Josh

Sorry guys thought I put this one up had a busy few weeks since this trip.
we did 2 full days and half day 
day one we headed out 
struggled a bit for mackerel but had some in most places … 
didn’t see signs of life no birds dolphins which was off putting but ultimately needed to start a drift somewhere so picked a spot and nothingness for a few hours and I just felt like we needed to move.
So in comes the rods headed southwest and soon enough started seeing
birds yes 
dolphins yes
then washing machines of BFT which was incredible and very heart pounding.
even amongst them all we didn’t fool one .not that we were trying to ;
but lots of excitement wen had an amazing forecast after a long day we headed in for food and sleep.
Pic below tunas as they wer going thru under boat during frenzy 

 
day two was a horrible easterly that had randomly come through the night and was hanging on so we went in the harbour and tossed the lures around . 
 
we had a couple bass 
actually I had this bass pictured on day 1 on a live joey at the end of the day . But still.

 
so after some lunch we jumped back on the boat and pushed out for the afternoon with no joy . 
 

 
obscene amounts of these crest jelly fish I mean there was more of them than there was water 

 
day 3 half day to make it happen.
started about 1mile off . The worst fog Iv ever experienced. Clarity about 15m

 
Then a weird weird encounter of a pup blue shark at only 1.3mile off in about 100ft of water .

 
an achievement for the location but not what we were after .
 
be down again soon as come on weather !

Update on todays pollacking trip with the local fella.
we struggled we had a lovely forecast I think I caught 3 pollack small /and he had couple whiting and pouting. I really wanted to give him a good days sport. But it’s not always as you want it. I did stop on the exact same tracks that I had those bass yesterday too but  no joy.
Check this pic though we stopped and a ball of bait went through and Tuna sitting right under the ball on the sounder.
 
we had tuna jumping sporadically in the distance and close to the boat throughout the day which was nice to show Ian, some really small ones too .
nice day and company hope I can take him again soon

Last couple days left of the holiday 
using up all my brownie points 
forecast today was 
gusting 17mph dropping all day so I was on the boat at daylight.
but I held back a bit threw a lure around in harbour just to let the wind die a little.
out and steaming by 7.45am about 4 miles on some mixed open ground I was dropping blue and white shad to the bottom winding up a few turns and just put the rod in the holder it and wait for it to fold over.
an incredible stamp of bass 6 fish all chunky well fed . Best went 7.something
to be fair the fights were strange almost nothing like. I’m not sure what that was about.
anyway I didn’t want to take all these fish well one you only allowed 2.
And two I didn’t want the agrovation of storing them whilst on holiday.
so I was struggling to revive some of these fish but did keep two that didn’t go. And managed to pop the lure out in the net with the others .
I opened up the stomach to find aload of crabs in there .
 
out again tomorrow incredible forecast I’m taking a local out who used to take me out when I was young. He’s 92 I hope can put him on the fish he loves pollacking. Not the biggest tides but we will see what the days brings
 





 

 

There is a mark about 5nm from me where Cod can be caught during the winter. Mostly fish of 5 - 8lb, but the have been fish of over 20lb caught in the past.

No, local for me is Teignmouth, Brixham, and Torbay.

Today has been on the cards all week, albeit a little colder, sea conditions looked favourable until mid afternoon, however, with spring tides we needed an early start to be back on the slip for 12:30.
Yes, a lot colder, at 7:00am I cleared the frost off the jeep (2c), picked up Kyle, and we launched at 7:30.
The plan was to go for some more cuttle and squid, which would give us a good bait stock for the winter.
A short steam to our usual mark and we were soon into the cuttle and the odd squid, all of which were a decent size. The sea was NOT as forecast and was a tad lumpy, but very doable.
Kyle also sent down some baited hokkai’s and was rewarded with Grey’s, dogs, scad, and Mackerel.
One of the cuttle got its own back on me, I left it in the net over the side of the boat whilst I unhooked the jig from the mesh, and it got me full in the face with a shed load of ink !
All too soon it was time to head back in, but we had more than met our target with 24 cuttle, 6 squid, dogs, gurnards, scad, and Mack.
The boat took a lot of cleaning as both cuttle and squid are dirty bastids.
The Bait freezer is now completely full, with 41 decent cuttle, 12 large squid, over 200 mackerel and a load of king prawn. This winter we might target winter Cod, a big ask in our location, but I have a couple of marks in mind. Also, Kyle wants a 25 - 30lb winter Blond off the skerries.
Kyle with the smallest dog I have ever seen 🤣
 

 

As it is on the PC, and copying pics from the PC to an iphone is a PITA, here is 'seagull rock' (it is under 39ft of water so you would need f'off big seagulls to land on it 🤣

Took my twin son from Cheltenham out Sunday for his first trip in over a year. He’s had a tough time this summer with a medical issue but he’s making a great recovery and he’s still working on it. With that in mind I decided a trip out to the last place I went on the reefs by the Ore Stone would be best.
we were out early and shot over at full tilt and were there and fishing in no time. Feathers and jigs deployed we were soon into mackerel and scad. The mackerel were nice and chunky and we loaded up the cool box with them and a load of the scad for bait.

