Hi All,

Given that there seems to have been a spate of fishing reports recently I
thought I would add one of my own.

My father was visiting from Cyprus for a long weekend to come and see his
grandson for the first time. I took this as a perfect opportunity to book
a days sport on the Saturday and leave the girls at home with the smelly
stuff!!!

I managed to find a short notice booking out of Brighton & filled the crew
within a couple of hours, four of whom are also AR members. A bit of a
chat with the skipper gave me the feeling that he was pretty easy going
about what we did on the day, and would be flexible to our needs. Given half the crew
had not fished before and there were only 2-3 of us that had much
experience wreck fishing I only booked 7 crew to allow some space on deck.
This turned out to be a good plan as there was just the right ammount ofdeck space,
and we ended up quite comfortable. The main object of the day
was to get some "Floppage" on the deck.

We all arrived on time at the dock and met Les on the boat. I asked how
the week had gone so far and he mentioned that the fish were coming to
orange shads. I was off like a shot up the quay with Trapper Dave to go
get the required baits, where we found the last three packs on the shelves.
I bought two and dave took the last one!! When the skipper says "The fish are on such and such
a bait" that is what you go and buy regardless!!!



We got on board and rigged up. I was using my light uptider with a 7000
size Abu Lever Drag reel, loaded with 30lb Berkeley whiplash. I fished the
whole day with a maximum of 6oz of lead due to the fine diameter, and I
reckon a 4 oz would have done the trick for most of the day. I was really
impressed with it and although I wouldn't reccomend it to someone that hasn't
used braid before, (it is so fine it over runs extremely easily, I'm a total convert.

Dad was rigged up with a 12-20lb class Abu boat rod and a 7000 reel and I had a
spare 30-50lb class with another 7500 Abu and 50lb Dynabraid. Most of the other
guys were on hired rods for the day. I rigged them all up on a variety of
lures to try and find what produced best.



The first wreck we stopped at was 17miles offshore which took about an hour
to get to. A couple of drifts didn't turn anything up so we moved on. The
same result at the second wreck but at least the guys that were new to it
all had a couple of drifts to get used to the gear and see what the process
was, and get a few pointers on how to work the lures to best advantage. I
mentioned to Les that we were interested more in Cod than Pollack, so he
suggested a wreck about 20mins away. Off we went!! Dig was a little
disappointed as he really wanted to catch a brace of Pollack so he could
call his missus and inform her that he was holding a huge pair of
Pollacks....



The first drift on the third wreck and I had a strong take that bent the
rod double. Dad was on my right and didn't see the take, and given he
hadn't fished in the UK since the eighties he was a bit in the dark. I
told him to drop down to the bottom again and start winding, and within a
half dozen turns he was into a fish too. To say that he voiced his
"surprise" at the pull of the cod is a small understatement. I just kept
telling him to hold onto the rod an not to drop it over the side!!
A couple of minutes later we had a brace of codling on the boat of about 5lbs.
If that is how the little ones go then I couldn't wait to get into something a
bit more cod than codling. The lack of stretch in the braid really makes you feel
every move the fish makes so I'm sure they feel bigger than they are.




The next 4 drifts yielded a couple of pollack and the odd cod for the
others but me and dad were taking a fish each every drift. For fear of
getting thrown overboard by those that wanted our lures I looked in my
tackle box and found a load of orange jelly worms. We slowly switched the
guys over to the new jelly worms as I only had a limited supply of the
shads for me, dad and his guest Glen and the catch rates evened up. In fact the
orange jelly worms, although they didn't fish quite as well as the shads,
were accounting for all the bigger fish. All the bigger fish we took on
the day and all the fish we got smashed up by were hooked on the orange
jelly worms without exception.



As the day went on we stayed on the wreck and managed to amass a decent
catch. Ghubert managed his first ever cod.





Smallbore also managed his first ever Cod. A fish of eleven pounds that
went on to win the £5 sweepstake. He had to wait a bit to open up his
score sheet but it was worth it in the end.







Shortly into the day Janek succumbed to the dreaded sea lurgy. I think
it was all an excuse though as apparently he felt that reeling in a 3lb cod
was too much like hard work and asked Amir to do it for him.... Not being
one to spread malicious falsehoods about my fishing and shooting companions I
won't say anything about it as I wasn't a first hand witness.

Amir on the other hand....

Anyway when someone is in a weakened state there is only one thing for it,
and that is to take advantage and take incriminating photos.







As we called a day to the wrecking, we got into the cleaning and washing
down of the fish. I never understand why most fish caught over wrecks
don't seem to be feeding, as most of their guts were empty. I still think
that the feeding fish are preoccupied with natural food, but the fish you
get on the lures are attacking out of aggression. Either way the result
was a nice few fish for everyone to take home and do something with.








We stopped on the way back for some Mackerel fishing and managed a couple
of dozen each within about five minutes before we called a stop. No point
in killing a load of fish if they won't get used. Smallbore had the right
idea rigging up a mini redgill on my little baitcasting rod. It's a shame
we didn't get a picture of the mackerel fishing as everyone was too busy
having fun!!! As soon as we got back to mine GHubert washed the rods down
and went out to get some charcoal. They were on the coals within hours of
coming out of the sea!!






Sunday mng I filleted half our share of the fish and dad cut some of the
bigger ones into cutlets. 8 Fillets went into the cure for 4 hours and
then into the smoker over night. Luckily I made the call to Griff for some
guidance otherwise I would have left them in the salt for far too long.
I'm looking forward to poaching some of them with some steamed Kale...


