Sea Fishing - the species hunt continues

It's been a few weeks since I've posted a blog update. This is quite simply because I haven't been out much. Since my last post I have only had one outing on the beach at Cleverleys and quite frankly, it was a very much uneventful trip and resulted in a further blank. I don't normally object to writing about a blank session but I couldn't think of anything worth saying about this one so decided to leave it. I should have also had another Pem Central match to report on based on the match calendar I have published, but, to cut a long story short it transpired that I had muddled up the dates and we had no match on the 18th July as planned.

So here I find myself, ready to report on my last 'proper' outing, on which My regular sea fishing partner Danny and I managed to find some time and headed down to Cleveleys again to see if we could top up our species hunt tallies.

Rossall Promenade - 5 Bar Gate 

Friday 7th August

High Tide - Approx 17:30

The tides for this session were good for me. Being able to finish work at 12:30 would allow me plenty time to get up to Bispham Angling for some fresh worms, then make my way up to the mark and fish it a couple of hours up, and then all the way down to low tide at around midnight. Danny would be joining me around high tide. A few delays though saw me only get to the beach at around 4pm though. When I got there, there was already a few anglers on the beach but I managed to find myself a spot and was soon set up and had my first bait in the water at around 4:30pm - so I would at least get to fish an hour up.

As the plan for the day was a 'species hunt', I took 2 rods. 1 rod was set up on a 2 hook flapper rig, supplied by Rig Kraft - on which I would fish worm baits either on their own or tipped off with squid. The second rod would be set up on a pennell pulley with bigger baits, such as whole squid, sandeel or cocktails of the two in the hope of a larger specimen. I had plenty bait for the day so I was changing baits fairly regularly but in the hour or so up to high tide there was little happening, looking down the beach, it seemed I wasn't alone as I could see others were struggling. Danny showed up shortly after a high tide and was soon fishing. We fished for an hour or two after high - during this time Danny managed to catch 2 small Tope pups, and I caught a dogfish on a pennel rigged large worm/squid bait.  I wouldn't normally be overly pleased with the presence of dogfish but it was a species hunt and despite their commonality it was one that I was yet to record so it was certainly a positive.

As the tide started to drop, we had less and less depth in front of us so we decided to have a break to allow the tide drop a little further before fishing again. A freshly made brew on the gas stove and a quick trip to a near-by Chinese takeaway quickly refreshed us and we were soon itching to get back on the beach.  The tide had dropped enough for us to get beyond the first gulley now and as we were walking back out towards to sea Danny spotted something flapping on the beach, the culprit was the smallest flattie I've ever seen and after a quick inspection, it was safely returned to the sea.

As we fished the tide down, we were rewarded with a very pleasant evening with a clear sky and some good views of the stars, the space station and some satellites but alas, no further fish showed themselves that night. At around midnight and low tide, we decided enough was enough and called it a day. We were hoping the fishing would have picked up as it had been a bit slow in the area of late but despite the improvement on our last session, and the fact that we both recorded an additional species on the hunt, I can't help but be a little disappointed with the result and the realisation that this session will likely be he end of my summer campaign on the beach as the next few weeks sees me on match duty with Pem Central and also have some important family time. Maybe I can sneak a last ditch attempt at the species hunt towards the end of September and into October. 

Blog Update

I've added this little bit in after initially publishing this post but I have completed the update to my 2015 species page.  This can be found here http://fishernutstu.blogspot.co.uk/p/sea-fishing-species.html

Outlook

So my forecast for the next few weeks is looking like this, 15th August Pem Central take on Orcheton. On the 21st and 22nd August some of the lads from Pem, myself included are heading down to Barston to fish a match on the Saturday. I've managed to score a cheeky day off so will be heading down on the Friday for a practice. Then after a weekend off I've got consecutive Saturday matches in September at Weston Pools and Old Hough. Will be a busy few weeks but I'm hoping there will be some good results in there too.

Preston Docks - Species Hunting

Preston Docks - Bull nose

Thursday 9th July

High Tide - Approx 18:00

So last time I went out sea fishing, I decided that the species hunt card for the Lancs Sea Fishing group had officially jinxed me. I needed to get going on this hunt and break the curse so a check of the tides during the week showed a favourable time for me to hit Preston docks and hopefully get off the mark with a Flounder.

