Cabin Fever....

Two weeks without so much as wetting a line and  cabin fever was setting in......I had to get out! So on Sunday I went for a 15 hour session in the Solent with only 3lb of worm for company. The weather wasn't ideal but with the possibility of a dry day and tolerable conditions it had to be done.

I set off on my own at 6am, with instructions to pick Dave up from the shore line around 5pm to join in later and fish on till around 9! After loading the boat with my gear and enough food to feed a 3rd world village I was soon slipping the ropes and ambling down the creek. For once I had all day and nothing had to be rushed......
Soon skipping along on a slightly ruffled sea with a couple of herring gulls squawking above I pondered on what to start with. Do I go and chase a few bass with lures at this prime time of the morning or shall I anchor up and get the best of the flood.....a quick scout around and with little activity on the surface I decided to anchor first off.
This was 2 ounces of lead, light line and light rod fishing....a bit of fun. It was alive with activity, mainly small bream with the odd small bass thrown in.

Every now and then one of the rods would try to leave the boat with a 4 to 5 lb smoothound. It made things fun and boy do they scrap in the shallows on ultra light gear!

The fishing was fast and furious but as expected, all small stuff. I was pondering a change of scenery after a quiet 30 minutes when something took off with a bait and immediately surfaced behind the boat. Strange fight off this one and something different to the net........a specimen sized golden grey mullet that I should imagine wouldn't be too far off the Island record.

Following that fish, I did have a move and first off had a bit of fun with the mackerel before spending the best part of 3 hours with a shoal of bass nailing one every cast on sidewinders. Nothing much bigger than a couple of pound but immensely enjoyable! I ended up leaving them to it in the end as my arms were getting tired and the wind was getting up.
A move back in shore to the shallows found some shelter and gave me a chance to sit down. The tide was at dead low and the water looked pretty coloured. I fired a couple of worm baits back out and rigged up an uptide rod to send out half a mackerel.....easier way to nail a better one!
20 minutes later and I noticed something taking an interest in the big bait.....a much better one this time around 5lb, almost golden in colouration.

The next fish put up a good scrap too and has to be one of my biggest silver eels to date at just under 3lb.

I continued the afternoon with more small bream, the odd bass and hound etc... before collecting Dave at the shoreline around tea time. We had more of the same with nothing more of any real note for the evening. The wind made it hard for us to fish effectively, swinging the boat all over the place and it wasn't too long before we agreed to call it a day.