Weymouth Trail Away Report Sun 21st

[Adam F]

The first Weymouth trail away of the year went well Im pleased to report. We had five club boats turn in which was reasonable considering the time of year, holidays and other commitments etc..

 

Maverick with Dean and Mark B, Dawn Raider with Rich Jaw, Blue Warrior with Paul J, Neo with Sam C and Fat Chance with Terry and Tony.

 

We met at 7am and the weather looked to be spot on - with the huge tides expectations were high for the bass to feed. With us all launched we headed out in convoy - alas we couldnt make contact with Eddy the Eel, and the tide was already running which meant we couldnt feather any - plan C was to head around the back of the Bill to feather some joeys.

 

The tides today were as fierce as I have ever seen them - I think most of the boats used twice as much fuel as normal! At one point just of the Bill I was sat at 3500rpm just to keep the boat stationary in the 7 knot tide! Drifts happened in a blink of the eye and we used 12oz of lead most of the day to keep on the bottom!

 

We were all expecting to fish the race, but when we arrived a veritable car park had formed on the West Buoy - charter boats, commercial rod and line bass boats and pleasure craft all crowded the drift line. The fish seemed to be everywhere as every boat you looked at seemed to netting a fish. BW took just 2 drifts to snag the first fish - the best of the day at 6lb. It was hard work though and just when you though you had it sussed you would draw a few blank drifts.

 

As the tide slackend the boats began to disperse to ther marks and to find tide in the eddy that creates here. The first tide of the morning had been hard work to say the least but a respectable amount of Bass had been taken and the majority returned alive. The slack was very brief due to the tide size - barely enough time to have lunch and clean the catch and we were back off again. BW tried the race but it was serious stuff - too much for us, so we headed back to the first mark. Maverick had managed to buy about 50 eels from eddy and martin very kindly donated a handful to BW - this seemed to do the trick with a fish every drift - although noticable was the size of the bass on the eels - pretty small. Whilst the joeys to fewer fish - they were a much better stamp.

 

We called it a day at about 4pm and headed back to the slip for a wash down and a quick pint in the Spyglass.

 

All in all another enjoyable day in Weymouth.

 

Adam

[Maverick Martin]

Sorry I left it so late to post a catch report on Mavericks day but I was totally whacked after the Weymouth trailaway .

 

Overall the day was nothing if exciting, huge waves in the Portland race, at one point a tide of 7 knots and loads of boats around made it shall we say interesting:

 

Our promise of eels did not materialise and it was only bye chance at lunchtime that I managed to scrounge a few from Eddie but we were lucky to get them. It seems that he looks after his regulars first whether you have booked em or not and I suppose you cant knock him for that.

 

On the fish front we fared reasonably well with about eight bass onboard, the largest going to Dean at around 3.5lbs Mark had his fair share with me being a late starter not catching until well into he afternoon but then getting one a drift for a while. As Adam said it seems as though you got fewer fish on Joey

[JIMBOB]

I enjoyed the day out on the race but didnt expect quite that much tide!

It all started well with joeys not too hard to find then we headed to join the "carpark" at the west bouy, with one minor obstacle in the way ....... portland race.........not for the faint hearted as Dawn Raider took a wave straight over the bow .its a bit like a washing machine and I wouldn't recommend it.

I took a bass first drift Then third and it was a bit like that for most on the tide, but a bit disapointed with the average size,even on joeys they were all about a 1lb 1/2 best fish about 5lb but all very fat with a strong stench coming off them !!??..anemone remains?

Rich and I had 8 between us.

On the slack we headed to the shambles for some launce and then back to the bass only to find I was low on fuel.

So I dropped anchor a bit closer in but due to the tide it was unfishable!! and a 2lb lead was going at right angles from the boat.

So we headed in with the others only to run out of fuel at the entrance to the harbour Thanks Adam for the extra drop to get me home

Most enjoyed the Spyglass on the way home

 

Tight lines

 

James

 

[Paul D]

Neo had an awfuls day fishing - in fact the worst I have ever had , but was a nice day to be afloat.

 

Headed off to the race whilst others went for eels to the shambles. On reaching the race decided to head for the west buoy as there seemed to be plenty of charter boats there..... Got to the West Buoy and BW radioed through to say they were catching mackeral under the lighthouse, so decided to steam over as we needed bait ( in retrospect I wish we had used the stormy sand eels instead of spending around 1 1/2 hours chasing mackeral in 5 knots of tide)

 

Around 5 knots of oncoming tide and some very sloppy water meant we could actually keep up with Dawn Raider on the way over. Getting there spent a while drifting for macckie. Only seemed to be able to catch the larger ones though.

