With the knowledge gleaned from yesterdays sailing, and with just a single sailing planned, I had the flexibility to move the actual sailing time to coincide with the early ebb, which is when it had fished so well yesterday. And I am so happy I did. A very interesting sailing. I set of with a plan, and happily, four anglers on board. The plan was to repeat yesterdays feat but, being more prepared and with more rods on board (I am convinced that in clear water, five sets of flashy things being worked together have a greater pulling power than say, a single set, and possibly pull fish in from a further distance) I was hopeful of better results.

And better results we got. The fishing even got to the point that the word "Hectic" was used. First drift, a spatter of small plaice. I tweaked the drift, and we found the gurnards. Non-stop for perhaps an hour and a half. Some really good fish among them. And more importantly for me, smiles on all my guys faces. Regulars Jon, John and Armando and new to BIF1 Darren, all were caught distinctly beaming whilst attached to some of these fish. You cant help yourself. There is something so dogged and determined in a 2,5lb gurnard on 35gm gear. It makes you smile, regardless of your mood prior. I do feel that gurnard trips on BIF1 should be available on the NHS. People inflicted with darkness I feel certain would be extracted to the light once more. And then you get to eat them... win win...

Then, somebody turned off the gurnard switch. Well, actually, throttled it down, and now, every gurnard was a small gurnard. And then, there were no gurnards. I tried a new drift, across a subtle bar of sand. That was good for some more plaice, including a cracker, and a weird one. Really weird. Its entire gut area plus, was inflated with fluid of some description. A good fish, table sized, but I recommended it be returned, on the basis that it clearly wasnt well. With an hour to run, I suggested we go try see if the cod had turned up that tide.,.. They hadnt, but we did nick an early mackerel from the mark. Then a look to see if the bass had arrived. They hadnt, so we finished the day on "beast bank", where we had more plaice, including one cracker, if not beast. Back on the quay, we had 13 big tubs, and two big plaice, for the table, distributed as to the guys needs. For a 3 hour session, I make that pretty good fishing for the penultimate week of March.

Spaces all next week on a cracking forecast, And time to look for those cod in earnest. 07970 112774 if that sounds like fun...