Josh

Went back to the reef I was at 2 weeks ago as light winds were forecast and they were right, but surfline was wrong and instead of 1-2ft it was 2-3ft and a bit of snotty chop at times, but I got out of the harbour ok and headed for the reef. 
I sat for a minute to watch how and where the drift was going when I heard some unmistakable snorting and a big pod of dolphin went past 60-70m away but my photos were mostly of the grey sea! 
Lure on and I cast over the reef and count down 5 seconds shut the bail, let the line tighten then a couple of turns and slow pull and then a sleigh ride as I hadn't adjusted the drag! It was going berserk first away from me, then right and then left and everything just siezed up. I peddled uptide to see if I could get over it and lift it but it was solid and I couldn't budge it, so I tried giving slack and still nothing, I tried a different angle and the braid just pinged 🤐
By the time I tied another rig I was well off the reef so set up another drift parallel to the first and cast out, 5 seconds and bail arm, line tightens and I started retrieving slowly and half way in I had a pull but no connection, I free fall the lure and another tap as I started the retrieve, so this time a fast few turns and bang its on! I caught a glimpse of bronze as it tried to motor down to the kelp but a bit of side strain turned it and after 2 more runs it is lifted into the kayak 😃 nice stocky fish that's been munching sandeel for months. 
Sea was getting a bigger lift by now and was 3-5ft so I tried one more drift but snagged up and it was a bit too much in some of those waves to try and pull out so I cut and headed back as sometimes getting into the harbour can be tricky and I didn't want to catch a big wave side on in 6-8ft of water and end up upside down on the beach. 
It did happen as there's a photo !

Out in mild drizzle and the river was pancake flat.

The north sea wasn't, wind over tide meant a bit of a chop. The rough ground seemed empty even though there was plenty of surface action and guillimots in rafts of 10-20. I was using a flying collar with a small shad on the end which didn't get anything and eventually I changed to a lighter rod and single SG sandeel as my friends were getting a few fish. I got a few rattles on the drop from mackerel but no solid takes until I was reeling in to try and pass the net over when I was hit in mid water by a decent pollock which was returned, I then just dropped to the bottom and started a slow retrieve and got smashed again by a bigger pollock. 

(Not mine but that was the general size we were getting)
When it was quiet I decided to drop the lure to the bottom and have retrieve a couple of metres and then open the bail to free fall it back to the bottom as it sometimes provokes a fish, and eventually it did and I got my first codling of the day. 

Not a fast and furious day but fun and fish for all and the smoker is about to go on the stove top so we can have some smoked mackerel pate tomorrow. 

Last year I had Cod to 26lbs, Ling to almost 30lbs and Coalfish ~25lbs.
Yesterday we targeted Haddock as we didn’t get an PBs last year, didn’t get a double but biggest went 9lbs.
Cod - still find it crazy that you throw back 20lbers in disappointment 😂
Need some luck with the wind today….

I had to take Leo to school for 04.45 this morning so he could catch a coach for a day trip to Boulogne sur mare with the school. So as I was up early I thought I'd catch the last of the ebb and make my way at speed (20 knots) to my chosen mark.  It was a beautiful morning 
arrived at the mark and put rods out hoping for more stingray

 
But ended up with around 10 smooth hound between 8-11lb.

 
I had a new fishing buddy today, and at first he wasn't convinced by the angry intruders..
 

 
But after a couple of licks of the fish he settled into it! 
I saw this thing drifting up and down the Solent in the tide, I should have checked the AIS but didn't. Anybody know what boat it is?? 
 

 
Ended the day with a nice little bass around 2lb.

Me, my bro and my son on Saturday out from BOS again for a 7 hour trip which is the longest I have taken Jack out for. Started off after a bass but a bit slow with dogs and small rays. Then my son had a nice hound 16-4 and I dropped a fish that felt like a bass. Fishing slowed so we moved further down channel to a coral patch looking for hounds. 1 to my brother on the last of the ebb and a few rays and straps but a bit slow.  Once the flood got going we had a further 11 hounds to around 13lb and thornies, dogs, straps and a baby huss. Not electric but enough to keep us happy and a long day with the travelling for my son but a visit to the kebab van on the way home kept him happy 

Yeah quite a limited stretch of water i imagine with the wind out there ..
but an amazing place… I got to fish it on a live aboard a couple years ago on size matters . Great boat & skipper  for out there .
but never been myself not on the warrior… I’m sure it can be done but with so many variables could make it quite a job to plan
and a lot of amazing fishing on the south coast to contend with at half the risks probably. 

