I’d spoken to Jon yesterday to see where he’d been getting the mackerel and updated him after our failure inshore, a short while later he called back to see if I fancied giving him a hand. He’s starting his evening trips again, £45 summer bassing trips on the banks off Yarmouth which were quite popular last year and produced some decent fish. He had a party on tonight and wanted to load up with fresh mackerel and Sandeel and an extra couple of rods would be handy. Well it suited me as I was indecisive about what to do otherwise and with my shifts starting that night an early start and a lunchtime finish would suit perfectly.
05:15 and my alarm goes off…I’d woken up three times already, being excited! Coffee, a scotch egg and into the car for the short drive to Gorleston. Jon had the gate open and we loaded up, heading straight out to catch the last of the tide. His pet herring gull was fed first.
Straight out to the banks, stopping a couple of miles out to try a patch that looked promising.
Both dropping down a twenty-hook commercial trace Jon was straight in with the first mackerel I’ve seen this year. Me? None. He had a couple more straight after and then they disappeared. We tried again with another drift but nothing.
We moved out to deeper, clearer water and dropped down another time. Nothing. Winding up I hit three near the top and Jon followed suit and then they were gone again; Saltwater Species 19 for me this year, 11 to go to hit target!
Further out, try again in 90ft…Jon again but not me, Same rigs, both working them the same, same weights…we had a second rod out each in mid water and nothing on those either. We were seeing marks going through that may have been mackies, may have been herring but nothing was feeding and it was coming up to slack. Conditions were spot on…we tried jigging over a couple of wrecks but still nothing. I stuck out a tope rod with a mackerel flapper on a 6/0…
Another drift and Jon had another mackerel and then the ratchet started to scream on the tope rod…I picked up the rod and could feel something nodding. I tightened up and still line was being peeled out. I didn’t overstretch the drag but was running down towards the backing, Jon came to grab the mackerel rod out of the way and then it went loose; my 50lb braid had parted. It was an area of rough ground and I think the 120z lead snagged in something as the braid is in good condition and I wasn’t giving it any stick as yet. I was gutted. Not so much at losing a good fish as knowing it would have a hook and some line in it for a couple of days.. At least it was only a 6/0 with a small barb and the lead was free-running so it would only be hook and a small bit of line until that was bitten through.
I tied up another trace as we carried on and while Jon found another string of mackerel I failed on them and got another run on the tope rod (my 10-20lb Nano rods with the LD15 lever drags which would be great sport). Again I felt a good banging on the end and the line was peeling off…and again the line scraped something and parted. Not at all pleased. Right, nothing else for it. That rod went away and I grabbed Jeff’s old sharking set-up – a whopping great Penn Senator with about a hundred miles of 50lb mono! I could land a submarine on that!!!
We moved away from the rough ground too; there may have been something good down there but it wasn’t worth risking the snags. We crossed a trough on the drift and headed into shallower water over the banks, down to 11ft in places, and Jon, using a shrimp rig, started to pick up some launce including the largest one I’ve ever seen…
Me? Nothing. I just managed those three mackerel, totally outgunned again! And no, no more runs on the flapper. The tide started to run and things went quiet; we’d not loaded the boat but the bait was sorted for the evening trip – which I’ve heard went well with bass and smoothies – and as Jon steamed back to port I did the wash down and wound the traces onto their holders again leaving everything ready for a session I’d spend the whole of my shift being envious of! A brilliant day out. Glad I don’t have a proper job…
Well, maybe next time I'll match what Jon found out of Yarmouth for us last year...good day to repost those pics!!!
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