Getting up at 5am I expected to hear the blast of fog horns in the Solent but it was strangely quiet and still, from my house I had a visibility of about 75 yards so, after removing the covering of ice from me ‘fishing van’ I arrived down at the mooring about 5:45 (it’s only 5 mins away but 3 cups of tea and a sausage sandwich was the first prep for the day).
John was waiting as usual, Ian was late as usual. Had reasonable visibility in the creek so we motored out. Passing the ferry terminal Ryde Pier could be seen through the haze so we turned to West and opened up for The Needles.
It was flat calm with a gentle breeze, with reasonable visibility and the back up 24 mile vision of the Radar the first order of the day was Tea.
First problem of the day, we forgot to get water…. Arrrghhhhhhh, no problems though as I hold an emergency supply of 4 litres of bottled water, so set Ian the task of making the brew. Up from the galley he came with the teapot with some look of concern he showed me the inside, three dried and shrivelled tea bags covered with penicillin mould.
My attention had been fixed for a while on a dot on the radar which was now in sight, a yacht in the shipping lane without nav. lights, we were heading for him and I was deciding which side to pass him as he was close to the buoy to my starboard so I altered course to pass him on his port beam, as I got closer I realised he was at anchor, no anchor light and in the shipping lane. Gave him a wake up call and a warning with a 24 knot bow wave. demon
During this lack of attention to Ian’s concerns he had actually thrown the tea bags in the bin and used new ones for the brew…. Blimey I had only used them 4 times, what is wrong with some people.
The Needles as usual was a stunning site and by now the sun had burnt off the remaining mist and a glorious beautiful morning was developing.
Taking a look around some favoured spots there was not much showing on the finder so I decided to check out a mark I had been told about by a friend, two days ago he had fished it with a good return of nice Pollock and Bass, getting there 8 miles SSE of the Needles it appears that I am not the only one he told as there are four boats fishing it. As we motor by looking for another wreck it seems to be good info though as one of the anglers is into a good fish.
Selecting an old, not so good mark a few miles further out we bait up and chuck out, Its very quiet for half an hour or so as the tide is slack and small. As the tide picks up I chuck out a trail of burley on the bottom. As usual I am fishing on the bottom with one rod squid mackerel and have another rod about 4 foot of the bottom with squid baited Hokki Lures for bait fish.
After about 5 mins I get a tap on my bottom rig and pick up the rod to feel. Winding in slightly to tempt what ever it is poking at my bait I notice my other rod line has gone slack. Putting rod A down in favour of the Hokki armed rod I start to reel in there is some considerable resistance and my drag which is set low had to be tightened some way. Ian shouted that I had his line, the Jon shouted the same. Eventually we hauled up an enormous tangle with every six lines together. On the end of my line the weight was eventually revealed as a Nine Pound plus smoothound.
The amazing thing is that it has actually taken the squid baited hokki lures, now I have never seen that before. I figure the fish had come up the burley trail gobbling it up and came across the lures and that was that. Unfortunately as she had come up tide with the line she must have had chance to circle to boat.
At the same time, in the mess of tangle Ian had a conger on his line which had taken the opportunity in its delay of being brought to the surface to further coil and wrap itself around the entire mess. Jon at the same time had a LSD on his line. By the time we cleared the mess away and got back to fishing the mark was quiet so we upped anchor and moved into ‘first ledge’ under the Needles and tried without luck there, managing to lose three rigs to the rocks.
As it was a small tide we figured on trying ‘Yarmouth hole’ which is a good mark but can only be fished slack water on a low tide. By the time we got there the jet skies were having fun and just about every yacht on the south coast, or so it seemed had decided to visit Yarmouth.
Moving on Hampstead ledge was also being fished. So we headed on home, not a productive day but an enjoyable one nonetheless. Good company, lovely weather and one nice fish for me and a personal best Conger for Ian.
I’ll edit the post with some piccies later when I get em from Ian.
[ 18. April 2005, 07:46 PM: Message edited by: Huge_Vitae ]