coming from the same guy who towed all the way to irleand from Kent 🤔
good luck with the weekend charter we will await your report bud🫡🦈
 
 

Prefer to be sharking but can only do what the customer wants…. Got a shark charter this weekend but weather looks dodgy 😭

Annual competition for tope, huss, smooth hound and TBR and oddly mackerel too. Weather forecast was improving over the preceding week but Saturday was hard work with a proper lump on if you ventured more than a couple of miles offshore and several boats went back in as crew were ill. We scored a few small mackerel which was a bonus as they were thin on the ground and eventually got to our first mark but it was hard going so we went inshore and although the weather then calmed we soon got into the rays which steadily got bigger until they peaked at around 52cm wingtip to wingtip and a good sized mackerel to get us on the score sheet. Moved again to try for tope/huss and had one belter of a run which ended with a dropped bait.
Sunday was smooth after an overnight deluge and we bagged up on mackerel very quickly and after trying a mark we spotted for tope/huss decided to get a smoothie inshore which worked and they were more interested in small baits than anything bigger than a strip of mackerel or squid and a few more feisty ray kiting about in the tide. Now we needed the big two but unfortunately we didn't get either 😕 but I got a mackerel that was 1cm smaller than the winner 🙄
Awesome time, there as ever and I look forward to going again next year!

Heading out day 2.

Calm Sunday 

Gratuitous fish photo. 

Alien bait shredder. 

My rudder had been playing up so I tried loosening it a smidgen, and gave everything a good lube and check over and headed for the coast. No real attempt at catching but I took a rad some sabikis and a couple of jigs. Unfortunately the jetski numpties were out in force but fortunately the authorities were keeping a watch on their stupidity and eventually I got to the mark I wanted to try as all tests were done and functionality was 99.9%.
Just off a kick in the current I got amongst them after spotting sandeel/sprat on the surface and after a couple of drops found 3 good sized snake launce, then a just in size mackerel, 4 snake and then 2 mackerel and off home. 
Hour and a half and I had finished sea trials, and got bait and some fish for friends...result. 

Even got a sticker from my granddaughter for catching fish (her potty training stickers) 🤣
 

Ok so not much of a report. But, Leo and I took the tender out to try the new anchor and took bread and @JDP's recommended light and short ugly stick. We were after mullet, but got into a 2.5lb bass instead. The rod and 2500 shimano reel were great fun. 

Inshore trip today…. Nice bunch of guys having singalong…. No idea what language but they weee having fun 🤣
loads of pollack about do they went home happy. Hopefully back on sharks Saturday 

It was pretty good to be honest. Rob Rennie went out the next day and managed 4 blues and a porgie. 

Back out Sunday to see what can find 🙂 Hopefully a few more but I’ll think twice about looking at 7ft+ porgie again 😂😂😂
Still it was great to smash a season goal so early in year. 

First shark trip of the year, first as charter skipper…. 63 trips of finding the sharks and no blanks the pressure was on as it’s still best early season….
But I managed to get 2 for the crew on board. A nice 160lb PB for one crew and a 180lb for another. 
 
They let me have 3rd fish…. 35 mins later it was in. It was a submarine but felt like it…. At somewhere north of 300lb she was a VERY angry girl 😬🤣 
Misson accomplished is very tricky conditions on first trip of year with 2 PBs on board I was a happy (but exhausted) skipper getting home at 11pm last night after the 5am start…. odyssey sea adventures is ready for buisness 😁
Pics to follow 

