Summer cod

Twiddler · #1 06-09-2008, 07:15 PM

John (Monkeynuts) called me last week to ask me as I would fancy a trip on the White Rebel trying for some summer cod.
I had paid for a trip end of last year which was cancelled and I told John to keep the dosh for the next trip, so I jumped at the opportunity to try to get my monies worth.

Bad news were that it would be on a Sunday and remembering my last trip on the White Rebel, it could turn out to be a very long day but what the heck, I was sure I could wiggle an easy day at work on Monday.

Alarm brutally woke me up Sunday at 4.30am, still sleep walking I got dressed, quick cuppa, loading the car up, set the sat nav and off I went.

5.20am I arrived at my destination at Lymmington yacht club just to find out that the parking fee was horrendous and that I didn't have enough change on me.
Grrrrrrreat!! Quick phone call to John to see if he already arrived (as I wasn't sure whereabouts to meet), to find out him and his mate Martin were only a few minutes away.

I was hoping they might have enough change between them but no such luck so they set off again to find a shop which was already open at daft o'clock in the morning to get some coins.
Lucky they have found one (No idea where though) and soon the fee of £6.50 were paid, car unloaded and waiting for Eric, the skipper ( who has been known to be late once or twice) to arrive.
To our surprise Eric was only 5 mins late, by then the other Angler have arrived too and soon our gear were on board and off we went to what looked like a very enjoyable day.

I think (yes think lol) we were heading to the Needles, I never know when on a boat which direction we are heading lol and after what have seemed ages we arrived at our first stop.
Soon all 7 rods were out, we didn't have to wait long before we were in to the cod.

After about an hour or so (ever wondered why you loose all track of time when boat fishing?) the inevitable happened!!!

First my legs just simply turned in to jelly, then my stomach twisted and turned and all over sudden I started 'groundbaiting'....arrrrgh
The side to side swerve had gotten the better of me and I had to lay down in the cabin, close my eyes, go to sleep to avoid any further 'groundbaiting'.

I woke up took one look outside and my stomach were still twisting and turning, no good I thought and went back to sleep. So you can imagine that I hardly manage to do any fishing but I followed the other guys success (in a kind of daze) and they were doing darn good.

I managed to catch 2 cod in the whole trip, while the others pulled 83 out all together.

Eric the skipper found it all very amusing and when I woke up for a few minutes to put a little food back in to my stomach he discovered a couple of bananas in my lunch box.
I don't know the story about the joke between him and a mate of his but I kindly 'demanded' me to hand one of those banana over to him. He started to faff around with a couple of trebles, line and cable tie.

Here is the outcome,

Now why did that remind me of banana Steve?

Anyway, I slept 90% of the trip, every time I tried to get out to carry on fishing my stomach demanded me to go back and lay down.

Still, I managed to catch 2 out of 85 cod and I got another 1.5 points for the species hunt.

Lesson of the day:
Get enough stock of your usual travelling tablets you know they work, do not compromise by using others as guaranteed they will ruin your trip