1st sailing was hard. I had tried to cancel, and one of my crew took the hint. But Omar, Gabriel and Nathan, less easy to shake off. We ended up with a compromise. The beach isnt really firing yet up this end, the fish holding just about fifty yards past the biggest cast. But should the wind be too much, this was the backup option. The wind was too much, even to bring off the dock as it was absolutely screaming Northerly.
Predictably though, we did two hours for not a touch. Some great skills enhanced and lots of chat, just zero fish. Happily though, the wind did then lull, enough to launch. Still incredibly limiting where we could fish, as any further than 500 yards off, the wind grabbed the boat and sped her up to the point it was, well, hard.
Despite all the drama, it was enough time to land five bass. No monsters, but considering how tough the conditions were, we were quite pleased for this. Next two sailings were cancelled, but based on a forecast that suggested lulling winds, the 1730 with Scott and Stuart was a goer.
Just prior to heading out I got a call from a friend sitting in a pub in Rottingdean, with a live report of gull activity so we headed out that way to start. Sadly, the carnage was over as we arrived, the birds licking their beaks and burping, after some clearly good feeding. We ran a few drifts anyway, but couldnt locate either bait or bass, so continued the hunt.
It took a while before while fishing a sequence of linked rough patches, Scott spotted a smash up. Heading over, it was exactly on the next intended drift, and it was bass. This lead to leaping from zero to twenty bass in the last hour. Much fun, but absolutely bloody freezing, and we were all quite happy when the end of session alarm sounded.
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