A day among the plaice

[Lookfar]

Hi folks,
I was invited down to Eastney to fish a friend's secret plaice mark, though with no great hopes. Plaice and me don't mix, plus I had two novices as crew so I expected to spend most of my day un-knitting tangles. At least the forecast was good (and accurate for once, too). Rolled into Eastney to find Moby already launched and Mark waiting on the slip in his chesties to help us get afloat. He'd got bait waiting too -real service!
Threw the boat in the water and followed them out. Mrs M had given me an Interdex folding crab pot recently and that was dropped near Bullocks Patch. My crab potting so far has done very little but it was interesting for my newbie crew. We'd got a f3 northerly and heavy overcast but already it was easing back and the boat speeds crept up into the low 20's. First call was for hounds across slack water and I took us onto a spit in a deep hole off Pullar. I went for the downslope in 85ft while Moby opted to fish the deep stuff. Settled the anchor in and gave my guys a feather rod to play with while I got out of my heavy weather gear as I was baking alive. The wind had dropped right off, sun was trying to break through and I was sweating like a horse. Then set to getting rods out for them, explaining how to use the reels, unhooking a slow stream of mackerel etc.
I put down squid and hermit for the hounds and fresh mackerel for the tope, but we didn't have any offers from tope at all. Where are they this year? The hounds were a different matter. Big John was first away, a small starry around 3lb closely followed by a much better one just above 10lb. That woke him up! The tagging process was watched with interest and to be fair to both of them, they soon picked up on what to do and before long I was able to get a rod out for myself. The hermit baits were getting stripped out in seconds, so I wasn't surprised much when Little John produced a small bream on his squid-baited 3/0. I put down a bream rod to prove the point and the area was full of the little monsters, plus a stray mackerel. A dogfish turned up as well but the tide was pushing through now. I hooked up on another 10lb hound, a common this time, and after another effort on the tag and release front Moby were on the VHF suggesting it was time to chase some plaice.
Hauled anchor and followed them over to their mark. There was surprisingly little tide there, almost no wind at all and I tucked us in just feet away so we could chat between the boats as we drifted. Before I'd even got the guys rigged up with spoons, John on Moby was into a small plaice. This was more like it! Down went the lines and we settled back in the sunshine to wait. I'd got different rigs on each rod and it was Big John that had the killer combination, a white plastic spoon and yellow/green beads on about 6ft of 12lb line. Over three drifts, he had four plaice from 12oz or so up to a real monster at 3.5lb. I was in seventh heaven, especially as Little John and I also picked up a smallish one each as well. Little John had a metal spoon and very long trace and the ballans loved him, he had 5 in total. My short, plain rig just found the one fish so the spoon does seem to be important. We were giving Moby some grief over their catch rate but the third drift saw both boats struggle, so it was time to move again.
Dropped in on a favourite hound mark halfway home. Again, it was pin bream central. We picked out 8 on a light rod before I decided it was a pointless exercise and retired it. They were giving our squid baits hell too, but so were the hounds. It was Little John's chance to dominate proceedings. He had three starry's and a common, with one at 9lb and the others from 10lb to 12lb 5oz. I added a 10lb common as well and ran myself out of tags as well as spending most of my time kneeling on the deck measuring and recording them. Busy, busy day but who's complaining?
We found plenty of doggies on this mark as well, then the uptider went. The fish went sliding off sideways as it neared the boat in typical ray fashion so I was expecting a thornback. What came up was a beast of a spotted ray, 4lb exactly and far and away my personal best so I was well made up. We were way over time on departure by now, so very reluctantly we called a halt and headed towards Bullocks to collect my crab pot. No problem finding the buoy in almost flat conditions and to cap off a ridiculously good day, it was stuffed. Two spiders, an edible, a velvet swimmer and four very abused-looking poor cod. The edible and one spider crab were sizeable and consigned to a bucket of seawater.
Attempts to find some mackerel for supper on the way in failed but back at the slip, Mark was waiting in the water again to help us recover. Headed for home and a slightly aggrieved wife several hours later than planned but very, very happy to have got the plaice monkey off my back.

Steve

[wellyfish]

sounds like a great day steve well done

[Fishing Forum Admin]

That would be my kind of day and great read mate

[Old Smoothound]

Brilliant read lookfar....my kind of day as well mate......any piccies?

[kiwimarty]

A good read Steve.

One thing I'm gonna have to try is dropping my 'crab pot next to Bullocks Patch', do you think it will work for me!!!!!!!!!!

Kiwi.

[pingu]

great read sounds a top day

[Lookfar]

Originally Posted by Old Smoothound

Brilliant read lookfar....my kind of day as well mate......any piccies?

I was hoping you wouldn't ask. Here we go though, done one-fingered and painfully slowly
Pictures should be the big plaice and the first one landed on Moby. Look how close we could drift together - lovely day. I'll put pics of the hounds up later if the guys agree to their images being up on the net. No pic of the spotted ray, I was too busy to get one.
http://www.seafishingonline.com/copp....php?pos=-4583

http://www.seafishingonline.com/copp....php?pos=-4581

[Lookfar]

Originally Posted by kiwimarty

One thing I'm gonna have to try is dropping my 'crab pot next to Bullocks Patch', do you think it will work for me!!!!!!!!!!

What you do in the privacy of your own boat is no concern of mine

Steve

[kiwimarty]

Originally Posted by Lookfar

What you do in the privacy of your own boat is no concern of mine

Steve

Dont have one yet mate!!!! Boat that is.

That Moby looks a cracking little boat!

Kiwi.

[Lookfar]

Originally Posted by kiwimarty

That Moby looks a cracking little boat!

The Warrior 150 is a really neat little boat, every bit as seaworthy as the 165 but a damn sight lighter and easier to tow around. The lack of deck space bites a bit but it is no worse than the Pro Angler and perfectly comfortable with two anglers. All the same, I prefer the 165 as I like the extra space and the ability to fish three if I want to.

Steve