Josh

Well done Josh Jr and Josh Snr 👍. Some nice fish and good snoozing 🤣👍

Great little report @Josh. Looks
like you properly wore your old man out. Can I make a suggestion though?? 

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 
 

 

Had our first club away day of the year on Sunday down at West Bay in Dorset. The forecast leading up to it was poor so only 4 boats made the journey down. We were greeted with a calm sea albeit a bit of swell left over from the day before. We steamed out to a wreck at 15 miles along with one of the other boats and picked up the odd pollack and pout but with 2 commercial’s joining us pushed on another mile to a different wreck and this fished a little better. By lunchtime we had caught 8 pollack to 7-10 and a bass so with enough fillets in the box we decided to try for a plaice inshore.  This proved to be a bum move as the wind picked up and screwed the drift up so only had 1 plaice, a Thornback and some dogs. A great day out but very long not getting home until gone 11. Winning fish was a cracking pollack of 13-6

Crab moult happening and sandeel a plenty, we set off with high hopes for a few fish. Tried one big feature hoping for pollock as it does produce some slabs but we were getting 1-2 codling a drift in the 4-6lb mark, first was this.

After a couple of hours we went to a rock mark but the drift here was pushing us off and onto sand but we hit shoals of codling, mostly 1lb and under but a few better fish to keep us amused. 
After a while we moved to a well known mark and I was in as soon as the lure hit the bottom and again it was hit and miss probably because the drift was so slow, wind against tide now, but we were still picking away. We had fish on 8" curltail, similar sized paddle tail, 4" sandeel slugs and even large daylights. 3 taken for the pot between us out of 30+ fish and hopefully old Arthur across road will be happy with his when I pass it over later. 
More pics but of scenery...



Glad we didn't get that sky over us...happy days!

The first trip was with James (brother-in-law) to the Skerries, and we were tasked with catching Plaice. That was on Saturday 29th April, and it was the first trip to the skerries that we have made this year as the sea conditions have been poor due to the East winds. It was a neap tide and a flat sea, so the trip down was done in about 35mins at a steady 35kts. Alan in his Offshore 25 had already left as I was launching, so he had a 10 min head start on me, but we both arrived at the skerries bell buoy at the same time 😉
Fishing was OK with a drift of 1kt, and we managed 14 Plaice of which 9 were keepers. Although the Plaice MLS is 27cm, we don't keep anything under 35 - 40cm. James also hooked 2 big spider crab, the biggest being just under 4lb. It is annual shagging time for the spiders, and they come into the coastline of Beesands, Hallsands, Slapton, and Balckpool to breed. No rays, only one Grey Gurnard and no Mackerel or Launce. TBF a good day, and we got back at about 3:00pm, however, on the way back I noticed a whistle from the engine and a quick check on the smart craft showed that the Alternator was not charging. When I flushed the engine, I confirmed the Alternator was running very hot and no output. This is a common fault on the Mercury 150, and it has now been replaced under warranty (a superseded part number). With 200Ah of battery, and the engine / electronics probably only drawing 10A max, we had 15 hours of runtime, so no bother really. Birchell Marine at Torquay harbour came up trumps again, by sorting it out, even though they were busy with bank holiday stuff. To change the alternator on the Mercury is a 10 min job, as it is on top of the engine and just 2 bolts hold it in place.
The next trip was with Kyle out to the 12 mile wrecks on Sunday 7th May. It was a short trip as we needed to catch the tide on the slip (spring tides). Launched at 7:30 and returned at 12:00 midday. Another successful few hours with 6 Pollock, all around the 5lb mark. It was interesting as I was getting a few Pout on the slow jigs and Kyle was just getting the odd tap on a Vibro shad. Kyle changed to a 115mm dark Red Gill and was straight into a Pollock. Once on the deck, the Pollock was spitting out a load of tiny whitebait and sandeels. A good example of 'matching the hatch' and we both went with the small Red gills and took a further 5 fish. Also, Kyle got bitten off twice, with the line completely frayed, So I assume there might have been some Ling in the mix.
Looking for a nice calm day now with a 10sec plus wave pattern, as I want to get out to the Gateway wrecks in the mid channel (about 47 miles), out there you are closer to Alderney than the UK mainland. That is always a 100 mile plus round trip and I have to carry extra fuel as the inboard tank is only 90L
 
The stamp of the Plaice, that one was a plump 40cm

 
The stamp of the Pollock, it has lost some colour as it had been in the fish coolbox for an hour or so with loads of ice.

 

So finally the weather broke enough to get out on North conrwall. I wasn’t going to miss my shot. So the long tow down from Kent to the very bottom.Friday night because of the tides we had to go out in the night which was interesting but absolutely ideal conditions to being doing it in. Totally flat calm and no swell. So we anchored up in a bay and obviously threw a rod over but I think we had one doggie and tryed to get some sleep .. (didn’t happen)

5 am came and light was creeping so we starting heading out saw a huge man of war. 
 
got to the mark and began drifting for porgies.
to our surprise we actually saw them breaking the surface which was as far as I was concerned out of character.


