testing the water for tomorrow.

I'm hoping to get the grandchildren out of the harbour tomorrow afternoon, so I popped out today to see if I could get a little taster.

I've not been out in ages and the swell was a tiny bit bigger than I expected, so much so that my Marks & Spencer salt and cracked black pepper crisps (I had for breakfast) made an unexpected return. I must be honest, they're no ginger nut biscuits, and definitely DONT taste better second time round. But once they were gone, everything was fine and dandy.

So, I dropped anchor around the end of Dolphin Sands in the hope for anything really, but expecting doggies and maybe a small ray. I was surprised that there was absolutely nothing out there, no other boats and I was wondering if everyone knew something that I didn't, but we persevered.

Not long after dropping a worm/squid/mackerel cocktail the rod tips were twitching with obvious bream taps. They were stripping the baits within a few seconds. A drop in size of hook and bait resulted in a few decent catches. My mate had the biggest bream I've ever seen. We didn't weigh it because at the moment he brought it on board, I was on the phone talking to Bournemouth hospital who had just taken my mum in as an emergency patient. They assured me there was no point me coming in for a few hours as they would be doing tests on her until late afternoon, so I had the doctors permission to stay where I was 👍. I didn't need telling twice. 

We stayed for 3 hours and had about 5 doggies, 12 bream, 2 mackerel and a beautiful red guarnard. All went back apart from the Mackerel.

Anchor up just after 1, back on my trailer at Wareham but 2.30 and home unloaded ready for work tomorrow morning by 3.

It was really nice to be out, weather was certainly more tolerable than the last few days. Fishing was good. Boat went well ..... roll on tomorrow afternoon (so long as the doctors don't need me to collect my mum then).