November already... Time ticking. Not so many days left to play if you want to play, before I head off to work in Portugal for a few months. And as the daylight reduces, and the days get gloomy, I must admit I begin to look forward to those moments. Not there yet though, so we soldier on. This mornings sailing, I had with me Loz, Duncan, Richard and Nguyen. All returnees.
Similar story to the previous day really. Fish hard to locate, and in small pockets. Quite a bit of running around to find them, and when we do, hard to find a sizeable one. We did manage to land a dozen, but just three from that number were for the table. Squid on the other hand, were rampant again, and on every mark. A couple of cuttles also, including one rather large old fella.
2nd sailing, and I felt it was going to be without a bass for much of it. With me, regulars Patrick and Simon, and new to BIF1, Robert with his son, 6.5 year old Matvey. I had concerns about the safety rail on BIF1, as I envisaged a scenario where he might fall through. But we put him aboard, and checked out where he would be. Worse case, he would head but the rail, but would not go through.
Bass were even harder to find. Simon did manage a small codling, which he had fun practicing some poses ready for the upcoming pollock season, which we will endeavour to enjoy aboard THE KRAKEN CHARTERS Squid were again on every mark. To the point that an hour in I headed for a spot which has been very consistent since they grew big enough to grab a jig. Here we put a real lot of squid and a single cuttlefish into the fish box. With just half an hour to go, I suggested we try for bass, and all agreed. We headed tight inshore to avoid squid, and were greeted by gulls going crazy as bass pushed up whitebait from below. A godsend.
13 was the final tally, with five killed for the table. Good to see some shoals moving across the surface. Quite exciting and this is where BIF1 really excels, as her speed means no bass shoal in existence cannot be intercepted. Exactly what is needed to show that Sussex can be a premier BFT fishery in fact, as existing craft fishing for them spot the fish, but are too slow to make an intercept. Another craft with both the turn of speed, the outriggers and the coding to go out to where the tuna live is Kraken. Permissions being worked on but it might be time to finally turn Brighton into a port with a daily record of tuna catches, with a purpose built tuna boat. Currently the only options are a guy who borrows a Dive boat from the Metropolitan Police Dive club, but it only occasionally hooks up, mainly due to exactly that. It is a dive boat, not a purpose built tuna vessel. Big respect to the skipper for the few fish they have landed however. Not easy to be the wireman with all those poles and covers to contend with. Great things coming for 2025 as the tuna stock continues its explosion.
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