With.a high tide of around 18:00, it was ideal for me to get down there after work just about high tide and fish it for a couple of hours down.

Work spoiled it a little bit and I found myself getting there a little later than planned. I called the drive thru for some tea first and took it to the bullnose with me. Planning to chuck a bait on first before eating my burger, I barely had a bait in the water for 5 minutes and managed just one bite of the burger before the rod was bouncing. A short but spirited battle saw me land my first fish of the night and finally get under way on the species hunt with the Flounder. Mission accomplished.

Fish number 1 - the Flounder

In theory, I could go home now but decided I would just fish it for a couple of hours to use up the bait I had took with me.  I took another 5 flounder over the next couple of hours and all were bigger than the first one I claimed. All were taken on a smelly, sticky frozen black lug.  As an added bonus, I also managed to snare an Eel, I hate these buggers but was happy to see one on this night as it took my species count now to 2.

Fish number 2 - Eel

I called it a night at around 20:30. Feeling happy to have gotten off the mark on the species hunt. Need to get moving now and get some of the other common species under my belt before I can start targetting the more rare species

First Blank of 2015

Rossall Promenade

Saturday 27th June 2015

Low tide approx 14:40

I suppose it had to happen sometime.  So far on my sea fishing adventures, both me and my usual partner Danny had managed to avoid the blank. Sometimes we only had 1 each, but at least we caught.

This time though, there was added pressure as both me and Danny had belatedly joined the summer species hunt run by the Lancashire Sea Fishing Facebook page and as we were late entries we had some catching up to do. 

After having a good result last time out we headed back up to Rossall Prom area, this time though we headed a bit further up to where the concrete bits are just up from the 5 bar gate. The plan was to get there just for low tide and fish it all the way up as we had done last time.  A bit of traffic on the motorway meant we were a little late and only managed to get there for about 15:15.  We met a third member of our group at the gate as Novice Dez had decided to tag along for the day. 

So.......full of anticipation, the 3 of us soon had baits in the water.  As I was in a species hunt zone, I set up 2 rods. One to fish a loop rig with 2 hooks; this rod was to be a 'catch anything rod' hoping that I would be able to catch up on the species hunt with the 'easy' species.  The other rod was set up with a pulley Pennel rig, baited with crab, I was hoping I might snare a Smoothhound on this rod.

Well, I persevered all afternoon, following the tide all the way up but sadly my rods showed no signs of life and only Danny out of the 3 of us managed to break the blank with a small Plaice to kick off his species hunt. 

So by high tide at around 20:40, spirits were low and it wasn't looking like I was going to get a result this time. Novice Dez must have been having a bad time as in a fit of rage he decided to break my rod that I lent to him and then storm off home (ok, I might have exaggerated that for dramatic effect, but he did break my rod and with that decided it was time for him to call it a night).

Danny and I continued on for about 90 mins after high tide before conceding to defeat and making our way back to the car. Throughout the day there had been many other anglers on the beach but as we walked back to the car, as far as we could see, everyone had already gone; it was probably a sign that the area hadn't fished well that night.

I can't help but think that I have jinxed myself by entering the species hunt. We will have to see but for now, my score remains at 0.

Weekend Double Header

This latest post comes after a weekend double header where I have managed to get out on both the Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday's session saw me at Hanchurch Fisheries near Stoke for the latest match in Pemberton Central's calendar and Sunday was a change of discipline as I swapped the pole for a beachcaster and header back up to 5 Bar Gate to fish the evening.

Hanchurch Fisheries

Pemberton Central Match
Hanchurch Fisheries - Model Canal
Saturday 13th June 2015

www.hanchurch-fisheries.co.uk

This match on the Pemberton Central calendar is normally one of the better venues, where good winning weights and consistent back up weights often leads to very enjoyable matches.  This year is slightly different though as we were approaching this match amidst stories of fish kills and KHV.  Fair to say, on arrival at the fishery, the fishery staff did indeed confirm that there had been a fish kill and that the Model Canal was empty as recently as March.  We were assured though that the issue had been resolved and the lake had been re-stocked.  Confidence restored a little, we approached the draw with renewed enthusiasm.  On the day we were the only club on the venue so we were allowed to utilise the whole lake and spread ourselves out a bit; I drew last and had peg 25 in my hand.  Peg 25 is close to the 'bottom' end of the lake as it bends round and was looking a decent enough peg with the only issue being the high bank behind me meaning I would have to double ship to fish long.

