First Spotties of the Year

The sub zero cold snap that killed the inshore cod fishing this year now seems to be behind us with temperatures in excess of 15°C today. Settled weather, sunshine and a largish tide had us heading over to the blocks for a go at an early Plaice or two.

Jake had tagged along today with his new rod and was desperate to christen it with a fish or two. Conditions could not have been better and I was fairly confident that we would see one or two.

With the cod traces now hung up to dry, it was nice to be fishing with light gear and two ounces of lead for a change.

We arrived and settled in on the last of the flood tide and to our amazement, bites were forth coming on our first casts!
Dave's bite turned into the target species as a small plaice came to the boat....

Jake had been patiently letting a bite develop on his new rod before he too brought a fish to the boat......not quite what we were expecting but he was more than happy with his scorpion fish!

I was next and bought a bite after a few twitches.....dirty tactics! This one felt like a plaice and looked lovely coming up through the clear water towards the boat.

A great start and with the flood tide now all but gone, the pan came out - closely followed by the bacon! As Dave tucked into his bacon butty another bite registered the second scorpion fish of the day......Jake was quick to point out that it was much smaller than the one he battled with earlier!

With the ebb tide now starting to trickle through it's Jake that gets the next bite. This really looked like a plaice but no, the scorpion king struck again with an even bigger specimen this time!!

I managed one too....not as big as Jakes though!

I think Dave also had another one before finding a small dab.....just for something different!

I noticed a few nods on my uptide rod and after 5 minutes asked Jake if he wanted to reel the rod in. He didn't need asking twice and soon alerted me to the fact that he had a 'flattie' too!

Not to be out done, Dave managed another small dab, followed by his second plaice...

After a second round of bacon butties and a quiet spell I pulled out another one just before we left....a little better this one and a nice way to finish the day.

All the signs point towards a good year this year and with spring just around the corner I'm looking forward to it!