2 days charter fishing at the Weymouth species competition

As a shore angler, my experience of boat fishing is very limited, having only fished from a boat a handful of times in the last decade. It really takes me back to the time when I used to go out on my grandads boat, targeting flatfish in the kingsbridge estuary and is a form of fishing I ought to do more often when you consider I have a kayak.
Anyway, the time came on the Wednesday to make my 6 hour journey from North Wales down to the South Coast and unfortunately the forecast was not looking to friendly. The Thursday predicted 25mph E's and the Friday predicting 30mph NE's. After spending the Weds night gaining my bearings around Weymouth the morning of Day 1 came round, I was well prepared having made up around 50 different rigs to cater for any form of fishing we would be doing. The rigs I had made up were a variety that I had been advised to make by one of the skippers down in Weymouth, Lyle Stantiford and also by England International Colin Searles, both of whom I'd been put onto by Gethyn. I should also mention that Gethyn had very kindly allowed me to borrow a few of his rods for the comp for which I am very grateful.

Day 1 : I had been drawn on Meridian Express skippered by Pat Carlin for the first day along with 8 top boat anglers, including England International and European boat angling champion 2011 Ray Barron. To say I was a little out of my league is an understatement but at the end of the day I was there to enjoy myself and pick up some tips from some of the best. The sea was choppy as expected and it took my stomach a while to settle but after an hour or so I was feeling much better. The fishing started over a wreck where all of us managed a good number of pout with the odd poor cod thrown in as well. We did a few drifts and then headed out to a mark where we would anchor up. The better anglers on the boat were catching fairly regularly and I was keeping an eye on what they were doing all the time. Steve and Ray were outfishing everyone else on the boat by a good margin, pulling in doggies, a few rays and the odd smoothhound. I meanwhile was getting the odd doggie but struggling to get into a rythym. With 5 minutes left at anchor, I started getting a couple of small finicky taps. I gave some slack and left it to develop. Before I knew it the skipper was calling for all lines to be brought in. Winding down the slack, there was definitely something still playing with my bait so I struck. It was solid, feeling like I'd got a snag until whatever was on the end decided it didn't like being hooked. The rod bent over nicely and the drag started going a little. The skipper called his prediction straight away 'Conger.' By now everyone else was out of the water so I made my way to the front of the boat to play it properly. It was such a powerful fish I just had to pull when I could and eventually the fish started coming up in the water. Surfacing  few metres from the boat, it was as the skipper had rightly called a conger and a good sized one at that. The rules of the comp stated that the skipper must only touch the leader for it to count so I was relieved when he took hold of my snood. For obvious safety reasons though the fish was unhooked in the water. At a skippers estimate of 35lb+ it smashes my current PB conger by just shy of 10lb's so a great result. We had one last stop just off the harbour walls where I managed to land my only new species of the comp. Species 63 : Jeffreys Goby. Due to the condtions and the fierce competition I wasn't able to get any photos but here is a photo of a jeffreys goby I found on the net so you can see what one looks like. At the end of day one it was Ray Barron who had triumphed on our boat with Steve coming a close second. I was more than happy to take 4th place and was already looking forward to day 2.

Day 2 : The morning was a lot colder than the previous day and the sea was a lot rougher as well. This time round I had been drawn on charter boat Flamer IV skippered by Colin Penny, a boat that I had been looking at online before I made the trip down. It was set to be another tough days fishing but with the tips I'd been given by Ray and the other on day 1, I was feeling a lot more confident. This time we started at anchor fishing for rays, dogs and smoothies. The dogfish were out in force and a lot of the anglers on the boat were bagging up to reach there limit. I was really struggling having been drawn at the cabin end again but finally got my first fish of the day in the form of a small thornback ray, a handy fish to tick off. I then after a good hour of trying managed to get my first doggie and in honesty it was a little bit of a relief. The others were getting the odd different species as well with a few small smoothies and a couple of whiting coming up. My next fish however was again far more substantial. The skipper once again moved me to the front of the boat where I could get a good spot to pull it in. It surfaced after a good fight and revealed itself as a lovely undulate ray. The leader was touched so it counted in the comp but unfortunately as the skipper was pulling the remaining few feet of line to the net, the snood gave way, so once again I couldn't get a photo :( The skippers estimate was around 14lb+, smashing my PB of 8lb 3oz and finally giving me a ray of double figures, very happy indeed. The call then came in to say we were allowed to fish in Portland harbour, a species meccah. This was my time to shine. Almost instantly we were all into pout, poor cod and wrasse but occasionally something interesting would come up. Firstly a baillions wrasse, shortly follwed by a butterfly blenny and then one of the guys had a fish I'm dying to catch, a red band fish. (Here are a few pics of what they look like) Really stunning fish and bit gutted I didn't get one myself but thats the way it goes sometimes. As day 2 came to an end, I had a much better total score, beating my day 1 total by nearly 30 points. Just goes to show the difference a few small differences in the rigs can make. All that was left was the raffle and presentations. I new I hadn't won anything but I did have a good chat with Colin which was very useful. 3 way beads are the way forward for my new rigs ;)

So at the end of the 2 days, I'd managed to smash two of my PB's, catch 1 new species and pick up tips from some of the best boat anglers in the country. I'd say that it was a well worthwhile trip.

