The wind was fresh and northerly and although the sun was shining for the best part of the day there was definitely a chill in the air. Around an hour after leaving the quay side the engines throttled back signalling our arrival.
Everyone baited up with a mixture of squid, sandeel, mackerel and bluey and set about lowering their baits down to the bottom.
I took a different approach and opted to uptide - just about doable in the 100ft+ depth of water when you have a nice small tide. My lead settled in nicely and soon got pulled out by the first fish of the day.......
My next cast produced another around a similar size...
A few dogfish followed and soon homed in on everybody's baits before the first of several congers moved in. The eels came on the feed with the last run of the tide.....first up was Eric with one of around 25lb, soon followed by Ali with a smaller one that came in for a picture....
Then Eric and Ali were in again.....these looked like much better fish and it wasn't until a big eel surfaced with two traces in it's mouth that we realised they had both hooked the same fish! Now this one was a big eel and it was coming aboard for a photo too! Kev was busy un-stitching rods and tangles so I grabbed the gaff and chinned him up over the gunnels and on to the deck....at this point everyone ran for cover!
It was fair to say that this eel was easily 50lb but with Kev's scales bottoming out instantly at 40lb we couldn't give it an exact weight. The cameras came out for some photos but then there was a dilemma.....Eric was too exhausted to pick it up and Ali point blank refused! In the end I got hold of it and held it up for the both of them before it went back over the side....
Next up it was my turn to do battle with a larger eel.....I gave Kev instruction to get this one on the boat for a picture too......why not! This one was around 35lb.
The tide was starting to swing now but we were being held off turning by the wind, which was a bit of a pain. When we did eventually start to swing round I reeled in to re-cast and got caught up on the anchor rope. To cut a long story short I lost my end gear and with it, the only uptiding lead I had in my box.....to top it off there were no grip leads on the boat either so I changed rods and joined the rest of the gang fishing behind the boat.
As the tide picked up it turned the rays on and they soon started to come aboard. A couple of small blondes came to the boat before I hooked up with one. With a hook in the mouth and the pennel some where near the arse this one felt a lot bigger than it actually was!
Andy had been patiently waiting all day and eventually he was rewarded with his first fish - an very pale male Undulate of 13lb. Rob was into a fish at the same time and his eventually revealed itself as another Undulate - this one a female and a lot bigger than Andy's fish! On the scales Rob's undulate went 18lb 8oz.....a quality specimen in anyone's book.
I think there were another couple of blondes that came to the boat before all too soon it was time to head back.
Nice to get out finally.....it's been way too long! Thanks Kev for a top day out.......and the sausage sandwiches of course!
No comments:
Post a Comment