A bit more filming was required, I had all the filler shots and flavour shots and suchlike and had edited the raw footage down to quarter of an hour but I felt we needed more fish and a bit of variety so once again I was heading out with Brian on his Lochin charter boat, Cleveland Princess. Back to the bank again and with a far better tide than the previous week we were expecting a more productive day, the tides having been a nightmare the week before. So there I was at the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club at quarter to eight after a quick walk from home.
A couple of nice fellas had booked a trip so between the four of us we had plenty of space to fish a pair of rods apiece. My Maxximus IM7 went downtide with 12oz of griplead while my Powerstick Uptider went, obviously, uptide with only 8oz needed throughout the day. Wind over tide and not too strong, sun shining, sea calm…it was a beautiful day to be out. With the anchor down we baited up with unwashed squid, either whole or cut diagonally in half down the mantle. I had a couple of missed bites quite quickly on the uptider but was beaten off the blocks by the skipper, Brian, who went straight into a hound.
Sweet! That’s what we wanted! It was still mid-tide too so we were promised a great session. Sure enough it didn’t take long for number two, falling to Gary on a 6/0.
Well. I was falling behind here, best I get my skates on! I rubbed my lucky hat and hey presto, number one!
Oh good, they were here too…just the one Brian? He didn’t think so. He was right; he knows his fish alright!
Gary kept looking at his rods…
…but they were on the wrong side of the boat!
Definitely on the wrong side of the boat…
Without doubt…
Then John thought he had a bite. He was also on that side of the boat…
We thought we’d best give them a chance. I was feeling guilty and needed to do some filming so I let Gary have my next fish…
Enquiries were made as to where my fingers had been. I was getting the bulk of the bites but I was having fun hooking them and it was nice to just pass the fish over to others to enjoy, after all it was a splendid day to be out. I gave Gary another roker soon after.
John had one as well before this that was too small for him to allow his photograph to be taken with it but nothing as biting on his rod. Conversation passed between us and he confessed to having a banana which I told him was very bad luck and it had to go…
Well well…
These were the rods on their side of the boat.
This was the view from our side.
They watched their rods…
And Brian took a break from making coffee…
…while I took a break from drinking it…
I took more pity on them and let Gary wear my hat for a while which stopped my rods from going. It did him no good though so I let him put his rod in my holder; I was threatened with a swim if I caught from his side but fortunately his started to nod…
Returning my rod to its rightful place I had another bite and called Brian away from the kettle to see what he thought of the action on it…I think he got a good impression of its capabilities.
The funny thing was we were the two getting most of the bites – not just the fish, the bites, even on the same rigs and baits – on the same side of the boat even after the tide had reversed direction, by which time the sea had got decidedly lumpy. Poor old John though, he really needed a decent fish and then finally his persistence paid off. Having put a lucky hat on at my insistence and having now digested the banana and – after asking what the hell I was doing following my tactic to the letter – removing lucky hat, rubbing it, turning it three times and placing it back on my head – the magic worked and he was rewarded with a well-earned and super, hard-fighting hound.
We gave it until five and then had to run in though I think we’d all have been happy to stay through until the following week, the fishing having been that good. All fish came to squid, bites were regular and bar the one small hound early on and one doggie they’d been good fish from 5lb upwards. The sea had picked up with the tide change as had the wind and we were getting knocked around a bit but none of us really noticed it apart from the odd bit of spray coming over the stern from the three foot swells. So Brian upped the anchor on a day that saw ten or twelve of both roker and hound landed…and now I had too many fish for the video!
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