First sailing, and grandad John had bought along grandson Oakley, to test his sea legs, and bag a few fish for tea. Normally a very straight forward thing to do. Today, however, was one of those tap turned off kind of days.
We started on the plaice, and I had Oakley on the hoover rig, to ensure something for tea. Very glad I did. As much as I hate feathers, they do provide more often than not for foodies. The plaice were quite hard going. Indeed, just one small one, and one small dab, for a lot of effort. A small gurnard added to the tally. But happily, although far from abundant, mackerel enough for a very healthy feed.
With the plaice fishing so tough, for the final hour, we turned to the bass. Which were also very hard. No significant bait anywhere I looked. Time for attrition fishing. With just the one take. The cracker Oakley is modelling on the lead picture.
2nd sailing, and Paul and Ben joined me on a hardcore bass hunt. But despite running all along my range, with the exception of the outer reefs as the nagging north wind was still, erm, nagging, we managed just one schoolie each for the guys. Not really much more I can say about that. Other than it prompted me to call the final sailing, to see if they wouldnt prefer to reschedule, due to poor fishing. But, having travelled down from Northampton, they were happy for an extended boat ride, if nothing else.
Alan, Siby, Nicy and Alben joined me for a tour round the bay. But, we thought we would give the fishing a go. Plaice eluded us completely, bar on quite good one, that dropped off at the surface... Mackerel were nowhere to be seen. Fish had completely deserted us. The wind had eased back, so we even drifted some banks further out, usually a cert for both plaice and mackerel. Nope...
Finally, for the last hour, we went on the bass. I kept one set of fethers in play just in case. What I was really happy about, was three bass landed, with two for the table. And then, bait started marking on the sounder. More and more. As if the tap had been switched back on. No more bass, but mackerel and a horse mackerel of good size were added to the culinary bounty. And happy people made their long way home. Up north.
FOOTNOTE
That crazy video bought them to me. Apparently, I am famous in India now. And I mentioned to them that the special price mentioned in the video, was actually double, if they mentioned the video anymore. This bought the first of many laughs during that really tough sailing. Tough for finding fish, but truly a pleasure to be hosting. ..