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Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on Oct 5, 2015 16:42:19 GMT 1
Members request for a bassing trip. Great weather forecast as we boarded Oystercat at 6:30am, got out on the first lock armed with 3lb of eel from Swansea Tackle and Bait. Headed out to the first mark, very dirty water and the few drifts we did yielded nothing.
Headed another few miles south west, first bank, nothing - 2nd bank - 1 bass boated another lost, then nothing. By this time we'd lost our drift speed so we bobbed about, had some grub and fed the dogfish live eels. The tide picked up and we caught a few fish, but nothing really to write home about. Ran back inshore - had a little look on a few other banks but nothing again. As slack water approached we headed into Oxwich Bay to stock up on bait - both live bait for the evening and some mackerel for my trip the following day, as well as some to supplement the dozen or so bass we had in the well for people to take home. Thankfully these were far easier to find than the bass earlier in the day, soon our bait wells were restocked.
I got a little stick of a few members as I cut the bait collection short, stressing we'd need more scad - I assured them we had enough for the evening; given the days success so far I didn't really expect to find too many more feeding fish; I chalked it down to the iffy water clarity and dropping tides. We dropped the anchor on the knoll to wait for the tide to gain in strength, this also gave us chance cook up the last of the grub and have a brew. Plenty of dabs and gurnard kept the rods rattling away for the hour or so we had there. We ran back out offshore joining a couple of boats that had stuck it out over slack water; they quickly shot off back towards Swansea, we had a few fish here, there were bass on the bank but I suspect they were small as we had lots of hits but we weren't able to turn these hits into fish on deck.
By now it was 6:30pm - been out for nearly 12hrs so tired and fairly despondent I thought we'd give one last mark a go before heading back in. As often happens, we arrived and the first drift saw 4 fish on deck and the other 2 baits being lost to savage hits. The next hour saw us frantically trying to get back up on the drift; while sorting out the fish on deck and trying to get the last of the scad out of the live well. The guys were right to question if we had enough, as we ran out. Thankfully, the fish were very keen and lures were taking fish fairly well. As we lost the light after the umpteenth 'Last Drift' we finally got back to the marina about 8:15pm - after sorting the fish and cleaning down we finally left the boat at 9:15pm.
Sorry no photos. Skipper Dean
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Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on Oct 5, 2015 16:35:17 GMT 1
Bass Trips 30 August 2015 We took the Oystercat on a massive loop of Gower and only found a couple of fish. Coming back in towards the end of the day we ran into a large shoal of bass on a fairly local mark. Typical!!! Sorry no photos too busy catching bass. Bass trip 31 August 2015 Started the day collecting bait, pouting & scad, from local wrecks filling the live wells. Then we tried the local mark where fish was found on 30th, so was expecting fireworks, but got nothing. Ran west and landed on a shoal of bass feed well. There were only 2 boats on the bank us and Marlin (Grifish), it was really nice having the bank almost to ourselves. Richie Pearce-nice bass Dean Gifford-nice bass Nathaniel James - nice gurnard Unfortunately, we quickly ran out of scad, so spent the slack water period restocking with with scad. We also nipped into Caswell Bay to pick up one of our members who paddled out to us in his kayak. John Golding by kayak Then we went offshore looking for fish. Given the success of yesterday evening we expected the scad bait would have been well received, but not a bit of it. As the tide built so did the number of boats and the fish were scared away. As the other boats headed home we burnt more fuel and went off to different area. We found a reasonable shoal of fish feeding very heavily, the scad were taking fish, but the lures were king. As the bass were slamming into the live bait on the lures they ripping the bait of the hooks or causing the hooks to turn and go under the gill plate.
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Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on Aug 18, 2015 19:21:25 GMT 1
We we arrived at the first bank we had the place to our selves. Drifting for an hour or so's saw a few weavers, dogs and cuttle fish attacking our sand eels. Later a lot of other boats had made their way out and there were soon 10 boats all running over the same area and more making their way on the horizon. With no bass were showing, nor bait fish we made the most of the ebbing tide and ran further west. The 2nd bank produced a few fish before it went dead. We often see the fish moved from bank to bank with the tide in that area; so moved west further to the next bank, here we found the fish and enjoyed 30mins of good fishing, before Sue Ellen (fishing along side Cerulean) ran straight over the top of the bank through the commercial and recreational boats fishing there. Killed the bank of fish. We made our way off shore to another 2 banks both dead! We'd only had 10 or so bass in the past 10hrs. We had one last mark to hit and that just happened to be on the run back in from the final bank, arrived there at roughly 5:30pm. Thankfully, we dropped on a shoal of feeding fish and over the next 3hrs we had 40 or so bass to 6lb. We ran out of live eel but continued to catch on lures and rag worm baits. John Golding with 5.5lb Bass John Bevan with 4.5lb Bass Dean Gifford with 6lb Bass By the end of the day the sea had turned into a sheet of glass; lovely evening to be on the water, got back into the marina around 9pm.