With the rain drizzling down, I set out my approach for the day.  I set up a rig long close to the far bank in about 18 inches of water; here I would fish banded pellet and feed the same.  The double shipping issue was getting to me though and with the rain looking like it would persist, I thought this line would only be back up and I would aim to catch on the track swim.  For the track swims, I set up 2 rigs, one to fish on the deck at about 3 1/2 feet deep and the other was a rig for fishing up in the water at various depths; I managed to find 2 areas with the same depth so would be able to use these rigs and rotate swims.  My final rig was a margin swim to my right, just before the next empty peg; here I fed groundbait and dead red maggot and had maggot for the hook.

At the all in, I fed half a pot of pellets on the left hand track swim and immediately went over it with the bottom rig.  After the initial pot of bait, I was loose feeding 3 or 4 pellets by hand, hoping to bring the fish up in the water on this swim; whilst fishing the track, I was also occasionally catapulting pellets across to the far bank.  At the half way point in the match, I was really struggling, having caught only 3 fish in that time; with hindsight, I clearly let the double shipping bother me too much and subsequently forced the track swims fr too much when they were clearly not going to produce for me on the day.  After finally stopping sulking, I sorted my act out and started to fish long.  It wasn't the easiest of swims, with overhanging grass and debris on the bottom, I was constantly getting snagged or having to ship back to clear my hook of grass and weed but eventually, through trial and error I managed to find a couple of areas where I could present a bait and, as if by magic, I started to catch some fish; they weren't particularly big fish but they were a welcome addition to the keep net.  For the next 90 mins or so, I was steadily catching but I knew I wasn't catching fast enough or big enough fish to compete in match.  With about an hour to go, I switched to my margin swim, which I had been feeding from the half way point in the match.  Instantly I was into a fish but like the long swim, they weren't coming anywhere near fast enough or big enough to compete.  For the final hour, I was catching a few fish by alternating between the long swim and the margin swim but after a frutrating match, I won't be ashamed of saying that I was glad of the all out being called.

As I was packing up, there was mixed reviews of decent bags and poor bags coming in so I was expecting quite a wide spread of weights.  The first indication of a poor day though came from Wayne Fairhurst, who is normally a main contender on this water, and as we weighed his catch at 13lb 4oz it wasn't looking good.  The scales went round quite quickly and visitor John Unsworth was leading the pack most of the way round with a weight of 57lb 14oz.  As the scales came to my peg, I put on a rather poor 16lb - Wayne's weight of 13lb 4 oz being the only thing between me and last place.

Top 3
1st - John Unsworth 57lb 14oz (Peg 56)
2nd - Dave Benson 41lb 10oz (Peg 28) - [2 weeks on the trot now he has beat me off the next peg]
3rd - Chris Fairhurst 38lb 10oz (Peg 48)

The drive home was a slightly down beat one.  Knowing full well that I blew that match by trying to force a line that clearly wasn't producing; I was kicking myself for such a poor performance.  As I drew the curtains that night, I was hoping that Sunday night's beach session would make up for a disappointing Saturday.

Cleveleys/Rossall Beach

5 Bar Gate
Sunday 14th June 2015

After the disappointing result on Saturday, I was hoping that Sunday's planned beach casting session was going to lift my spirits.  Well it did that!! 

With low tide expected around 16:40, my pal Danny picked me up around 3:30.  The plan was to pick up some fresh worm from Bispham Angling and then head up to 5 bar gate.  We've fished here a couple of times now but never at low water so we wanted to try it at this stage of the tide and fish it up to high tide in daylight, which would allow us to see how the tide comes in on the many gulleys and holes in the beach.

First stop Bispham Angling and it was a first visit to the shop for me.  It's not a massive shop but seemed well stocked with all the sea fishing essentials.  We had a quick browse but keen to get out  fishing, we promptly collected our pre-ordered worm and headed off to the beach (via the chippy across the road, which happened to be open and well, it would be rude not too).

