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East Wight plaice chase


Andy135

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An early start saw @Saintly Fish and I steaming out of Portsmouth Harbour to head east in search of plaice. An early snag was that we discovered one of my trim tabs was no longer working. Either the switch or a new ram is needed... who said boat-owning was easy?

We headed 15 or so miles east to the Middle Grounds, where Neil managed to scratch up a pout and a whiting. I however was blanking.

At slack water we headed over to take a look into the Mixon Hole. We drifted it a couple of times to test out the new SPJ gear but with nothing showing on the fish finder we didn't have much hope of a fish and we weren't disappointed.

As the flood picked up steam we moved over to drift the Medmery Bank for a few more drifts where, like the suckers for punishment that we are, we blanked. Again.

Fearing the die would be cast for the day we had to come up with a plan B. B for Bullocks Patch, where we dropped the hook and took a gamble on there being some mixed species available, including plaice. Having had plaice at anchor from Bullocks previously, anything was possible. An assortment of baits gets sent down, including black lug, squid, prawn and peeler.

Neil opens his account with a triple hook up, which is pretty impressive seeing as he only had 2 hooks on his rig.

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However, it doesn't take long for the star of the show to put in an appearance...

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At about this time, one of Neil's rods gives a mighty rattle and a fierce tussle ensues... I'll leave him to tell the story and post the pic 😉

As the wind picked up we decided to call it a day, but not before one of my rods rattles nicely. I'd baited it with leftover prawn that didn't catch any plaice... but instead it brings a nice wrasse to the boat. Looks like @GPSguru was right about prawn as bait after all!

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5 minutes ago, Geoff said:

Nice report and I bet it was great to be out again. Are the dogs that you and Neil seem to be specializing in recently classed as a miniature breed? Geoff.:classic_wink:

Honestly, they were bigger in the flesh!

#fishermanstales!

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30 minutes ago, JonC said:

Good days fishing for you two, a better than usual catch for you both. 

Unfortunately for you you sarky sod, Neil has an ace up his sleeve that he'll post in due course. 😉

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59 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

@GPSguru was right about prawn as bait after all!

 

Live prawn is a killer for wrasse, hook through the 3rd segment from the tail. I usually pick them up on the way out by stopping at some pilings or the commercial quay and use a fine mesh net. Kyle  is good at that stuff and also catches a few hard backs on a handline at the same time.

Sometimes it is just good to be out and the fishing seems almost unimportant ! ............... well done on catching a few, anything that puts a bend in the rod is Ok by me.........

Edited by GPSguru
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7 minutes ago, GPSguru said:

Sometimes it is just good to be out and the fishing seems almost unimportant ! ............... well done on catching a few, anything that puts a bend in the rod is Ok by me.........

Exactly this! It felt so good to be on the water and in the sunshine that even if we'd blanked it would have still been a good day out. Bust trim tab aside... but even broken gear can be spun as an opportunity to go shoppping. Which reminds me! I now need a new tackle box as someone stood on mine and broke the side catch.

#whocouldthatbe?

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9 hours ago, Andy135 said:

Exactly this! It felt so good to be on the water and in the sunshine that even if we'd blanked it would have still been a good day out. Bust trim tab aside... but even broken gear can be spun as an opportunity to go shoppping. Which reminds me! I now need a new tackle box as someone stood on mine and broke the side catch.

#whocouldthatbe?

I did it accidentally as you know, but before hand I was thinking to myself that the manky old excuse for a tackle box was far too small and dirty. Time for a new one! 
Thanks for the day out mate, it was fun to be out on Jersey girl again. 
I could certainly feel the pressure building in you as you went 0-5 down. 
Good job Mr Dog came along to save your embarrassments once again. The wrasse though was a very good way to top off the afternoon!

Still, a chance drop of a live peeler did steal the day, bringing in a very pissed off lady smoothound. She went to about 8-9lb, a much appreciated scrap .

64100938-E9F7-4B2E-89FA-B7C6C1A80F52.jpeg.3e0a900ff74d27643b0d248122a5d30f.jpeg

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4 minutes ago, Geoff said:

Well done Neil - I bet that Andy was pleased that YOU caught that one.

Lol, it was a tough day so I was glad he had his string pulled by a good fish.

Of course, it's not quite as good as a dogfish... 😉

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16 minutes ago, Scotch_Egg2012 said:

Nicely done,  thought we saw you.  I was out on Ray's boat,  we started at Hayling Bay until the tide was right to have an early go on Boulder for a Bream.  Needless to say Boulder saw no Bream but Hayling gave us quite a mix of species

Yes, I think we saw you coming back from Boulder early afternoon-ish. Neil commented "that boat looks like the Osprey in your drystack". 👍

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27 minutes ago, GPSguru said:

Just spoke with my mate who went out plaice fishing on Sunday and they had 20 ish between 3 of them and the biggest went a little over 3lb, but the average was 2.5lb.

 

Did you not get out then Ian?

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57 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

Did you not get out then Ian?

 

No, I tend to avoid the slip on bank holidays as it attracts all the complete muppets, however, when I looked yesterday, it seems it was not too busy.

I could have gone out with Alan (mate), but I decided to carry on building the raised patio, which is going quite well, and I am now laying the 7m Joists (41 of them) ready for the composite decking

The next nice day will see me going down to the Skerries .................

 

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6 minutes ago, GPSguru said:

ready for the composite decking

Ah composite decking. We were going to re do our decking in composite. But 30m2 of it raised up 0.5-2.5m turned out to be rather pricey. We did the small raised bit for our arbour and steps up to the shed (yes jon I do actually have a shed). The rest will be done in timber, probably next year now as the planning application for our extra loft conversion is being considered by the planners. 

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46 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

Ah composite decking. We were going to re do our decking in composite. But 30m2 of it raised up 0.5-2.5m turned out to be rather pricey. We did the small raised bit for our arbour and steps up to the shed (yes jon I do actually have a shed). The rest will be done in timber, probably next year now as the planning application for our extra loft conversion is being considered by the planners. 

I am doing 60sqm of raised decking around the conservatory. It is 1m high going out to 2m high (garden slopes). I am using Trex composite from the states. Not cheap (10 per linear metre) but has a 30 year no quibble warranty. 
 

I will also be fitting a full glass/ stainless bakastrade.

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