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Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on Aug 13, 2015 16:02:58 GMT 1
Wednesday 12/08: As Paul (captain_nemo) couldn't make the evening trip on 11th, he kindly asked if I'd be interested in heading out with him for a few hours; which I kindly accepted. Paul had other plans but after repeatedly sending him pictures of the catches on the night of the 11th, I'd convinced him to take the plunge and head to the same banks as the weather and tides only allow them to be fished very occasionally. Unfortunately, as the tide was slightly later we'd have even less fishing time before we'd have to leave the bank for home. After picking up a lb of live Eel at Swansea Tackle and Bait I joined Paul and Nathaniel (nathfisher) on the boat Deep Purple, which was moored on the outer pontoon ready to go. The journey out was pretty nice, sea like glass, lots of porpoises and razorbills with the occasional gannet. Got to the bank and again bobbed around until the drift began to take us over the top of the bank. We only managed 5 bass and a few dropped before we'd ran out of time. All quality fish, biggest at 5lb suitably going to Paul, not too bad for a hour or so.
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Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on Aug 13, 2015 15:47:43 GMT 1
Tuesday 11/08/2015: Working so close to the marina is torture when its nice. From my desk I can see the Tawe locks and out between the pier heads. Tuesday saw boats slowly trickling through the locks out onto a glassy sea. By lunch time I'd arranged to finish early - and had enough interest from members to make an evening trip viable. The Club boat Oystercat had been out in the day, but the skipper and anglers kindly came in a little earlier so we could head out on the 5pm lock. The wind and tide were just right for heading a long long way south west, well off shore to a series of banks which are only really accessible on tides of 11m on the Kings Dock scales. I briefed the anglers that we'd only have 2 hours fishing due to the sailing time involved, but we had a reasonable chance of a few nice fish. We grabbed a lb of eel from Swansea Tackle and Bait - put the burgers on and made our way out onto the flat sea - passed all the yachties heading in for high water free flow. Some time later we arrived at the bank but struggled with our drift speed for 20mins or so, we bobbed around only catching the odd doggie. The drift finally took us over the bank where we had the first bass. Over the next 2 hours we had fairly steady fishing with 20-25 bass. All bar 4 were caught on sandeel, either live or dead reused ones. When we ran out of eel we pretty much ran out of fish - I knew I should have got 2lb of eel!! All bar one bass was over 46 cm - most were between 50 and 62cm. We made our way back in with time for 10-15mins on the mackerel but only found 2 before we had to dash for the locks. In all a good couple of hours out - great company, quality fish and fantastic weather!!
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Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on Aug 10, 2015 17:14:53 GMT 1
This is such a long run it is important to utilise the tide to take you down and bring you back. Unfortunately, Saturday's tides didn’t fit right to do the normal leave and return times. So I decided I’d sleep on the boat on the outer pontoon and leave at 4:30am. Due to a problem on Friday evening I couldn't take on fuel until 07:00 Saturday morning, so we did not leave until the 08:00 out locks, i.e. normal time, this meant punching the tide and burning more fuel. Arrived at the island at 10:20. The first stop was the Stanley Bank where we picked up plenty of fresh bait, mackerel, launce, weavers, to see us through the day. We moved to the north side of the Island where the first drift produced a mix of Ballan Wrasse and Small Pollack. We stayed at the north end of the Island for a hour or so and caught plenty more Pollack, Ballan Wrasse along with male and female Cuckoo Wrasse. We moved off the island a little way to a very large sandbank, hoping for rays, but we only found dogs, small smoothhound and pretty good number and sized dabs. Then it was time have a bit of grub and a cup of tea. As soon as the tide strength had built enough we made our way south to a large reef that always produces lots of Pollack. Over the next couple of hours we caught plenty of pollack to around 4lb, more wrasse, mackerel and a lone poor cod coming to a mixture of feather or redgills worked on Portland rigs. We had more than enough Pollack so tried a few other areas to see if we could find anything else, but more of the same really… Only thing to note was a 4lb ballan wrasse for Colin Albert. After another round of sausage sandwiches we ended the day back on the Stanley Bank in an attempt to get a weaver (species hunt fish) for Colin Albert who’d failed to get one in the morning. Unfortunately, with wind over tide our drift was 0.3kts so after 10mins we called it a day and made our way back to Swansea. Skipper Dean Gifford.