As we arrived at the now 6 Bar Gate, there was already a few anglers fishing so we managed to find a nice spot and made our way down to the water.  Danny had brought a bait pump with him, and even though we had bought some fresh worm, he planned on having a go to see if we could get some of our own.
My set up was a nice, simple 2 hook clipped down rig, fishing fresh worm on both hooks - this rig was later replaced with a loop rig which was far more successful.  As I intended to only fish one rod on this session, I was quickly set up and fishing, as was Danny who promptly started work with the pump as soon as he had a bait in the water.

Unfortunately, Danny was having no luck with the bait pump but he kept faith, especially after chatting with another 'pumper' who had also failed to get any worms. Maybe next time we will manage to get some. As the tide started to come in behind us, we it was time to start moving back up the beach and at this point I also managed to catch my first fish of the day which was a small Dab, a welcome catch but not the greatest of timing as the water was quickly filling up around my feet. After a bit of difficulty, I finally got the fish off the hook and made my way back up the beach before the water came over my wellies. Blank avoided I was very happy but it was a little while longer before my next fish.  As the tide was coming up, we both were able to seen the gullets on the beach filling up and could easily drop a bait in there and move back up the beach with tide knowing our baits, at least for the time being, were in prime position. As we were ready to up sticks and move back again, I had a really good bite but striking into it, I felt nothing pulling back so I dragged my rod up the beach to a dry spot before starting to reel in. As I was reeling in I saw another Dab skating the surface of the water, fish number 2 in but as I was getting this fish in closer I could see a second fish snaking through the shallow water. Closer inspection revealed the culprit to be a Bass!! Double hook up and my very first Bass ever. To say I was pleased was an understatement, even though the Bass was undersized.  Both fish were safely unhooked and returned to the sea. I was jumping for joy at the capture of my first Bass but I felt guilty celebrating as Danny had so far not caught.

We had to wait until about an hour before high tide for any further action but it started to be a bite a chuck as a shoal of whiting must have moved in. I had another double hook up and 3 more singles to take 5 small whiting over the next hour. It was also positive for Danny, who managed to avoid the blank with a Dab and a few whiting.  

To add to my species list, I also managed to catch a really small Tope Pup that was kind enough to smile for the camera.

We ended the session shortly after high tide and for me, it was the best sea session I have had so far this year. 8 fish, 4 species and lots learned with regards to the beach and where to put our baits as the tide comes in. All fish were undersized on this day and all went safely back to the sea.

I'm certainly looking forward to my next visit where I can put this knowledge back into action. 

The Bull Nose - Preston Docks

Thursday 14th May 2015

This blog post has taken a while to get out there compared to some recently but I'll be honest up front now and say that it has taken me this long to get over the shame of being beat by my mate Novice Dez. Now, nearly a week later, I have gotten over myself and am ready to spill the beans. 

A voyage of re-discovery, that is what sea fishing has become for me over the last 12 months as I look to get back into this side of the sport that I had been on a long hiatus from. With my good pal Danny, as you may have read, we recently fished Rossall beach near the 5 bar gate. It was on the way home from that session we were talking about the options of fishing Preston docks as we had read about on the Internet.

Good fortune saw Danny be able to fish the docks for the first time shortly after the rossall session and then fish it again on the Monday night preceding my visit. He told me that he had fished from high tide down to low water and had around 8 decent sized flounder. So my plan on this Thursday was to fish the tide up to high water and do a kind of comparison to help better plan future visits. A quick text chat with Novice Dez and we had agreed for a Thursday night session and I was picking him up from the docks McDonald's (him and a couple of Big Mac meals) ready for the evenings session.

When we arrived, we were the only anglers on the bullnose so pretty much had our pick of areas. As we had never been there before we had no previous  experience to guide us so I decided we would fish from the wall near a bin, the lid of which had clearly been used as a bait table many times before so if nothing else, I knew folk had fished this area. 

