mike farrants Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 My In laws were still down and Tim was free so me and phil joined him and his son on Sea Dog for the day. Plan was similar to Thursday - bait in the entrances and off to anchor mixed ground. Much earlier start as the tides meant we wanted to get out under the bridge rather than wait for the 8am lift. 6.30 at the boat and away by 7am. The mackies were again had to find - 1st entrance produced nothing in the best part of an hour - so we moved up to chequers entrance, and only phil managed one joey- that left only the hood to try - which for those that don't know is the scuppered HMS Hood which was sunk in portlands south entrance to protect the harbour - a good wreck, but tackle graveyard - and hard to fish with the tide rushing out the entrance. Tim held the boat in position and the 3 of us feathered - soon enough we had full strings of mackerel and a bucket of bait ready to go. Tims son caught a few pollock and the wreck..... we moved off to a mark similar to Thursday but about half a mile further out and about 20ft deeper, between 2 long sand/shingle banks. Tim fished light with squid and had a steady stream of bream, red gurnard and scad, plus one mackerel. Early on i had a nice Tope - put up a good scrap, and Phil had some decent thornies which also fought well in the tide- including a pregnant one which we released as quickly as possible - one also came up with a big leach which we removed..... nasty thing! on the big baits we all had plenty of dogs, congers, thornies etc to keep us busy and phil had a lovely red gurnard - might have been his first he couldn't remember! the calm was disrupted by phil catching a seagull (his PB) - it grabbed the bait before he could drop it down - hooked in the top beak - we managed to unhook it quickly with the t bar, and the gulls left us alone for about an hour. Just as I was bouncing my bait back down tide, lifting and bouncing, i got a hit - a decent hit, thinking it was another tope, i brought it up through the tide, Tim said its a big bream, but i had a size 10 hook and mackerel bait....... no the shiney silver fish approaching was a BASS - now i haven't caught a bass in about 30 yrs (schoolies in the river medina) - and this was my PB - it was only 2.5lb which surprised me as it was a big fish at 50cm - but a PB none the less! absolutely buzzing! by 3pm we were done, wind was picking up, tide was dropping off and people were falling asleep - what a cracking day out - especially as we had some decent fish on Thursday too! Me and the Mrs then spent the bank holiday weekend on a friends canal boat in Rickmansworth - very pleasant but no fishing. thejollysinker, suzook12, Geoff and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintly Fish Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 43 minutes ago, mike farrants said: it was only 2.5lb which surprised me as it was a big fish at 50cm Think you need to calibrate/check/replace your scales Mike. A 50cm bass should be more like a 4lb fish. Unless it's a skinny I'll thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike farrants Posted August 30, 2022 Author Share Posted August 30, 2022 well we used digital and mechanical scales - its fillets in the freezer now...... suzook12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike farrants Posted August 30, 2022 Author Share Posted August 30, 2022 i was surprised - thought it would have been heavier too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPSguru Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 (edited) 33 minutes ago, mike farrants said: i was surprised - thought it would have been heavier too That is definitely a 4lb ish fish all day long. A 42 keeper is close to 2.75lb. That is a good eating size, but you need to bleed them by immediately cutting the gills. Edited August 30, 2022 by GPSguru Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike farrants Posted August 30, 2022 Author Share Posted August 30, 2022 thanks Ian - both sets of scales showed around 2lb 4oz........ I did blead it immediately on the boat - we do it with all keepers! Malc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 4 minutes ago, GPSguru said: That is definitely a 4lb ish fish all day long. A 42 keeper is close to 2.75lb. That is a good eating size, but you need to bleed them by immediately cutting the gills. And de scale them on the water otherwise you will be finding scales around the kitchen for ages. GPSguru 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPSguru Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 (edited) 34 minutes ago, mike farrants said: thanks Ian - both sets of scales showed around 2lb 4oz........ I did blead it immediately on the boat - we do it with all keepers! There is more than a fair chance that both are wrong, as a 50cm fish will almost definitely weight more than that. Perhaps you are using a cheap chinky tape from screwfix 🤣 Check the scales against a known weight. A bag of sugar is usually good as a rough idea, 1kg or 2.2lb I use Reuben Heaton scales, we have digital to 130lb and dial to 60lb on the boat. Edited August 30, 2022 by GPSguru Saintly Fish 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 Could @mike farrants be the first fisherman to ever under exaggerate the size of a fish? mike farrants and GPSguru 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPSguru Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 1 hour ago, mike farrants said: i was surprised - thought it would have been heavier too That is closer to 52cm, so according the BASS site the minimum weight will be 3.5lb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonC Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 7 minutes ago, GPSguru said: That is closer to 52cm, so according the BASS site the minimum weight will be 3.5lb I recon a trip to Toolstation to but a better tape is in order. GPSguru 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishybuisness Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 Quite interesting as last year we had a number of 44cm bass that were around the 7lb mark! they looked deformed and stocky like a bream JonC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejollysinker Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 nice day out by the look of it and plenty of fish caught too 🙂 I'm moving my boat up your way, obviously the fishing is better 🤣 mike farrants 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malc Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 Awesome day by the looks of it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 Top dangling as usual @mike farrants. Kudos to you all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan Tuna Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 The size of that leach 😵 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnyswamp Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 A belting few days Mike, certainly beats my Friday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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