Maggie May- H/Pool 25/2/07

..::Pike Pirate::.. · #1 02-25-2007, 03:52 PM

the time has come! today we went out on the maggie may, which is a fantastic boat, i think its 42 ft and can get around 14-16 knots. sparkly new as well.

got up at 5:50am and started preparing to be at the fuel berth for 7:45.
when we got there there was 10 on the boat, which was ideal and after having a word with the skipper we found that we wouldnt be going far offshore today, as nothing was being caught further out.

one end of the lock

and the other

started steaming and anchored up on mixed ground about a mile and a half offshore, where we dropped down and waited for the best

i had a 3 hook hokeye rig on, as did everyone else on the boat lol. second drop down and the bloke next to me pulls up a whiting, and a few more are caught there until we decide to go further out.

we steam off to about 5 miles offshore now to drift over a wreck, in the shipping lane, with HUGE oil tankers a few hundred yards off us, i ddnt realise how big they really are until now! nothing came from that so we anchored up, still bout 5 miles offshore and nothing came there.

now the fun starts. we steam back into around a mile and a half offshore again, and we bang whiteys up nearly every drop. then, someone shouts "skipper i need a gaff!" we all look excitedly round and sure enough, his rod was bent into what turned out to be a 9lb cod! very fat as well lol.

then me and dad hit a pocket of whiteys, as shown below

another 1.5 pts on please!

then the guy next to me shouts for a gaff and as i turn round i see a rather large cod coming up through the murky water...a cracking 13 lb monster! upon seeing this i get rather excited and focus on my rod tip constantly! and when it was gutted we found the following things - a whiting, a flattie, a mackerel fillet, which someone had thrown over earlier and a big lump of wood.

(this pic is when it is gutted, it was more impressive when it wasnt)

after that ther were a few more whiteys until it all went quiet and i realised the importance of taking a kwell when you are supposed to. suffered from a bout of seasickness for the last 40 mins or so until we headed back in at 3:00pm, showing off our big cod to the jealous people on the piers!

all in all a nice day out, seas were rather big but i ended up with 7 whiting, biggest about a pound and 3 quarters, dad with 4 around the same size and them 2 big cod caught by others. thouroghly enjoyed and cant wait for the next one!