I set both of us up pretty quickly and as a bit of an experiment to see what is the better options, I set Dez up with a paternoster rig where as I had a running leger set up. I figured we could compare the 2 and see which is best. As the water was quite low at this stage, there wasn't much pull on rigs so we could get away with relatively light 4 oz plain weights. Nice and easy. What transpired though was a quiet  session as we approached high tide. No bites registering and the only sign was Dez who had somehow managed to hook through the eye of a swivel on somebody else's lost rig, he reeled that in and the attached Flounder that came with it. I had to make it quite clear to Dez that in our usual mini-competition that I like to have, that this fish didn't count as he didn't hook it - but I did claim the free grip lead that came with it.

As the tide rose, a few other anglers turned up and these guys seemed to know what they were doing. Figuring they were regulars, I watched them set up and they were all using paternoster rigs with heavier grip leads. I changed my rig to a paternoster rig after this but I did wonder why they felt the need for a grip lead - I didn't have to wonder for long though as the pull of the tide seemed to increase dramatically and I was no longer able to hold bottom. I quickly switched both me and Dez onto 6oz grip leads and we were soon back in business but I was surprised by how much the tide pulled here.

About half an hour before high tide the water slackened off and as if by magic we started getting bites. Dez managed to land a better flounder before I got off the mark with a mini one. I missed many bites though, either from being too keen and hitting them too quick or I left them too long - either way it was getting frustrating. Dez made matters worse for me as he added 2 more flounder to his tally before the end of the night. Novice Dez had beaten me 3-1 or 4-1 if you could the snagged rig fish.

So as the session drew to close, I had a think about how it had gone. It was clear from this one session that the flounder seemed to feed better when the water wasn't pulling as much. So with this in mind, the next session I try down there will be planned to start about an hour to half hour before high tide and fish it out. Hopefully that will see a better return. I'm also hoping that I can get some better bait for next time, this session was using up bait that I had in the freezer and had been defrosted and refroze a few times, so it wasn't the best. Interestingly, Danny had mentioned to me that he had taken fish on isomes when he went, the sandy coloured ones in particular. I tried this myself and had no joy, in fact the one fish I had was caught in a 2 hook flapper rig, the top hook using black lug and the bottom using an isome and it was the lug that took the fish. 

Anyway, that was that for Preston docks first outing. I will be returning as it is an easy place to fish with only short chucks and the relative comfort of being able to fish out of the boot of your car as well. I just hope the fish are more obliging next time I go.

Rossall Beach

Sunday 3rd May 2015

Rossall Beach - 5 Bar Gate

High Tide: approx 11:30 (8.3m) (www.tidetimes.org.uk)

With no match scheduled over the long weekend, a pleasure session was on the cards and for this sesson I had decided that I shall turn my attention to the sea for a spot of beach casting. A quick chat with my pal Danny Lancaster and we had agreed the day would be Sunday but now needed to decide just where to fish.  We are still getting to grips with the venues available to us in the North West so after a bit of research on line and  some advice seeking on the 'Lancashire Sea Fishing' Facebook group, we finally decided we would fish Rossall Beach at the 5 Bar Gate.

As we had never been there we decided to arrive a bit early to have a scout around and then settle down to fish the tide up for a couple of hours before fishing it back it down - this was following advice from helpful folks on the internet who advised that the tide can catch you off guard here if you are not familiar with it, so fishing this way in daylight will allow us to see where it comes in for future reference.

Following a cheeky breakfast, we arrived at the mark and noticed a group of anglers unloading in the car park. We had a quick chat with these guys and found out they were fishing a match so we decided to stay out their way and settled further up the beach. There are permanent peg numbers marked on the wall here so for reference we fished between peg 95 and 96.

Already we could see some obvious gulleys that would create a target area and also where these will fill up with the incoming tide and potentially cut you off if not careful. 

We settled initially just on the edge of the shingle area and set up stall. My set up was a straight forward single hook clipped rig using a 150g weight. Bait for the first a cast was a single frozen lug worm. Danny's set up was very similar.  It didn't take us long to be ready to go and agree the obligatory pound bets for first fish and biggest fish (we are match anglers at heart).

Due to me not beach casting on a regular basis, I always find my first cast on any session to be a bit tentative and this was no different as my initial cast went off to my right and fell a little shorter than I would have liked but I decided it was good enough and left it.

Its fair to say that me and Danny are quite keen to get this beach casting lark sussed and so far we haven't blanked.....so add to that the unknown of having never fished here before and we found ourselves full of optimistic anticipation.

