Fish of the day, and a very happy Steve...

First sailing and out with Paul and Lee. I was really quite hopeful, as we were fairly mirroring the tide state of the previous evening. However, the difference was a stiff NE breeze. This pushed us through very quickly on the new ebb tide.Additionally there was a fair amount of rot showing on the sounder. This all made for a very tough session.

A froliced Black Bream for Paul

We began looking for bass once more. And once more, they were not marking in any great numbers. A bonus black bream did put in an appearance for Paul though. And then onto the plaice. Where the drift was also too quick. Normally, I would head inshore to shad fish for bass in these conditions, but I assumed the may rot was still in there, so resisted the urge. We tried a few other rocky patches, to add wrasse and pout to the tally, but still, slow. Mackerel, a single fish. And then finally, with limited time to go, the wind died back. We found a nice drift speed on my current favourite plaice bank, and bingo, Paul at least had a nice plate sized plaice to take home for tea. Poor Lee though. They are back on Wednesday. I hope to find them much more action. Including on the fly Paul...

...because... next sailing I had the great pkeasure to finally get my good friend Steve, who runs "proteus" a blyth catamran under the "Brigand Charters" banner. He has taken me out too many times, but he is a very busy man, so when he mentioned he actually had a day free, I bagged him on my empty vessel. His greatest wish was to catch a bass on the fly, so I packed the fly rod and decided we would go check on the may rot situation inshore. And that situation was... there was no may rot. We could once again fish the sub 30' waters. Which means fly. And as if to confirm, Steve got walloped by a seriously agressive fish. Not big, but boy, did his face light up. Mission accomplished, in a bag of plaice, wrasse and bass on the rubbers and starches.

Final sailing I had to myself. A beautiful sunset, on mirror calm seas running a fair swell. A perfect end to the evening. I stayed with the plaice, and of course, with nobody to enjoy it with me, they fed hard, plus half a dozen mackerel, which I left in a bucket of water on "Proteus" as I knew Steve was hoping for a turbot trip the following day.