A weekend among the Selsey tope

[Lookfar]

Hi folks,
With only two hours on SeaMouse I was a bit edgy about being committed to a two day competition, but happily all went well. The forecast leading up to the weekend couldn't really have been better and I was happy as Larry on the run down to the coast on friday. Arriving at 4pm, I found two Warriors pitched up on the camp site with an empty slot left for me. The area was deserted, everyone else having arrived early and gone off crabbing, so I was able to pitch at leisure. When the gang finally appeared, we hitched up SeaMouse and Moby and headed over to the ferry slip into Langstone Harbour. An easy launch at high water and Dave took over the controls with strict instructions to hold it under 3000rpm. Out at sea it was blowing a good force 4 and we encountered quite a solid swell. Bumped our way out to Dean Tail and picked up a few mackerel for the next day. I got twitchy, as usual,
and went off to look for a wreck nearby that I'd marked last winter. Found it too, to my surprise, and we extracted a few pout whilst keeping a wary eye out for the shipping. Came in for a chip supper and a chance for last preparations for the morning.
We were all ready to go by the time the gates opened at 7am. All three boats piled down to the slip, where we also met White Wizard from another forum. Moby and the Lady C got themselves away while I waited for another member to arrive with Draemcatcher. They got themselves launched, White Wizard still were not ready so we got away with dreamcatcher, running in close convoy out to Utopia and getting some nice action shots of the Orkney taking off over the swells. It was still blowing harder than forecast and a good chop was up, though SeaMouse took the head sea with very impressive ease.
Utopia was a car park. We found our own group and settled in and fish showed almost at once. Just dogs and mackerel at first then the first tope runs started. Dave and I were not having a great day. We missed run after run and both of us had a leader knot fail on a good fish. The action was steady though and we both ended up with a pair of tope each to 11lb, including a 6lb one that I fluked out on a set of feathers and light rod that ran me all round the boat. Huge fun. All round us, boats were hauling tope aboard with 20's common and a 35+ estimated on Moby. The hounds were less obliging, picking at the baits and rapidly depleting my expensive hermit and peeler supplies. I nailed three in total, from 5lb to 10lb 9oz, and as usual they completely outshone the tope for speed and power. A very sociable session, with Osprey dropping by to say hello but no sign of White Wizard, who'd had a GPS failure and were navigating by eye.
However, we were there on a species comp so as the tide slacked we headed for Boulder. The bream were in with a vengeance and we soon had our max points quota of four each, plus a ballan for Dave. It was a hard decision to leave them and go in search of other fare, especially as the next mark blanked for rays. We ended the day drifting baited shrimp rigs across Brake, where we found our target species of pollack. Then it was home via Bullocks, where we collected a novice IAC boat and escorted him in. The slip was murder, pure Jet Ski hell, so we were a little hard pressed to get washed and brushed up for the annual dinner at the Caribou where as usual, the grub was superb.
Sunday saw us back at the slip by 7.15, bright eyed and bushy tailed on a dead still sunny morning. This time SeaMouse was away first, to avoid our slow-running from delaying the others. However, some kind of a flap about a drain plug and a spirited attempt by someone to launch with his electrics still attached meant they were slow to get away and we held just short of the 36M to await them. The idea was to film them going past but when Dave discovered a mackerel shoal not ten feet under the boat the plan changed and we were busily filling the bait bucket as they came by.
Caught them up as the anchors went down and after watching how their warps ran, dropped us in close (rather too close) to Moby. That committed me to leaving before slack water knitted the anchors. However, after the excitement of saturday, the mark was dead. We sat, and admired the mirror calm, and I got restless again. Floating for gars didn't work, the hounds were still being picky and putting up the new sun canopy on the Pro Angler was good for ten minutes at most (nice toy though!). Eventually I got a steady run, lifted in and it was fish on at last. Didn't think much of its performance until it broke surface and I realised that it was a good ray rather than a sluggish tope. Out came the net and in came 10lb of undulate hanging grimly to my trace by jaw power alone. As I went to cut the line, it opened its mouth and spat the circle hook out at me! That really made my day, only my second ever undulate. A tope followed, notable at 11lb only for its sheer lack of interest in the event. It came in like a lump of spuds and didn't even wake up much when we swung it aboard.
As slack water approached I was more than happy to move on as our competition hopes were about shot. Next mark was inshore and I decided to try drifting for the tope until the tide picked up. It worked surprisingly well, with a small one coming to a mackerel flapper and one around 4lb ambushing a baited shrimp rig I'd put out for bream. A couple of bream and dogs added to our points tally before we dropped the anchor in near Moby. They set about proving that the mark's reputation for hounds was well-earned, with a ddouble hook-up of 12lbers at one point. John kindly shouted across that they were only taking the squid and that got us away as well, with 4 between 8 and 10lb as well as a few doggies. As the ebbreally got going the bites dried up and the afternoon sea breeze kicked the surface up a bit. We trotted across to Brake for a last gasp effort for species and after some intensive feeding, managed a handful of small pout, a ballan and a pollack as well asa dozen smallish bream. It was well lumpy by now, I'd been working hard inside the boat all day long and my stomach reminded me that in fact, I'm not that good a sailor. I was quite happy to up stumps and head for Bullocks where our novice member was having a spot of bother with the anchor. He sorted it and we heading home behind Moby. He was running straight and true across the following sea but SeaMouse was ducking and sliding annoyingly (and somewhat unpleasantly for an already complaining stomach). Part of it was a lateral trim issue which relocating the main battery will fix but the rest I suspect is the trim tabs. Annoying when the old 165 was such a stable boat under the same conditions.
Back at Langstone, the slip was even more crowded with 6 or so boats beached awaiting the trailer and jet ski's everywhere generating plenty of slop to slam hulls onto trailers. As soon as those damn things are in season, I'm breaking out the 12 bore. Recovery went OK and it was hightail it back to the campsite again for the BBQ and presentation evening (we 'nearly' won something ).

Well done for anyone who is still here and still awake. What a fantastic weekend it was. One more night in the tent, up at a leisurely 8am to admire the reflections across Fishery Creek, round to the cafe for breakfast, break camp and I'd got the boat backed into the Thames for a freshwater rinse and home by 12am. Life doesn't get any better.

Steve

[baitmaster]

welldone on catching i get the jist that you were a bit unsure of the boat
but good report . but being a land lover i can,t really apprecciate how hard it must be out in a boat

tightlines
kevin

[John Marshall]

Good in depth report, gives others an insite into "small boat fishing" which equals hard work, but then the rewards can be huge.

Well done.

John

[Fishing Forum Admin]

I must say great ead mate thanks for sharing

[pingu]

great ereport on what sounded a great weekend, if not tireing