 

 
this happened about 5 times throughout the day… it was feeding by the looks.
it wasn’t dolphins or anything else 100%
 
anyway a long hard day and annoyingly seeing fish on the sounder seeing them come up to our bait line on the sounder too … to no takers but we had to try.
////
so we came in and headed to our camp over on the south side and got dinner and got our heads down in the tent.
 The temptation was there to head back for the second day with due good weather (which is a rarity)
but would of meant going back out in the night at 2am. 
We wer bo****ed from the night before and said we will have a day on the reefs tomorrow with no tidal demand.
yes I regret choosing that over sharking but it’s done now.
 
glass calm day and a steady run of pollack worst tides for pollack was going to do some long drifting but i managed a pollack of 11lb6oz which was a mega scrap on spinning rod.

Ash had a ling off the reef nice eating size 

we had a tired canary land on the boat and stayed for a bit which was cool.

we also had a shoal off fish right infornt of the boat all come fluttering to the surface no idea .. they wer not mackerel bass mullet … bigger thicker fish … maybe it’s wishful thinking albacore ? I’m going to ask about down there see if anyone else seen anything similar. We was thinking somehting big was going to happen like a whale breach. These fish weren’t chasing fry I’m sure they wer being chased.

Few other bits n peices and then back to the camp oh and dinner at the curry house was 👌

Teignmouth !! would be a dream if I was that close to Cornwall.
must be some good fish out there big wrecking grounds ?
I used to tow 1 hr to my local Kent slipways herne bay when I first started 
then progressed to 2 hrs to selsey 
now mostly Cornwall  which is just outrageous 5+ hrs but it’s just that good down there .. either that or I just love it there is a wonderful place .
But try to leave the boat in yards there when I can 

Teignmouth !! would be a dream if I was that close to Cornwall.
must be some good fish out there big wrecking grounds ?
I used to tow 1 hr to my local Kent slipways herne bay when I first started 
then progressed to 2 hrs to selsey 
now mostly Cornwall  which is just outrageous 5+ hrs but it’s just that good down there .. either that or I just love it there is a wonderful place .
But try to leave the boat in yards there when I can 

*Back in the day of disposable cameras 

So finally the weather broke enough to get out on North conrwall. I wasn’t going to miss my shot. So the long tow down from Kent to the very bottom.Friday night because of the tides we had to go out in the night which was interesting but absolutely ideal conditions to being doing it in. Totally flat calm and no swell. So we anchored up in a bay and obviously threw a rod over but I think we had one doggie and tryed to get some sleep .. (didn’t happen)

5 am came and light was creeping so we starting heading out saw a huge man of war. 
 
got to the mark and began drifting for porgies.
to our surprise we actually saw them breaking the surface which was as far as I was concerned out of character.


 

 
this happened about 5 times throughout the day… it was feeding by the looks.
it wasn’t dolphins or anything else 100%
 
anyway a long hard day and annoyingly seeing fish on the sounder seeing them come up to our bait line on the sounder too … to no takers but we had to try.
////
so we came in and headed to our camp over on the south side and got dinner and got our heads down in the tent.
 The temptation was there to head back for the second day with due good weather (which is a rarity)
but would of meant going back out in the night at 2am. 
We wer bo****ed from the night before and said we will have a day on the reefs tomorrow with no tidal demand.
yes I regret choosing that over sharking but it’s done now.
 
glass calm day and a steady run of pollack worst tides for pollack was going to do some long drifting but i managed a pollack of 11lb6oz which was a mega scrap on spinning rod.

Ash had a ling off the reef nice eating size 

we had a tired canary land on the boat and stayed for a bit which was cool.

we also had a shoal off fish right infornt of the boat all come fluttering to the surface no idea .. they wer not mackerel bass mullet … bigger thicker fish … maybe it’s wishful thinking albacore ? I’m going to ask about down there see if anyone else seen anything similar. We was thinking somehting big was going to happen like a whale breach. These fish weren’t chasing fry I’m sure they wer being chased.

Few other bits n peices and then back to the camp oh and dinner at the curry house was 👌

nice report there with some nice fish to boot 👌
I toy with the idea of trailering my heap somewhere good like Cornwall but I'm too old for that shit. Easier to sail it off the mooring and fish the mudflats out of Teignmouth for dogfish 😅

Talking of birds 
this is walking round our garden right now . Been here. Everyday for about a week 
 
it’s MASSIVE !

So finally the weather broke enough to get out on North conrwall. I wasn’t going to miss my shot. So the long tow down from Kent to the very bottom.Friday night because of the tides we had to go out in the night which was interesting but absolutely ideal conditions to being doing it in. Totally flat calm and no swell. So we anchored up in a bay and obviously threw a rod over but I think we had one doggie and tryed to get some sleep .. (didn’t happen)

5 am came and light was creeping so we starting heading out saw a huge man of war. 
 
got to the mark and began drifting for porgies.
to our surprise we actually saw them breaking the surface which was as far as I was concerned out of character.


