A midweek mooch

[jonnyswamp]

Apart from a snatched couple of hours out 6/8 weeks ago, I hadn't took the boat through the locks in what felt like 6 months or more

Made a few phone calls, fulfilled a few promises and 5 of us boarded at 7am this morning, ready for the 7.30 outbound lock

Forecast had changed overnight from next to no winds all day, to gusts of up to 20 odd mph North Easterlies until 10 ish

On an ebbing tide in the Bristol Channel this is doable, so wasn't particularly worried as low water coincided with the winds dropping and a 3-4mph wind against a floodiing tide wouldn't present much of an issue (even on a small tide of around 10m)

Plan was to go straight out to a large sand bank a mile or so out of the locks and fish the remaining ebb until low water which was  around 11, the gusty winds would have been directly with the tide and should have been comfortable enough. It wasn't

Got somewhere near the mark and it was clear that mother nature was menopausal and was being a bit of a twat

Plan B implemented and we headed East for calmer waters just off Sully Island and after dragging anchor (very slowly) for half an hour or so, pulled it back in to find a rock the size of an odd shaped basket ball wedged between the flukes and the stem (?) so no surprised it didn't hold

We did pick up a few strap congers and ray or 2 here

Plan C next, so we moved into Sully Bay hoping for some bigger Blondes and while we didn't boat any monsters, we had a steady stream over the gunwales through slack low until mid dayish, just the one small dog, a dozen or more eels to 10-12lb, 5/6 Blondes to low single figures, a couple of Thornies of around the same stamp, a Smoothy of 7/8lb and a small whiting

This was my mates fathers first fish in 25 plus yrs, also his first boat trip in 25 yrs as well

 

 

And he only chucked up once

Final move of the day was back up to Cardiff to have a go tight in to the Foreshore looking for a lost Codling or 2

They may have been lost, but we didn't find them

A bit more of the same, fish wise up here, but the wind was slewing us back and forth tangling lines etc, so we pulled the pick and made the 5 min steam into the 2.15pm inbound lock and was back on the mooring by 2.45

Would have been quicker, but I drop the oldies off (and everyone else) at the fuel pontoon with the all the gear, so it isn't so far to carry (pull the trolley) to the van

Not a red letter day and only the one photo, but still enjoyable none the less

 

 

 

 

 

[Andy135]

You got out, you caught fish. What's not to like?! Well dangled, and well skippered too. Sounds like you and the crew had to work for your fish. Good effort 👍

[jonnyswamp]

1 minute ago, Andy135 said:

You got out, you caught fish. What's not to like?! Well dangled, and well skippered too. Sounds like you and the crew had to work for your fish. Good effort 👍

It was a bit snotty steaming between marks, and the Rannie was quite angry today

[daio web]

nice report mate i am hopefully out saturday  weather permitting  big tides aswell all i can do is hope for the best what weather staitions do you use mate they are all showing big difference between them 

[jonnyswamp]

3 hours ago, daio web said:

nice report mate i am hopefully out saturday  weather permitting  big tides aswell all i can do is hope for the best what weather staitions do you use mate they are all showing big difference between them 

"Tides near me" on my phone and "tides4fishing" on my laptop, never identical but not far away

[RogB]

Theres an app simply called "Tides" on Android by a chap called David Easton which is good as it includes a storm surge correction and also tabs that give wave heights and directions. No weather but the waves are useful and predict a few days in advance

 

I use the actual tide height to enter a tidal offset on my Garmin Quickdraw contours so they have some resemblance to reality in tidal waters (near shore for me)

Edited October 26, 2023 by RogB

[Saintly Fish]

Glad to see you got out Nick!!👍🏻