Jump to content

Swanage to Old Harry 23/09/09


Overrun
 Share

Recommended Posts

The last time I'd fished Swanage was back in January, made a mental note to return in summer. A mid-week sortie, the plan was to go with the last of the flood to Old Harry then a little off-shore to inspect the 'race' and back to Swanage. Hopefully, while collecting bait for the weekend and may be a John Dory.

 

Launched at 10:15, a few bait balls on the fish finder and little else in the bay. Around to Ballard and wondered what the RNLI were doing up against the cliff, at one point disappearing into a cave backwards cool.gif. While pondering the goings-on, drifted and paddled towards Old Harry, more Life Boats blink.gif.

 

user posted image

 

Crikey, some thing's up, they were doing exactly the same as the first, reversing into the cliff under power, against an anchor. The penny dropped, ...training exercise. There were 5 inshore Life Boats, never felt so safe!

 

Approached Old Harry, noticed the depth decreasing rapidly and skirted east, buoyed off on a likely looking spot to fish while waiting for the ebb to begin.

 

user posted image

 

Baited hokkai/feather mix yielded nothing. The RNLI went for lunch, then the Barfleur, Condor Fast Cat and the Waverley steamer passed by before the ebb began. Paddled out to the area marked 'dangerous' on the chart (the 'race'), early in the tide and not a big one so nothing apparent.

 

Alternately paddled and drifted back towards Ballard, picked up a small Bream on the baited hokkai. Spied a buoy off Ballard and headed towards that, feathers were hit on arrival at the buoy, Garfish.

 

Nice tide at the buoy approx. 1.5 knots, 40ft depth. Garfish everywhere, jumping out of the water and hitting the feathers & hokkai incessantly. The next three up were tangled in the trace, in typical Gar fashion, not one hooked .

 

Started to get the odd Mackerel, then 5 on one drop. The Mackerel were short lived, Gar returned and for the next 15 minutes hooked another 2 and missed numerous hits. Sport died off, continued back, wind a little fresher than forecast was balancing the Kayak against the tide, so needed to paddle.

 

Back across the bay and onto the beach for 15:00, nearly 5 hours out, 7 Mackerel kept for bait, the John Dory remaining ellusive, where does the time go?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...