SeaMouse goes to Brightlingsea

[Lookfar]

Hi folks,
It looked on Tuesday night like I was going to be fishing alone, as I'd had a couple of guys say yes then back out. Not a problem, after a grim week I was just happy to be going fishing even if I was still packing the boat by torchlight pushing midnight. I was then abruptly propelled upright by the phone going off by my ear at 5am. It was Jim, responding to my kind offer! He'd come home late, seen my mail, set his alarm and got up early just to ring in hope of a slot still being free. What's more, he made it from Hampstead to Ruislip by train and bike by 6am. Impressive.
Meanwhile, I'd fallen out of bed, loaded the boat and was there to collect him from the station in the grey half light. It looked promising, not a breath of wind but maybe a touch too much fog. That cleared as we headed east, and rolling into Brightlingsea some time after 8am we had just a light overcast keeping the sun away. Ray was already there waiting with his crewman and we launched both Warriors at leisure and tied off to the pontoon. Chatted for a while until the bait shop opened and we were joined by a Merry Fisher, then Ray led us out at a sedate 20 knots or so on a dead flat sea.
The destination was a narrow gully parallel to the tide that reached the giddy depths of 40 feet. No idea what it was called, I was simply following the locals, but it was about 9 or so miles out. The tactic was to park on the slope, which left the three boats spread a good 100yards apart to keep out of one another's tide line. We settled into 30 foot depth, bang centre on the slope with the last of the flood creaming past (if 'cream' is applicable to liquid mud). Jim was on his first ever boat trip but well used to shore fishing, so he adapted to uptiding well. Walking the lead downtide was trickier but he just about got there by the end of the day. It was certainly necessary in such shallow water, being tight under the back of the boat wasn't likely to find many fish. Eventually, I got 2 uptide and 4 downtide rods out between us just before the first bite resulted in a small whiting for Jim. I then had a more solid take and a good scrap in the tide run. The net came out as insurance and a nice, plump 2.5lb codling graced the decks. I lost another when it rolled on the surface then Jim was away as well. His fish went 3lb and he was well and truly made up with it. We had to pause for pictures.
We'd been told that the fish were happy with squid, but I'd asked for £15 worth of lug as back-up. Good job I did, on this mark the fish wanted worm and worm only. I added another codling of 2.5lb or so and ten whiting, about three of which scraped into size, while Jim had another two whiting. Stretched over a morning, it amounted to steady but relatively slow sport. We shuffled rods around through slack water and managed to avoid knitting ourselves up. My stupidly light spinning rod on 3lb line was produced while there was no flow and I had a real rod-bender of a fight with a near 1lb whiting that had me grinning ear to ear, then we fished into the ebb. The other boats were finding things slow, so once it was clear the ebb wasn't going to bring the fish on Ray proposed a move back to a gully we'd crossed that was showing fish on the sounder.
Down we went, conditions still flat and breathless with even a short period of sunshine. The new mark was in a whopping great 40ft and broad enough to anchor side by side with Moray so we could shout across. The tide was belting through and there was no sign of the pin whiting. Instead, we had a steady stream of 2-3lb codling that were not at all fussed over whether they took lug, whole squid or cocktail baits. In the tide push with light rods they were fun as well and the Merry Fisher wasn't long in joining us (he'd stayed on the previous mark at first). In the last two hours of the day, I put nine aboard and Jim had three. They were coming in bursts, which let us mess around cleaning the catch between bites and even do a little filming.
Wrapped up some time after 4pm with fish coming right to the last drop. Belted back in convoy but this time Ray got the bit between his teeth and I was clocking 28 knots at one point to keep him in sight, with the Merry Fisher dropping back steadily. It'd be nice to know what revs I was pulling, but the rev counter appears to have conked out on me. Another little job to attend to.
Back at the slip, an effortless solo recovery (my crewman only had boots so I didn't want him getting muddy then cacking up my car) and we were homebound by 5.30pm. Remarkably, I got a clean run around the M25 and Jim was put back on his bike, clutching a bag of fillets and fish-heads (don't ask!), somewhere about 10pm. Given how long it took us to fillet 15 codling, it is probably a good job we didn't manage the 30+ catch rate they were reporting at the weekend! Fell into bed about midnight, that'd be a near 20 hour day on 5 hours sleep and 5 hours of towing. Fun though!

Steve

[Portland Pirate]

Nice one Steve. You going to manage to post any pics for us jealous ones.

[BaggieRich]

Well done Steve.. Sounds like a fantastic day.

[TerryW]

Nice to see someone is getting out there and that there are really a few cod to be had. I was begining to wonder all we seem to get round here (Solent) is undersized Bass (even now).

I'm doing a load of DIY else I would have been out there myself. Reading another fisherman's exploits will have to do for now.

Any chance of a few pictures of your boat, cod, bait . . .

Terry

[Fishing Forum Admin]

great read cheers

[silverfish]

Well done mate. Sounds like a great day out.

[Twiddler]

Great report Steve, sounds like you the fish kept you busy

[Lookfar]

Originally Posted by Portland Pirate

Nice one Steve. You going to manage to post any pics for us jealous ones.

I'll have a go later at posting some pics, the other boats took some nice 'action' shots. Might take a while, somewhat tied down at work this week.

Steve

[Lookfar]

Here goes, hope this works.

Launching from the slip. For those that don't know it, it's a corker. Hard ground under an inch of mud, shallow slope, plenty of parking and a pontoon to tie off to. Way better than the steep and shingly nightmares my poor car normally faces.

http://www.seafishingonline.com/copp...1%20resize.jpg

Heading out in convoy with Moray, perfect conditions for February and remarkable restraint on the speed front.

http://www.seafishingonline.com/copp...y%20resize.jpg

I had to hunt for a shot showing some daylight under the hull (Moray mailed me about 20 action pics in total) as there was almost no swell and the new trim tabs keep the bows well down. Ray just managed to catch us using this stray swell as a launch ramp.
http://www.seafishingonline.com/copp...-%20resize.jpg

Playing a codling. I've lost quality in blowing up what was a long-range shot but it shows what a nice bend the codling were putting in the light rods
http://www.seafishingonline.com/copp.../fish%20on.jpg

No close-up catch pics as I've only got them of Jim and I'll not post someones mugshot without their permission. I don't really like 'piles of dead fish' shots like this one, I'm not happy with the image it portrays even if they were all gratefully consigned to the freezer for future enjoyment. Anyone doesn't like this, PM me and I'll pull it.
http://www.seafishingonline.com/copp...h%20resize.jpg

Steve