First sailing, and on arriving at the boat, my first instinct was to ring trip organiser Sam, to give him, Ben, Carlos and Toby the option of cancelling. I was playing a little bit of second guessing XCweather, but clearly, they had it spot on. With one redeeming feature. It was straight off the shore. This meant, plaice the only option. However, that actually suited, as Sam aside, the guys don't have so many rod hours, and a plaice competition was welcomed.
One thing, dont let the forecasts fool you. Windchill this morning was totally vicious. We were all pretty heavily wapped, and yet, we were all feeling it. Shooting across the tide, usually brings less good results with the plaice. And yet, suddenly, and literally just today, the sands off the Brighton shingle filled with fish once more. We had fast and furious plaice fishing.
Sizes were erring on the small. From the 70+ fish boated, just 12 plump and worthwhile specimens went into the fish well. Why suddenly after a week of poor returns in there? Possibly one reason, might be the masked crabs suddenly being there in numbers. They too like to grab a passing isome, and Sam landed one today. Just one possibility. Only the plaice really know.
Not just plaice, which is why I know it filled with fish. Two flounders, which are extremely unusual on BIF1. Even a herring took an isome, as did a grey gurnard. When you get that mix in numbers, I wonder if that doesnt signify some kind of major food event happening down there.
2nd sailing was cancelled, as the target would have been bass, and very difficult lure control in the stiff north winds, combined with few bass in the edges, meant it was a non starter. Which left third sailing, where regulars Mark and Damo were joined by new to BIF1,. Janet and Peter. Although the wind had dropped a little, it was still stronger than forcast, and was sending us the wrong way across the tide. As a result, the fishing was tough compared to the morning. I guess we landed around 20 plaice. We did try to get offshore a little in an apparent lull, but it didnt last long. We also tried some close reefs for bass, but zero result. One tidy, sizeable gurnard also. But the good news, of those twenty, the sizes were slightly up on the morning, with six fish for the table. And most importantly. big smiles, and enthusiasm from Janet and Peter to return on more favourable conditions.
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