great day

[Alan Taylor]

After not being allowed to fish for 3 months it was nice to get back to sea fishing again. I did'nt expect to catch much, the Bass are gone from our part of the North sea and the sea is still a bit warm for the Cod.

0400 up, Sonja made the coffee while I packed the van, I said to her that after a 2 day blow it might have stired things up enough to get what Cod are about on the feed.

I was crewing (unpaid) and the skipper was Albert, a keen angler and a real nice guy, about my age and quiet. The customers were a club group of 10 from Belgium and I had fished with them before which helps.

We hit the first wreck at about 0730, just getting light there was a sloppy sea force 3 to 4 wind and about 60cm waves on the beam with the wind and tide behind us so the drifts were a bit rapid so when the horn goes to wind in you have to be a bit quick or you lose valuable fishing time. 2 clients insisted on waiting for the engines to engage before winding in, I soon put a stop to that.

Albert and I only had Razor (smelly) fish for bait, the club had Lug, Rag and Razor fish.

 

I had made 12 pirks for the trip so thats what I used all day, on the first drift I had a nice Cod, others had a few pout, next drift another Cod, nothing special, about 6 to 8lbs, next drift another Cod about 12lbs, the rest of the boat pouting and 1 Cod. Albert was using the razor fish and blanking, he soon changed over to pirks.

 

One of the clients was pirking and asked me what he was doing wrong as he was not catching. I asked him if he had lost any pirks or pulled any slimy things off the wreck, he said no so I told him that he was not fishing on the wreck but above it, hit the wreck, lose pirks or catch fish, thats where the fish live. I took my knife and using the back of it scraped the pirk (home made)to make it shine, he dropped down and bang a Cod. You will not believe what he did next, he took the pirk off and went back to blanking on baited hooks for 3 drifts :confused:

 

While this was going on I was catching and losing fish on every drift, Albert was not only running the boat but was also nipping out to do a bit of fishing, he ended the day with 8 excellent Cod from 8 to 12lb with one codling, all on pirks.

 

I did well on the first wreck but on the second I had nothing until I noticed one of the clients had a cod on an orange muppet, I found an orange muppet in my box, trimmed it down a bit and put it on the shank of the tripple then re connected it to the pirk, bang, first drop another cod then another 3

 

The message here is that if others are catching and you are not, LOOK and see why, then don't be stuborn or lazy, change to what is catching.

Baited hooks were catching loads of Pouting and the odd Cod but the 3 of us using pirks cleaned up

 

I lost 8 fish, one was a real lunker, I had it about 20 pumps from the wreck and it just dived back home, there was nothing I could do to stop it, the braid was 30lb, the rod is very flexible and the clutch is set to run at about 30lb, bang, solid in the wreck

 

I lost one fish on the surface while reaching for the Gaff, I took a chance and dropped my pirk down and foul hooked it , never give up

 

At the end of the day I ended up with 16 Cod and 1 small foul hooked Pollack, the next was the guy that asked for advice with 9 and Albert with 8 but all good ones. Besides us 3 the avarage was 2 Cod each :mad: when will they to learn?

 

That evening the owner of the boats called me to congratulate me. He has 3 boats, 12, 12 and 30 passengers, evidently from his records I had the most Cod by and individual since the begining of August , his boat with 30 on had 20 Cod the other one with 12 on had 12 cod in total.

He also asked if I would crew for him on his next trip, I think I will stick with Albert

 

Bragging, yes, big headed, yes, are my too mates that fish/crew and get paid or it jealous, bloody right they are

 

Thanks Albert for giving me a great day and using your experience to find the fish, you find em and I will show you how to catch em

 

Tight lines all, a well chuffed

 

Alan(nl)

 

OK I know this should have been on the fishing reports section but who reads em?

 

[ 02. November 2003, 06:44 PM: Message edited by: Alan Taylor ]

[Davy Holt]

Hiya,

 

Well done Alan

 

Good to see your keeping your bait catching skills up to scratch

 

We had another trip out yesterday, just Linda and myself, the result.... 6 (3 each) Commons in just under 3 hours for a total weight of 813lb. Linda had the best at 171lb and I was a close second with 164lb. I'm quite sure we could have had a few more but I only took 10 Mackerel with us.

 

Linda discoverd something rather spooky, the 171lber was on it's 3rd visit to the deck of the catchalot in 3 years The first time she was 162lb, last year she was 168lb and this year was 171lb. Now the spooky bit is each time she had been caught the time was between 1.40pm and 2.15pm (1,40, 1,45 & 2.15) with 6 miles between the first and second capture and 7 between the second and third.. who says tagging is boring

[Norrie]

Hi Alan, Sounds like a belter of a day you had. You must be knackered after filleting them all. A cracking report to boot. Well Done....

[Ian Bass]

Welcome back to angling mate!!!!

Youll probably know about it tomorrow but what the hell!!

Glad you enjoyed your day

[chappers]

Davy you've got it going on at the moment

WELL DONE seems more hit than miss, what your doing.

Just turning a dark shade of green!!!!!!!

 

You must be knackered.

[spasor]

Well done Alan.

I hope I do as well on Dec 6/7 when I`m on a 2 day wrecking trip. But pirks will be out of the question. Even if we anchor a wreck it will be for the big snakes!!

Stick with Albert!!

Paul.

[Alan Taylor]

Davy Holt:

Now the spooky bit is each time she had been caught the time was between 1.40pm and 2.15pm (1,40, 1,45 & 2.15) with 6 miles between the first and second capture and 7 between the second and third.. who says tagging is boring

this response pleased me the most, what can be better than husband and wife fishing together and having a good day, if you know Davy and Linda you will know what I mean, they are so generous with there time and hospitality that I actually feel guilty taking advantage of it but will continue to do so

 

The big weights are not important to me now but what I do find fascinating is knowing a little bit about previous catches as in Davy's post. When I had my pb earlier this year Davy told me that it had been caught by the same angler as my previous pb the year before, details like that should have been written down at the time by me

 

Thanks for your comments, it WAS good to get back to some fishing instead of just talking about it, I had a great day and am paying for it now

 

Tight lines all.

 

Alan(nl)