Post by office07 on Jun 27, 2014 15:58:53 GMT 1
21-06-2014
I’ve not at much chance to get out recently as I’ve had other things on, but this weekend was very much a chance to get back on the water and have a go. This was a case for a few others also so after a bit of a chat I outlined a rough plan to split Saturday into bassing and breaming then big fish targeting on Sunday.
As word on the grapevine was that bass were about in reasonable numbers I decided we’d start our day on the worm and move out wide if need be. 8 of us onboard we got to the worm about 8:40am and signs were good. Turns were working in close, gannets and gulls were working the bait fish a little way off.
First drift produced a little schoolie, but a hour or 2 close to the reef only yielded a single bass, Pollack, codling and pouting. A little move around saw a couple more schoolies but nowhere near the numbers I expected.
I decided we’d run off another 8m south west , to a few steep sided bank. The first yielded nothing but appeared to have lost a bit of its shape since I’d last been there. The next produced one schoolie but nothing really showing on the sounder didn’t inspire any hope.
By now we were approaching high water; so with the bassing being pants and all our eels had died we ran back to Langland to try for some bream... This was worse than the bassing. A couple of hounds, codling, dogs and huss were all that happened here.
We finished the day with a little mackerel bash at the swigg – up until now I was blanking, I did manage a couple of mackerel but its fair to say I didn’t have the best of days.
22-06-2014
Today was sort of targeting what myself and another skipper John wanted to target – which was bigger fish. As such we outlined a trip to a offshore wreck then back inshore to target tope. 5 of us left on the first lock and made very good time to the wreck.
I anchored further uptide than I normally would as I expected to drag a little, typically we held solid so were further uptide than I wanted to be ideally. I expected we’d still be able to draw the congers up to us – but we had a ton of dogs.
Once the tide changed we moved over to the other side of the wreck – we managed a couple of eels here up to 24lb but it wasn’t exactly kicking off.
Lets Conger
Craig Barnes Craig & Dean John Layton
As the tide built we got the anchor up and ran inside to get some live baits to give us the best chance of finding a few tope. As always, when you need mackerel their a pain to find. After a hour or 2 we found shoals dense enough to fill the live wells and replenish the bait buckets.
We dropped the anchor along with a chum bag filled with plenty of ‘ripe’ mackerel from the trips 2 days before. Everyone else had at least 1 tope within the first 15mins – so I finally got a rod in the water.
My first fish managed to find a flaw in my brand new suveran 30lb class rod and snapped it a little way down from the tip. It was fun fighting the fish on ¾’s of a rod.
Pete Jordan (left) & D Gifford Pete Jordan tope 2 Craig Barnes tope 1 John Elvins tope 1
Graig Barnes tope 2 Pete Jordan tope 3 @ 35lb John Layton tope 1 Craig Barnes tope 3
It all went a little mental after that, the tope must have been under the boat in incredible numbers, as soon as the baits hit the bottom they were taken.
In about 3hrs we landed about 40 tope to 35lb and lost about the same number again. Over slack water we found dropping a mackerel fillet to the bottom and winding it up slowly; much as you’d do with a red gill saw the tope hitting the baits very quickly as its brought up from the bottom – often on the first couple of winds.
We ran out of mackerel, so we attempted to raise the anchor – unfortunately this was hard in the bottom and wouldn’t trip, after 20mins or so we decided to bouy it off and pick it back up later in the week. A little sour note to end the day but the fishing was pretty enjoyable! The anchor was recovered a couple of days later by skipper John Elvins, assisted by Vic. Lilygreen and Richie Pearce.
Oystercat Skipper Dean Gifford
I’ve not at much chance to get out recently as I’ve had other things on, but this weekend was very much a chance to get back on the water and have a go. This was a case for a few others also so after a bit of a chat I outlined a rough plan to split Saturday into bassing and breaming then big fish targeting on Sunday.
As word on the grapevine was that bass were about in reasonable numbers I decided we’d start our day on the worm and move out wide if need be. 8 of us onboard we got to the worm about 8:40am and signs were good. Turns were working in close, gannets and gulls were working the bait fish a little way off.
First drift produced a little schoolie, but a hour or 2 close to the reef only yielded a single bass, Pollack, codling and pouting. A little move around saw a couple more schoolies but nowhere near the numbers I expected.
I decided we’d run off another 8m south west , to a few steep sided bank. The first yielded nothing but appeared to have lost a bit of its shape since I’d last been there. The next produced one schoolie but nothing really showing on the sounder didn’t inspire any hope.
By now we were approaching high water; so with the bassing being pants and all our eels had died we ran back to Langland to try for some bream... This was worse than the bassing. A couple of hounds, codling, dogs and huss were all that happened here.
We finished the day with a little mackerel bash at the swigg – up until now I was blanking, I did manage a couple of mackerel but its fair to say I didn’t have the best of days.
22-06-2014
Today was sort of targeting what myself and another skipper John wanted to target – which was bigger fish. As such we outlined a trip to a offshore wreck then back inshore to target tope. 5 of us left on the first lock and made very good time to the wreck.
I anchored further uptide than I normally would as I expected to drag a little, typically we held solid so were further uptide than I wanted to be ideally. I expected we’d still be able to draw the congers up to us – but we had a ton of dogs.
Once the tide changed we moved over to the other side of the wreck – we managed a couple of eels here up to 24lb but it wasn’t exactly kicking off.
Lets Conger
Craig Barnes Craig & Dean John Layton
As the tide built we got the anchor up and ran inside to get some live baits to give us the best chance of finding a few tope. As always, when you need mackerel their a pain to find. After a hour or 2 we found shoals dense enough to fill the live wells and replenish the bait buckets.
We dropped the anchor along with a chum bag filled with plenty of ‘ripe’ mackerel from the trips 2 days before. Everyone else had at least 1 tope within the first 15mins – so I finally got a rod in the water.
My first fish managed to find a flaw in my brand new suveran 30lb class rod and snapped it a little way down from the tip. It was fun fighting the fish on ¾’s of a rod.
Pete Jordan (left) & D Gifford Pete Jordan tope 2 Craig Barnes tope 1 John Elvins tope 1
Graig Barnes tope 2 Pete Jordan tope 3 @ 35lb John Layton tope 1 Craig Barnes tope 3
It all went a little mental after that, the tope must have been under the boat in incredible numbers, as soon as the baits hit the bottom they were taken.
In about 3hrs we landed about 40 tope to 35lb and lost about the same number again. Over slack water we found dropping a mackerel fillet to the bottom and winding it up slowly; much as you’d do with a red gill saw the tope hitting the baits very quickly as its brought up from the bottom – often on the first couple of winds.
We ran out of mackerel, so we attempted to raise the anchor – unfortunately this was hard in the bottom and wouldn’t trip, after 20mins or so we decided to bouy it off and pick it back up later in the week. A little sour note to end the day but the fishing was pretty enjoyable! The anchor was recovered a couple of days later by skipper John Elvins, assisted by Vic. Lilygreen and Richie Pearce.
Oystercat Skipper Dean Gifford