Pollack offshore... A LONG WAY offshore

[TomBettle]

Decided to give the boat a really good run in anticipation of the CI's next month and still only having 5 hours on the new engine.

 

It was to be a day of tuition for one of our owners who rarely gets to come out, but everyone was desparate to go fishing due to the cabin fever that had built up over the last few months.

 

Arrived very early at the boat and in the first glow of dawn it was soon apparent that whilst the main engine battery was fine, the domestics battery had keeled over and died through the cold of the winter. Cannabalising my car for the battery on it we soon had GPS, VHF, Lights and all other gizmos working and were in a position to untie lines and head off.

 

We knew the big tides wouldn't help the fishing and would lead to inevitable heavy tackle losses, but nobody seemed to care so the first stop was the usual Summer Cod banks to see if any early fish were showing.

 

We arrived just as the flood tide started and half an hour later and only about half a mile into the drift a big fat zero and despondency was already setting in.

 

A change of rigs to flying collars and a short move to an area of turbulent water and steep rises and drop offs saw us blanking once again and what appeared to be a lost net more or less covering the main target zone meaning tackle losses almost every drift.

 

We fired up the engine and headed further south just as two charter boats arrived at the mark one coming from the Poole direction and the other Lymington.

We were of a mind to tell them that the mark was fishless, but thought that they would know better and drift different sections of the mark.

 

Seven or eight miles further south and we stopped over a wreck mark that I have never fished before. A fellow club member had kindly swapped some numbers with me and it seems the ones he had given me were a little test of my wreck finding ability. Half a mile east of our numbers was a charter already working one wreck, but we tried to find ours by following a grid patttern. Just as I was giving up and about to gun the engines to join the charter boat the wreck loomed up on the sounder some 250 metres from the numbers I had. A couple more passes gave us a good idea of how she lay and we set up for the first drift.

Instantly three of us hooked fish and minutes later the best of the day (to me!) at almost exactly 10lb lay in the cool box along with two of about 7lb.

 

The next few drifts produced more or less the same and then just as the tied peaked the fishing dropped off to nothing. During the time we were on the wreck the charter boats we had seen over at our previous mark had joined the one to our East. A short while later another two turned up and soon five charters were drifting the one wreck leaving us all to ourselves. It seems they weren't doing so well either as one by one they all headed off in different directions.

Anyway, as the fishing dropped off we used the slowing tide to head back towards some wrecks some 9 miles further inshore. It seems that was pretty much it for our day. We carried on catching, but it was a fish here and a fish there.

By the end of the day, the four of us had each caught some three or four fish each. Not an awful lot when you consider the 85 nautical miles we had covered, but it was good to be out on a stunning day with warm sun and flate seas.

 

Tom

[Oli]

Somebody found some fish!!!!! Good on you Tom, nice report. Long way but worth it no doubt. How did she perform?

[TomBettle]

Somebody found some fish!!!!! Good on you Tom, nice report. Long way but worth it no doubt. How did she perform?

It seems that the Weymouth boats had a tough weekend too.

 

I heard of at least two charter boats from there that blanked on Sunday's wrecking forays.

 

Quest II and her new engine?

We are struggling a little to find the most economic running speed.

It certainly isn't 12 or 13 knots!

 

We ran most places at about 2800rpm and ended up using about 140 litres of fuel.

 

I suspect that we'll find either on the plane "proper" at about 15 knots or right down at 8 knots will be the most economical speeds.

Time and practise will tell.

 

Tom

[Rob]

 

We had a triple hook up on AWOL far out to sea only for Martins to let go. We didnt weigh them but I guess Dean's went 10lb.

[great white]

Well done |Tom

 

Nice to hear the engines well and that there are some fish about

 

were the wrecks en route to the islands or further west?

 

Charlie

Edited April 20, 2010 by great white

[TomBettle]

Well done |Tom

 

Nice to hear the engines well and that there are some fish about

 

were the wrecks en route to the islands or further west?

 

Charlie

More East in it than West Charlie.