6lb + of pure pleasure

There was a big lesson learned today. And stuff happened that leads me to make an appeal. Please dont be too upset when the day comes I totally stuff up your booking. This ALMOST was the first time. Let me take you back a bit. This business was always supposed to be a 2 man show. And circumstances, and Bruce's midas touch, has meant now it is a one man band. Me. And just now, I run from 0500, and by the time I have done my paperwork, and blog updates, frequently bed is post midnight. With a 0400 alarm set. This is fine, as USUALLY the weather gives me plenty of breaks. But recently, we have been on a good run. The weather means I am totally shagged... So when the winds were threatening too much Easterly, I thought I would cancel. I looked in the book. Couple of Frequent flyers, whom I texted. And Laurie. Whole boat charter. I texted him also...

Awww....

On the day, I head to piggies for a late breakfast, some awesome coffee, and a catch up chat with my mate Jon, who bought his puppy along. Jon is quite a tough man, I would not want to upset him. But to see him with his dogs, you see a very soft side of him. And of course. Such sweethearts. I did not get a shot of the bulldog under our feet. Just the young chappie. Jon made his excuses and left, and I began to walk back to my car. The phone rang. "HI, its Laurie. Where do we meet?"...

WTF??

Panic set in... These poor guys had traveled from London. My Laurie that I texted lives in Shoreham... Something had gone horribly wrong... "Hi Laurie... " I stuttered... "Erm... erm... " Clear thinking kicked in quickly. "We can sail. But will be limited to being kept tight inshore. If I can get further west we might find some good fishing. Better if we sail at 4pm...?" I could feel the disappointment. "No... we dont want to wait"... said Laurie... "We'll travel back to London..." That hit me like a hammer. "Im not cancelling Laurie" I quickly said... "Im giving you options.. I'll see you at Zizzis in ten minutes". Happily I had my rods in the car.

They were very kind when we met. They listened to my head slung, mumbling excuses, and my reasons to wanting to go later, with less water on the close reefs. But Laurie and Paul were football fans. Nothing was stopping them going up the road at 1700 for the big game that night... We headed out. I tried the first reef, the one I knew would light up with fish later in the day. But nothing doing. Few marks. I pushed west, and close. Here I found some nice marks, on heavy ground. And we began in earnest. The wind was horribly strong, and the drifts all very very wrong, which meant shadding was the attack. With a shad, you control where it goes, and where it is retrieved, despite the boat skidding over or across the tide.

Finally we began getting a couple of taps and bangs. And, I think, we all began warming to each other. I certainly liked these guys determination. The weather was very uncomfortable, with the big wind, and it would have been easy to give up all hope. Instead, they shunned my lure offerings to work through their own. One thing that popped out, was a kind of slow jig, but fat and very heavy, with some clever feather arrangements on its nose, where the hooks also lay. I thought the chances of it catching were somewhere between zero and minus 1 million. But suddenly Lauries rod was double over. A feisty wrasse had been very happy to hit this over sized monstrosity!!

The fishing was very hard though. There were takes. Lightning fast and un-contactable due to the drift of the boat. It took right to last knockings, when suddenly Paul found himself attached to a proper fish, which gave a proper account of itself. So nice to finally see a six plus approaching the net. Even nicer to see it go in. A cracker of a fish. Biggest bass so far this season, and very likely the CLOVEN HOOF rum monthly winner... A great end to a very tough session. I think it was just enough, that these two lovely guys might well come back down the road. I think they liked how very different our operation is, even if the fishing was below par on the day.