First sailing, and Andy, returning, had bought Chris, Charlie and Mark along, to see what all the fuss is. All in good spirits despite the crazy early start, my own mojo was a little rocked when we met a dolphin feeding hard at the entrance. As lovely as they are, they are not conducive to good bass fishing, unsettling shoals and moving them on. Happily that was the last we saw of it for that sailing.
Wind was more than forecast, and from the NW, so a fair swell was rolling initially. This dictated where we fished and potentially made for a tough session. Happily Neptune sent some seagulls to assist. And from this, a further penny has dropped about the grounds the brit shoals prefer to be, proven later by a deliberate drift on open water based on this observation, working, and producing the best fish of the session (5.5lb)
In the interim period though, we worked through the fish. Smalls initially, but then we found a patch of more mature fishes, and the kill hit six fish quickly. 17 bass, a bream and four mackerel was the final score, which is not too bad for 3 hours fishing, and filled me with confidence, ready for the next session. Six hours with Mathieu.
2nd and 3rd sailings were spent with Mathieu, returning. Six hours back to back which I havent done for quite a while. It started slow with little flow, and ended slow with little flow. And in between was a bit of everything. Some brief excitement at times. Slower moments. Lots of schoolies. Regular tables. A no kill day so all a bit irrelevant. 17 bass landed, plus a couple of mackerel which suddenly have become a very regular theme.
Final sailing, and Peter bought his lad Leo, Dan grabbed a last minute slot and my actor friend David had grabbed a compromise after his planned birthday sailing last week was wind affected. But sadly, this sailing was by far the worst of the day. There was a fairly stiff SW wind which did not help. I headed to where I wanted to be but lure control was not so easy in the swell.
Running around from mark to mark hunting fish did not help either. Only one mark held any, for which Peter and Leo both managed one, and that was literally it. A combination of sea shutting off and swells, meant that the grand tally for the sailing was 2 small bass and a single mackerel.
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