First up, Ben. Solo, as nobody else wanted to get up early and come and play. Which was a real shame as it was very much the best session of the day. Im always happy at this time of year, when options inshore are limited, to hear those sweet sweet words "My wife loves plaice"... So, already, I knew Ben's wife was going to be giving Ben an easy life after this session.
And it went beautifully to plan. We went and started on the plaice, and plaice we caught. Quality, fat fish. The perfect product to present to ones plaice loving Mrs. Then, as the tide died a little, so did the action. Well, it did not die, so much as slow. "What does your Mrs think about squid then?" I asked. "My Mrs likes a bit of squid" was the reply. So, of we hopped to do some squid hopping. The biggest difference to the last few attempts was that this time there were squid. One on one mark, and another two on another. Quality squid as well.
What does your Mrs think about bass then? And off we went. But that was pushing lady luck a little too hard, as all the bass are piled up on the sands around the windfarm, a place where my skippers certificate forbids me to go. Not that I would if I could. I much prefer the battle of a bass in five meters of water, than one in 40. There really is no comparison. A bass with nowhere to dive to, and without compression issues, is a ferocious reel screaming beast. A bass from depth, is slightly livelier than a pollock. So, we finished up topping up Mrs Ben's larder with more plaice. A great session.
Next was regular Nick, with newbie Phil. And the mission was, bass or bust. And it began reasonably well when I bagged a 3lb fish and a schoolie on the 2nd mark we visited. But I simply failed to find us anymore, despite much running around. Half my patch was also unavailable to me, due to a nasty ESE breeze that chopped everything up rather, blowing across the dying flood tide. So, we finished up on... Plaice... Everyone smiles when 1.5lb of plaice decides 42gm rods arent going to lift it from the sea bed. The battle is quite epic.
Final sailing, and the return of Brian and Olly, who were my final clients of 2020. They had a so so session then, and they again had only a so so session now. With the ESE wind, came far more fickle plaice. Zero squid. Zero bass. But, three bonus gurnards. And actually, plenty enough plaice for a decent feed. Just didnt seem as frantic as the first session this morning. I hope the guys will come and join BIF1 again, once the more familiar bass routines switch on, hopefully as the may rot dies away in early June.