Rgds,
FB

Damn, that looks like you folks had a great time!

Now to get out on Lyme bay and try and replicate your success!

Rgds Ian

Never fished the English Channel, hope to fish the North Channel this weekend.

Kiri, you need to try pollack on the fly rod. Amazing.

A successful trip ! Very good. A codfish head makes the best fish stock and there's enough meat on the head for a meal too !

Mete,

The head of of Digs fish along with a smaller 4lbb fish went straight into the stockpot on Sunday mng!!

Amir provided some fabulous saffron on Saturday and so we baked one of the fish on a bed of onion, potatoes and saffron & tomato.

I also kept some of the roe for the first time ever and cooked it wit a brandy cream sauce on toast as a snack. I really must go on a diet!!

I've just booked another date for August to do some bass and bream fishing on the wrecks, so fingers crossed we get another good day.

Rgds,
FB

Arr! Arr!

Bloody good fun that!

Thanks again Kiri for doing all the hard work in organising and helping us noobs with the technical bits! It was a great day for all, I got catch my first fish and was smashed up as they say by a monster within 5 minutes. The skipper knew what he was doing and we had the pleasure of humiliating a boat load of essex boys who spent the day following us

We've all been eating fish for the last three days with no signs of respite in view, but its the best cod i've ever eaten

One small bone of contention is this sweepstake, the rules, as stated in the outset, were the biggest fish caught. Note that that wasn't boated! I humbly content that I aught the biggest fish, as evidenced by the fookin bend the fish put on the tuna rod (!) I hired.

It had to be 30 or 40 kilos at least.....

Regards,

Amir

Thanks to FB for organising the day.

I did feel dreadful, and somewhat surprised as I have been out before and felt perfectly OK on those occassions, and it wasn't rough on saturday.

The boys certainly achieved floppage...my contribution was impaired by a feeling of imminent vommo....thanks for the fishies guys.

I wondered what was tickleing my ear....rather relieved and pleased to see it was a cod....I was worried that FB was getting frisky as with a very new baby we all know how things must be at home

Cheeky Git...

Well what can you expect from a guy that can't reel in a slightly oversized whiting...

FB

quote:

Originally posted by Fallow Buck:
Cheeky Git...

Well what can you expect from a guy that can't reel in a slightly oversized whiting...

FB

Come on UKhunter, your honour has been impugned!

I of course have no connection to the incident alluded to and therefore will not feel the urge to relate my version of events

Guys....I was so close to hurling over that fish as it came up, I might have missed it but I might not....so I passed the baton to Ghubert as I was confident I wouldn't miss him if it happened.....

quote:

Originally posted by UKhunter:
Guys....I was so close to hurling over that fish as it came up, I might have missed it but I might not....so I passed the baton to Ghubert as I was confident I wouldn't miss him if it happened.....

Right well....



It is difficult to express in words the depth of mendacity of the above post.

Our hero and I were stationed next to each other in what we told was the best spot to be in boat fishing.

So we took our positions next to the piss bucket that also happened to be so positionally honoured and waited.

After a while I got onto a fish and a seconds later UK did, after much excitement we reeled each other in and discovered that much like in ghostbusters one does not cross beams!

“sorry there old chap†I beamed across, seething like the slag pits of hell, “ no at all old bean†breezed back the reply through clenched teeth as UK attempted to hiss his way back to normal breathing.

The tone was set.

A little later as I reeled in my 4th or 5th, I forget, cod our intrepid fisherman hooks something that we are convinced is a fish, and what is more, his fish.

I look over, of course spilling over with the verbal milk of human kindness and notice that he’s resting the rod on the boat rail, with the butt stuck into his groin, grasping the shaft by its base. I managed the words “leverage†and “higher up†after some option-weighing to be stiffly informed that “that why I’m holding it thereâ€.

Being not entirely sure of the context of the conversation anymore I turned to my rod hoping for a fish as big as that one seemed, going from the grunting going on behind me.

Imagine my surprise at being asked to help reel it in, I thought “bugger, you’re in for it now GH me old china! He’s hooked a leviathan!â€

Did I mention that Kiri had hooked UK up with the magic bait? You can’t buy this bait in a tackle shop lads! Kebab shop yes, tackle shop no…..

So I take the rod and attempt to hand him mine, but no, he doesn’t want mine. In fact he’s seems transfixed by his rod in my hands.

_____--------_____DISCLAIMER_______--------_________

I know what you’re thinking, I would sympathise, but spare a thought if you please for me at this time. I was thinking the same as you are now, but without the luxury of your distance from the epicentre of dodgyness.

If you’re still thinking what I think you’re thinking, f**k o*f, funny b*****ds
_______---------___________-----------________--------________-

So after some moments of comfortable silence with me trying to manage two rods and UK smiling into the foreground I began reeling. “This is easy†I though “this reel must have a very low gearing and after all the poor guy must be tired out having fought this behemoth into submission and he’s very generously let me have the glory of boating itâ€

We were a team again, his grin less sinister, my smile more kindly, we were going to do it! We were the new boys having never fished before and by the omens, by the effort, by Jove himself this would silence the old hands we were with!

When it did break the surface my first instinct was to pop it in a jar and collect a few more to eat with rye bread later.

For those interested Uk is holding it up in the group photo’s.

After this gargantuan effort we all agreed that UK should take rest and stop making us all feel inadequate and he fished horizontally thereafter, managing to hook some monsters no doubt.

Every word he writes is true....every word !!

oh yes, and thats the bowdlerised version

pm me for the bit with the wetsuit and bucket of soapy frogs