Having seen lots of reports of some decent Pollock being caught, yesterdays weather window and tide to good to miss.
7.30 bridge and a lovely calm sea and a good run just over two hours at 23knots bought us to our first wreck. Two shooting friends and Dogfish Dave on board, the two friends were new to wrecking so i had tied up lots of rigs!!!! First drift an 8lbs Pollock for Baz, his first ever Pollock so over the moon and a good Red Gurnard to Dave and a fat Pout for Piggy.
The sun came out and it was glorious, nearly 200ft with a maximium 3 knot drift all the ducks were in a row! A reasonably steady flow of fish throughout the day with some smaller ones managing to be put back. I christened a new SPJ outfit with first a PB 15lbs Pollock, then a 19lbs Pollock then an 18lbs fish!!!! All the fish gods were smiling on me that day for sure.
With 3 Pollock each i decided we should head for home for the 4.30 bridge, after 10 minutes we hit a VERY thick fog bank, about 50m viz, radar on 3 other very experienced Yachtmaster
crew on board helped one watching the radar, and two on watch was good for confidence, encountered one small boat off Durleston on the radar then one total ejit in the Swash doing 20knots with no radar echo on a rib!!!! Luckily we made the bridge with time to spare, none of us had seen fog in the forecast.
Really red letter day for me and a great all round craic.
<a href="/monthly_2025_03/IMG_6833.JPG.2e61943d9c5cef36f9c1338074d0e2bf.JPG" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image" ><img data-fileid="12581" src="/monthly_2025_03/IMG_6833.thumb.JPG.bc0f035c0081dc98e8396faa81011c79.JPG" data-ratio="133.21" width="563" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt="IMG_6833.JPG">
<a href="/monthly_2025_03/IMG_6836.JPG.1c8f3243227176eaae329df0adf35b21.JPG" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image" ><img data-fileid="12582" src="/monthly_2025_03/IMG_6836.thumb.JPG.10c13a60b89d9a3d502b375060ed34fc.JPG" data-ratio="133.21" width="563" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt="IMG_6836.JPG">
<a href="/monthly_2025_03/IMG_6857.JPG.708f9d21e6ff03751bc9a4c16a36ce7f.JPG" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image" ><img data-fileid="12583" src="/monthly_2025_03/IMG_6857.thumb.JPG.8d25bf5b318c861194af397fede8da43.JPG" data-ratio="133.21" width="563" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt="IMG_6857.JPG">
<a href="/monthly_2025_03/IMG_6863.JPG.d4fbad189f569a526a007d95a70c56da.JPG" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image" ><img data-fileid="12584" src="/monthly_2025_03/IMG_6863.thumb.JPG.afb79fc3cb3dc11c47f8f33dfcc94355.JPG" data-ratio="75" width="1000" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt="IMG_6863.JPG">
<a href="/monthly_2025_03/IMG_6852.JPG.a9876e543f21d9d1473a5a081f076b7d.JPG" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image" ><img data-fileid="12585" src="/monthly_2025_03/IMG_6852.thumb.JPG.6bbb3ff306b604db9525a9b453d71acc.JPG" data-ratio="133.21" width="563" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt="IMG_6852.JPG">
lovely report of a brilliant day afloat, well done all
Think we might have been that small boat. We also saw an orange rib with men wearing yellow hats racing around in the swash.
Well done on a successful trip.
A stunning trip, lucky crew. I had a similar trip back to Cobb's from Southbourne but without the advantage of radar or experienced crew, that was fun but no big dramas fortunately. Whilst going down the small boats channel, I suddenly spotted the biggest blue ship I've seen in Poole on my starboard side in the main channel, probably about 40 yards away. I hadn't spotted it at all until that point despite two pairs of eyes keeping watch. Scary!
Terry.
Top day, well done skipper!
Hi Terry, I suspect that was the Pelican on her way back out to Spain, came in yesterday morning.
It was a pea soup afternoon for sure, drifted up to the pier until you could almost touch it before you could see it.
Well done Jerry and co some great fish for the day. 👍
7 hours ago, biggcol said:We also saw an orange rib with men wearing yellow hats racing around in the swash.
I think we saw them, we stopped briefly by the Castle and they passed us going in, they returned to the Lifeboat academy.
Terry.
1 hour ago, Kingfisher 126 said:Hi Terry, I suspect that was the Pelican on her way back out to Spain
It WAS the Pelican. I wouldn't have thought something that big could sneak up on you!
Terry.
Running AIS on mobile or tablet would be good in these situations if you don't have receiver / transponder.
R
15 hours ago, Rob said:Running AIS on mobile or tablet would be good in these situations if you don't have receiver / transponder.
R
Which I don't! Good idea, hadn't thought of that.
Terry.
Cracking fish there Jerry & crew. Well done!
Red letter day Jerry
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
19 hours ago, Rob said:Running AIS on mobile or tablet would be good in these situations if you don't have receiver / transponder.
R
Excuse my ignorance but what is AIS?
Automatic Identification System.
Basically it is the Radar identifying a vessel's name, so when you are in dense fog it can identify what the vessel is called
on your radar system. Therefore, allowing you to avoid it and also giving you information on the name of the vessel.
I believe that is correct??
Vessel Finder app will show you who is where......if, they have an AIS beacon.
Smaller boats tend to have beacons, if you have a receiver too, often your plotter will overlay the data of boats on your chart.
You can tap the vessel and get speed and direction.
R