Post by trevormellard on Oct 31, 2013 16:55:08 GMT 1
Oystercat 06/10/2013 Skipper Dean Gifford Reporting
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[/img]I missed last weekends fishing due to us needing to catch up on a little maintenance; Saturday saw us back to doing maintenance, after a pretty stressful day with not having the correct fuel filters and the wrong sized oil seal for the top of the capstan motor caused the bearing was being squashed; No where in Swansea stocked these seals which meant the next days trip would be drifting all day - we could drop the anchor; Getting it back on-board would be another matter.
Our fishing trip today started at 7:30am. I collected the live eel and rag for the trip from Country Stores, by 8:15am we were on the boat ready for day's fishing.
At first I was dubious about the trip as the forecast was for SSW winds, recently when the forecast has been for winds in this direction the actual wind speed has been much higher than forecast. This was also the reason for the large amount of rag, in case we had to tuck in away from the winds for the flatties.
I should not have been so concerned, we left the pier heads to a flat sea. With the ebbing tide pushing us down it didn't take long for us to get to the first set of bass banks of the day.
On the first drift Luke Hayward had a new personal best with a bass of 5lb. A few other anglers on-board had eels stolen, etc. so hopes were high.
I had another couple offish here but things were pretty slow.
After 2 hours we headed further West to the Middle Helwick, again a fish on the first drift but not a lot showing on the sounder and subsequent drifts proving fruitless.
We headed in to the daggers, off the worm, but as it was low water we didn't get enough drift so I took us out to the Helwick Bank to drift with worm or sandeel for flatfish. We had a steady stream of weavers - some times 2 at a time along with some dabs, mackerel, dogs and a plaice.
Come low water the winds picked up and the flood tide beginning I took Oystercat back to the first bank we'd fished. The first hour was slow, but the sky began to cloud over to the West and as the front approached I was hopeful the fishing would hot up. We've been in the situation where fishing is average, then the sky grows dark, the wind starts to cut up the surface and the fish start to feed.
We had a little flurry of fish and lots of missed fish as the weather front hit us, but it didn't last - with in 30mins they'd gone back off the boil.
Another hour past before we tried some rough ground on the way back to the harbour. We didn't have anything there so finally headed in around 7pm. It's well known that I find it hard to go in at the end of the trip - either I'll hang on because the fish are feeding, or I'll hang on trying to find feeding fish to end on a high note, this trip was definitely the latter as I knew it was going to be an expensive trip as we'd done so many miles.
Not the best trip by any stretch of imagination, 12 or so bass to 5lb, 6 of which were kept between 3-5lb so everyone had a fish to go home with.
Last 2 trips have seen a big fish caught on the first drift - then the rest of the day being a washout... there may be something in that!
I finally got home around 8:30pm pretty worn out - but looking forward to the next trip!!
Our fishing trip today started at 7:30am. I collected the live eel and rag for the trip from Country Stores, by 8:15am we were on the boat ready for day's fishing.
At first I was dubious about the trip as the forecast was for SSW winds, recently when the forecast has been for winds in this direction the actual wind speed has been much higher than forecast. This was also the reason for the large amount of rag, in case we had to tuck in away from the winds for the flatties.
I should not have been so concerned, we left the pier heads to a flat sea. With the ebbing tide pushing us down it didn't take long for us to get to the first set of bass banks of the day.
On the first drift Luke Hayward had a new personal best with a bass of 5lb. A few other anglers on-board had eels stolen, etc. so hopes were high.
I had another couple offish here but things were pretty slow.
After 2 hours we headed further West to the Middle Helwick, again a fish on the first drift but not a lot showing on the sounder and subsequent drifts proving fruitless.
We headed in to the daggers, off the worm, but as it was low water we didn't get enough drift so I took us out to the Helwick Bank to drift with worm or sandeel for flatfish. We had a steady stream of weavers - some times 2 at a time along with some dabs, mackerel, dogs and a plaice.
Come low water the winds picked up and the flood tide beginning I took Oystercat back to the first bank we'd fished. The first hour was slow, but the sky began to cloud over to the West and as the front approached I was hopeful the fishing would hot up. We've been in the situation where fishing is average, then the sky grows dark, the wind starts to cut up the surface and the fish start to feed.
We had a little flurry of fish and lots of missed fish as the weather front hit us, but it didn't last - with in 30mins they'd gone back off the boil.
Another hour past before we tried some rough ground on the way back to the harbour. We didn't have anything there so finally headed in around 7pm. It's well known that I find it hard to go in at the end of the trip - either I'll hang on because the fish are feeding, or I'll hang on trying to find feeding fish to end on a high note, this trip was definitely the latter as I knew it was going to be an expensive trip as we'd done so many miles.
Not the best trip by any stretch of imagination, 12 or so bass to 5lb, 6 of which were kept between 3-5lb so everyone had a fish to go home with.
Last 2 trips have seen a big fish caught on the first drift - then the rest of the day being a washout... there may be something in that!
I finally got home around 8:30pm pretty worn out - but looking forward to the next trip!!