A couple of decent days

[GPSguru]

Sunday was a cracker of a day so an early start for the skerries, stopping on the way for fresh Mack.

We spent an hour on the Mack, and whilst kyle and the wife were busy with the feathers, I got the squid jigs out and found a couple of cuttle and 3 fresh squid.

Then a decent run to the skerries ( stopping to play with the Dolphins) where we drifted for plaice and soon bagged up, but only retained 6 decent keepers. Once the tide changed and started to pick up I dropped the pin and down went the big Ray baits.

We were soon into the Blonds and boated  11 with the biggest at 13lb. Also we had 2 dogs and a decent Grey that went almost 3lb. All too soon it was time to pull the anchor and head back. There was a shoal of BFT busting a bait ball just off the banks.

 

Monday was to be a bait gathering session, just the wife and I, as we had the school run in the afternoon.

The wife was on tinsel duty, and I set up a squid jig pat to target the cuttle. We were pretty successful with 20+ Mack and 17 cuttle. The biggest cuttle went almost 5lb and was taking line ! Cuttle are annoying as you only land about 1 in 5, as they grab and let go the jigs.
Also in the mix on the tinsels were Scad (lost count) and small tubs.

@thejollysinker is going to be fuming, as he fishes right over the cuttle, but unless you actively target them, you would never know they are there.

 

 

Cuttle are dirty bastids, so cleaning the boat was a jet wash job, but keeping the deck wet helps a lot. They probably emit 5 times more ink than squid. All in the freezer now as cuttle will out fish all other baits in the winter. The quantity and quality of the cuttle would cost about £250 -£300 to buy as frozen bait, so well pleased.

2 days and 120nm, tired but happy.

 

Edited October 10, 2023 by GPSguru

[Andy135]

Top effort and top results! Well done 👍 

The recent calm weather must have made for great drifting conditions too. Very envious indeed.

[moonlighter]

Well done and congratulations on getting such great bait.

The cuttle also make great eating, though not to everyone's taste.

[RogB]

Excellent stuff. I have only once taken a cuttle for eating - as revenge as it headshotted me while I tried to net it from my kayak. Luckily I had my sunglasses on otherwise I would have had ink in my eyes but my nice bright high vis hat (so the throbbers on jetski's don't run me over) and yellow kayak were never the same again. I don't think it was an accidental shot either....🤯 

[GPSguru]

2 hours ago, RogB said:

Excellent stuff. I have only once taken a cuttle for eating - as revenge as it headshotted me while I tried to net it from my kayak. Luckily I had my sunglasses on otherwise I would have had ink in my eyes but my nice bright high vis hat (so the throbbers on jetski's don't run me over) and yellow kayak were never the same again. I don't think it was an accidental shot either....🤯 

Squid are more accurate than cuttle 🙄🤣

you wont find a better bait than cuttle guts for the larger Bass 😉👍

 

Edited October 10, 2023 by GPSguru

[Saintly Fish]

Good going Ian, I'd love to find and catch cattle . What's the secret?? Where and how?

[thejollysinker]

Well done Ian 👏

I very nearly went to the Skerries on Sunday but Tom (my son with the medical issue) was down for a trip and it would have been too much for him….so we fished the same place I did two weeks ago.

Report to come but we did manage to land one cuttlefish and six squiddlies 😊

[Andy135]

37 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

Good going Ian, I'd love to find and catch cattle . What's the secret?? Where and how?

Generally speaking, any field will hold cattle. Be aware that the farmers don't tend to like it when you catch them though.

[Saintly Fish]

6 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

Generally speaking, any field will hold cattle. Be aware that the farmers don't tend to like it when you catch them though.

Yes ok, iPhone at its tricks again!!

[GPSguru]

55 minutes ago, thejollysinker said:

Well done Ian 👏

I very nearly went to the Skerries on Sunday but Tom (my son with the medical issue) was down for a trip and it would have been too much for him….so we fished the same place I did two weeks ago.

Report to come but we did manage to land one cuttlefish and six squiddlies 😊

 

I am surprised that we didn't see each other !

I was there on Sunday morning, from about 8 until 9 (ish), then had to come back into Teignmouth to drop off daughter and grand daughter before we went down to the skerries.

[GPSguru]

4 hours ago, Saintly Fish said:

Good going Ian, I'd love to find and catch cattle . What's the secret?? Where and how?

Its more 'how' than 'where', also the cuttle window is relatively small compared to squid that hang around right into January. Fortunately, I live in cuttle central, and the Brixham commercials refer to the season as 'black gold'. A couple of years ago one of the local smaller trawlers broke the landing record for cuttle after just a mornings fishing, his landing fetched £250k at the Brixham fish market, not bad for a mornings work !