As the session went on, I found myself getting much more comfortable with my casting again and after a bit of chopping and changing with rigs, I eventually settled on a 2 hook clipped rig using a 170g weight. I found this weight seemed to give me a better cast and the 2 hook maximised my chances of hooking a fish. The session itself was slow though with only Danny having signs of a bite as we hit high tide. At this stage in a beach casting session, without fish or bites to show for my efforts, I tend to find myself doubting the rigs that I am using, doubting the area I am fishing, etc etc and this all results in rapidly diminishing confidence.

We stuck to our guns however and it wasn't long before Danny was reeling in a small Dab to take first blood and the first quid.

I am sure Danny won't mind admitting though that he didn't see this fish bite and it was during a change of bait that he reeled in this welcome prize.  This fish was well hooked so it's possible it could have been on the hook for a while so with this in mind we thought it prudent to reel in and change bait more frequently in case we couldn't see the bites. As I did this, I was rewarded with the same thing, a small Dab on the hook. Whilst not in the ideal way, this did mean that I had managed to avoid the blank.  Unfortunately for me, this fish was also smaller than Danny's so he was winning the race for the biggest fish as well!

As we fished the tide down, the fish were notable by their absence.  Danny did manage to snare another which we thought was a Dab but in closer inspection there were feint orange spots visible so this could have been a small Plaice.  It also meant that with no further fish showing for me, Danny had also won the second quid for the biggest fish if he day.  Eventually the tide dropped sufficient for us to call it a day and we packed up, blank avoided but not the most productive of fishing sessions. Once we had the car loaded we took a little walk around the area again to have a look at the beach we had been fishing over to look at the gulleys. Between us we had decided that it could be worth trying to fish this area at low water as it looked like there was some deeper water just beyond the beach that was beginning to show itself. Maybe an idea for next time. 

All in all a good day and a good scouting mission for another beach mark for future sessions.

Next Weekend

Next weekend will see me switch back to coarse fishing and back on match duty at the famous Heronbrook Fisheries. Having missed 2 matches, I am already seeing my name slip down the league table and with at least one other guaranteed missed match, I need a good result to keep me in contention of a good league position.  This match will also see me give my new Nick Gilbert pole elastic a first outing - let's hope they bring me some luck.

Tight Lines

Mersey Charter Boat Fishing - Tuskar

Well, the sea fishing session scheduled for 27th Feb didn't half turn out to be a faff. Due to forecast strong westerly winds, our planned session on Blue Mink didn't go ahead.  We had already had one session cancelled in January, and now at the end of February we were really on last chance saloon for some Winter Cod fishing so we were determined to get out somewhere. Danny had managed to do some ringing around and got us availability on a boat out of the Mersey. Only 4 of us this time as 2 had dropped out from the original party but we arranged a day, slightly shorter at 5 hours but still enough time.

We had booked aboard Tuskar, skippered by Stan Dickinson. We arranged a 9:00 AM pick up and after a bit of running round to pick Dez up in Preston, via a McDonalds breakfast, we arrived at Priory Wharf for collection around 8:30. We were all anxious to get on board and as we were setting up waiting for Stan to arrive, we were getting ourselves psyched up for a good day. Stan arrived bang on time to get us, first impressions were great, nice sized boat with plenty space to move around and get comfy. Once loaded we were off into the Mersey to our first mark.

View of Priory Wharf as we made our way into the river.

Our first stop saw us on the outside of the main river channel, close to the Bonded Warehouse, the tide was on its way out so was pulling a bit so we went in with 16oz weights on a running leger with a trace of about 4/5ft long to a single 2/0 Aberdeen hook. Danny was first into fish on the day and first strike was a small codling, but still a keeper.

First fish of the day for Danny

Danny added a couple more to his tally before anybody else got in there but eventually Craig and Dez got off the mark with a Dab each

A Dab for Dez

I was left trailing behind with no fish, and I wasn't shy about letting folk know, but after a change of tactic that saw me switch to a shorter trace and pennel rig I eventually got off the mark with what turned out to be probably the biggest fish of the day

Codling for Me

As the tide slowed a bit we moved into the main channel of the river for a bit, hoping the fish will have moved in there where there was a bit more pull. First drop in here for me resulted in another codling although this one was too small to keep so went back safe and sound.  Strangler though that seemed to be the only fish to show on this line.