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Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on Jul 18, 2015 20:34:18 GMT 1
Colin Albert has taken up the challenge to become the Club Species Hunter 2015.
Species to date: (15)
Caught from Mumbles Pier on 18 July 2015:
Red Mullet and Shore Rockling.
Caught from the Oystercat 11 July 2015:
Lesser Spotted Dogfish, Plaice, Starry Smoothhound, Pouting, Scad, Mackerel.
Caught fishing at Amlwch Breakwater 3 July 2015:
Pollack, Ballen Wrasse, Leopard Spotted Goby, Whiting, Tompot Blenny, Poor Cod, Dab.
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Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on Jun 30, 2015 16:40:56 GMT 1
29th June saw a chance after a wild Sunday for the Oystercat to get out with members old and new new member Lynn Rees had a personal best Bull Huss weighing 5lb. New member Nigel Davies had a thrill with a smooth hound of nearly 10lb. Whilst John Bevan had a nice 1.75lb black bream. Which was topped by fish of the Day a 2.6lb bream to one of the Oystercat Skippers Richie Pearce Skipper John Elvins reporting.
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Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on Jun 23, 2015 13:37:22 GMT 1
Oystercat fishing trip Saturday, 20 June 2015 By skipper Dean Gifford
In reality, this trip started on Friday evening. I was very kindly invited to join Paul (Captain Nemo) on his boat for the evening to have a drift about with the feathers. The sea state was a little sloppy but not too bad, and our long drifts across the bay found us a dozen or so mackerel in the 2 or so hours we were out.
Those who fish with me will note I always use a large 210 blue and silver pirk under my feathers. I often get asked do I ever get bass on the pirk... to which I reply not really, only 2 - 3 times in the 5-6 years I've been doing it. But what I do get often are small to medium size gurnard taking the pirk, many an angler look at me like I'm crazy and discredit it as a fisherman's tale. On Friday evening I showed Paul how greedy these little blighter could be. As I flicked the pirk towards an anchored buoy a gurnard no longer than the pirk, and far lighter had engulfed the large treble on the bottom of the flashy monster before it had time to hit the bottom.
Saturday
Saturday morning at 6:45am everyone was onboard Oystercay and briefed how the day was going to pan out. After collecting 2lb of eel from Swansea Tackle and Bait I was very pleased to see the sea state had improved greatly from the night before. We made our way out to the Swigg, where after a few drifts we had more than enough mackerel to start the day's tope fishing. We got to the mark a little earlier than I'd planned so we had to contend with the ripping tide; 24oz of lead was needed to prevent the forward baits tangling with the guys at the back. Things were quiet during the main run, but we were entertained by a pod of feeding dolphins in front of us along with the accompanying gannets that were making the most of an easy meal.
I always get everyone to start with cut bait, but after a 30mins or so we'd have enough smell in the water to move over to live baits. I could feel my live bait getting scared by something - I wound it 10-15ft off the bottom where it was taken by a pretty powerful fish that ran hard across the tide. I could just start to see the pin, the lines attached to before the fish stopped its run and began coming back towards the boat. Unfortunately, before I could get it to the boat it bit through my 250lb trace - first time that's happened to me.
Next into a fish was Ben Mordecai - getting his first tope
I got this critter - hook must have slipped and I hooked him in the top of the head... was an interesting fight.
That was the end of the tope fishing, always seems to happen when you find lots of mackerel, tope fishing is poor!!
Once the ebb tide had increased in strength enough we headed out to have a go on the bass. After a few drifts we managed to find a reasonable shoal of fish with 5-6 fish being taken at the same time. Unfortunately, we struggled to keep in contact with them and over the next 3hrs or so we only managed 25 or so to 4-5lb, most were small (less than the 42cm we set as our minimum keeping size)
The last hour or so was spent in Oxwich where we had a few dogs and dabs - this gave us the chance to have a cup of tea and a sausage sandwich before running home. We got back around 5pm - still had some mackerel and live eel left which is a change from last weekends fishing. If I'm honest after last weekend the fishing was just ok, but I think we were a little spoiled last week!!