 

 
this happened about 5 times throughout the day… it was feeding by the looks.
it wasn’t dolphins or anything else 100%
 
anyway a long hard day and annoyingly seeing fish on the sounder seeing them come up to our bait line on the sounder too … to no takers but we had to try.
////
so we came in and headed to our camp over on the south side and got dinner and got our heads down in the tent.
 The temptation was there to head back for the second day with due good weather (which is a rarity)
but would of meant going back out in the night at 2am. 
We wer bo****ed from the night before and said we will have a day on the reefs tomorrow with no tidal demand.
yes I regret choosing that over sharking but it’s done now.
 
glass calm day and a steady run of pollack worst tides for pollack was going to do some long drifting but i managed a pollack of 11lb6oz which was a mega scrap on spinning rod.

Ash had a ling off the reef nice eating size 

we had a tired canary land on the boat and stayed for a bit which was cool.

we also had a shoal off fish right infornt of the boat all come fluttering to the surface no idea .. they wer not mackerel bass mullet … bigger thicker fish … maybe it’s wishful thinking albacore ? I’m going to ask about down there see if anyone else seen anything similar. We was thinking somehting big was going to happen like a whale breach. These fish weren’t chasing fry I’m sure they wer being chased.

Few other bits n peices and then back to the camp oh and dinner at the curry house was 👌

Having fixed up my aux motor to a reliable state again I took my first trip to the Skerries with my mate from work.
We got to the mooring at 5:15am, loaded the dinghy and were off on the boat by 6:10. Woj drove the boat whilst I set about getting all the kit ready for the day’s fishing.  We averaged about 18kts at 5000rpm and got to the start of the first drift position 65 minutes later. @GPSguru had very kindly helped out with some good information for me about positioning on the banks and drift patterns I could expect throughout the day which was really helpful. Thank you Ian 😊
First drift I had a plaice so target species acquired albeit a quite small one so it went back. We were using long strips of squid, my rig being something I’d bodged up 25 years ago with a cutlery spoon end, some plastic tubing and orange beads. Woj was using a shop bought rig with two hooks and loads of green and black beads with sparkly things. My rig outfished his by 2:1 🤷‍♂️ we also used some light rods for a bit of jigging with shrimp rigs and caught a handful of mackerel.
Anyway, on the second drift I decided to drop some big mackerel strips down on a couple of other rods so we had four baits in. The drift was nice and slow when suddenly the ratchet went on my Mack bait. I picked it up was instantly rewarded with a heavy pull back. There was a good bend in the rod and some serious thumping going on. After a few minutes a beautiful blonde ray appeared which went to a credible 15lb when weighed at a calmer point in the day. I was chuffed to bits with that.
We carried on as the breeze got stronger and on more than one occasion I used a small drogue to correct the angle of the boat to keep the lines in a good position.
At slack water I went in to investigate a small bank and reef off Beesands beach front only to find a large commercial working with a speed boat. The speedy boat was laying out a net and the commercial was ringing it around. Difficult to tell what they were actually doing but it looked iffy 😐 moved to another smaller reef off Torcross for another handful of mackerel then went back out for the flood stream back north. It was quite slow but we persevered. In total we had 7 or eight plaice of which I took four. Can’t say I’m proud but they were bigger than some in the shops and made a meal for four. Tasted nice they did.
A pod of dolphins appeared just as we decided to head back which swam all around us, a great sight to see. We got going, packing stuff away as we went but kept the jigging rods out. Stopped at Berry Head and were straight into mackerel. They dried up after 3 drifts so we went again and stopped at Hope’s Nose for more mackerel and 3 herring. I thought they were sardines at first but have since confirmed that they were indeed herring.
Got back to the mooring at 19:45 and home by 21:30. A very long and tiring day but very enjoyable, even got burnt… face is now peeling off 🤣
A total of 23 Mackerel, the plaice, herring and the blonde and I caught the bulk of it, very happy bunny 😊
One thing was a problem with my solar panel charge controller: no lights on it for half the day, then a green for the panel working and a red to say battery fault (which didn’t seem feasible as the indicator is still present with a strong visual presence). Going down today at low with some testing equipment.

Keep up at the back please! 🙄 👇👇
 

Aah OK, I'll go for Willow Warbler then

I think it's rare that birds that land on boats at sea survive, they are usually pretty desperate if they land on a boat. Once out of Hayling we had a bird land onboard, think it was a Gold Crest or something on the way back from Africa. It sat in a coil of rope for a while and when it eventually took to the air a fooking gull took it clean out the sky.

Nice jumper 😉 
 
Cracking pollack too 🙂 

Talking of birds 
this is walking round our garden right now . Been here. Everyday for about a week 
 
it’s MASSIVE !

That's a peacock! Incase you were in any doubt. 

I see someone of Fb say it was one so I’m stealing the glory here 

Don't reckon it's a common/Eurasian wren as they have more mottled wings. See the wings in the pic below, not seen in Josh's photos.