Chilly Start At Baiter

Bacon roll anyone?

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Nice piccy Wedger, I can almost feel the cold creeping out of it

I wonder what happened to the forcast 25mph NW wind?

I shall be eating my roast leg of lamb, pommes Dauphinouis, and buttered savoy cabbage in my nice warm lounge when they come back in the frigid twighlight, damp and fish slimey...........

And they call 'me' Mad Mike

Mad Mike

Wanderer's return to Playa-del-Parkstone.

Funny how the camera as well as the Met. can also give a very glossy view of conditions. This is how The 'Shoreman' viewed the return.

The 'Intrepid Ones' will no doubt tell a more colourful story after a bevy or three .

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and then...............

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and.............

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So, come on guys, what is the result?

I've heard the fishing isn't too good today, or maybe just some of the chartered boats?

Kam,

I learned two new 'nautical' terms today .

1)

Despite many saying the fishing was poor.

Martin McIntyre, his brother Brian, and myself on Quest II had a great day's fishing even if we didn't get any record breakers.

Dropped the hook on a wreck some 14 miles off at a few minutes after 08:30 and by 08.40 we had the first of quite a few nice snakes at the side of the boat.

Number one to me at somewhere in the mid 30lb class, next also to my rod, a wee strap around 25lb or so.

Then all hell lets loose with the three of us into fish at the same time and me wondering how I was going to play my own fish whilst T-barring the other fish, drink my coffee and smoke a ciggy at the same time.

Martin hooks into something very solid, but moving. Not a Conger, whatever it was is just pondering up and down tide (and then back again). After 15 minutes he has the fish half way up and up and down tide it still goes. 25 minutes in and still no sign then his 30lb braid parts and we will shall never be any the wiser.

Another half an hour on our wreck and the tide is meaning we require 2lb of lead and the bites are beginning to drop. On top of that the steady force 5 wind, right on the beam is making things a tad uncomfortable and waves are sending clouds of spray into the cockpit so we head in 10 miles on to Dolphin Sands where we spend the duration hitting dozens and dozens of Whiting up to and around 2lb. In addition, the prettiest tiny Blonde Ray of about 1.5lb.

Nice meeting those of you I haven't before at the presentation. And although after seeing on or two of the sizes of fish that took prizes I wish we hadn't been quite so keen with the T-Bar we did had a cracking day out.

If at all possible we shall definitely fish next year's open.

Thanks Guys

Tom

our day was not so productive we were ment to be heading down to the sky but a change back to our boat instead of garys ment it was to far so headed for a small wreck in hope of a conger, 1 conger in the hole day how rubbish, dad probably saved the day with a 12lb smoothhound because all i caught were doggies and pout.

but something good did come out of it we all won prizes.

dad:

Early start for me....up at five to get tackle loaded into percival, then the drive down to Baiter....early doors saw me in autopilot, and promtly drove to Charlies workplace, and not baiter!!!! A quick turn round , and down to the slip, booked Bob F and I in. To see Veronica and Sally at the helm of the breakkie table was a heartwarming sight, thank you for that, started my day well. Bob and I finally launcehed and headed for a mark not a squillion miles from Swanage, target speicies being Spotteds. A few doggies, pout, then a Spotted for me, although when she curled around the hooklength..my hand was broader!!

A change of mark was called for, so we tripped off towards the Betsy, anchored up and tried for a snake or two. We actually found doggies.....theres a surprise! pout, not huge but weighers, and Bob sqeaked out a nice winter Pollack, caught hard on the bottom. We tried a few drifts, Bob giving me some instruction at the helm, thank you for that, and then we decided on a few minutes flattie bashing before weigh in.

I took splash out back to Harbour, Bob giving me more instruction on the finer art of trimming the vessel, and we popped the hook down into six feet of water, just off the slip. Fifteen minutes later, we decided to pack up, and I had a final chuck of my gear. A slow retrieve and neptune answered my prayer for the day, a small flattie, which took the ragworm bunch just as I lifted the gear off the bottom. Into the bucket, and back to the slip to recover the craft.

Bob Weighed the fish in, and much to my surprise, it nudged the scales a little over two pounds, but with bigger fish reported, I wasnt at all hopefull. So how surprised was I to take second place, and with the cash prize still on the table, thank you very much!!! A great day out, my first day fishing since breaking the wrist, just glad I didnt blank!! Thanks to the committee for the oraganisation, of what appeared a fantastically executed operation. Great to see sponsers at the prize giving, I hope that they get good coverage, for next years prizes <ggg> Well done all.

Rich

Another early start saw me arriving at Baiter for 6.30am to help get set-up - it was cold, but with the mearest hint of a breeze had me hopeful for a nice day's weather. The sun soon started to appear along with the entrants - many thanks to the committe members who stayed to complete the registration.

I was booked on Dawn Raider with Jimbo this year (his turn!) and the plan was to head to a wreck for an eel or two, logic being that the 40lb 100% target weight wouldnt be too hard to hit.