 

Thought about heading around to Pulpit rock as this looked like a fishy spot but decided instead to go back to the West Buoy and try drifting with the other boats ( thanks to Rich for thinking of us and phoning me to warn us not to go through the race which was building up nicely ).

 

Not a bite....

 

Tide slackened and followed BW onto the Shambles where everyone seemed to be feathering for Launce. Tried this and Sam had a couple drop off having been hooked !

 

Tried some drifts over the shambles with a mackeral flapper and failed to hook into a really good bite ( Turbot or Plaice ? ). Getting ever more despondent and having burnt around 20 litres of fuel decided to go inshore. A change of heart halfway meant we tried another 3 drifts around the West Buoy. Thought I was into a fish but managed to catch James on Dawn Raider ( I think by now I was not using sufficient weight to get to the bottom ).

 

Steamed over to a "mark" that Rich mentioned but didn't have a clue where it was. Radioed through to Dawn Raider to find out where they had gone. By the prison apparently - I thought the prison was a boat in the harbour ? evidently not - maybe they meant the old prison.

 

Decided to fish the Hood and caught a pollack and cuckoo wrasse ( which was promptly eaten by a seagull after I returned it ). Maverick came over to join us and did a few drifts - we moved over to another wrasse mark but I was getting depressed by now, so decided to head back.

 

 

On arrival back at the slipway found all the other boats there - that would explain why we couldn't get them on the radio

 

I then found that you cannot use the last pontoon as it is evidently a ground baiting platform ( to the extent that someone was throwing bread down onto our boat ) - this caused me to have an anxious moment and steam through their fishing line ( which I wasn't aware was there - honest ). Seemed to please PJ for some reason

 

Now I can't even make fun of my work collegue for failing to catch fish

[shytalk]

perhaps a storm shad would have worked??? i changed plans after hearing saturdays catch reports from my weymouth chums and decided a return to poole sat night and out from poole sunday was the way to go , good decision took a couple of friends and ones nipper to try for bass off the needles we managed about 40 to 6LBall bar 3 were caught on storm shads the fish were so thick we managed 9 fish in the last 2 drifts with only 3 knots of tide and 4oz leads making things very enjoyable

[Paul J]

We went the wrong way! oh well thats fishing,

 

It's fun fishing the race though

[Manic Moore]

I was earning BPs on Sunday, took FPO for lunch then sneaked out for a mullet in the harbour. I am going to have to work at the technique as I spent the first couple of hours getting a dace a chuck. Then got moved by a yachty wanting his anchorage back. Selfish!

 

As the tide slowed hooked into my first thick lipped, only a small one at 2lb 7oz then dropped another, both taking me out into the river even on 5lb hook length.

When the tide stopped took my last and best fish another thick lipped at 3lb 9oz which fought really well even in 6 feet of water, spending the entire time shaking its head under the boat. Fantastic fun on course tackle and a centre pin. Then the tide turned and apsolutely hurtled in and as it was then getting dark decided to call it a day. About 10lb of dace to 10oz and a brace of nice, hard fighting mullet.

 

[Paul D]

Peter,

 

Tried using stormies, to no avail. Feel much happier knowing the fishing by the island was so good

 

Still, after the race going across the shingles will hold no fears now

 

[Swainiac]

Peter, Les Lawrence and I had better results on the bridge with tiny tiny scad, with the average fish size far better than those we took on the Weymouth trailaway.......although James did allow me to drop what looked to be the best fish of the day, at the side of the boat, if Bob F is Gaffer, Jimbob should be netter!!

 

So it follows that stormies should work over the bridge. Did you lose much tackle?? I didnt lose a single set up, but Les lost gear every drift. Nice reports, anyhow, and a very enjoyable day.

 

Rich

[shytalk]

we were about 5 miles south of the needles on a bank so tackle losses werew very minimal just one case of slipknot on a shad

[Swainiac]

Peter, was there a commercial cat out of Portsmouth working near you? We were shadowed by a white/blue south cat, (Ithink), with four guys fishing with rod and line......they didnt seem to be catching, but then, neither were we!!! 14 miles ish sw needles, three wrecks, two charted one not.

 

Rich