fish. Weather wasn’t ideal for travelling down channel to the clearer water so the 3 boats and 8 anglers all stayed local. We fished 6 different marks throughout the day and I managed 6 species which was enough to take 1st place. I had bass, Thornback, conger, tope, hound and dogfish and believe it or not I was the only one to land a doggie so that was the fish that won me the comp, I actually had 3 of them. Overall a reasonable day and good to get out again

Oh yes brilliant result
well done mate!
 

Just had 5 days down in a wind swept Fowey. Conditions were challenging and w only managed a couple of short sessions offshore wrecking and sharking the rest of the time we were stuck inshore. 2 small blues and a cracking thresher around 200lb plus plenty of pollack and a bass off a couple of wrecks. Lots of other species inshore but no plaice this year. 

Saw a slim opportunity to get out for a few hours as we've had easterly winds for a while, but overnight the winds dropped giving a window before a S easterly later today. I could have gone to the inshore wrecks but saw the DFDS ferry wasn't on its berth so would probably be inbound soon. I knew that there were herring about and the mackerel had moved offshore so decided to have a try for some silver darlings. 
Went out towards the bouys that mark the channel edge and saw a shoal of fish on the finder and dropped a set of sabikis with a large koster down and as it went through the shoal, nod, nod and I was in. Three of them with two dropped as I reached for the net! And so it was for the next two hours, sometimes they were off before I saw them and most were taken mid to surface, I could even see them breaking the surface or occasionally splashing. 
I did have fun with more than the fishing as I heard Tyne VTS say to the DFDS ferry that there was a kayak in the main channel not moving so I radioed back "...just leaving the channel now..." I bet they weren't expecting that 😁
I believe if there are no pictures it never happened so...

Headed out Saturday 
stiff northerly to begin with which kept us inshore 
loads of bait around which was nice 
drifted a couple inside wrecks for ling 
while waiting for the wind to die off
Ash managed  one pollack for our efforts.
he also managed a Coomber fish on the sabikis which was pretty cool to see.
pushed out another 15mile as the weather really started to flatten tad of east but much lighter .. algae bad 
no sharks 
literally millions of gannets out there
I saw good few sets of dolphins feeding 
and one definite BFT 
but not loads showing themselves no doubt their underneath 
nice to be out !
 

 
 

Headed out Saturday 
stiff northerly to begin with which kept us inshore 
loads of bait around which was nice 
drifted a couple inside wrecks for ling 
while waiting for the wind to die off
Ash managed  one pollack for our efforts.
he also managed a Coomber fish on the sabikis which was pretty cool to see.
pushed out another 15mile as the weather really started to flatten tad of east but much lighter .. algae bad 
no sharks 
literally millions of gannets out there
I saw good few sets of dolphins feeding 
and one definite BFT 
but not loads showing themselves no doubt their underneath 
nice to be out !
 

 
 

Safe to say there are lots of pollack about. We (Em mainly) filled the cool box in a few drifts on Saturday. Some lovely eating fish in the 4-5lb class. Quite a few smaller fish of 1/2lb. It was like 2 classes of fish out there. 
 
Silver dreams doing the business. Lots of scad snd a wrasse too so a good day out in the sunshin. Followed up by a bit of kayaking where I tried for a bass but nothing doing on the shallow reefs. 
 
Weatger not looking great but back out on sharks now… Also hopefully Tuna crewing so a fun autumn planned 🙂 

Headed out Saturday 
stiff northerly to begin with which kept us inshore 
loads of bait around which was nice 
drifted a couple inside wrecks for ling 
while waiting for the wind to die off
Ash managed  one pollack for our efforts.
he also managed a Coomber fish on the sabikis which was pretty cool to see.
pushed out another 15mile as the weather really started to flatten tad of east but much lighter .. algae bad 
no sharks 
literally millions of gannets out there
I saw good few sets of dolphins feeding 
and one definite BFT 
but not loads showing themselves no doubt their underneath 
nice to be out !
 

 
 

Good effort as always Josh. Top dangling for top results! 👍

Very nice 👌 

Headed out Saturday 
stiff northerly to begin with which kept us inshore 
loads of bait around which was nice 
drifted a couple inside wrecks for ling 
while waiting for the wind to die off
Ash managed  one pollack for our efforts.
he also managed a Coomber fish on the sabikis which was pretty cool to see.
pushed out another 15mile as the weather really started to flatten tad of east but much lighter .. algae bad 
no sharks 
literally millions of gannets out there
I saw good few sets of dolphins feeding 
and one definite BFT 
but not loads showing themselves no doubt their underneath 
nice to be out !
 

 
 

Algae bloom will get worse due to the weather. It’s improved slightly but still pretty bad. It’s not great out of west Wales, but still blues to be had if you want them. 5 a rod is pretty average, good day maybe 10 per rod but only small stuff at the moment up to 100lb. Hopefully bigger ones in a few weeks time 🙂 
Well done on getting out 🙂 Nice to hear of BFT 🙂 

Finally got the boat out of Burnham on Sea for the first time in 2 months. Just a short one over high, weather was fantastic but the fishing was average. 5 hounds, eels, thornies, dogs, a topelet and a nice bass to my uncle of 7-12. Great to be out again and I have a charter tomorrow from Lyme Regis and a shark trip in West Wales next Thursday so hopefully get out a bit more now.

Don’t think  so it’s more to do with currents I think and how they change slightly. Algae blooms are common and we have a May bloom most years. I have seen similar off West Wales and it can fuck the fishing up. It is all part of the food chain so a necessary evil.

Headed out Saturday 
stiff northerly to begin with which kept us inshore 
loads of bait around which was nice 
drifted a couple inside wrecks for ling 
while waiting for the wind to die off
Ash managed  one pollack for our efforts.
he also managed a Coomber fish on the sabikis which was pretty cool to see.
pushed out another 15mile as the weather really started to flatten tad of east but much lighter .. algae bad 
no sharks 
literally millions of gannets out there
I saw good few sets of dolphins feeding 
and one definite BFT 
but not loads showing themselves no doubt their underneath 
nice to be out !
 

 
 

Unlucky mate but top effort again. That Coomber fish looks great, must be a pretty rare catch. I've just spent an hour and a half mixing chum for our trip down in September. Algae should be clearing now as they have had it for a few weeks now 

Headed out Saturday 
stiff northerly to begin with which kept us inshore 
loads of bait around which was nice 
drifted a couple inside wrecks for ling 
while waiting for the wind to die off
Ash managed  one pollack for our efforts.
he also managed a Coomber fish on the sabikis which was pretty cool to see.
pushed out another 15mile as the weather really started to flatten tad of east but much lighter .. algae bad 
no sharks 
literally millions of gannets out there
I saw good few sets of dolphins feeding 
and one definite BFT 
but not loads showing themselves no doubt their underneath 
nice to be out !
 

 
 

Headed out Saturday 
stiff northerly to begin with which kept us inshore 
loads of bait around which was nice 
drifted a couple inside wrecks for ling 
while waiting for the wind to die off
Ash managed  one pollack for our efforts.
he also managed a Coomber fish on the sabikis which was pretty cool to see.
pushed out another 15mile as the weather really started to flatten tad of east but much lighter .. algae bad 
no sharks 
literally millions of gannets out there
I saw good few sets of dolphins feeding 
and one definite BFT 
but not loads showing themselves no doubt their underneath 
nice to be out !