Norman
Well-known member
Well, just to ensure we didn`t think this fishing lark was becoming too easy,
the fish gods decided to show us today how darn hard it can be ......
Out of the marina at 6.00am with a bit of a wind blowing southerly (isn't a southerly wind usually warm
... not today ! )
It was rather darker than expected and quite low visibility in the mist, however off we went Tony and myself for our
second jaunt of the season and Steve on his first.
Just outside the piers and visibility was about 500 metres, still this is a good place to start so we dropped off over
a favourite mark to be rewarded almost instantly by a fish to myself, a scotchie so I take it they must've known Steve was aboard.
Not a lot else appeared (in fact nothing) after a couple of drifts so we decided to head to the scene of the last trips success.
About 2 mile out , met up with bert and lads on Shady, who too were at this point in time struggling to find a catch.
Did witness bert pull in the first of the day, well done mate, then Steve struck in with a nice codling of about 3lbd to break our duck for the day.
Whoa it was cold, spent some time trying to defrost fingers on hot engine (from the portion of deisel used for on board domestic heating)
It just got colder and windier ....... eventually I pulled in a small codling but that was it for the next 4 hours, other than the odd scotchie (checked it`s bottom and confirmed it was a scotchie)
Eventually the mist eased and the sun came out so the cold began to die away, but still no fish .... we tried everywhere (several times) meeting up with a couple of other boats having the same hard luck stories (Shanka and Stingray)
Then the wind started to really blow westerly, causing quite a chop with white tops and a severe drift ........
That was just about it by 10.30am, all except for maybe another try just outside the yellow can ..........
Then something turned the fish on ........ in the next 45 minutes we boated another 7 fish of 2lbds-3lbds ...... thank goodness success at last.
Then as distinctively as it started the catch spell stopped again ..... that was it for the days catch ...
As I started this post you never can think of it as becoming easy ............... today was a hard hard days fishing in 5 or 6 hours of cold windy conditions saved only by the 45 mins worth of takes that, in my opinion we earned by our persistence not to give in.
Just a couple of pics of the day :-
Steve with the first of the day
Richie and mate with Stingray
Tony , showing he too can (eventually) catch codling
And Lastly lest we forget, Steve catching what he does best !
A Cold and hard day, but excellent as ever, cheers lads ....
Norm
the fish gods decided to show us today how darn hard it can be ......
Out of the marina at 6.00am with a bit of a wind blowing southerly (isn't a southerly wind usually warm
... not today ! )It was rather darker than expected and quite low visibility in the mist, however off we went Tony and myself for our
second jaunt of the season and Steve on his first.
Just outside the piers and visibility was about 500 metres, still this is a good place to start so we dropped off over
a favourite mark to be rewarded almost instantly by a fish to myself, a scotchie so I take it they must've known Steve was aboard.
Not a lot else appeared (in fact nothing) after a couple of drifts so we decided to head to the scene of the last trips success.
About 2 mile out , met up with bert and lads on Shady, who too were at this point in time struggling to find a catch.
Did witness bert pull in the first of the day, well done mate, then Steve struck in with a nice codling of about 3lbd to break our duck for the day.
Whoa it was cold, spent some time trying to defrost fingers on hot engine (from the portion of deisel used for on board domestic heating)
It just got colder and windier ....... eventually I pulled in a small codling but that was it for the next 4 hours, other than the odd scotchie (checked it`s bottom and confirmed it was a scotchie)
Eventually the mist eased and the sun came out so the cold began to die away, but still no fish .... we tried everywhere (several times) meeting up with a couple of other boats having the same hard luck stories (Shanka and Stingray)
Then the wind started to really blow westerly, causing quite a chop with white tops and a severe drift ........
That was just about it by 10.30am, all except for maybe another try just outside the yellow can ..........
Then something turned the fish on ........ in the next 45 minutes we boated another 7 fish of 2lbds-3lbds ...... thank goodness success at last.
Then as distinctively as it started the catch spell stopped again ..... that was it for the days catch ...
As I started this post you never can think of it as becoming easy ............... today was a hard hard days fishing in 5 or 6 hours of cold windy conditions saved only by the 45 mins worth of takes that, in my opinion we earned by our persistence not to give in.
Just a couple of pics of the day :-
Steve with the first of the day
Richie and mate with Stingray
Tony , showing he too can (eventually) catch codling
And Lastly lest we forget, Steve catching what he does best !
A Cold and hard day, but excellent as ever, cheers lads ....
Norm
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we were limping along at 8knts.
