Kingfisher 126

Fish of the Year 2024 Date Caught Name Boat Species Weight lb Weight oz Spec lb Spec oz % Specimen 04/08/2024 Dave Evans Reel Magic Shark - Thresher 200 0 140 0 142.86 27/09/2024 Colin Francis Boblin4 Mullet - Thick Lipped 5 8 4 0 137.5 14/07/2024 Adam Franklin Kodiak Gurnard - Red 1 9 1 4 125 06/03/2024 Dave Evans Reel Magic Bull Huss 14 2 12 0 117.71 27/09/2024 Colin Francis Boblin4 Mullet - Thin Lipped 4 1 3 8 116.07 06/03/2024 Charlie Chapman Reel magic Spurdog 18 0 16 0 112.5 19/05/2024 Kev Couzens Reel Magic Brill 5 1 4 8 112.5 07/06/2024 Colin Francis Boblin3 Mullet - Thick Lipped 4 6 4 0 109.38 20/05/2024 Gary Witheford Kingfisher Weever 0 13 0 12 108.33 06/12/2024 Charlie Chapman Alfresco Ray - Small Eyed 11 9 11 0 105.11 Dave Evans with the Fish of the Year, sorry Dave can't resist, wearing a "nappy" as most of us would trying to land one that size!! I meant harness Dave. 😁 Well done Dave, and well deserved. 👋 Great to see all ten fish over 100% specimen, well done to all who recorded fish. 👏

December 1st Place; Charlie Chapman Small Eye Ray 11lb 9oz 105% Specimen- 2nd Place; John Stephenson Whiting 3lb 3oz 91% Specimen- £25 Voucher 3rd Place; Alun Jones Whiting 2lb 12oz 79% Specimen -

November 1st Place; Alun Jones Ballan Wrasse 4lb 8oz 90% Specimen- £25 Voucher 2nd Place; Charlie Chapman Small Eye Ray 8lb 6oz 76% Specimen- 3rd Place; Alun Jones Thornback Ray 9lb 0oz 75% Specimen -

October 1st Place; Steve Scott Bass 7lb 13oz 82% Specimen- 2nd Place; Carl James Tope 36lb 0oz 80% Specimen- £25 Voucher 3rd Place; Jerry Sumbler Spotted Ray 4lb 1oz 74% Specimen -

September 1st Place; Colin Francis Thick Lipped Mullet 5lb 8oz 138% Specimen- 2nd Place; Colin Francis Thin Lipped Mullet 4lb 1oz 116% Specimen- 3rd Place; Dale Johnson Spotted Ray 4lb 10oz 84% Specimen - £25 Voucher

August 1st Place; Dave Evans Thresher Shark 200lb 00oz 143% Specimen- 2nd Place; Charlie Chapman Blonde Ray 18lb 5oz 73% Specimen 3rd Place; Mal Thomas Bull Huss 8lb oz 67% Specimen - £25 Voucher

July 1st Place; Adam Franklin Red Gurnard 1lb 9oz 125% Specimen- £25 Voucher 2nd Place; Duncan Chapman Thornback Ray 9lb 12oz 81% Specimen 3rd Place; Ian Jones John Dory 2lb 8oz 71% Specimen -

I went out again yesterday Mal and all fish had gone on holiday, flat calm, a lot warmer, plenty of fish on the sounders but nothing tempted to jump onto a hook. Never two days the same that’s why we do it. 🫣😂

Hope Jackie hasn’t got your password Jim. 🫣🫣

Cheers Colin, first trip out in over 18 months without crutches and a boot. Not bad as I only had the ankle rebuilt end of Nov, all looking good. 🤞👍👍

Cheers Jerry and guys, great day out, as you say Jerry grumpy commercial fishermen as all ours went back. 😂 We were practicing for the catch and release later in the year. Thanks again Jerry. 👍

Mick, since you’ve retired you have too much time on your hands and have put a bit of logic together and made some sense there. Careful you maybe asked to oversee a flounder re establishment programme for the harbour. 👍👏

Have a good one Brian. 🎂🍻🍻

Best wishes Terry, have a good day buddy. 🎂

Happy Birthday Oli, have a good day, spoilt no doubt. 🎉🎂🍻🍷

Have a good one Mal, plenty of 🍷and 🎂 I suspect 🤷 . 🎉

Happy Birthday young man, have a good one. 🎂🎉🍷🍷

Another one sneaks by Nigel, hope you’ve had a good un. 🎂🎉🍻

Have a good one Colin, can we assume the boat was a joint present or do you have to get Bobbi something to match? 🎂😁

Have a good one Allan, 🍷🎂

That’s exactly the comments I put on there Charlie, the days where huge bags of fish were landed are over in most cases. You see on you tube etc guys putting decent fish back all the time which all helps. 👏👏

https://bit.ly/3zbiE2x Completed.

Had a trip out Saturday as the Easterly was low enough to give it a try as the rest of the week looks a write off. Eldest son James asked if his father in law Tim could join us so off we went. Comment as we went under the bridge never been sick on a boat ever from Tim 🫣, his daughter suffers from travel sickness if she isn’t driving and Lenny my Grandson has been seasick both times he’s been out, 🤷. Anyway, cracking morning and no wind at all until off Old Harry and then not too bad. Plan was some bassing then anchor over the slack etc, I decided I would try for some fresh Maccy’s while the others went for bass. Well the bass came quicker than the mackerel again after several drifts producing fish every drift but nothing for me! Then James and Tim managed to tangle on the way down and I got hit at last, only problem was it was bass on the feathers all of them and the Dexter lure. I got them up and James managed to get three into the net the biggest on the Dexter snapped off in the commotion but the others were all keepers so can’t complain. By now Tim had started to ground bait for us which really wasn’t working because of the tide. 🤷🤮 so we now know what side of the family the motion sickness comes from. We carried on until the tide backed off and dropped the anchor for a bit of fun. Still no fresh mackerel but had squid, frozen mac etc, we had congers, some lovely bream and again a screamer run off but as soon as pressure put on the line the leader cut through 6-7 from the hook, thresher tail maybe? By then the small showers were getting heavier so we decided a couple of bass drifts on the way back and call it a day. It started blowing abit and the rain heavier we had a drift and called it a day as we were drenched through. It never stopped all the way in, bumped into Martin B on the pontoon who kindly bought us a pint, a coffee and shower should have been what we needed, but what a gent. 👍👏 Boat didn’t need a wash down after the last couple of days!! 😂 When James got home Lenny had drawn a picture of his dad and both of his grandads out fishing together.

Cheers Mal, sorry for having to make the crew work so hard for a few cups of coffee and some snacks. As always Mal leaves the boat looking like its had a valet, what a job. 👍 Then rounded off with the Mal Thomas taxi service home. 😁

Martin had catch of the day on Kingfisher. We tried for various species to see if we could get a decent specimen but really struggled, Mal, managed the triple 7, 2 x 7lb Congers 1 x 7lb Tope Chris, Red Gurnard 8oz Plaice 1lb 12oz Martin, Blonde Ray 6lb 6oz Plaice 1lb 6oz Catch of the day from Martin was a 3/4 yd Blue Ensign complete with a stainless flagpole well fought in the Swash which we flew up the harbour while Mal danced to YMCA “In the Navy”. If nobody claims it Martin will mount it in his garage. IMG_1872.mov A great day as always, banter, p—- taking, even managed a guiness to round the day off, cheers guys. 👍👍👏👏