Popular Post GPSguru Posted July 12, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted July 12, 2022 (edited) A really nice day, so a decision was made to go to the Skerries after a few Plaice. Crew for the day was Kyle, and it is one of his favourite fishing marks. It also means he can take the helm whilst I get the traces ready and sort out the bait etc. Launched at 7:45am on to flat sea, and arrived at the Skerries banks at 08:30, a lovely flat sea all the way for the 20 mile steam. The wind was forecast was light F2/3 SE, and we were on an ebbing tide with slack water on the skerries at 10:37am, however, it is rare that you get no current on the banks even at slack water. Also flat calm conditions on the banks are an extreme rarity, as the banks are turbulent by nature, with the outside edge of the bank rising from 150ft to 30ft. Today was no exception with the dominant waves coming from the NE, the outside edge of the banks was very turbulent indeed, however, the RIB loves those sort of condition. The drift was diagonally across the banks and we started the first drift on the inner edge, drifting the outer edge. The average drift speed was 1.2kts, occasionally going up to 1.7kts. This is always a good drift to find the fish. Almost straight away we were into Mackerel and Gurnard, but then the Plaice soon followed. We found the Plaice in the shallowest parts of the Banks, right in the middle in less than 30ft. I was first in, but Kyle soon followed, and we had steady sport for the rest of the trip with Plaice, Mackerel, Grey Gurnard, Tub gurnard, and Streaky Gurnard. None of the grunters were of any size, with the biggest going about ½ to 3/4lb. I kept @Andy135 amused with text messages 🤣, and he was also following us on marine traffic. All too soon, at 1:30 it was time to return, as I needed to collect my wife from the hospital. The trip back was a wind over tide sea, but still comfortable at 24kts. Interestingly, a small pod of Dolphins wanted to play and stayed with us for 6 miles. I will sort out some video later. We have found that the dolphins will often latch onto one boat and stay with that boat. Closer to home, the sea was a lot choppier, with probably 0.5 – 0.7m every 1 -2 secs, however, maintaining 24kts was still comfortable. We passed a Warrior 175 that was down to displacement speed and rolling around quite a lot. Whilst I was strapping the boat down in the slipway carpark the guy from the warrior came over to speak to me, he couldn’t believe how we could maintain that speed without slamming !, I had to give him a quick lesson on hull design. He asked what we had caught, and when I opened the Igloo box, his eyes very nearly popped out of his head !, but he admitted that he wouldn’t have had the balls to go that far, I said ffs it is only 40 -45 mins So, the tally for the day was 11 keeper Plaice, with 14 returned to grow bigger, 39 Mackerel, and I lost count on the Gurnards. A total trip distance of 48Nm. Last night was mostly spent filleting ! This was the average stamp of the Plaice, not huge, but good eating size, and good sport on light tackle Here is a quick vid of the Dolphins from my phone, probably needs an edit, but I have more on the Gopro which takes time to edit Edited July 12, 2022 by GPSguru Dicky, suzook12, jonnyswamp and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odyssey Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 Proper job! Sorry to hear your wife is in hospital 😭 GPSguru 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 Lovely session, and a bonus visit from dolphins! Your catches are consistently good - top dangling that man, and well crewed Kyle 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintly Fish Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 Great fishing again Ian, well done indeed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPSguru Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 5 minutes ago, JonC said: Not many pictures Well yes I agree, however one Plaice looks just like the other 24 plaice……. brown flat things with orange spots ! 🤣 Dicky and Odyssey 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintly Fish Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 32 minutes ago, GPSguru said: Well yes I agree, however one Plaice looks just like the other 24 plaice……. brown flat things with orange spots ! 🤣 1 pic = 1 plaice. The others don't count. GPSguru 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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