First sailing, out with regulars Armando and Pat, joined by suddenly more frequent but not yet FF Jon and Jamie down from Essex. Interesting session, with an Northerly wind blowing at strengths not mentioned by the forecasters the previous evening. Snag with a northerly is it blows you across the tide. This very much restricts the places to look for bass, so for the first hour we focused on Cod. One landed by Jamie, one bumped by me. Bass, well, we did find a few among the mackerel and cuttle, but not nearly as many as if I could have drifted on the tide.

2nd sailing, Armando and Pat said goodbye, and my man Mackie the cod juggler joined. Similar routine, similar result. The cod said hello to me, and bass were slightly more happy to feed. Jamie scored a nice table fish, although generally the sizes were 40-41... With the legal limit at 42, it reminds me of, when the legal limit was a sorry 36, how many 35's we used to land. A suggestion that the commercial harvest of bass is still very efficient. A couple of tidy wrasse also popped up.

3rd sailing, and all new crew. Andy, new to BIF1, Peter, returning for his second trip, and regulars Jon and Nartan. Jon on the fly. Fishing was, well, still affected by North to South drifts. Did briefly connect with a nice shoal and for the first time in the day two rods buckled over together. But, I think we managed no more than a dozen bass in the three hours. One was a great birthday present for Andy, at 6.5lb, and he had another which was a little under my 5lb max kill size, so he will eat well. One from Jon comfortably made the table also. Cod on this session, we tried for at the end, and with the wind finally lulling, I was quietly confident. Not to be though. Zero coddies. Mackerel yes, which bought Nartan's amazing smile out to play. Quite a tough day from a skippers perspective, but with some great quality fish. Just in low numbers. I guess it cant be amazing everyday...

Next week looking very poor currently. Lots of wind, none of it in the right direction. However, forecasting changing last minute at the moment, always a sign that nobody actually knows. So feel free to reserve a slot on any sailing you fancy, even though there is a reasonable chance it will be blown off. 07970 112774