Frosty Fishing - Lyme Bay

[Old Smoothound]

Hi fellas just though I'd post my report on my first boat fishing session of 2006.

The morning loomed another 5.am start! And what a frosty and foggy start is was.
We arrived at port for our match with ice forming on the gunwales of the boat.

All the aboard we set off in search of Channel Whiting and anything else that would accept our baited hooks.

After a short steam we arrived at the skippers chosen mark, whilst streaming out I had chance to construct a “match rig” to get try out.

This rig went down first with 8ozs of lead to hold bottom and the two hooks baited with rag and squid. It wasn’t long before one of the boys was into a decent whiting of 2lb or more. Then another came to the inside of the boat from my pal seated to my left. Then it was my turn a good-sized whiting. I have to say at this point that the club had agreed that we would only take a couple of fish for the table. Given the depth of water below us, the fish had a very good chance of going back to fight another day, so most were in fact returned.

My second fish was a fine Ballan Wrasse that came to the top snood baited with just rag worm, this was quickly followed by a large Pouting.

Then one of the prettiest fish in the sea came on the bottom hook….a male Dragonet, resplendent in a coat of blue and orange colours.

With club points on the board, I switched tactics to go for species rather than quantity of Whiting and Pout. This turned out to be a wise decision as a lovely reef Pollack came up on the next drop down. Then a large male Cuckoo Wrasse, again dressed in vivid blues and oranges, what a beautiful sight!

A short move to another mark and the very first drop down….a mackeral…..in January!!!

This fish was followed by a succession of Whiting and Pouting. One of the club members tangled in my line the usual story….not enough weight on in the tide, his lead had rolled into mine….as I dropped a bit of line down off the reel and hand lined it back to the boat to untangle it….a Garfish leapt out of the water after my neighbours baited hook!! Incredible or what!

There is something really wrong with our weather, when you see fish that normally migrate to whence they came, but are still being caught in good numbers off our shores. We feathered up lots of fresh bait for the freezer. Later in the day we watched Gannets diving into what were probably sandeel or sprat shoals the feeding frenzy lasted a good 20-25 minutes.

To round off a crisp but lovely day, we dropped into the last mark and I caught a further two Wrasse one Ballan and another Cuckoo and christened it the “Wrasse Hole”!!.

What more could you wish for….club points and Species Points on the same day!! A good start to the 2006 club season.

Photos to follow.

[Portland Pirate]

Nice one Smoothy.
Which boat did you go out on?

[pingu]

well done smoothy sounds fantastic day, howdid you do in your club comp?

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Great read mate and well done

mackeral / garfish

[Old Smoothound]

Thanks Fellas,

I came second on the day in the club comp....

[wellyfish]

well done shaun sounds like a good day ....not sure i could do the 5am start though.. ...i suppose a splash of calvados in the coffee is required at that time of the morning......

[Charter Skipper]

Nice report shaun,sounds like a super day.........

[Norfolkboy]

The guru has started....how many species points is that

Sounds a great day mate, well done!

[Greenheart]

Nice report Smoothound, mackerel & gars in january. What next? Tuna & Giant Trevalley maybe!!! I saw a mackie come off Chesil beach in December. Most Odd. Nice report though.

[John Marshall]

Hi,
you it it on the head Smoothie, the fishing seasons have changed,

Smoothounds being caught in December?? they were small but in the solent.

Think Greenhart could be right, just more Tuna.