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Why when your retired why is life so busy?!!!!!! We had arranged last year for my Godson to come down from St Albans for the night and his parents. I couldn’t believe the weather the last three days and I couldn’t get out, we were planning to take Danny and his wife out for dinner after Martin had recommended a restaurant. Then I had a devious thought, how about a picnic on board and we could even wet a line. They managed to get to us just before 4 so we made the 4.30 lift and saw Madness heading in. The Swash was alive with birds and Bass, I had emptied the boat when out of the water and not a lure, shad, feathers, SPJ to be found, what an idiot!! So a quick get the monkey out the boat didn’t happen, arrived at Ballard hook down and the dogfish arrived! However with non anglers on board they proved great amusement, especially to Dans mother who as a staunch vegetarian was keen to know if we could eat it! 40 minutes of LSD was enough so we moved, only 100m and fish showed on the sounder, first drop a two pound Bream followed by two more about 1.5lbs then the dogs came back. So everyone had played and landed a fish and all happy and the sun was still out. We still needed another fish if possible for the family of 4 , nailing a dogfish to a telegraph pole in St Albans to skin it slowed the vegetarian down a bit!!! We moved again a few hundred yards and destroyed the picnic and a few drinks. Getting chilly a slow cruise home for the 20.30 bridge was decided, bringing the rods in, a dull weight on a light lure rod a Small Eyed had attached itself to the rod, the now very excited hunter gatherer vegetarian was straight on the rod. ” Can we eat it” after a short discussion it was thankfully decided Cyril the Small Eyed should go back, so another “And Away” was sent home. Mortimer and Whitehouse fans had all now caught a fish. Great evening a few fish and a lot of laughs.

Joined Martin on Tuesday, was my first sea fishing trip for over 30 years, caught a dogfish, lost a bigger one (if you believe that) Martin had a dogfish and a small conger, bought back many memories of days when mackerel was plentiful. Sad to hear the tackle shop in Cobs Quay had had to shut. Thank you Martin for a great day out.

Hmm clowns error, I have an isolator switch that stops the windlass from being used. This is very useful when taking the grandchildren out as they cannot hurt themselves upfront by accidentally touching the operating switches. Hmm would help if I remember to turn off the isolate switch when fishing Ooops

Another Day out on Madness. Left Cobb's for the 08:30 bridge. It was a pleasant morning with a gentle breeze & hazy sunshine. The harbour was quite calm and we made our way to the chain ferry. Once outside it was a different story. It was quite breezy & lumpy. We decided that Ballard would be a good choice so off we went at a gentle pace. We lined up for anchor and found there was a problem with the windlass ( Martin will explain ). We had a go at drifting and I "winkled" out a Pollack. It's too rocky at Ballard for drifting so a change of plan was needed. We headed for the beaches at B/mouth to drift for flatties. On the way Martin sorted the anchor so we then headed for the patch. Anchored on a nice spot but there were only a couple of boats out there (both charters) so we guessed that it had been overfished and not producing much. We were right! Martin had one and put it back. Martin and Phil had a couple of doggies. We all hooked a couple and lost them. I had a Bream as well. Then we moved and had nothing but a wrasse to me and a better Bream to Martin. We decided that the Harbour would be better but just caught Weed. Last few minutes by the Ro Ro and I had another Bream. Back in at 3:30 lift. Thanks Martin & Phil for another great day out. Not many fish but so good to get out. Thank you.

Indeed it was Charlie. A bit lumpy out there & not many fish but yes. A lovely day with couple of great blokes.