What a difference a couple of days make !
With Kyle at college, the crew for the day was my wife. TBH she is pretty damn good at the plaice and Mackerel, also it was to be her first trip of the year as she doesn't do winter fishing, or non sunny fishing, or temps below 15c fishing 🤣 , however, she does love to fish.
We launched at 8:30am and the sea was reasonably flat
I had to keep the speed down to an 'amble' as the wife likes to take in the scenery, and to be fair the journey along the south hams coastline is very scenic, so I 'ambled' along at a steady 25kts. On the banks there was a little wind over tide and being mid springs the drift was quite quick at about 1.8 to 2.1 kts. we did 4 very long drifts and only had 2 small plaice, which were returned to grow bigger. I am fairly sure that the May Bloom is to blame, as the sea claity was worse than poor, and on the steam down to the banks I noted large slicks of brown scum, which of course is dead algae. Also, we had no takers on the mackerel tinsels (apart from a small Gurnard), and as both Mackerel and Plaice are sight feeders the water clarity was not doing us any favours.
At about 12:30 I put plan B into action, and set about dropping the anchor on the outer edge of the banks. Soon the boat had settled,  we sent down the big fish baits, and we needed 10oz of lead to hold bottom. Quite quickly the wife had a bite and hooked into a fish that didn't want to move, but with some effort she got it moving in the water column, however, disaster struck when the reel seat broke loose from the blank (Tronix Aphex 12-20), and it is not the first time it has happened on Aphex's. So, I lent a hand in carefully keeping tension on the braid with a gloved hand whilst she did her best to keep the reel seat from turning on the rod. Eventually a decent Blond surfaced and was quickly netted, going a respectable 14lb. The Aphex will go in the bin and be replaced with a Kenzaki super braid.
Then we had a succession of dogs (5), and just before slack water I hooked into another ray. This time it was a juvenile blond at 7.5lb, but if you didn't know, it looked just like a spotty !
All too soon it was time to get back, as we had other stuff to do late in the afternoon, but a gentle steam back saw us safely on the slip at 3:30pm.
A pleasant day in the sunshine and the fish tally wasn't too bad, with 2 plaice, one Grey Gurnard, 5 dogs, and 2 blonds.
 
A 14lb Blond

 
A 7.5lb Juvenile Blond, with the markings of a spotty including the wing eye's

 

I got an unexpected couple of days off, so today I took advantage of the northerly winds and sunshine. Got a couple of nice Raja Clavata (thornback ray for @JonC), a couple of feisty starry hounds, so many dogs I had to start catching them by the tail to test myself. And, one for @captin slows old outlaw....
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watching the forecast all week this Sunday has had a gap but I wasn’t convinced it would hold I thought it would be one of those 
blow outs that happen on the morning of the trips. When you’re already out there. Well thankfully the forecast didn’t do that and it was exactly as it said.
so the intention was to try a inshore trip for a bit of sport for my dad and I. coming through the harbour the place was filled with the nursery bass birds everywhere bass flopping. 


headed out 
A quick drift for bream and found two very quick on strips of cuttle then couldn’t get back on them . 

brought hardback crabs to try and guarantee some hound action so felt pressed to get the anchor down.
down it goes and the tide was pulling pretty hard. Eventually it eased and then it wasn’t long before the hound rod arched over we had 2 and a few dogs on fish bait rod.

Baited for tope. After a while we wanted to go back breaming so we did but couldn’t find them again. The tide went dead and I did manage a nice Ballan over the reef on a dexter.

then we came back in to another anchor mark then out baits down for the last couple hours but slow too with a couple more dogs 

a nice day on the water 
oh and we caught a one Mackerel 
 

 

Watching the forecast all week this Sunday has had a gap but I wasn’t convinced it would hold I thought it would be one of those 
blow outs that happen on the morning of the trips. When you’re already out there. Well thankfully the forecast didn’t do that and it was exactly as it said.
so the intention was to try a inshore trip for a bit of sport for my dad and I. coming through the harbour the place was filled with the nursery bass birds everywhere bass flopping. 


headed out 
A quick drift for bream and found two very quick on strips of cuttle then couldn’t get back on them . 

brought hardback crabs to try and guarantee some hound action so felt pressed to get the anchor down.
down it goes and the tide was pulling pretty hard. Eventually it eased and then it wasn’t long before the hound rod arched over we had 2 and a few dogs on fish bait rod.

Baited for tope. After a while we wanted to go back breaming so we did but couldn’t find them again. The tide went dead and I did manage a nice Ballan over the reef on a dexter.

then we came back in to another anchor mark then out baits down for the last couple hours but slow too with a couple more dogs 

a nice day on the water 
oh and we caught a one Mackerel 
 

 

Watching the forecast all week this Sunday has had a gap but I wasn’t convinced it would hold I thought it would be one of those 
blow outs that happen on the morning of the trips. When you’re already out there. Well thankfully the forecast didn’t do that and it was exactly as it said.
so the intention was to try a inshore trip for a bit of sport for my dad and I. coming through the harbour the place was filled with the nursery bass birds everywhere bass flopping. 


headed out 
A quick drift for bream and found two very quick on strips of cuttle then couldn’t get back on them . 

brought hardback crabs to try and guarantee some hound action so felt pressed to get the anchor down.
down it goes and the tide was pulling pretty hard. Eventually it eased and then it wasn’t long before the hound rod arched over we had 2 and a few dogs on fish bait rod.

