Jim Clohessy of TopFisher.eu was back on the water at the weekend after a long unwanted break…
The last couple of months have not been kind to the boat angler.
Our last trip was December 28 so Skua was as close to winterised as you can get – All electronics stripped out and all gear removed – So when a weather window opens it takes some work to get ready for water.
All systems were checked in the days before so we were confident that we would have an uneventful launch.
Our plan was a simple one. Launch and have a check about the place and see what’s happening after the long lay up and hopefully get a bend in the lure rods as we go.
This is technically winter fishing. Though water temps didn’t dip much below 8° all winter they are only just rising in recent weeks. It’s moving in the right direction and we are heading for bloom territory shortly. There’s some basking sharks about already. Our expectations for fishing would be managed by past experience of fishing at this time of year- it would be tricky.
Conditions were fine. There was still a little residual easterlies chop. We could still make a comfortable 22knots without hammering ourselves.
We decided to make the most of the tide so we headed for some offshore reefs first. No major action on the sounder but we did contact a few handy pollack on Paddletails. We worked our way around the reefs hitting pollack and as the tide eased some nice wrasse. The pollack were of no great size but fiesty nonetheless. I was using my M rod all day with 55g Crazy Paddletails for the most. Emmet was on 60g Bricoleurre heads with Chinese bodies. Both fared well. I did try a metal for a bit but my catch rate seemed higher on the plastic so I switched back pronto.
We made our way back to the harbour area to see if there were any mackerel or bass about. Both eluded us or were not present! There is an amount of what look like small herrings or sardines about the place. There were tons of gannets and even a minke feeding outside the harbour.
We touched back down and retrieved after a day of chilly sunshine. Not tee shirt weather just yet but still capable of burning! My expanded NMEA 2000 network worked well (more on that later).
Weather is due to break now again so it will be back to prep for the season ahead…
Delighted to be on the water. Boat was humming. Juices flowing, anticipation levels off the scale. Bring it on!
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Check out Jim’s website, an absolute treasure trove for anyone looking to improve their sea angling game…
