Norman
Well-known member
Surprising how many were NOT out today ..... 
missed a nice day out, well, nice that is if you had started 2-3 hours later than we did 
Tony and I were off at 5.30am this morning, expecting a few showers as per forcast but also expecting it to clear up (as it did) by 9.00am ish.
After firstly the lean spell we've all experienced of late, then the manic hour or two I had on Tuesday it was a real excitement builder this morning to find out were they going to be there or were they not?
After reaching our chosen wreck and meeting up with bert and crew on Shady (likeminded madmen) in the pouring rain at a little past 6 o'clock it was good to see Tony take first fish, a small codling, within seconds of hitting bottom on first drop ..... duly pirked I believe.
It soon became evident that they (the codling) were in fact still there although from what followed for the next few hours, outnumbered probably 20 fold by whiting ........
As the rain persisted for the next couple of hours so did we, pulling out a few keepers (but small) but many many (many) Whiting .....
Whatever we used to attract cod automatically attracted whiting ......
and boy did they like shad tails, as can be seen from picture below they ruined shad after shad by grabbing the tails and dismembering ....
But still ...... it was excellent fishing as there was at least always "something", even if it was whiting, biting away ...
By 9.30 we'd hit bottom of the tide and action had slowed (but the rain stopped and the day brightened up), we decided to try a few wrecks further afield while the tide turned and started to flood with a view to returning to this particular place at about 2 hrs into the flood ..... turned out to be a fruitless journey as even whiting were scarse further out .........
Back again we came and almost instantly the codling started to come aboard, I say codling as nothing today was big enough to call a cod.
This continued although not in any "manic" sense till we decided to call it a day about 12.30pm.
All in all a great day out with the weather following exactly what had been suggested by XC weather and ending in a large slow swell that had us climbing mountains then surfing downhill as we headed home.
Eventual catch for the day ------ we kept about a dozen plateable fish and released many more, we must have caught and released ... well, LOTS of whiting... and Tony kept a boxfull of mackerel for a friend for bait.
As ever .......... brilliant to be out there ..... not many boats around today we noticed only ourselves (obviously ), shady and JFK ...
Hope yous all did well too .......
a few pics as ever (pretty basic today)
Tony's first
and Mine
Shady and crew close at hand ...
Another for Tone
The Cabin Boys doing well , I may think of moving him up a grade .....
The family WILL be fed after all ...
Aftermath of the shad biting whiting ........
cheers all
norm
missed a nice day out, well, nice that is if you had started 2-3 hours later than we did Tony and I were off at 5.30am this morning, expecting a few showers as per forcast but also expecting it to clear up (as it did) by 9.00am ish.
After firstly the lean spell we've all experienced of late, then the manic hour or two I had on Tuesday it was a real excitement builder this morning to find out were they going to be there or were they not?
After reaching our chosen wreck and meeting up with bert and crew on Shady (likeminded madmen) in the pouring rain at a little past 6 o'clock it was good to see Tony take first fish, a small codling, within seconds of hitting bottom on first drop ..... duly pirked I believe.
It soon became evident that they (the codling) were in fact still there although from what followed for the next few hours, outnumbered probably 20 fold by whiting ........
As the rain persisted for the next couple of hours so did we, pulling out a few keepers (but small) but many many (many) Whiting .....
Whatever we used to attract cod automatically attracted whiting ......
and boy did they like shad tails,
as can be seen from picture below they ruined shad after shad by grabbing the tails and dismembering .... But still ...... it was excellent fishing as there was at least always "something", even if it was whiting, biting away ...
By 9.30 we'd hit bottom of the tide and action had slowed (but the rain stopped and the day brightened up), we decided to try a few wrecks further afield while the tide turned and started to flood with a view to returning to this particular place at about 2 hrs into the flood ..... turned out to be a fruitless journey as even whiting were scarse further out .........
Back again we came and almost instantly the codling started to come aboard, I say codling as nothing today was big enough to call a cod.
This continued although not in any "manic" sense till we decided to call it a day about 12.30pm.
All in all a great day out with the weather following exactly what had been suggested by XC weather and ending in a large slow swell that had us climbing mountains then surfing downhill as we headed home.
Eventual catch for the day ------ we kept about a dozen plateable fish and released many more, we must have caught and released ... well, LOTS of whiting... and Tony kept a boxfull of mackerel for a friend for bait.
As ever .......... brilliant to be out there ..... not many boats around today we noticed only ourselves (obviously
), shady and JFK ...Hope yous all did well too .......
a few pics as ever (pretty basic today)
Tony's first
and Mine
Shady and crew close at hand ...
Another for Tone
The Cabin Boys doing well , I may think of moving him up a grade .....
The family WILL be fed after all
...
Aftermath of the shad biting whiting ........
cheers all
norm
) and the fenders are stowed when I'm underway apart from two which are tied up along the starboard walkway so I can put them out easily when I'm coming in solo. 
If only they'd come inshore this season then we'd be having some bumper action in the club matches (or for the recreational angler if that's yer flavour 
)