Baited for tope. After a while we wanted to go back breaming so we did but couldn’t find them again. The tide went dead and I did manage a nice Ballan over the reef on a dexter.

then we came back in to another anchor mark then out baits down for the last couple hours but slow too with a couple more dogs 

a nice day on the water 
oh and we caught a one Mackerel 
 

 

Watching the forecast all week this Sunday has had a gap but I wasn’t convinced it would hold I thought it would be one of those 
blow outs that happen on the morning of the trips. When you’re already out there. Well thankfully the forecast didn’t do that and it was exactly as it said.
so the intention was to try a inshore trip for a bit of sport for my dad and I. coming through the harbour the place was filled with the nursery bass birds everywhere bass flopping. 


headed out 
A quick drift for bream and found two very quick on strips of cuttle then couldn’t get back on them . 

brought hardback crabs to try and guarantee some hound action so felt pressed to get the anchor down.
down it goes and the tide was pulling pretty hard. Eventually it eased and then it wasn’t long before the hound rod arched over we had 2 and a few dogs on fish bait rod.

Baited for tope. After a while we wanted to go back breaming so we did but couldn’t find them again. The tide went dead and I did manage a nice Ballan over the reef on a dexter.

then we came back in to another anchor mark then out baits down for the last couple hours but slow too with a couple more dogs 

a nice day on the water 
oh and we caught a one Mackerel 
 

 

a good mixed day by the looks of it!

Sunday was a decent weather window and the forecast looked almost right, so Kyle and I made an early start off the slipway, launching at 07:15.
We were treated to a flat sea, so a steady 28 - 30kt cruise soon ate up the miles, and we were on the skerries banks before 08:00. The visibility was only about 3 miles but plenty good enough.
The Skerries were like glass when we got there, so plan A was put in to action, and we drifted for Plaice. Luck was on our side and by 11:00am we had 6 very decent Plaice in the coolbox.  Whilst drifting, I also tried for Mackerel, we only got one, but were also rewarded with 6 king size launce. Also, a small Grey Gurnard made an appearance.
Slack was due to start at 11:30am, so plan B was put into action. I found a decent point on the outer edge of the banks, where I dropped anchor and the boat swung around so we were fishing the sloping edge bank into 90ft.
As we were looking for Rays,  big fish baits were the order of the day, on wide gape 3/0 hooks as sometimes large plaice will show up.
We immediately starting catching dogs, but at about 12:30 Kyle lifted into a decent fish, and after a decent fight in the tide a Blond ray was netted that went a tad over 17lb. More dogs and then at about 1:30 I was rewarded with a Huss that went 10lb 1oz (we will call it 10lb). Earlier after Kyle had the ray, I got bitten clean off at the hook(50lb mono trace) which was annoying.
All too soon it was time to head back, as I need to be on the slip for 3:00pm
Apart from the 8 dogs (Kyle 5, me 3) it was a very rewarding day.
 
The stamp of the Plaice

 
17lb Blond

 
10lb Huss

 
Bloody nuisance fish !

Gorgeous weather meant was too good to miss out on a trip…
Fished inshore in hope of a tope, sadly not be but plenty of pollack, gurnard, wrasse, launce about 🙂 
Nice to feel some warmth, summer is finally coming 🙂 
Locks were carnage… some rather interesting manoeuvres going on both on way and way out so Em sat on the bow and watched how not to do it….
 
Sunday was spent making chum… off on hols in 2 weeks and when I’m back it’s time to get on the sharks! Be nice if to get hear those ratchets going again 😁

You need to invest in better quality sausages. Those pale pink things look a bit meh....!   

Man, I love that picture of (your dad?) in that chair, on a boat 🤣👌👍

Watching the forecast all week this Sunday has had a gap but I wasn’t convinced it would hold I thought it would be one of those 
blow outs that happen on the morning of the trips. When you’re already out there. Well thankfully the forecast didn’t do that and it was exactly as it said.
so the intention was to try a inshore trip for a bit of sport for my dad and I. coming through the harbour the place was filled with the nursery bass birds everywhere bass flopping. 


headed out 
A quick drift for bream and found two very quick on strips of cuttle then couldn’t get back on them . 

brought hardback crabs to try and guarantee some hound action so felt pressed to get the anchor down.
down it goes and the tide was pulling pretty hard. Eventually it eased and then it wasn’t long before the hound rod arched over we had 2 and a few dogs on fish bait rod.

Baited for tope. After a while we wanted to go back breaming so we did but couldn’t find them again. The tide went dead and I did manage a nice Ballan over the reef on a dexter.

then we came back in to another anchor mark then out baits down for the last couple hours but slow too with a couple more dogs 

a nice day on the water 
oh and we caught a one Mackerel