Gone West

[Malc]

Annual competition for tope, huss, smooth hound and TBR and oddly mackerel too. Weather forecast was improving over the preceding week but Saturday was hard work with a proper lump on if you ventured more than a couple of miles offshore and several boats went back in as crew were ill. We scored a few small mackerel which was a bonus as they were thin on the ground and eventually got to our first mark but it was hard going so we went inshore and although the weather then calmed we soon got into the rays which steadily got bigger until they peaked at around 52cm wingtip to wingtip and a good sized mackerel to get us on the score sheet. Moved again to try for tope/huss and had one belter of a run which ended with a dropped bait.

Sunday was smooth after an overnight deluge and we bagged up on mackerel very quickly and after trying a mark we spotted for tope/huss decided to get a smoothie inshore which worked and they were more interested in small baits than anything bigger than a strip of mackerel or squid and a few more feisty ray kiting about in the tide. Now we needed the big two but unfortunately we didn't get either 😕 but I got a mackerel that was 1cm smaller than the winner 🙄

Awesome time, there as ever and I look forward to going again next year!

Heading out day 2.

Calm Sunday 

Gratuitous fish photo. 

Alien bait shredder. 

[Saintly Fish]

Thanks for sharing Malc! 

[Malc]

35 minutes ago, JonC said:

I think those timber topsides need a bit of TLC at some point please. 

Absolutely, but its not my boat.

They are giving it a clean off as it was Abraham Lincoln from 2 x 8hr days of fishing and sat in 25C heat. I had to take a knife and scrape off dried mack off my trousers before putting them in the washing machine. 

[daio web]

great report bud 

[Andy135]

Lovely report. Well done, it sounds like a great weekend.

That starfish.... WTF? Definitely looks alien! 👽

[Malc]

3 hours ago, Andy135 said:

...sounds like a great weekend...

It was, we were completely trashed on Saturday night due to the conditions and to be frank I was goosed on Tuesday too, it was not too bad for the bigger boats and decreasing through the day however. We had loads of laughter though, such as chasing a joey mackerel around under the hatch edges (yes there was that much water running around at times) and eventually having to use long nose pliers to get its tail and drag it back to open areas, dumbass giggly sugar low times, sheer flukes like hooking a mackerel in the mouth with a 8/0 circle when retrieving an empty tope trace, losing a (the first) smoothie at the boat instead of asking for the net, going light and getting smoothies and rays a plenty on small hook flapper rigs, bites rays, doggie rash, and a dab or two of karma when we were 30 seconds behind an RTA with a paramedic, car mechanic, and an ex firefighter onboard, and giving a crew our handheld radio when their's failed and might have meant that they could not compete. 

Freaking great every time we go. 

Edited June 14, 2023 by Malc