April in Jersey (At long last)

Well I've been getting a bit behind with my posts of late, a lack of internet access and a busy working schedule being the main reasons for this. Eventually though, I've sorted myself some Wi-Fi and its time to do some catching up.


So..... April!
As many of you will know, during the first week of April, I made a switch to the channel islands to spend the summer working on a charter boat as a deck hand. However, with the first booking of the year not being until the 14th April, I was supposed to spend the first week settling in to Jersey life, learning the ropess on the boat and finding myself some digs. In reality though, it was essentially a week for exploring and finding marks that I'd be fishing later in the year, whilst doing a bit of fishing in the process of course. My catches during this period were fairly decent, with plenty of wrasse, garfish, turbot and mini species falling to my light gear tactics.

The time soon came though for my first day on the boat.

PB smashing Turbot - 8lb 4oz

My first Brill - 6lb dead

PB Whiting - 2lb 15oz

Monster 4lb 9oz Whiting

15lb 8oz Blonde - Andreas

Up and out by 7.30am, I met with the skipper to sort out the gear for our first party of anglers, a German trio that had come to the channel islands for 5 days to catch one thing, Turbot. This really excited me as I'd never fished for turbot off a boat and my PB was a measly 10oz. Anyway, over the 5 day period we got out on all but 1 day and its fair to say we did pretty damn good. Here are a few photo's of the catch.




New PB Pollack - 11lb 12oz

As for the rest of April, let's just say it was a fun time to be on the boat. We had a real mix of people from all over Europe and fished many different tactics over different types of ground for a wide variety of species. The highlight of April for me though came on my birthday, a wrecking trip with Tom, Brian, Chris and Peter, a group of anglers that joined together each year from different areas of the country to fish in Jersey. I had never done wreck fishing before, so again I was not sure what to expect, although my hopes were high for at least one decent fish...... if of course the guys would allow me to wet a line.


New PB Ling - !5lb 14oz

For the first few hours it was relatively quiet with just a few Pollack coming aboard to just under the 10lb mark and during this period I was unable to fish as I had rigs to make for later. As the tide eased though, the lads gave me the all clear to have a fish and I was quickly setting up to join them. After a number of fruitless drifts on live eel, I decided to make the switch to artificials, a rhubarb and custard sidewinder being the lure of choice. Two drifts later I got smashed, rod bending over double and an immediate adrenaline surge. After a really good fight, the fish was up on the surface with the skipper doing the honours with the net. It was a massive new PB Pollack of 11lb 12oz, well and truly chuffed, but it was to get better. Having changed tactics to bumping half a mackerel along the bottom, I was soon back into another heavy fish. We knew it could of been one of a few things so when it revealed itself as a nice ling, again my face lit up. At 15lb 14oz, it was again a massive new PB, beating my previous best by over 12lbs. With that I stopped fishing and returned to my duties as deck-hand, cant say I minded to much though.

That pretty much sums up April,
Hope you enjoyed reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross

Jersey and the red mullet mission

Having already visited the channel island of Jersey twice this year, its fair to say I can't keep myself away and this time I was on a personal mission to catch a red mullet, a species which had so far eluded me. To give myself the best chance, I'd been in contact with a mate of mine Dan Ferguson, a Jersey local and good all round angler and we'd arranged to have a long weekend of intense fishing. Please take a minute to check out Dan's blog as well :

http://dfergusonfishing.blogspot.co.uk/

Immediately on arrival, it was straight to business and thanks to Rob Dingle, we had some lovely fresh worms to use, thanks again Rob! We hit the mark on the rising tide, myself concentrating all my attention on the red mullet and sole, whilst Dan stuck out a few ray baits on a special rig I'd shown him designed for long casting. It payed off for him as well and after a doggie on his first cast, he was into this cracking blonde ray of 12lb 12oz, which smashed his shore caught PB and gained him some valuable points towards his club competition. This would only be the start of what would turn out to be a damn good weekend for Dan, I think the powers of my hat had somehow transferred to him. Anyhow, the worm baits just weren't producing for me on the night with only a few pout, doggies and a lone pollack to show for my efforts. Dan however had another blonde ray of 12lb 5oz to make a fine brace and after switching to a worm bait, he managed a pout and a sole, the first one I have seen live and a species I'm still on the hunt for.

After a couple of hours sleep it was back out again, this time targeting bass and pollock on the lures. We'd kindly been invited to go out on friend David Sullivan's boat, so would have been rude not to take him up on his offer and he'd picked a prime morning for it. The session turned out to be a good one for me with 6 bass falling to my blue savage gear sandeels, the best going 2lb 11oz, not huge but great fun all the same. David also managed a bass as well as a few pollack. Dan's luck from the previous night had deserted him though and he resorted to last minute wrasse tactics to avoid a dreaded blank.