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Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on Jun 9, 2015 15:13:46 GMT 1
Oystercat 7 June 2015 – Dean Gifford The broken lock gates last weekend stop our boat fishing. The sea temperatures are on the increase and more 'summer' species starting to show, so to make the most of the trip Skipper Dean Gifford opted for a 'cover-all' trip. This included general reef fishing in the morning then some drift fishing in the afternoon. All the anglers were on board by 07:45. Swansea Tackle and Bait delivered the last 2lb of live sandeels to the outer pontoon and we picked them up as we exited Tawe Lock. The day started with nearly everyone on board @ 7:45am - the last 2 and 2lb of live sandeels from Swansea tackle and bait were picked up on the outer pontoon as we exited tawe lock. Our first fishing mark was on the south edge of the Langland Reef, where the seabed is a mixture of rock and sandy patches. Hungry smooth hounds quickly found the crab baits, and then along came the dogs, bull huss and the occasional bream to make up the rest of the catch. Photo 1 Dean bream Gifford (skipper) Dean attempted to get a photo of this lovely blue coloured male bream - but this little 'blighter' jumped, flipped and embedded its dorsal spines into my hand so no arty photo was be taken. As the top tide came and went Dean moved the Oystercat to another feature only 200 metres or so away where there were some boulders surrounded by sand. Everyone scoffed as a few dabs started coming aboard 'good bream mark this is' but we did find a few there - these were females though so lacking in the vibrant colours of the males. They also had a pollack that gave an impression of a 5lb bream with its initial crash dives, a few smooth hounds, bull huss and a nice lobster for Nathaniel. Photo 2 Nathaniel James lobster When the tide had been ebbing for 2hrs, and with everyone suitably feed and watered (John Elvins did a cracking job catering & catching fish!!) the anchor was lifted and Oystercat headed West in search of bass. As they approached the banks they could see a number of commercial and recreational boats drifting so hopes of a good catch were definitely high. On the initial drift Pete Jordan caught the first bass of the day. Photo 3 Pete Jordan with bass This was closely followed by Nigel Ellerton landing his first bass of the day Photo 4 Nigel Ellerton with bass Oystercat drifted for a couple more hours but the anglers only managed another 4 bass to bring the total bass caught up to the half dozen. As the tide dropped away to low water Dean had planned to go further West to some other bank markss, but after 2 miles or so the sea became very 'snotty', losing a few cups as the Oystercat rolled in the swell. The further West they headed the worse it got so they did a quick 180 degree turn and headed over to the St Christopher Knoll mark to see out the early flood. Here they had a few dabs, many small but some of good size, 2 plaice and a few dogs. After finishing off our gammon rolls – They finished the day's fishing on the Oysterledges, a dozen or so drifts resulted in just one bass so they headed back to the marina. They got in to the river about 7:30pm , along with a lot of other boats who were already there waiting to go through the lock gates. They finally got back to the berth around 9pm... Should have stayed out and had a few more drifts!!! In all a nice day, wind really blew up at the end of the day which prevented them doing what they'd really would have liked to have doing. They got a nice little collection of species - nothing very big or in large numbers, but enough to make and keep it interesting.
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Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on Feb 16, 2015 17:39:23 GMT 1
Skipper John Elvins Sunday's, 15th February 2015, fishing very slow around the inshore mark at Sker, so we then moved to deeper waters where 4 small conger were caught. We also caught 8 different species,if we include, Mashal's catch of a "J cloth", these were pouting, whiting, codling, conger, spurdog, rockling and Swansea trout. The photos show - Marshal Mainwaring and the three bearded rockling, Adrian 'the cod' Rippon, four other cod were caught, Daron Lawry with a small cod that he seems to be strangling and me, John Elvins, caught a very nice Spur dog in between kitchen duties. Photo 1 & 2 Marshal Mainwaring and 3 bearded rockling. Photo 3 John Elvins - spurdog. Photo 4 Daron Lawry - cod. Photo 5 Adrian Rippon - cod.
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Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on Feb 3, 2015 20:01:07 GMT 1
Sample photos from the fishing trip, just looking at the anglers you can see how cold it was out in Swansea Bay. -------------Richie Pearce with his 2lb coding------------------------------------------------------Richie Pearce with 2lb 8oz whiting-------------------------------------------------Vic Lilygreen 3lb 12oz codling
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Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on Oct 16, 2014 15:52:13 GMT 1
Just thought I'd make a contribution. Though nothing much to report in the last few weeks. Tried Langland a few times no bream just dogs and small codling.I did have good tope in July and August, waiting now for the weather to settle down. Next trip will be for cod.
