First sailing, and out with a bit of NW breeze to keep us company. And to keep us noticeably chilled, to the point that two hours in I was regretting not having gloves on board. Some Summer this is. The us I refer to, being all returnees, bar one. Ian, John and Mike returning, and Mike had bought along Chris, who had never fished before, bar distant knee high memories on the shingle with grandad. Never a problem, and boy, am I having a good run. Another pro caster stepped off the boat three hours later.
As for the fishing, that was a little like this Summer. I find myself thinking "Its July, come on...". Numbers, there are. Sizes, allude. Worse one yet from that respect. From fourteen bass landed, not a single one for the table. Plenty of 41cm, a testament to efficient commercial harvesting perhaps. However, there was a brace of big mackerel in the well, one of which was Chris's first ever fish. Still an awesome session, if only for creating an angler. His smile was large and never stopped. He will be fishing again.
what to do for the second sailing? Three rods all returning. Martin, Paul and Nicolas. And the sailing taking precedence over my breakfast. A very rare thing as breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day. And second breakfast. But the wind was coming, and I wanted to get more of my guys out, as the weekend and into next week is screwed. So, breakfast went by the way. As did the routine I had gone through this morning. We needed bigger fish. I didn't want to go offshore too far, as the forecast meant wind from the SW wasn't too far away. So, I took us onto the deep craggy stuff.
It was a good call. We only found eight fish, and six of those were 41 or less. But there was one of 56cm for Nicolas, and one of 46 for Paul. And Martin, he hooked the biggest one of the day. A really epic first run, this was a fish too big to kill. I expect. We didn't get to see it. A deft turn was all it took for the shad to drop out after a minute of anticipation of delight. A crashing realisation it was no longer attached. And yet... Martin will wake tomorrow still thinking of that moment. Whereas a fish landed, leaves the memory far faster... Driven in after two hours by the waves getting all a bit pushy.