Back on dry land for 12ish, it was time for Dan's 24 hour club competition and he had his game plan sorted. We first hit a wrasse mark where we'd meet Dan's mate Ritchie and his missus Hannah. Not much was caught with myself getting a small ballan on the SP's and Hannah showing us lads how to do it with a nice wrasse of 3lb+. Dan continued to be out of luck but I kept telling him that it was all building up to be a productive evening session for him...... wouldn't you have guessed it, that's exactly what happened. Fishing a conger mark of Dan's in the evening produced a cracking pollack for him, which doubled his previous shore caught PB, dropping the scales to 7lb 12oz, a real beauty and again some brilliant points towards his club comp. As if that wasn't enough he then landed a conger of 20lb 8oz on the following cast before things went quiet for the night, just one more strap conger being landed and myself narrowly avoiding a blank with the rat of the sea, mr dogfish.

The third day of the Jersey trip came round all to fast. Again just a couple of hours sleep before we again headed out to try and get a wrasse big enough to weigh in for the comp. Dan did manage a few to around the 3lb mark but unfortunately none large enough to meet the qualifying weight. I spent an hour or so venturing further afield with my plugging rod which produced a single schoolie before returning and having a bash at the wrasse myself. In no time it was 11 o'clock and we were off to the weigh in. There was a few really good fish brought to the scales, notably some lovely mullet over 5lbs, a double figure undulate ray, a good rockling and of course red mullet and sole, one of which had been landed by mate Rob Dingle. The plan was then hatched for another shot at the red's and we were joined by Rob for the evening. After a few hours digging worm we headed off once more full of hope. Dan once again landed sole, two of them this time  whilst I had finally got my first new species of the trip, but not the one I was after, it was in fact a 5-bearded rockling (Species 66 of 2012) We also managed a number of pout and doggies but nothing of decent size.

Me looking rather tired with my mullet

Dan also looking tired

It was now the final full day of fishing on my Jersey trip and for the first time, the wind had picked up bringing with it a nice bit of swell. During the morning we found shelter in the harbour and focused our attentions on the mullet, using bread as both a groundbait and hook bait. Dan was first into the fish landing a thick lip of around the 1.5lb mark. After switching to ledger tactics, I was soon hitting into the fish as well, first losing one on the surface and then going on to land two mullet in quick succession. Then they disappeared so we started chucking a few SP's around. Both of us got a few wrasse with Dan getting the pick of the bunch, this fish pictured was roughly 3lbs.

After yet another hours digging we decided we both needed a short rest so off to the pub we went. A pint has rarely tasted so good and it was definitely well deserved. It was over all to soon though and back out we went for one last go at the red mullet. A different mark this time and with a nice swell rolling in, the thoughts were that the bottom would be getting nicely stirred up and fingers crossed, the reds would have moved in to feed. I'd made a few new rigs up for the occasion designed so that all baits would be hard on the bottom and this time i'd blinged up the snoods with luminous beads, a little thing i'd noticed Dan had been using when he'd got his sole. It started much like the other night sessions with pout and dogfish turning up, so after a few hours we had a little chill. Rods went out and we sat back to watch a bit of facejacker on Dan's phone. Half way through the Brian Badonde part my baitrunner started going so I jumped up and hit the run. The fish must have been swimming straight towards me as I couldn't feel anything until close in when it suddenly decided to go the other way and put up a spirited fight. I didn't want to presume anything but I was getting a little excited as this was possibly the fish I'd  been after.

Gritting my teeth I clambered down to the edge of the rocks and lifted it out of the water. There it was, mission over, my first red mullet and a fish I'd put a lot of time and effort into catching, success was sweet. In the heat of the moment and in the spirit of Brian Badonde I just had to scream out 'BBBEESSSSS!' Mine would not be the only one landed either as shortly after mine, Dan pulled one out as well, a good fish at 1lb 11oz and some more valuable points for his club comp and also caught a small bass. I did think I had a second red mullet as well before the session was out, but it was in fact a pollack of around 2lb. With that, the session and my fishing in Jersey came to an end, yet another brilliant trip.

