Popular Post thejollysinker Posted May 5, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted May 5, 2022 (edited) Had the pleasure of taking my ‘other’ twin son out on Monday who’s visiting for the week (his brother who still lives at home doesn’t like fishing 😕) so we got out quite early and set off towards Hopes Nose. Sea was slightly choppy but comfortable and we set a drift for some mackerel. We were straight in and enjoyed a hectic 2 hours reeling in about 60 fish, about 26 good sized ones and the rest joey size, perfect for bait, and a little grey gurnard for me. Tom managed a Sardine on some sabikis he tried but sadly no more. We moved onto the reef east of the Ore Stone at slack water and anchored up over a drop off, had some lunch in the sun then started fishing 20lb class rods with big mackerel baits when the ebb started to flow. I had a cracking bite on my rod which resulted in a great fight for about 5 minutes with what must’ve been a good conger but it bit through the 40lb trace which left me kicking myself for not going stronger…. Tom however managed to land a 13lb 2oz conger shortly afterwards and he was chuffed to bits, his biggest fish so far. We only had dogs after that for 3 hours so up anchored to try a couple of wrecks on the way home. Stopped at the first, the SS Perone and had a drift with nothing showing on the sounder nor the rods so quickly moved to the Bretagne which looked much more promising with loads of targets showing. First drift produced a 3lb Pollack for me and a Pout for Tom. Next, he got a Pollack and I was on the Pout. Drifts were slow in the near perfectly flat conditions and threw up nothing more than a steady stream of Pout with just a couple of reasonable sized ones and a lone Mackerel for me to end the day. We had a very quick run home in a sea so flat I couldn’t believe it (never been out in it like that before). On packing everything away we were trying to finish getting the cover on the boat and Tom bless him, leant over to help and being the clumsy sort, pushed the arse end of the dinghy away from the side nearly tipping the dinghy over as we were both on the same side and how he never fell in I don’t know…. I very nearly did too but thankfully we saved the situation with that stuff called adrenaline 🤣 don’t want a repeat of that…. Best day afloat I’ve had since owning the boat and a shed load of fish for numerous meals and bait for the freezer. I’ll try and do some photos later but I’m on nights so off to bed for me now 😊 one for Andy? one for Neil. Edited May 5, 2022 by thejollysinker Andy135, Malc, suzook12 and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintly Fish Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 Lovely report Gary, thanks for sharing. Look forward to the photos! 👍🏻 thejollysinker 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 Brilliant! What a cracking session. Looking forward to photos. 👍 thejollysinker 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPSguru Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 3 hours ago, thejollysinker said: Had the pleasure of taking my ‘other’ twin son out on Monday who’s visiting for the week (his brother who still lives at home doesn’t like fishing 😕) so we got out quite early and set off towards Hopes Nose. Sea was slightly choppy but comfortable and we set a drift for some mackerel. We were straight in and enjoyed a hectic 2 hours reeling in about 60 fish, about 26 good sized ones and the rest joey size, perfect for bait, and a little grey gurnard for me. Tom managed a Sardine on some sabikis he tried but sadly no more. We moved onto the reef east of the Ore Stone at slack water and anchored up over a drop off, had some lunch in the sun then started fishing 20lb class rods with big mackerel baits when the ebb started to flow. I had a cracking bite on my rod which resulted in a great fight for about 5 minutes with what must’ve been a good conger but it bit through the 40lb trace which left me kicking myself for not going stronger…. Tom however managed to land a 13lb 2oz conger shortly afterwards and he was chuffed to bits, his biggest fish so far. We only had dogs after that for 3 hours so up anchored to try a couple of wrecks on the way home. Stopped at the first, the SS Perone and had a drift with nothing showing on the sounder nor the rods so quickly moved to the Bretagne which looked much more promising with loads of targets showing. First drift produced a 3lb Pollack for me and a Pout for Tom. Next, he got a Pollack and I was on the Pout. Drifts were slow in the near perfectly flat conditions and threw up nothing more than a steady stream of Pout with just a couple of reasonable sized ones and a lone Mackerel for me to end the day. We had a very quick run home in a sea so flat I couldn’t believe it (never been out in it like that before). On packing everything away we were trying to finish getting the cover on the boat and Tom bless him, leant over to help and being the clumsy sort, pushed the arse end of the dinghy away from the side nearly tipping the dinghy over as we were both on the same side and how he never fell in I don’t know…. I very nearly did too but thankfully we saved the situation with that stuff called adrenaline 🤣 don’t want a repeat of that…. Best day afloat I’ve had since owning the boat and a shed load of fish for numerous meals and bait for the freezer. I’ll try and do some photos later but I’m on nights so off to bed for me now 😊 Looks like you had a really good day 👍 It just shows how the fishing is 'pot luck' at the moment as the shoals of Mackerel were just not there on the following day, but as you well know, we can always find a few, pretty much all year. I assume the Reef you fished was the dropoff (Tucker Rock) on the outer side of the Orestone. I tend to avoid that Reef in the spring and summer as it is usually dog and conger central, however, in the winter it can throw up a Cod or two. The Exmouth boats are finding a few Bream and quality Huss on the Reefs, hopefully I will have some new numbers for you in the next couple of days. I am hoping to go out tomorrow and meet up with Peter (Petrel) from Exmouth. thejollysinker 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejollysinker Posted May 5, 2022 Author Share Posted May 5, 2022 8 hours ago, Saintly Fish said: Lovely report Gary, thanks for sharing. Look forward to the photos! 