Lady Rita's first outing....

[Greenheart]

I'd been hoping to get out with the boat for the first time at Easter, but eded up laying a new floor in my Daughters new house. So with some perfect weather & a good tide forecast for last weekend I gave Portland Pirate (Sean) & Jerry Two-Jackets a shout & 5am Saturday saw Jerry & I loading the car & boat & heading off to Weymouth. I'd had a few sleepless nights wondering if all would go OK, but on the day everything came together & by about 10am Sean was giving Jerry & I lessons on how to launch a boat.

She floats...

It took a while to get everything loaded & the radio & fishfinder etc fitted. First lesson learnt was not to bring so much kit next time. The Motor purred into life at the first turn of the key & soon we were heading off out of the Harbour.

Sean had organised a selection of bait. Ragworm, Squid, Mackerel & Sandeel. The plan had been to have a trial run & just fish Portland harbour, but the weather was so perfect & the motor running so sweetly, that we decided to really go for it & head for the fishing hotspot known as the Shambles a few miles out beyond the isle of Portland...

Portland dissapears into the distance.

The fish finder was working well & showing water depths up to 100 feet ( Second lesson learn't, get a longer anchor rope ) After a while we hit some turbulent water & the depth rapidly shallowed up to about 20 feet. We had reached the Shambles bank. First plan was to try & catch some live sandeel, then try a few drifts to try for a turbot or plaice. We were not alone, there were a fair few other private & charter boats fishing the same drift.
Sean & I tied on some tiny shrimp pattern feathers & were soon pulling in some good large sandeel. Jerry decided to assist by groundbaiting with re-gurgatated doughnut that he'd had for breakfast....
As you can see, it worked well

A good size sandeel, with Portland in the background

Sean, fished live sandeel on a long flowing trace to try for a turbot, & I tried ragworm hoping for a plaice. Jerry continued to groundbait...
Sadly, the plaice & turbot did not show. We did see plenty of fish showing on the fishfinder, but suspect these were just large sandeels. No sign of any mackerel, but hopefully they should soon be following the sandeels.

After several drifts, without so much as a nibble, we decided to head back to Portland harbour to try for a few species points.

Here we joined a flotilla of other small craft drifting over the wreck of the battleship Hood. First drift, Sean was into a nice Ballan Wrasse (Sorry no pic) & next drift I had a little pollock

Then the bites dried up here to. The Hood is a very tackle hungry wreck, so after losing a few leads, we headed further into the harbour to see if there were any Gilthead bream around the new mussel farm.

Still no bites.... So Sean decided to give me a few man overboard rescue lessons with the boat. As jerry wouldn't volunteer to jump over the side, we had a few attempts at rescueing a large orange buoy..
By now, time was getting on & we were all ready for a pint & a meal. So we headed back into weymouth harbour for my days final lesson, on how to retrieve a boat back onto a trailer.

Then it was off to the Admiral Hardy for a steak & chips washed down with a hard earned pint. We'd not caught many fish. I think the summer species are a little late arriving due to the cold winter, but our first sea trial had been a great success & the weather was stunning. I'd just like to finish off with a big thankyou to Sean for the seamanship lessons. Cheers mate... & to Matt (Fullcreel) for getting up early to help us prepare the boat & comming back late in the evening to help unload her & wash the salt off prior to parking her up again...

[mithrandir]

Nice post, and good to see you have got your sea legs. I hope you have many happy outings in her.

i hope you cracked a bottle of cider over her bow

[fishypaul]

well done ian,bigger fish to come in the summer

[captain chaos]

Nice tidy outfit greenheart, is that a strikeliner?

At least the weather was superb, I had more or less the same results at the weekend......come on water warm up a bit!

[scottish_and_mental]

some great pics of Weymouth there ! soon be time for you to get your boat out into the race for some action on more of those live eels.

[Greenheart]

Originally Posted by captain chaos

Nice tidy outfit greenheart, is that a strikeliner?

At least the weather was superb, I had more or less the same results at the weekend......come on water warm up a bit!

Yup, 16' Strikeliner plus. Saw another one fishing in Portland harbour. Popular little boats. Not too sure about fishing Portland race in her though...

[ben lee]

Well done ian looks right at home on the sea with its captin greeheart.

Very got report and great pics.

[simon1968]

nice report and a nice boat, look forward to having a day out in her.

[fullcreel]

No mention of special assitance given before you left dry land...Hope Jerry was not put off any further trips.

[pingu]

superb report ian, bet you were grinning all evening

dave