Post by dean on Dec 23, 2014 16:24:18 GMT 1
Weather, work commitments and being in the process of buying a house has meant I’ve not had a massive amount of free time for fishing recently, and when I do have a spare few hours often the weathers pants!
I’ve got this week off, luckily Monday and Tuesday both gave reasonable forecasts so I put my name down to take out a trip on Monday and put my name down to join another trip on Tuesday, as it turned out I ended up skippering that one too which was fine with me.
Monday
Forecast was for a reasonable residual swell and moderate wind dropping off as the day went on. We made our way through the marina out through the pier heads out to a mark that often provides good mixed general fishing at this time of year.
Just after sunrise Paul Eaton had a nice chunky codling of around 3lb followed by another about at 4lb.
Reasonable numbers of small whiting, dabs, dogs, pouting and poor cod coming to everyone else on-board. As high water approached we moved out to a deep water trench where often we find more larger fish like eels, spurs, cod and rays as well as very big whiting but all we found here were dogs, and with a beam on swell of a few foot it wasn’t the most comfortable fishing.
The ebb had gained enough strength to warrant moving to the final mark of the day, again a mark that provides good general fishing but is most noted for its large whiting, within a few minutes of being on this mark the whiting began showing themselves, often coming to baits presented well above the sea bed; many of them were small but we had a few over 1lb 8oz which is a nice table fish.
John Bevan fishing a large squid bait attracted a nice 9lb thornback, while going to get the scales to weigh that fish my rod arched over. I expected it would be the little male that often goes around with the larger female thornback but turns out it was a little strap of around 7lb – interestingly taken on an inch or so of frozen black lug on a size 4 hook fishing for dabs.
Clive Skidmore finished the day with a lovely small eye ray of 4-5lb.
We got back to the marina for the 4:30pm lock, quick wash down and ready for another trip in the morning.
Tuesday
With the sea state forecast to be better than the day before I planned on heading straight to where we finished the day before as it would be nice to see a few more big whiting. We weren’t disappointed with a few smaller whiting coming in first eclipsed by Stan's (John) 2lb 2oz whiting, quickly followed by a codling a couple of ounces smaller.
As the afternoon got towards early evening the wind dropped and sea state was lovely and flat, it really was a pleasure to be out there. The day continued with plenty of whiting many small but reasonable numbers between 1lb and 2lb along with dabs, dogs, pouting and poor cod.
Often the mark fishes best on the ebb so really I was waiting for the ebb to start – unfortunately with the wind increasing and a very small tide it took us an age to turn on the anchor. Finally around 2:20pm we were able to get the anchor up and sit on the steep slope where I expected to find a few more whiting. Unfortunately we only had a couple of bigger whiting here – if I'm honest i expected a lot more but that's fishing.
Richy Pearce lost a nice eel on the surface of around 15-17lb. Stan John soon after boated one of around 5lb.
Stan's eel Vic lilygreen & whiting
That concluded the fishing for the day – again we got in for around 4:30pm, after cleaning down we tied the boat up nice and snug ready for the bad weather that's going to come the rest of this week.
In all a nice couple of days fishing, looking forward to getting out on some bigger tides to get the big whiting in larger numbers.
I’ve got this week off, luckily Monday and Tuesday both gave reasonable forecasts so I put my name down to take out a trip on Monday and put my name down to join another trip on Tuesday, as it turned out I ended up skippering that one too which was fine with me.
Monday
Forecast was for a reasonable residual swell and moderate wind dropping off as the day went on. We made our way through the marina out through the pier heads out to a mark that often provides good mixed general fishing at this time of year.
Just after sunrise Paul Eaton had a nice chunky codling of around 3lb followed by another about at 4lb.
Reasonable numbers of small whiting, dabs, dogs, pouting and poor cod coming to everyone else on-board. As high water approached we moved out to a deep water trench where often we find more larger fish like eels, spurs, cod and rays as well as very big whiting but all we found here were dogs, and with a beam on swell of a few foot it wasn’t the most comfortable fishing.
The ebb had gained enough strength to warrant moving to the final mark of the day, again a mark that provides good general fishing but is most noted for its large whiting, within a few minutes of being on this mark the whiting began showing themselves, often coming to baits presented well above the sea bed; many of them were small but we had a few over 1lb 8oz which is a nice table fish.
John Bevan fishing a large squid bait attracted a nice 9lb thornback, while going to get the scales to weigh that fish my rod arched over. I expected it would be the little male that often goes around with the larger female thornback but turns out it was a little strap of around 7lb – interestingly taken on an inch or so of frozen black lug on a size 4 hook fishing for dabs.
Clive Skidmore finished the day with a lovely small eye ray of 4-5lb.
We got back to the marina for the 4:30pm lock, quick wash down and ready for another trip in the morning.
Tuesday
With the sea state forecast to be better than the day before I planned on heading straight to where we finished the day before as it would be nice to see a few more big whiting. We weren’t disappointed with a few smaller whiting coming in first eclipsed by Stan's (John) 2lb 2oz whiting, quickly followed by a codling a couple of ounces smaller.
As the afternoon got towards early evening the wind dropped and sea state was lovely and flat, it really was a pleasure to be out there. The day continued with plenty of whiting many small but reasonable numbers between 1lb and 2lb along with dabs, dogs, pouting and poor cod.
Often the mark fishes best on the ebb so really I was waiting for the ebb to start – unfortunately with the wind increasing and a very small tide it took us an age to turn on the anchor. Finally around 2:20pm we were able to get the anchor up and sit on the steep slope where I expected to find a few more whiting. Unfortunately we only had a couple of bigger whiting here – if I'm honest i expected a lot more but that's fishing.
Richy Pearce lost a nice eel on the surface of around 15-17lb. Stan John soon after boated one of around 5lb.
Stan's eel Vic lilygreen & whiting
That concluded the fishing for the day – again we got in for around 4:30pm, after cleaning down we tied the boat up nice and snug ready for the bad weather that's going to come the rest of this week.
In all a nice couple of days fishing, looking forward to getting out on some bigger tides to get the big whiting in larger numbers.