Wow... What a wet and windy six weeks that was. After eventually getting the hint that sailing was done for a while, I resorted to shore work, and initially found very good results. Great washes of shellfish on many local beaches made working out where the fishes were quite easy. Great, I thought. Who needs a boat? But Neptune got wind of my good fortune and sent whoever is in charge of rain in. Suddenly, about two weeks ago, even the crabs didn't want the bait, and odd fish, mostly small, made guiding a no go.
Why rain? When our two local rivers get high, it increases the pressure of the outflow. All that mud running off the fields gets shot out at high speed, miles into the channel. And the lateral tides make sure we all suffer. At the height of it, the nearest clear water was twelve miles off. Which meant even on the one flat day in the last six weeks, the dog couldn't see the rabbit, and fishing was not worthwhile with latex. Just two days ago, on the beach, it was more river water than sea water. Which is why I warned my guys for this mornings sailing to expect the worse, with no penalties if they didn't want to try. But Richard, David, Armando and Max were just as desperate as me to get out and bob around for a bit.
And yet, as it turned out, it was a tidy session. Visibility was erring towards poor, but erring is not poor. And the fishes responded, despite being on the last half of the ebb for the session. And as always, by-catch becomes interesting at this time of year. First drop down, a whiting. And then the first of twenty five bass. Inshore was still too poor, although even by this afternoons ebb, I expect a good improvement. But off a little way, fishes feeding quite hard. Also landed, Pouting, wrasse and gurnard. Lots of herring or sprat marking as well, so for those of you that like to feather, all is not lost. And with settled conditions looking currently viable Sunday onwards, and with no further rain, and with sea temps at 53.5 degrees Fahrenheit , I do believe the game is still afoot, with rubber, both afloat and ashore.