I can't thank Dan enough for his time and effort over the 4 days but left him with a few crates of stella for his troubles. It's great to fish with someone roughly my age that is just as enthusiastic about the sport as I am and it certainly will be great to return to Jersey next year, can't wait. Was great to meet and fish with a few new faces over there as well, Rob and Ritchie for example. Was also good to see the MrFish crew again, Mick, Bob, Mike and Lee. Always great to have a chat with you guys. Until next time though, take it easy and keep catching,

Thanks for reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross

Mission accomplished thanks to some friendly guidance

I had to wave goodbye to the South on Thursday morning and make my way back up to the North Wales coast, hoping to pick up a package of lures I had ordered especially for my Ireland trip. On arrival back in Bangor though I found out my package had been delayed, brilliant. All was not as bad as it seemed though as being Thursday it was Andy's fishing night, so we had arranged to hit an Anglesey mark to try our luck with the blonde rays. Now I've walked the area with my lure rod but never really new exactly where to go with the beachcasters. As I was there a good 6 hours early it was straight on the phone to Andy for a bit more info on where to head and after a second call to Terry I eventually sussed out the ledge I wanted to fish. Unfortunately it was already taken so I had to improvise and move along the coast a bit keeping an eye wide open for a suitable ledge to fish off. I found one nearby and set up with one rod with an up and over running ledger rig and the other with a standard pulley rig. Both rigs were baited with sandeel/squid and mounted on 4/0 sakuma extras. After not a sniff in over an hour and losing one of my rigs to a snag, I decided to move marks to pass the time until Andy arrived. I chose sewer pipe as my mark and as expected I had a good few wrasse down the edge but again the distance rod remained action free. Whilst there I had a visit from Terry in which we discussed a few plans for Ireland and generally chatted rubbish about all things fishy. Before I knew it the time had come to re-visit mark one and meet Andy.

This time round the preferred ledge was free so I began rigging up hoping that my fortune had changed for the better. One rod out and starting on rod 2, over the hill came Andy. We had a tactical talk and out went rod 2 again baited with sandeel/squid. It wasn't a long wait before I got my first bite and brought in a nice little spotted ray (as seen in Andy's report). This got us a little excited and expectant of a good haul, but as always seems to be the case, it was to be the only ray of the night. Andy had the right idea by switching to a set of feathers in the hope of some fresh bait and when he had one bump off first chuck, it wasn't long before I joined him. In around 30 minutes I notched up a small haul of fish; 2 mackerel, 3 launce (including a new PB in picture) and a lone pollock. Now with some fresh bait available, it was back out with a side of macky and we started getting some regular bites, as expected though in came a number of annoying doggies which varied from being rather large ones to almost anorexic ones. With only dogs showing now, I decided to have a drop down the side and caught a number of small wrasse including ballans and corkwings before the darkness came in and the wrasse action died. I tried switching baits to chunks of mackerel hoping for a rockling or just something different but nothing was happening so I just lobbed it out and left it. Andy had also switched tactics on one of his rods and opted for a bit of scratching, resulting in a number of whiting which made a handy fresh bait. It was very slow going and watching my tips motionless for long periods was making me see things. I thought my scratching rod was knocking but everytime I concentrated on it nothing would happen. As I lost interest in it though it shot round and this time it was definitely a fish. I struck into it and felt a small resistance and thought I was into a whiting just like the ones Andy was catching. To my great delight though it turned out to be a small grey gurnard (species 47)

My only other highlight was this huge spider crab that took fancy to my macky fillet. To put its size into perspective, the ruler its attempting to destroy is 45cm long so its fair to say it was rather large, another PB :)

With this the session ended, another very enjoyable session with some great company in which all sorts of tips and marks were exchanged. Not a bad result in the end with another new species and a couple of PB's and a great new mark to add to my personal log book. Will definitely be back out with Andy soon as he's been a pleasure to fish with on the few occasions we've managed to get out. One day we'll smash it up!

That brings me to todays short session. As mentioned at the start of the post I had originally come over to get a package and this time I'd had an email to tell me it was due for arrival around midday, about time. Anyway I made the 90 minute trip over to pick it up and thought I may as well have another bash at the blondes. Conditions were very different to the session a few days previous with a good chop on the water and the tide this time on the flood . I whacked out 2 rods with pulleys and just left them to do there thing. I had left them a good 45minutes and was starting to think about packing it in. Typically though this is when my rod arched over and the line slowly started inching from the spool. I picked up the rod, waited for a good pull and struck into a nice weight. A nervous and exciting few moments at the side and I started to see the wings appear beneath me, first the spots and then the blatent blonde ray patterns, I had got my target :) (species 48) I took my time landing it safely and got a couple of nice photos before releasing it to be caught again another day. My scales unfortunately ran out of batteries the previous session and I had completely forgotten to change them so I couldn't weigh it. At a guess though I would say it was around the 8lb mark which seems to be a number I can't go beyond when ray fishing. This would be my only bite of the 2.5 hour session but did I care, not one bit. What a lovely fish to save a blank and yet another species I'd never caught. This year just gets better and better. I am starting to believe that this target of 60 species may be achievable. 

Thanks for reading,

Tight Lines,

Ross