Almost 100% of the UK cuttle goes to Spain, Portugal, Italy, and France.

They make a superb bait, and many charter skippers will tell you that cuttle will outfish any other bait for Cod, Conger, Bass, and Rays, but anglers don't use them that much as they retail between £8 -£10 per kilo, especially for XL,and XXL cuttle. Most of what I caught would be XXL.

If you know of a mark where you can catch squid, that also has a soft sand or mud bottom, then it will most likely produce cuttle.

Whereas you tend to catch squid in the first third of the water column off the bottom, for cuttle your jigs need to be just a few inches off the bottom. Rigging a paternoster and flicking it a little way from the boat is the easiest method, but a flying collar (wrecking boom) with a short trace works just as well as long as to work the jig as you would with feathers (but slower). They are aggressive gits, so any jig will do.

Once you feel the rod 'load up' then give it some low tension line (not slack line) for a few seconds, then a steady slow reel to the surface. Often they let go before the surface, but you need to have the net ready as many will 'throw' the jig at the surface, or pull away quickly to break off their grabbing tentacle. TBH, the landing rate is poor, about 1 in 5 hits will get to the boat. Yesterday I was getting bites within a few minutes of hitting the bottom.

Cuttle are masters of cammo, and tend to lay in hollows on the bottom ready to attack any prey, they will quite happily eat stuff the size of a joey.

Once in the net, then dump it straight into a bucket, where it will blow out a ton of ink. If you keep your deck wet, any ink will clean up ok. The white gel coat (inside the boat) needs to be regularly wiped down with a sponge. When the dirty bastids grunt the ink, it often goes every feck'in where, so keep the bucket covered with a cloth that can be binned (it will be black !). Also, wear sunglasses, as the gits will shoot water and ink at your face, and it rarely misses.

Yesterday I had 4 buckets of cuttle, as you can only fill them 3 parts full, due to the volume of ink.

 

Edited October 10, 2023 by GPSguru

[thejollysinker]

5 hours ago, GPSguru said:

 

I am surprised that we didn't see each other !

I was there on Sunday morning, from about 8 until 9 (ish), then had to come back into Teignmouth to drop off daughter and grand daughter before we went down to the skerries.

At that time we were drifting right over and around Tucker rock 😅 we wouldn’t have seen you as we were intently focussed on the mackerel bashing 🤣

[Josh]

Awesome stuff @GPSguru

success in all areas by that report 

With a top quality freezer stock up 

[jonnyswamp]

Cracking report, very informative thread

If by Grey, you mean Grey Gurnard, then the current boat caught record is 2lb 8oz 14dr

So your near 3lber will/would have been a new British record

 

[GPSguru]

15 minutes ago, jonnyswamp said:

Cracking report, very informative thread

If by Grey, you mean Grey Gurnard, then the current boat caught record is 2lb 8oz 14dr

So your near 3lber will/would have been a new British record

 

Yes, I thought it was close but the crew had already lobbed  it back 🙄🤣

[jonnyswamp]

4 hours ago, GPSguru said:

Yes, I thought it was close but the crew had already lobbed  it back 🙄🤣

Oh well, you win some................

[GPSguru]

1 hour ago, jonnyswamp said:

Oh well, you win some................

Yes, a shame but hey ho,

I weighed it at 2lb 14oz, using Reuben Heaton digital scales 🙄

[mike farrants]

sounds like an awesome couple of days -  and all targets acquired! 

nice - we get more squid than cuttle here - but will keep trying for some this autumn! 

[thejollysinker]

On 10/10/2023 at 11:53 AM, GPSguru said:

@thejollysinker is going to be fuming, as he fishes right over the cuttle, but unless you actively target them, you would never know they are there.

 

So if I’m fishing right over them and this was one of my tracks (before it crashed) on Sunday, is this the general vicinity or is it more specific? 

if I get the chance I’d love to have a go for some more. I have caught them elsewhere before on the rough ground straight out from Teignmouth 🤔

[GPSguru]

9 hours ago, thejollysinker said:

So if I’m fishing right over them and this was one of my tracks (before it crashed) on Sunday, is this the general vicinity or is it more specific? 

if I get the chance I’d love to have a go for some more. I have caught them elsewhere before on the rough ground straight out from Teignmouth 🤔

Nah, not quite, I will send info via whattsapp 😉

Edited October 13, 2023 by GPSguru

[GPSguru]

9 hours ago, GPSguru said:

Nah, not quite, I will send info via whattsapp 😉

As it is on the PC, and copying pics from the PC to an iphone is a PITA, here is 'seagull rock' (it is under 39ft of water so you would need f'off big seagulls to land on it 🤣