Flying up the swash channel we were greated by even flatter conditions in Swange bay, and at 27 knots we were soon rounding the Anvil heading west. The sea got a little rougher for the last 5 miles, but no to cause any concern and we kept up a 14 knot cruise. On arriving at said mark an awkward wind over tide / diagional situation made calculating the anchor drop tricky but 2nd time we were there and the wreck showed nicely on the plotter - but would the snakes feed given the bright conditions?

First cast and I'm in - but the excitement was short lived as a fat pout made its way to the surface...false alarm! But not more than 10 minutes later the the aggresive tugs of an eel were met with a pleasing bend in the rod!! Fish on!! ....and that's how it continued for 6 hours until 3pm!

We had a take on each rod every cast for the whole day - we used 5 boxes of squid, 4 cuttle, a dozen mackerel and 4 fresh pout. The fishing was hard as even though the tide was neaps, it still requires 2lb of lead at max tide, and a 30lb eel in the tide is tough going - we estimated to have lost as many eels as we landed in hook pulls and breakages. Most of the fish we like peas in a pod - 20-25lb....it seemed imposible to break the 30lb mark - James did twice with a brace of 31lbers, but I struggled. We had numerous double hook-ups and twice had 4 eels on at once. But, I left it until the end of the day and 10 minutes before the end to snare by best fish, a cracker of 38lb. We calculated over 40 eels boated throughout the day.

The weather stayed OK as well - we heard on the VHF conditions further east were snotty, but where we were it stayed fine - strange....

The steam home was very pleasent with the wind now dropped, and in little under an hour we pulled up at baiter to the weigh-in. The big eel looked a good bet all the way and was confimed later at the mariner when it took 3rd in the round fish comp and the biggest round fish pools money - a good days work!

Thanks must go the competiton comitte for organising another superb event, and we was supported by the numbers who turned out. Some great prizes and smooth running made it a memorable day! Also thanks to James for skippering DR.

Cheers

Adam

A late start for me, but that's the advantage of not having to launch - even if I was at the wrong end of the harbour!

Alarm went at 7 and I had the boat ready for 0720h - although I hadn't bargined for the frost and the heater took a few minutes to warm it up enough to get the iceo f the screens.

0730h and we slip the lines and head off sticking to plan A. This was a calculated and potentially rash plan as we had never actually caught the target species before - any of us! However it seemed sound ...........

the target were huss; they had the potential to deliver excellent speciemen weights and we 'knew where they were' based on Dave's experiences as a potter "a couple of years ago".............

So throttle open, trim out and off we went through the harbour.....a friendly wave to Great White (who appeared to have stopped to feather bait off Old Harry... ) plotter on goto gave us 13.5 miles of open water and winding it up to 28 knots gave us an ETA of 0825h - what a perfect day!

However as we left the lee of the Purbecks a reduction to 22knots seemed prudent and we eventually arrived at our mark in snotty conditions and to find a North End of a string just North of where we had planned to fish - poetic justice or what?

No great shakes as the gulley we planned to fish ran a long way E/W so a move a prudent mile E saw us drop the hook into 150ft, and conditions suggested the full 150m of chain/warp go with it..........

Thoughts of recovering that lot were quickly dispelled as the first drops resulted in instant action - there was something actually down there!

A couple of missed bites and bare hooks later Dave and I were both into fish and, amazingly, both were huss! On the boat his registered just over 8lbs and mine just under 7 so we kept his and put mine back (expecting bigger!)

Well, apart from a sloppy beam sea, some excellent soup from a pressure cooker, the odd drop of pussers rum in the tea.........the final tally read 2 huss and 2 conger to Dave, 4 huss and 2 conger to me; together with 1 dog and a fair few pout. The majority of the pout being contributed by Phil.

Running back in the change in the conditions after the first 5 miles was absolutely amazing, and by 3 miles off the sea was as gentle as a kitten. Given the weigh in time, and the journey from Rockley by car, we eased up to 32knots from the back of Peveril right through to Rockly, dropping to 10 through the entrance as required by local byelaws!

Great day out and a plan that (almost) came together - Dave thought it did anyway! His Huss weighing in over 10lb and 100%+ on the scales at baiter.

Thanks to all the organising committee, who put in endless hours of effort to make the day run as smmoothly as it did. Thanks to Aidy at the Marina for the warm welcome, and of coure the sponsors who contributed so much to the event - the Icom, Lowrance and Raymarine products on the table would all have been welcomed on Phaeton.

Not too much to shout about on Bliss 2 in the way of fish anyway. We did have fun getting the ten man life-raft down off of the wheelhouse roof while ten miles off though.

Tony Way isn't on line so he's asked me to thank all of the organizers, who he appreciates have put a lot of time and effort into getting this whole thing off the ground. Especially those who had to start late and get in early to man the scales etc.

Thanks from all on Bliss 2 also, even though we didn't win anything it was great event and look foward to the next one.

Poole Piscatorial Pioneers preparing to play at Parkstone Plague  .

 

 

 

Cracking bit of aliteration Wedger