 I decided to drop a rig down with squid jigs on and within ten minutes was into my first of the day, result! We tried drifting all over the reef with varying results and on one drift a cuttlefish came up but by the time we sorted out the net he’d dropped off. I made up for it later by bagging a bigger one 👌


with the tides being so small we had to wait ages for some run to anchor in and even then it was pitiful. We persevered and dropped some big baits down in exactly the same spot where I’d done well two weeks ago but the bites were mainly from doggies ripping off the baits. I did manage a small huss and Tom hooked into a much bigger fish, only to lose it 3/4 of the way up….😕 I reeled up a massive spider which Tom wanted to keep but the reality of dealing with it later on would have been too much so we gave it a squid bait and sent him back 😅

when we packed up I used the advice given about the Alderney ring retrieval with the buoy way up front and it worked a treat, no dramas at all and confidence restored 😊
Tom had an absolute blast, a real boost for him although I could tell he was cream crackered bless him. Got home safely and dealt with all the fish in good time, couple of beers, shower and bed! Great day out, no big fish this time but we weren’t bothered 😊

37cd13e4-7987-4518-9f8d-36720ce3b922.mp4

Sunday was a cracker of a day so an early start for the skerries, stopping on the way for fresh Mack.
We spent an hour on the Mack, and whilst kyle and the wife were busy with the feathers, I got the squid jigs out and found a couple of cuttle and 3 fresh squid.
Then a decent run to the skerries ( stopping to play with the Dolphins) where we drifted for plaice and soon bagged up, but only retained 6 decent keepers. Once the tide changed and started to pick up I dropped the pin and down went the big Ray baits.
We were soon into the Blonds and boated  11 with the biggest at 13lb. Also we had 2 dogs and a decent Grey that went almost 3lb. All too soon it was time to pull the anchor and head back. There was a shoal of BFT busting a bait ball just off the banks.

 
Monday was to be a bait gathering session, just the wife and I, as we had the school run in the afternoon.
The wife was on tinsel duty, and I set up a squid jig pat to target the cuttle. We were pretty successful with 20+ Mack and 17 cuttle. The biggest cuttle went almost 5lb and was taking line ! Cuttle are annoying as you only land about 1 in 5, as they grab and let go the jigs.
Also in the mix on the tinsels were Scad (lost count) and small tubs.
@thejollysinker is going to be fuming, as he fishes right over the cuttle, but unless you actively target them, you would never know they are there.

 

 
Cuttle are dirty bastids, so cleaning the boat was a jet wash job, but keeping the deck wet helps a lot. They probably emit 5 times more ink than squid. All in the freezer now as cuttle will out fish all other baits in the winter. The quantity and quality of the cuttle would cost about £250 -£300 to buy as frozen bait, so well pleased.
2 days and 120nm, tired but happy.
 

That pretty much sums it up… 
The tubs are there but there are strict rules on targeting them so the offical count dies t quite match my private catch log 😉 
Another couple last few days, a lot over 100lb best at 160-170lb…
 
quick vid of Monday 
 
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1279767569408594?fs=e&s=TIeQ9V

Thanks mate . Yes very pleased !

Last couple days left of the holiday 
using up all my brownie points 
forecast today was 
gusting 17mph dropping all day so I was on the boat at daylight.
but I held back a bit threw a lure around in harbour just to let the wind die a little.
out and steaming by 7.45am about 4 miles on some mixed open ground I was dropping blue and white shad to the bottom winding up a few turns and just put the rod in the holder it and wait for it to fold over.
an incredible stamp of bass 6 fish all chunky well fed . Best went 7.something
to be fair the fights were strange almost nothing like. I’m not sure what that was about.
anyway I didn’t want to take all these fish well one you only allowed 2.
And two I didn’t want the agrovation of storing them whilst on holiday.
so I was struggling to revive some of these fish but did keep two that didn’t go. And managed to pop the lure out in the net with the others .
I opened up the stomach to find aload of crabs in there .
 
out again tomorrow incredible forecast I’m taking a local out who used to take me out when I was young. He’s 92 I hope can put him on the fish he loves pollacking. Not the biggest tides but we will see what the days brings
 





 

 

Update on todays pollacking trip with the local fella.
we struggled we had a lovely forecast I think I caught 3 pollack small /and he had couple whiting and pouting. I really wanted to give him a good days sport. But it’s not always as you want it. I did stop on the exact same tracks that I had those bass yesterday too but  no joy.
Check this pic though we stopped and a ball of bait went through and Tuna sitting right under the ball on the sounder.
 
we had tuna jumping sporadically in the distance and close to the boat throughout the day which was nice to show Ian, some really small ones too .
nice day and company hope I can take him again soon

