Rod of the day goes to Richard...
Out with Martin and Richard this morning. They have recently relocated their most excellent craft, a quicksilver, from Bradwell in Essex to the marina, and were looking for a start on what is, as I very well remember having come from Essex myself, a completely different salt water angling environment. So I was very happy to help. What I was not happy for though, was the last minute (and sadly accurate) amendment to the wind forecast. Stiff N winds were deffo the thing. Bloody chilly as well, with one stubborn big lump of cloud refusing to get out of the way of the sun.
Once he popped... he could not stop...
The plan was 2 x 3 hour sessions. The first on bass, the 2nd on plaice. That was swiftly cut to one three hour session on plaice, when a practice assualt on some rock before the main event proved it was impossible to get a lure down with the force of the wind pushing us across the tide. But for the same reason, the stiff NE wind, happily the inshore had cleaned up a bit. I went in on one of the very very close plaice drifts. In the lee of the land the wind had far less affect, and we tripped though just slow enough for plaice to stand a chance of grabbing hold. Which is exactly what happened. Although once again, we had one rod who was doing something more right than me and the other... Richard had 4/5ths of the fish landed by the time we pulled in to port. And I couldnt work out why...
By the time of my other sailing today, with Bern and his lad Reuben, the wind had abated, the sun had come out, and to be fair, it was bloody lovely. We began with some rock tapping, which did show us a shoal of tight lipped bass. Happily a mackerel joined in, to be joined by another later in the session. A wrasse made Reuben very happy on his first proper fishing trip (You did very well BTW. I forgot to tell you... ) and beating his dad by five fish to one also made his day I feel. We fished on switching between rock tapping and plaice hopping. The plaice sadly, refused to feed. We got a SW wind, which sped our drift up perhaps too much. A couple of gurnards kept things interesting though, and I think I will have new members of the Frequent Flyers club before long...
Next sailings Friday. Possibly the only sailings on the weekend based on the current forecast, unless the inshore miraculously turns from green to blue. Full availability on a great forecast. 07970 112774 to get on board.