Flatfish and Ray Comp - Sunday 21st Sept

[Maverick Martin]

Dean and I had plan "A" SW banks for ray or plan "B" Southbourne for plaice.

 

With the forecast being a 3-4 e/ne we were in favour of plan "A" for blonde rays, however when we poked our nose out beyond hand fast point we found a 4/5 blowing from the east with quite snotty seas. At this point it was decided we didn

[Manic Moore]

I eagerly excepted a crew place with Dan and Charlie for the comp and with the early forcast I didn't think Enticer would mind but the sunshine in the morning she was giving me the arms crossed look!

 

Well I think I should be forgiven as when we got out the entrance the sea was pretty snotty.

 

We persivered and after spending a fruitless 30 minutes looking for bait we anchored on one of Charlie's banks.

 

We ended on the day with 3 blonds including a 16 to me, and a small eye of 6lb 8oz plus a small bag of bits.

 

Hard work but the weather steadily improved and good company as usual on Alfresco

 

Thanks for the day out again Charlie / Dan

Edited September 23, 2008 by Manic Moore

[Manic Moore]

My 16oz blond, she's a beauty eh!

Edited September 21, 2008 by Manic Moore

[Manic Moore]

 

 

Charlie caught her mum!

[Neal]

 

Rich, John and myself also intended to fish the S W Banks and if that failed keep moving east until............

 

Anyway with the short sharp chop on the way out I decided to go to a mark that had previously provided at least three 20lb plus blondes - but not today.

 

Fishing so slow I even heard someone wishing for a doggie!!!

 

Struggled with mackerel - only half a dozen all day.

 

As the tide slackened we tried a quick move to re-anchor and straight into a fish.

 

One solitary 9lb Blonde ray heaved aboard in my new net that probably weighs about the same as the fish!!

 

A final move to drift between the Piers for a dab or Plaice again no good - gurnards and bream only.

 

Lovely weather this afternoon and thats about all I can say - fishing.........pants

 

Neal

 

 

[carl/overdraft]

Took a look outside and Easterly 3-4 no good for me, very snotty and not enjoyable. Returned to the Harbour and fished the flood thro' the Haven area. We had 20 Bass but were all under 2 1/2 lb all returned. Aaron landed an 11oz Guilthead , and we had a few drifts thro' the channels for flatties with no luck. Lots of surface Bass close to the wall but unable to entice any onto our lines. Nice day but crap winds.

[Paul D]

Accepted a trip on Bass Gas and had a really nice day out. Thought we weren;t going to get out at first when Lee had trouble starting the engine but all sorted OK and we were off though the run which was well choppy - enough to get the rudder hitting bottom...

 

Then headed for some mackeral which were scarce before heading for X-Ray.

As the tide turned the sea was getting rougher by the minute so after clearing the area of dogfish we headed in close to try for some Triggerfish.

 

Garry seemed to be catching triggers for fun and they really go well on the light tackle. I then managed a few myself the best which I managed to land and weigh coming in at 2lb 4oz but I lost the biggest trying to lift it with the trace

Lee managed a Bass and bream.

 

A great end to a really pleasant day despite the horrible easterly.

 

Many thanks for having me onboard.

 

[bass gas]

 

paul

 

it was a pleasure haing you onboard, pity the conditions werent better

 

thanks garry & lee.

[alun j.]

Imagine went West.........

 

Paul and I were surprised by the lumpy sea in the Swash, on a gorgeous morning, and it got bigger as we went South, so Plan A had to be abandoned. Thinking there might be shelter under Dancing Ledge [it had been blowing N. when we left!], Paul pressed on.........I hadn't realised how determined he is, they were seriously horrid swells and wind over water!!

 

Around the corner and in under the cliffs, it was easier but not the calm we had hoped for as there was now a fair bit of S. in the wind! Plan C needed!!

 

THrough the race and round the next corner into Chapmans Pool; at last, some calm! We tried several spots, all were rough and rocky bottom and the boat kept swinging on the anchor, dragging tackle into snags......... but it was great to be out in the warm sunshine.

 

Target species came on almost the first drop, with a nice thornback for me. You can't see clearly on the pic., but this was the most thornless thornback I'd seen; it had just one row of spikes down the middle. Checked with Charlie\Dan's chart later, easily matches male thornie credentials. WEighed and returned, he was 13lb. 6oz. .......and the only ray we saw all day. A few nice bream [not easy to hook on 5/0 hooks] and mackerel for dinner gave us something to return with.

 

The trip back was completely different! With less wind and tide going other way, it was almost calm !!..... except for the hairy overfalls on the three races!!