Last couple days left of the holiday 
using up all my brownie points 
forecast today was 
gusting 17mph dropping all day so I was on the boat at daylight.
but I held back a bit threw a lure around in harbour just to let the wind die a little.
out and steaming by 7.45am about 4 miles on some mixed open ground I was dropping blue and white shad to the bottom winding up a few turns and just put the rod in the holder it and wait for it to fold over.
an incredible stamp of bass 6 fish all chunky well fed . Best went 7.something
to be fair the fights were strange almost nothing like. I’m not sure what that was about.
anyway I didn’t want to take all these fish well one you only allowed 2.
And two I didn’t want the agrovation of storing them whilst on holiday.
so I was struggling to revive some of these fish but did keep two that didn’t go. And managed to pop the lure out in the net with the others .
I opened up the stomach to find aload of crabs in there .
 
out again tomorrow incredible forecast I’m taking a local out who used to take me out when I was young. He’s 92 I hope can put him on the fish he loves pollacking. Not the biggest tides but we will see what the days brings
 





 

 

Fantastic result Josh, you must’ve been pleased with that 😊

Last couple days left of the holiday 
using up all my brownie points 
forecast today was 
gusting 17mph dropping all day so I was on the boat at daylight.
but I held back a bit threw a lure around in harbour just to let the wind die a little.
out and steaming by 7.45am about 4 miles on some mixed open ground I was dropping blue and white shad to the bottom winding up a few turns and just put the rod in the holder it and wait for it to fold over.
an incredible stamp of bass 6 fish all chunky well fed . Best went 7.something
to be fair the fights were strange almost nothing like. I’m not sure what that was about.
anyway I didn’t want to take all these fish well one you only allowed 2.
And two I didn’t want the agrovation of storing them whilst on holiday.
so I was struggling to revive some of these fish but did keep two that didn’t go. And managed to pop the lure out in the net with the others .
I opened up the stomach to find aload of crabs in there .
 
out again tomorrow incredible forecast I’m taking a local out who used to take me out when I was young. He’s 92 I hope can put him on the fish he loves pollacking. Not the biggest tides but we will see what the days brings
 





 

 

with a forecast of 20 degrees and zero wind we had to take full advantage! Small tides was the only downside of the day.
Met at Tims boat at 7am - plan was bait first then head the 7 miles offshore to the adamant bank.

Was a glorious morning and there were plenty of mackerel found early on - with bait taken care of before the sunny was full up - (12 good sized mackerel) we switched to squid lures - only finding one cuttle which escaped at the surface! 
we soon pushed on to the adamant, anchored up in the slight tide, Tim fished 3 rods with big baits, I fished one big bait, one small squid baits and dangled the sabikis over the side hoping for some fresh launce. 
Tim was soon into a decent fish which gave a spirited fight on his 6-12lb class rod - 3 or 4 runs uptide we guessed Tope - and sure enough a decent tope of probably 20Lb - by the time he decided he wanted a pic - we didn't have time to get the net before it bit off the trace.
Wasn't long before my feathers went slack - odd - turned out to be a Smoothound caught up in one of Tim's traces - I though he had hooked it and it got tanged but no - the smoothound had taken my sabikis and swam round his line - probably lucky as it didnt snap me off and we landed it! amazing to see a sabiki hook in a decent smoothie - we estimate 5lb. 
I thought id try a new weight from "C weights" where you attach the hook directly to the lead - apparantley pins the bait to the bottom - all it found were dogfish through........ nevermind.

Tim had a few smaller tope to keep him busy
the tide dropped right off and it all went quiet - the new tide took forever to turn us, and many tangles were had - at one point a Gurnard came to the boat in such a tangle we never found out who actually hooked it!
once the new tide settled in the fishing picked up again - i had a nice spotty ray, and a few more dogs, tim had a few more small tope. 


nothing remarkable except for the weather - a stunning day to be out - we pulled anchor at 4pm!

awesome - nice one!

Home tomorrow so it'll be shit for the next 2 months 😁

Update on todays pollacking trip with the local fella.
we struggled we had a lovely forecast I think I caught 3 pollack small /and he had couple whiting and pouting. I really wanted to give him a good days sport. But it’s not always as you want it. I did stop on the exact same tracks that I had those bass yesterday too but  no joy.
Check this pic though we stopped and a ball of bait went through and Tuna sitting right under the ball on the sounder.
 
we had tuna jumping sporadically in the distance and close to the boat throughout the day which was nice to show Ian, some really small ones too .
nice day and company hope I can take him again soon

Haha🫣

Update on todays pollacking trip with the local fella.
we struggled we had a lovely forecast I think I caught 3 pollack small /and he had couple whiting and pouting. I really wanted to give him a good days sport. But it’s not always as you want it. I did stop on the exact same tracks that I had those bass yesterday too but  no joy.
Check this pic though we stopped and a ball of bait went through and Tuna sitting right under the ball on the sounder.
 
we had tuna jumping sporadically in the distance and close to the boat throughout the day which was nice to show Ian, some really small ones too .
nice day and company hope I can take him again soon

Top dangling @Josh. Never mind the others, they're just jealous...
 
 
 
 
 
...now, where do I find the button marked "BAN"...??

Yeah, but at least you got the family around you to keep you amused and stop you from thinking about it, eh!! 🙃

Nice one mate, i'm down in Croyde for a long weekend with the family, best weather for months and boat is sat on the drive!!