Still can’t quite believe another year has passed!  2011 has flown by and it seemed a very windy one. Even though the weather was a bit up and down the fishing was good so lets hope there’s a bit less wind for 2012. The way the year has started, i do have my doubts seeing as it’s force 10 outside as I write this!

Happy New Year to you all. Look forward to seeing you all on the water soon. “Safe boating and tight lines” for the year ahead…

The weather the last few months has been rubbish! with only a handful of  decent days to get out  saturday was one of those days the. The forecast was good light north west wind  and for the time of year it was quit warm . We left swanage and steamed about 8 miles to the east and anchored for the day, We had a good variety of species inculeding smoothhound, mackerel, thornback  rays, whiting ,cod and dogfish. lets just hope the weather breaks again soon .

With my job, no two days are the same as I’m sure most of you would have heard from skippers in the past  “You should have beeen here yesterday” and more often than not, days don’t always go to plan. The weather, tide and the fish often spoil a good plan as some of my regular lads found out over the weekend! As we headed out to sea the wheel house was filled with talk of catching a big double figure cod with big squid baits and lots of good size whiting, but for us the cod and whiting did not want to play. After a few slow hours catching lots of dog fish and a few small pout, reports of a few cod being caught a few miles away where announced on the radio so we decide to have a quick move.  As I started to up the anchor, I noticed a lot of sea birds feeding about half a mile away. We decide to have a quick drift through with some feathers on to see what the birds were feeding on and that ‘s when the fun began! The birds were feeding on sprats and the sprats were being pushed to the surface by mackerel and LOTS of bass! The fishing was fantastic, one of the best days I’ve ever had. We landed roughly 160 bass ranging from 1.5lb to 6lb so a real day to remember and no one seemed bothered we didn’t catch a cod!

Here are a few pics from the last few trips of the season. Doug can’t quite believe that another season has passed and this was the fifth season for him down in Swanage. Time has flown past every year and it seems to get faster. It only feels like a few weeks between the boat being launched for the start of the season and Doug taking her back up to ridge to be lifted out for the winter. Its crazy! But it wont be long before he is back down in the spring  fixing everything I have broken through the winter! Thank you mate for everything you do both on and off the water and thank you Rose for letting me steel your husband for half the year. Good luck to Davey in his first year of uni, well done mate. 

Today we had a first for San Gina II  Im not 100% but I’m pretty sure it is a short beaked gar fish. If anyone has any ideas please email me.

Yesterday the fishing was a bit slow inshore off the Purbecks, with just a few dogfish and a few rattles from small bream. About an hour before we were going to up anchor and head out to sea a few miles, Vic Steventon had a surprise turbot of around 9lb the fish took a large mackerel bait. A very nice fish to see!

 

 

Hey guys here’s a few pics from Dougs (captain jack) season sorry havent put them on sooner could work out how to use his camara