Thanks for the warm welcome when I joined the club.
Mike Davis
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Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on Jul 17, 2012 16:59:26 GMT 1
This was booked in as a long range fishing trip over s period of approximately 12 hours. Unfortunately the weather put a stop to them doing what they wanted to do.
The skipper was John Elvins, crewman Richie Pearce and 7 hardy anglers. After a brief pow-wow they decided to build on the previous days fishing trip and try for tope over low slack water instead. For a few hours the struggled to get enough live bait to make it worth while heading out for low slack water. Of the set, on arrival the fishing started slowly with a dogs, hounds and huss coming on board.
As the tide began to build Rob Gibbins hooked up to tope, and at the same time Dean Gifford hooked one as well, so he thought. Rob's tope pulled the scales down to 30lb, Deans turned out to be 15lb bullhuss. Fair play Dean's fish fought really well for a huss.
As the peak of the tide approached it was decided to try for some bass as they had a well full of live eels. They ran out to the banks with out too much of a problem, but on arrival the swell was up and starting to crest. Dean took the helm just in case he had to turn the boat if it got any more fruity after they passed the peak of the bank.
Not much fun they were thrown around a bit and slamming a lot trying to get back up for the next drift. Time to be more cautious and this was to be the last drift. John Bevan managed a schoolie on a red gill. With John Elvins back at the helm they tried the reef for an hour, but due to the swell the anchor struggled to hold. Not a happy bunny John France lost his fishing rod. Time to head back into the Bay.
On the way back they responded to a distress call put out by the coast guard for a boat off Mumbles Head. When they got there, one of the people on board had been taken ill so the coast guard called out the lifeboat to take them in and help with the casualty. They stood by until the RNLI turned up before heading back into the bay to get a bit of shelter.
On reaching the wreck it was found to be covered in pots. They anchored off the wreck, fishing was slow and when moving closer to the shore it was much the same. At 16:30 they packed it in and head home some 4 hours earlier than on their original plan.
That's the joy of fishing along with a catch that included tub, red and grey gurnard, mackerel, smooth hound, bull huss, tope bass and a few dabs. A reasonable amount for a trip that was restricted by the lack of live bait and the weather.
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Post by Mumbles Motor Boat Fishing Cl on Jul 17, 2012 16:11:22 GMT 1
Oystercat went out fishing with skipper Dean Gifford at the helm and a 5 tidy anglers on board. Plenty of room for all which was just as well for the were going after tope.
Tides were on the small side and the weather forecast very favourable for a change. First they needed some live bait as there was no point fishing for tope without lots of good quality live bait. So they left the marina rather early on the 07:00 out lock and headed out towards Oxwich. After mooching about in the bay for about 2 hours they struggled to find enough bait for long session. They caught a few mackerel, dabs and gurnard. These were put in the live bait wells ready for use when they hit the fishing mark.
Before they could move off they had a chat with Rob Rennie, skipper of Lady Jue 3 who said he was having some bass, off shore, along with a few mackerel. So they headed out to the same place try their luck for a few more mackerel bait. On the first drift Dean caught a bass and tight lines were frequent over a 2 hour period. They had a mix of schoolie bass, occasional gurnard and monster mackerel coming on board. On one hectic drift they had 6 bass between them. An hour after high water they headed for the tope grounds.
The first fish off the mark was a smooth hound caught by John France, who seems able to find smooth hound where ever he fishes. The fishing continued with a few dog fish, the occasional bullhuss and better still Leigh was managing a few whiting, for bait. Dean nab one of the whiting and quickly sent it back down. With in 30 secs. it was taken by a 6lb huss. Having retrieved the whiting from the huss Dean sent it back down, as it was still twitching, and a tope took a liking to the partly chewed whiting. He had good sport with the tope for about 3 mins. before his end tackle snapped of his rubbing leader. Steve Evans was also unlucky having also lost tope had on for a little while.
As the tide turned they began sitting side on to a building choppy sea. Rather than stay out for a bit of flattie bashing headed back to the marina berth.
They ended the trip with a few hounds, some bullhuss, grey and tub gurnard, dabs, whiting, mackerel, 11 bass and a big happy smile.
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