17th March Bristol Channel

[jonnyswamp]

With the locks opened at 00.01 Sunday morning and nothing but wind since, today was the first real chance at a trip out after a long couple of months being locked up (or down or whatever it was called)

Arrived at the boat around 6.30am and opened the door to what felt like a boiler room, a heater that works of your phone is a godsend 

Went through the 7am lock with just 2 other boats for company and after a chat with one, decided to follow him across to a mark between Clevedon and Weston that would be fairly sheltered from the 12 odd meter tide

Had the pick dug in by about 7.45 and my (already set up) rods out a little bit later, 1 off the back downtide and 2 off the port side uptiding, squid on the downtider and a combo of huge fresh  black lug and dirty squid on the uptiders

You know sometimes how you think you see your rod twitch out the corner of your eye when you're looking elsewhere, I did twice while looking at my downtider

I then gave one of the uptiders a steely glare until it started bouncing and I was sure it wasn't my imagination, a very plump Codling of just under 4lb was over the gunnels and I was over the moon, mission completed

This should be a photo of a fat, near 4lb Codling, but my flckr thing wont upload and I spect you've all seen one anyway

2 small rays were the next victims (1 for myself and 1 for Mark) which were unhooked and both swam away strongly, then I had that feeling of dejavu with regards to my looking elsewhere etc

Codling number 2 was soon on the deck, albeit a bit smaller and slimmer at 2.5 lb, but was still going to be dinner for my old Granny some time this week (96 and still battling on)

Codling number 3 was a bit of a non starter at around 10 inches and went straight back

Codling number 4 went to Mark and was maybe 10mm bigger than my last one at 10 inch 10mm

High water came and went and brought a bit of early wind, took a while for the anchor to set after we turned, but dig in it did and the rods were back out

The relatively serene flood had turned into a very strong ebb and brought a load of weed back down with it, so after a fruitless few hours we decided on a move

Dodging the barely submerged sandbanks all around us, we made our way out of the Langford grounds and back across to our side of the river where we anchored up on the coral, which is just down from Penarth pier and pretty much dead inline with the wrach channel

Good strong run of tide here as well but not so much weed to contend with and after the rip died down a bit, I actually saw my rod tip bounce with both eyes

My 4th and last Codling of the day landed on the deck and tipped the scales at 3lb 9oz, again not a monster but very welcome

The three takers were full of crab that were very recently eaten by the looks of them, some hard backs and some soft, with the first one caught absolutely stuffed full

Tally for the day was 2 thornies (4/5lb), 5 Codling to a shade under 4lb and no Dogs or Conger 😁

The big black lug seemed to outfish Rag today, with my other crew Mike blanking on just fish baits

Roll on Saturdays smaller tide for a trip up towards Clevedon

 

 

 

 

[Saintly Fish]

Well done swampy. I take it you had to write down all that happened today? Otherwise, how did you remember it all?? 
Glad you got out and caught some pigs after a long lock up! 

[Andy135]

Top dangling and thanks for the detailed write-up! A good read, despite what @JonC will say about having no pics 🤣You should be able to just copy the URL of your Flikr photos and paste them in here. Drop me a PM if you get stuck. 👍

Interesting that the worm baits out fished the fish baits. You'd have thought the fish baits would have more scent for longer but maybe the cod were just tuned into the lug. Good fishing either way. Shame about the lack of dogfish though, but I suppose you can't win 'em all 🐶🎣👍

[Maverick]

Great report, thanks

[OrkneyCorkney]

Good report, well done.  Also good to have another boat around when you have 12 metre tides - you never know if one of the boats needs a hand👍