 

Thanks again Paul for a very enjoyable day; Imagine is a great boat and you made her feel very safe in those extra- snotty conditions.

 

Alun.

[great white]

Hi all

 

After so many contradictory forecasts and no cancelation notices we decided that we would go all out for the Ray part of the comp, with a fallback plan of getting worms only if we needed them.

 

Woke up to clear sky's and what looked like gentle breezes but like others we were surprised by the horrible seas through the swash channel and beyond. We stopped had a look at the wind strength and then decided to change plan to much nearer banks and press on.

 

As Gordon says the mackeral were hard to find at slack, but we did not need many so soon had the anchor down. and fairly shortly after I had a heavy fish on that was determined to stay deep. When she surfaced I was very pleased to see the first Blonde to Alfresco was a lovely female, swiftly netted by Dan and weighed onboard at 25lb then returned.

Good start [i was so pleased I put the kettle on]

 

After that Gordon had another Slightly?? smaller Blonde.

 

Tide eased and we decided to move [while the slack tide was swinging the boat] to another mark 1/2 mile away. almost straight away Gordon had a small eye of 6lb 8oz, and we thought things would start on the ebb. Unfortunatly not

 

I did manage another small blonde of 7lb 4oz but apart from a gurnard, garfish and a few dogs it was quiet.

 

a couple of points of interest,

The mackeral were very hard to get at slack water periods but we caught them at intervals when the tide was running so never ran out of bait.

 

All 4 rays came to a cocktail of squid and fresh mackeral.

 

As the wind and sea state eased and the sun came on to the cockpit it turned into a nice afternoon. always a pleasure to have Gordon onboard and a specimen fish

 

Charlie

 

 

 

 

 

[Sinbad]

It was a great day to be out, and share the sunshine and relative calm of Chapmans Pool, with a couple of other charter boats....

 

but wow what a trip out there, with the direction of the surf waves all over the place. I couldnt see why the conditions were so bad, but possibly the last of the ebb against the NW wind ?

 

At one stage going south down some particularly steep ones (in the 10ft range), you needed to kill the throttle to stay on the wave, before shooting down the face of it, and then giving it some gas...

 

Once arround the corner of StAlbans, It proved to be an interesting area between here and kimmeridge with plenty of rock, sand and clay gullies to check out.

If it had been the species hunt we would have scored handsomely... baby bass 3-4 at a time on feathers by the Brownsea castle... garfish , Mackerel and Scad on feathers...at Chapmans - Ray, Bream and doggies on Mackerel fillets....oh, and a few pout...

 

And a very quiet day on the radio (no signal behind the cliffs!)

Still - a very enjoyable day to be out and well worth a prudent approach of constantly assessing changes to the wind direction and tide... We thought the flood against the easterly would be pretty awful - although going in right close to St Albans and Durlston is easily the best track..

 

However the return trip was with the flood and by now wind in the S was much smoother, but the overfalls of Peverill were pretty horrible. We saw Star Turn at anchor in swanage, but pressed on home as this was the first bit pf smooth water since chapmans pool.

 

Well done Charlie and crew on Alfresco, and all those who braved it - it was well worth the effort.

 

Paul

Edited September 22, 2008 by Sinbad

[charlieannear]

We (Rob Francis, my Dad Trevor and I) had a leisurely start to the day and launched without incident at Baiter. (Although we had some maniac in a white van to contend with by Poole Park)

After launching we were just heading out the channel and nearing the fuel barge when we heard Dave on the radio and responded to his call for assistance.

About an hour later, with Dave and Bill and Lady Christine back on their mooring, we were passing the chain ferry and heading towards Swanage for the afternoon.

It wasn't the most comfortable day out, but Star Turn handled the sea conditions fine, the Opti pushing us along at about 17 knots without any problems at all.

We spent the day on numerous drifts in Swanage Bay picking up mackerel every now and again, and then we anchored up when the sea smoothed out a bit. Sadly no rays came to the surface. Our baits were getting chewed but not sure what by. Rob and I both had something heavy on the end of the line a couple of times but nothing made it up to the daylight. Might have just been relatives of Neal's rock...

Rob had a couple of doggies later in the day but that was it.

We saw Imagine shoot past late in the afternoon, but was pretty quiet otherwise.

We had a nice day in the sunshine, although not as calm as I normally like!

Star Turn handled the trip back very well, the waves at Old Harry were the biggest I think she has encountered in her 28 years! But we came out the other side in good time and made a steady 20 knots back to the harbour, then back to Baiter (where we discovered that the ladder had decided to go and visit Neptune) and home.

Well done to all who got out and got into the fish. And thanks to Rob for his continued assistance and guidance, helping us get the best from Star Turn.