Once at low water, Stan moved us across to the other side of the river, roughly outside Wallasey Town Hall steps where we would fish until home time as the tide turned and started to come back in. This proved to be a slow line and I think a solitary undersize Codling by me was all this line produced on the day. Stan explained to us that by this time of year we had missed the best of the Mersey Cod fishing and that Nov/Dec was probably the best time for it. We knew that really but wanted to give it a go anyway. As Stan called time I think we all had a good day, some nice views on the day too, especially of the Liverpool skyline.

So, final tally of the day. 

Danny - 3 Codling (2 in size), 2 Dab

Craig - 1 Dab

Dez - 1 Dab (plus about a million crabs and the worlds smallest starfish)

Me - 3 Codling (1 in size)

Final thought of the day - poor Dez doesn't have much luck with the target species. Of the last 3 times we have been out, once for Tope and twice for Cod, whilst not blanking, Dez has failed to catch the target species. Next time he comes out, I think we'll target Pouting and at least give him chance of catching something he wants!!

I would recommend Stan for a days charter fishing in the Mersey, knowledgeable and nice guy - check out the details at http://www.charterboats-uk.co.uk/tuskar 

Sea Fishing - Blue Mink Charters

I'm a little late in posting this for one reason or another so might not have the greatest detail. As I mentioned in my last post, I'll first report on the last match on Pem Centrals calendar. The club were on Blundells fishery Ash pool. By all accounts, I didn't miss much with a few of the lads struggling for much of the day. Wayne Fairhurst won the match I believe with a weight of around 50-odd pound so well done Wayne. I'm going to be processing the clubs results soon and getting them up to date so hopefully will be able to give a full season update soon.

On to my last venture and a change of scene was in order as me and a bunch of pals boarded Blue Mink out of Fleetwood for a spot of sea fishing.  Skippered by Andy Bradbury. This trip had a long build up for me as I had been looking forward to it for some time. Once on board we headed out to our first mark of the day where we had hoped to pick up mackerel and codling to start with. Using feathers for the mackerel or baited feathers for the codling and other species, we were putting a few fish on the boat. Most of the mackerel were being kept for eating or for bait later in the day when we were going to try for a few tope. Sadly most of the codling and other species we caught were undersized so most went back safe and sound. We thought we were doing quite well but Andy had decided we needed some help with the mackerel and had a go himself. We were well and truly schooled as he very quickly filled a bucket with mackerel, equivalent to the size it had taken 7 of is to fill in the first half of the day!! After a few hours, we decided enough bait had been caught and we moved off in search of some tope.

My previous best tope was a mere 8/9lb so I was really hoping to beat that today with regular reports of fish over 30lb being boated in previous trips. Using mackerel flappers for bait, it didn't take long for the first of the days tope to be boated, caught by first time boat angler Chris, it was a good fish for him and a good start to the day

The tope were coming regular enough with a some good sized ones coming out inbetween bull Huss and the inevitable doggies. My turn seemed to be taking a while though as the tope seemed to be eluding me but then all of sudden I got a good take from a fish and a good run followed indicating a tope was on the line. After a good scrap, a tope of roughly 15lb came up at the side of the boat, sadly for me though, the fish shed the hook as we were trying to boat it and it got away without me getting my hands on it. Sadly that was my only tope of the day but the other lads put a few on the boat, Derrick Snr was getting amongst them quite regular, this being the best of his

After losing a real good fish earlier on, Darren eventually landed what was probably the second largest of the day, roughly mid 20's.

Finally on the last cast of the day, Derrick Snr's rod screamed off again but this time he passed it over to Derrick Jnr to do the honours. After a good long scrap the largest tope of the day was boated and weighed at 34.5lb 

So a good day was had on the day but I still feel that the big tope is eluding me so hoping that my next outing on the boat on the 15th August will bring the big one my way. Before that however, I'm back on club duties as Pem Central take on Whitmore Fisheries East Canal on the 2nd August.

Tight Lines!!!!!!!!