Thanks for reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross

A great day out with Tozer

Myself and Tozer have been talking about sorting a session on the rocks for a while and this Saturday it finally came to fruition. Both of us being species hunters, it was a great chance for me to see if there were any species in particular that he thought I could still tick off and hopefully this would be the day.

 To be honest we couldn't have picked a more pleasant day either, for the first time in what seems like forever the wind had dropped and we were left with sunshine and a flat sea. With that in mind our first stop was to venture onto the island to a rock mark where we would hopefully get some garfish. Tozer had picked up 2kg of sprats and a couple of loaves of bread and proceeded to mix up some shurvey using a very handy mincer, a tool that I must purchase. The chumming started whilst we rigged up, a simple float set up with a size 4 hook about 3ft under the float and either sandeel fillet or a slither of macky for bait. It didn't take long for the gars to appear either, signs of them feeding on the surface was all we needed to get a bait in the water. Tozer was in to his first fish almost instantly and shortly followed it up with a second and the biggest of the day at around
 a pound in weight, a cracking gar! I then had my first bite and lost a gar close in, gutted but the next cast I managed to get one for myself, job done. Species 62 ticked off :) We stayed at it for around two and a half hours, both of us finishing with 3 garfish a piece so now it was time for a change of scenery. I had talked up a mark that most people that read the blog will know as the secret pollock mark, so as Tozer was here for the day, I thought he might enjoy having a little dabble there. After the lairy route getting to the mark, we finally got up and running, myself starting with rag baited sabikis and Tozer had a bash with my LRF rod and some soft plastics to try and tempt a wrasse or two. The fishing was not as prolific as it usually is, but we did manage a good haul of fish none the less. Notching up 6 species between us including, gold-sinneys, corkwings, ballans, pollock, scorpion fish and poor cod. The best of the fish came to Tozer on half a hardback, a wrasse of between 2.5-3lb. We stayed at this mark until shortly before dark, made our ascent back to safe ground and started discussing what we could do next. By this point I was shattered, so I decided enough was enough and went home for a much needed kip and some food. Tozer ploughed on though so be interesting to find out what he caught.

Thanks for reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross

You just got to love plaice!

Another quickie session today produced my best plaice of the year so far. Only fished for 3 hours due to the weather, but during that time it was very productive. The rig I used was a one-up one down invisible rig with size 6 hooks and fresh crab for bait. Unfortunately the majority of fish came in the form of double headers of whiting; not big ones either, most of them struggling to make 20cm. The day was saved though by this lovely plaice of 2lb 3oz and 40.5 cm. I had been keeping it in a bucket of sea-water and debating whether to release it or keep it for tea. In the end, a helpful persuasion from my mate Lee tipped the scales in favour of keeping it and home it went. A simple mix of breadcrumbs, chilli, parsley and spring onion to top the fillets and then a compliment of  new potatoes and veg went down extremely well. Think I'm gonna have to catch a few more plaice of edible size. God they taste good!

Thanks for reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross

First 5lb+ wrasse on a lure :D

After landing 5 wrasse over the 5lb mark last year on crab, I have been desperately trying to land one of a similar size on the lures this year. There are some stonking fish to be had from the deep water marks on Anglesey and today I ventured away from my usual wrasse mark to try a spot I've been wanting to fish for a good while. The sea was a little choppy but being out of the wind meant I could stay in contact with the lure and get a good feel for bites. After seeing lots of bait fish topping I started to regret leaving my bass gear in the car but I did have a few fishy looking SP's with me so I chucked on a Fin S Shad with a 2.6g Aji Mebaru Jighead and started casting towards the topping fish. After nothing for a dozen or so casts, I decided to leave the shad to sink a bit more. Before it had hit bottom I had a cracking take and a 5 second screaming reel before the fish threw the hook..... What it was I will never know but it felt big :0 Anyway, this had got my legs shaking like a shi**ing dog and for the next few casts I was probably a little to eager on the retrieve, bringing it in a little to quickly. After slowing it down again though another solid take and another good fish on the end. I was convinced it was going to be a bass but up from the depths after a cracking fight came a monstrous wrasse. I couldn't make out exactly how big it was until I had climbed down to grab it, it was a clonker. Instead of trying to lift the fish which no doubt would have ended badly, I clambered back up to my casting perch and grabbed my net before returning down to safely land it. Weighing a hefty 5lb 2oz and measuring spot on 50cm on the TLF ruler, it was a new lure caught PB, happy days. A few rushed pics on a self timer followed and after I'd got a pic that was good enough, the fish was released. After this the bait fish had seemingly disappeared along with everything else. An hour of nothing and I called it a day, you can bet your bottom dollar that I'll be back there soon enough though :)

Thanks for reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross