Out to a very nasty grey and extremely damp sea, although happily winds were light and offshore. That they were there at all was a surprise, as I had gone to sleep with little blue arrows suggesting zero wind in the forecast. And yet... On board, returnee's, Daniel, Gary, Paul and Mark. Fishing friends.
Plan was actually quite solid, and worked. Back to the sandeel shoals, and yet, further coughing of gorged upon bait today revealed sprat fry and some quite big herring. This suggests mixed shoals of baitfish feeding on something even smaller. And that even smaller quite likely to be the see through sand eel fry I filmed being smashed in the marina last year. See my youtube channel "fishyrob" for that footage.
Bass even from the demonstration cast, and we accumulated 38 landed in the first two hours. And then the wind picked up. Suddenly we were being shot across the tide, and couldnt keep in touch with the bait shoals which were moving West to east with the tide. Results plummeted. Rain increased. When finally the much awaited (likely by all of us. The stronger wind made our dampness very apparent with wind chill) alarm went, six bass were in the food well which shows the average size was quite small. Yet, far better to enjoy action while awaiting the quality fish to build in numbers inshore. No pictures as the constant rain simply wouldnt allow the phone to operate on the touchpad.
Second sailing I cancelled, upon observing the newly issued forecast, and I am glad I did as the stiff breeze and constant heavy rain continued all through the morning. The 1400 I had pushed back to 1600 to make the most of the evening flood tide. Joining me, Lee, Jason, Paul and Kas.
First hour was good. Wind was still there, but forecast to drop within 30 minutes of starting. Chance of light showers. Which really shows how forecasters struggle on our little rock. An hour of stiff wind, was worsened as we watched a huge rain front creeping down on us from the north. The only saving grace were that fish were biting.
The rain finally came upon us, and boy did it rain. Even heavier than the morning deluge. But still the fish carried on biting, until the last forty minutes, where I finally lost the shoal. 25 bass landed but all small. Worth getting wet for? Of course it is. Any lure angler will tell you that. And again no photos due to the rain, which did stop for the final ten minutes of the session, and enabled me to get some footage of much bigger bass feeding on sand eel fry in the marina.