The day started with a quite frustrated skipper. I had cancelled the morning sailing, as the forecast suggested a stiff SE wind to begin the day, swinging to the NE around lunchtime. So, of course I awoke to a pretty still, if pretty damp morning. I messaged my 2nd sailing customer, Andy, to see if he could come earlier. He could a bit. So, I fueled, then launched, and had an hour to myself on the fly. This bought the bass counter to 9 when the call came to say he had arrived. Lots of smalls, with one fish perhaps 2.5 - 3lb.

Then Andy boarded, and we headed out. We caught the last of the shoal I had been playing with, but it quite quickly vanished. I popped down to the West pier area. Not a lot happening there. So I popped out to the outer reefs. Here, the wrasse were very happy to play, with four coming to the boat, three to Andy fishing a quite large HTO slow jig. I felt a couple of squid attack, and then drop the shad, which bodes well for our SQUID SPECIAL trip (2nd sailing tomorrow - now sold out).

As the tide eased back, so did the fish marks on the sounder. I tried a couple of other reefs, but not much doing, other than some quality mackerel. So, I suggested we head back in to try and contact the big shoal I had been playing with in the morning. It was very inshore, but I found it, leaving the bass counter on 28 before it was time to head in.

I popped back in for a cup of tea and a sandwich. And then met with my very good friend Matt for the last couple of hours. All on the fly, it was at times quite frantic. I managed to stay with the shoal most of the time. We did go off prospecting for bigger fish, as the bulk of the shoal was quite small schoolies. But nothing doing there. However, for pure action it was quite a fun session, which, at the end of the day, BIF is all about. Fun. Smiles on faces. Throw in an amazing pastel end to the daylight, and I guess it turned into a perfect day.Oh, and 36 bass recorded on the bass counter for the day.

Very optimistic for good numbers of fish tomorrow. Just two spaces available on the 3rd sailing. 07970 112774 to get on board.