There are some days, when you wish there were at least a few mackerel around, that your guys can at least experience their savage tug, when few fish are around. And then there are days like today, when you wish you could materialise a dutch super trawler to remove them all from the sea. This morning, all levels of the sea, from bottom to top, and from the very edges to three miles out and beyond, were rammed with all the mackerel in Europe it seemed.
Joining me on this voyage, Mark and Tom, returning, and bringing with them Kaile (a name with ancient Cornish origins, and possibly means wolf. Hence the beard) and Lee, first timers for my little tinpot tub. But all with skills that meant after five minutes I could relax and focus on finding fish.
Finding fish was actually very easy. Just be there. Cast, and multitudes of fish, mackerel to be precise, would attack. Finding bass, much harder, quite literally due to the mackerel not leaving your lure alone. But with much perseverance, we did manage to put seven bass into the boat, and happily, four were of table size, and as such, everyone had bass (and of course mackerel) for tea. Other catches were gurnard and garfish. And we saw a barrel jellyfish, the first one I have seen this year. When the currents that bring these reach Brighton, we often see other interesting things, such as turtle, sunfish and John Dory.
You know how you should be careful what you wish for? I never worked out who came up with that, but it seems to be true. Nobody wanted to play on the 1100 sailing, so I used an hour of it to have a hunt for a cod. Fail. And then the three o clock sailing, where Wayne had bought his lad Alfie along for a fish fest. Snag is... Even the mackerel had scarpered. I mean, not completely, happily, as Alfie was keen for kitchen fodder. The bass though, were playing hardball. Just two landed, despite great efforts by the guys, and luckily, one creeping over the limit that Alfie can have his fun in the kitchen. He also managed a black bream on the Axia mighty minnow, but happily for the bream, too small, and returned.
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