What a day that was... The heat, was quite intense, as I am sure anyone living in the UK was aware of. End of days stuff, I hope you all realise. It should not need a nice and tidy news report to make you aware that the global warming the scientists were banging on about in my youth, is a real thing. The records for hottest days are beaten annually. Facts are screaming at us. Yet, we remain relatively ignorant of our impending doom. Why am I starting with this rather depressing observation?
Well, it makes the fact that today's fishing was pretty damned hard seem fairly irrelevant. Not for everyone mind. First up, Max and Craig. Max is becoming something of a regular, but I actually first guided for Craig about 9 years ago!! This meant, that touch luring was all new to him, whereas Max is well finger trained. The whole day was about flying about trying to find fish. Not nearly so many marks as yesterday. And so it was. Buzzing around with limited success. Where we did find fish, Max was on top form. He managed three, with two being in size and destined for the table. And a chunky wrasse. Craig managed one quite literally last cast, but sadly undersized. And me? Just a single mackerel and a single garfish in 3 hours. Truly tough.
Must get better for the next sailing, with Joel and Jim on board. Wrong... More finger training, which they mastered very quickly. More flying around hunting, and despite these guys on paper having the best of the new flood tide, it simply wasnt happening.
They at least managed one bass a piece. Twins, at 41cm each. Too small for taking, by 1cm. I often wonder if this is a co-incidence, or a result of heavy commercial harvesting. When the limit was 36 cm, there were an awful lot of 35cm fish swimming in Brighton seas.
Final sailing, and regular Pete bought his friend Shane along. Another absolute struggle. Cuttlefish being the only willing players, along with a couple of mackerel. For two hours we went through the motions. Then the tide changed. I tried one of my better ebb marks. It worked and saved the session. Although just five bass landed, and just one big enough to go back to London town to be eaten.
Why so poor fishing? It would be very easy to blame the bright sunshine, extreme heat, and uber clear seas. So, I will... Might also be that with the wind / tide conditions, getting a good drift was tough. I guess only the bass have the answers.
