Rise and shine, time to fish before the return home. A bunch of us have stayed over for a second crack of the whip, others are off to Kimmeridge or have headed home but I love it here and wanted to see if I could do better…Garry and I head into town for a big breakfast, joined shortly by Amos and then with some fresh rag from Swanage Angling we head out to sea with Mark who is likely to outfish us as usual.
Baitcaster and ragged sabikis again…
Mark and Garry drop anchor and start fishing; I’m going to drift again, it was productive; two minutes and the rod starts to buck fifty yards from Mark…”Bream” he says but no, cam’s with me again and it’s the second plaice of my life and a personal best, being better than yesterday’s! Garry asks if I still want a lift home…
They’re fishless and I carry on drifting about; ballan!
Such a beautiful fish and a spirited scrapper too. Wish I could find a bigger one! Then, half an hour later I see something coming towards me on the surface, I think it’s a ray out of its depth but no, it passes beneath me, a huge jellyfish the side of a dustbin lid across the top. I don’t get the picture I want because the camera turns off but what a lovely thing to watch!
Another pretty wrasse from more marks on the bottom…I love these things.
I spot Amos on his black Tempo; he’s catching and pulls in a bream. Ah, the elusive bream…I tie off to his bow and drop down. Fishing is slow for me.
These black ones look so good…there’s only two more available for the UK and they’re here now, about to be snapped up I’m sure! So, it’s slow, it takes me five whole minutes…and then a ballan.
…and then the rod wallops down and it’s the first bream for two years!
…and another.
…and a couple of pokllack including a PB – we don’t get any of these species at home!
More ballans!
I can’t keep two rods in the water, I’m missing so many bites while dealing with each fish! I call garry over the radio and he joins us, along with Mark and slowly the rest of the guys nearby all of whom are finding the slack period slow, soon there are seven of us around this patch but only Amos and I are catching and it’s slowed down.
The start of the tide brought them on and I’m back to two rods. We’re also joined by Wrasseta Ken who I’d been looking forward to seeing.
Mark’s here now too.
And Jim who ties off to my stern.
Corkwing! That’s number five, I’m ahead of my competition tally and on my sixteenth saltwater species of the year.
Ken hooks and lands a nice small-eyed ray on the Warbird 220, a good fish of a 76cm putting him in 2nd place currently. Then Jim’s in, a nice big ballan. His first fish of the weekend and a good one to boot!
Then it’s time for Garry and I to go; I’m nearly out of rag and just want to look for some species on the inshore reef. Ken gets into a good fish as I pass him, a nice bream which he drops while I’m snapping! Sorry Ken.
We have a chat and he sits back awaiting more fish, nicely chilled out.
Garry and I find the reef and drop down, I let out enough to go just past and drop into the deeper water beyond. Nothing at first so while I’m occupied by necessary ablutions the fish come and my rod is banging away mentally, very good fish and I grab the rod, the best fish of the weekend for me but with the drag tightened up I beats it a bit too much and snap off the hook length which is only light because I’m hunting tiddlers. Gutted! Still, I have a string of four bream, three Pollack and a plaice so it’s not such a disaster and with a size 4 in its mouth it’ll still survive and feed in the short time before it falls out.
We move back onto the reef proper and Garry catches his last fish – I want to go in on a last one myself and almost out of bait I give it a few minutes and then up comes another, final ballan.
My 0.75kg sacrificial anchor is jammed solid so I cut it off and we head in, stopping only to pick up the one pot that’s not been nicked out of the two laid. Full of spider crabs, not many keepers so a few returns, and tiny whelks. A really good one falls off the outside while hauling and I can see loads below me on the seabed.
I've got a great haul to take home in the coolbox too, bream, Pollack and plaice - fish I won't get at home, so I'm very happy.
We load up the car, help Amos when he lands and then head back to the campsite to retrieve the tent, which was damp earlier, and grab a shower before the drive home which takes far too long; eight and a half hours because it’s a sunny south coast Sunday and I’d forgotten how bad they can be for traffic. Oh, and the chicken and thickshake stops en-route!
Poor old Garry, his ears were bleeding after a whole weekend of my gabbing on, tiredness, excitement, great fishing, great weather and my first holiday since March 2012 didn’t give him any peace…so thanks for driving and not knocking me out! And thanks to all the people who made the weekend so fantastic from organisers to entrants to friends and to the fella from Swanage Angling who had fresh bait on a Sunday morning!
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