👍🏻 photos added. Picture there to show the triangle in action. It proved to be really useful and gave me a bit more confidence being able to see the buoy up front. Thanks again for that Neil, really appreciate it 😊 Andy135 and Saintly Fish 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejollysinker Posted May 5, 2022 Author Share Posted May 5, 2022 4 hours ago, GPSguru said: Looks like you had a really good day 👍 It just shows how the fishing is 'pot luck' at the moment as the shoals of Mackerel were just not there on the following day, but as you well know, we can always find a few, pretty much all year. I assume the Reef you fished was the dropoff (Tucker Rock) on the outer side of the Orestone. I tend to avoid that Reef in the spring and summer as it is usually dog and conger central, however, in the winter it can throw up a Cod or two. The Exmouth boats are finding a few Bream and quality Huss on the Reefs, hopefully I will have some new numbers for you in the next couple of days. I am hoping to go out tomorrow and meet up with Peter (Petrel) from Exmouth. Couldn't fail Ian, could've stayed all day but we had our fill. The macks certainly had their fill... they were absolutely stuffed with small sandeels! There's a smaller drop off a bit further south with what looked like a bit of cleaner ground. I was hoping for a Ray. There was a boat very near us with a diver collecting what I think was Scallops. He was loading up a net bag or similar and once or twice I saw it come up up looking quite heavy. Tom actually foul hooked a scallop so that came home, but unfortunately no rays 😕 Wouldn't mind catching a Cod there, sounds good. Would also like some Bream, one of my favourite fish. Any numbers would be appreciated, thank you 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 A good haul of fish there! Look at all those mackerel! They're hard to come by round here - top dangling! thejollysinker 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejollysinker Posted May 5, 2022 Author Share Posted May 5, 2022 1 minute ago, Andy135 said: A good haul of fish there! Look at all those mackerel! They're hard to come by round here - top dangling! yeah, we were lucky I guess. Not always like that so was grateful for a good haul. I heard a rumour that they were heading East.... fingers crossed for you 🤞 Andy135 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintly Fish Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 31 minutes ago, thejollysinker said: photos added. Picture there to show the triangle in action. It proved to be really useful and gave me a bit more confidence being able to see the buoy up front. Thanks again for that Neil, really appreciate it 😊 You are welcome Gary, glad it helped you to be/feel safer! thejollysinker 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintly Fish Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 Also, it's nice to see somebody put spaces inbetween his photos. @mike farrants has something to learn. thejollysinker 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 Great day out and a great write up.I would love to be able to bag up on mackerel but they don’t seem to exist in my area. When you park up over the wrecks do you leave your sonar pinging away to itself? Some people say it can be detrimental to the fishing but I don’t know 🤷🏻 A little tip- when you get smashed up by a fish go large on the estimate because everyone else does 🤣 thejollysinker, suzook12 and GPSguru 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPSguru Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 2 hours ago, JonC said: When you park up over the wrecks do you leave your sonar pinging away to itself? Yes, especially with panoptix on downscan. I fail to see that it makes any difference, and having spoken to fish scientists and marine biologists (at Plymouth and exeter universities) it suggests that fish would be unaffected by the pings. With shallow wrecks the fish are more likely to be spooked by movement on the boat and when a lot of anglers are fishing the dropping of leads and lines has a spooking effect on the fish environment. Malc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 3 minutes ago, GPSguru said: Yes, especially with panoptix on downscan. I fail to see that it makes any difference, and having spoken to fish scientists and marine biologists (at Plymouth and exeter universities) it suggests that fish would be unaffected by the pings. With shallow wrecks the fish are more likely to be spooked by movement on the boat and when a lot of anglers are fishing the dropping of leads and lines has a spooking effect on the fish environment. I don’t know anything about the science of it, it’s not something that would come into play for my routine fishing but I’ve heard it said by others so I wondered if there was anything in it. GPSguru 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPSguru Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 3 hours ago, thejollysinker said: Couldn't fail Ian, could've stayed all day but we had our fill. The macks certainly had their fill... they were absolutely stuffed with small sandeels! There's a smaller drop off a bit further south with what looked like a bit of cleaner ground. I was hoping for a Ray. There was a boat very near us with a diver collecting what I think was Scallops. He was loading up a net bag or similar and once or twice I saw it come up up looking quite heavy. Tom actually foul hooked a scallop so that came home, but unfortunately no rays 😕 Wouldn't mind catching a Cod there, sounds good. Would also like some Bream, one of my favourite fish. Any numbers would be appreciated, thank you 😉 Ah ok, you were fishing close to Bream rock. Sometimes the tide can really rip through there when you are least expecting it. Despite the name, I have never caught a Bream there, but there are usually a few decent tubs in residence. IIRC a few years ago, a scallop dredger from Plymouth way was fined for fishing in that area. thejollysinker 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejollysinker Posted May 6, 2022 Author Share Posted May 6, 2022 9 hours ago, JonC said: Great day out and a great write up.I would love to be able to bag up on mackerel but they don’t seem to exist in my area. When you park up over the wrecks do you leave your sonar pinging away to itself? Some people say it can be detrimental to the fishing but I don’t know 🤷🏻 A little tip- when you get smashed up by a fish go large on the estimate because everyone else does 🤣 Always leave it on, never seems to make a difference but then I've never tried with it off 😅 as for going large, I'll have to try harder next time 🤣 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejollysinker Posted May 6, 2022 Author Share Posted May 6, 2022 6 hours ago, GPSguru said: Ah ok, you were fishing close to Bream rock. Sometimes the tide can really rip through there when you are least expecting it. Despite the name, I have never caught a Bream there, but there are usually a few decent tubs in residence. IIRC a few years ago, a scallop dredger from Plymouth way was fined for fishing in that area. I really want a decent tub, a nice big one to make a good meal with coz they taste so nice 😋 Good luck with your trip out tomorrow (today 🤔) hope you have some good fishing 🤞 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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