Sea breeze 3 is a large cat based in Brighton. Her skipper is Terry Lee, a local man who had been skippering for many years first from Newhaven then Brighton. The party consist of 10 anglers.
The boat left Brighton Marina (just a words for Brighton Marina, nice place, lots of shops but no tackle shop other than a tackle hut on the pier, the best of all is the free multi storey car park, parked up for 3 days and didn't have to pay a peny) at around 7:00am. We first stopped on a wreck about an hour off shore. We tried various tackles from shads to feather, but since a fiver was on stake for the first fish (no macky, no pout, no doggies), I used a set feather style rubber shads with a pirk. On the first drift I landed a small codling of about 3 lb, so I won a fiver, unfortunately on the next drift, I lost the lots to the wreck . After a few morte drifts with nothing but pout, we made a move.
This time we stopped on a wreck for congers. I used my Penn formula international 10kg rod, Penn formula international 10kg reel with 30lb braid. I caught 3 congers with the largest (of the day of the boat) going to 45lb, the rod performed nicely, it took the dives competently. After that someone caught a black bream so I decided to change over as I've had enough of hauling in congers, my arms started to hurt. For the black bream, I used a 3 trace paternoster style rig, except the bottom trace is about 18"-24" long and it's only a few inches higher than the weight, so the bottom trace is just off the sea bed. The lower trace is small hook while the top hook is a size 2/0 circle. I caught my biggest bream of the day with a squid head on the top hook, it weighed 5lb 1oz, most other anglers were catching them in the 2-3 lb mark. We called it a day at around 3:30 and made our steaming toward fecamp. It took a further 2 hours and the sea was rough with about an hour to go, force 4 with plenty of white waters.
On day 2 we started at 7:00am (GMT), we went to a wreck not far from Fecamp, we could just about see the land. Action right from the word go. We were told to use heavy gear, the eels on this wreck are huge, said Terry, so I used my Penn Formula 24kg rod with a Penn international 30s, huge reel with 80lb braid. Again it's me who got into the first fish, another fiver (actually it was my friend who had the first bite, but his line part after about 30 seconds, reckon it got wrapped round the wreck. While he was cursing the fish, my freshly caught pout with a couiple of large wounds on either side attracted a conger and duely hooked it. It fought well and Terry estimated it to be a 55lb fish. While I was playing the fish people around were into fish too, upto 5 fish coming up at any one time. Half an hour later, my rod tip went over again, on engaging the drag to the preset level, the fish was taking line, so I incresed the drag a little and was just about to stopped it from going back into the wreck. This fish took line off my reel several more time, we went thru a see-saw battle for the next 15 mins, with time I was only able to get hold of the rod with both my hands to stop it taking it into the water, while it took lots of line) before it ended up on the other side of the boat and tangled up with 2 other lines. I knew it was a large fish, bigger than anything I have ever caught. My heart was in my mouth while Terry untangled the mess (cutting all other's mono ), for what seemed like eternalty, the fish was finally freed and I was able to reel it to the side of the boat, my first impression was BIG! It was estimated to be 65-70lb. My hands were shaking, my heart pounding, my legs wobbling and my arms aching...... I did think that would take some beating, unfortunately, 10 minutes later, my other friend, hooked into a truely monster, it was estimated at 90-95lb (Terry reckoned more 95 than 90). Strangely enough we lost more fish than landed, trace, leader, swivels, braids were parted with regular intervals. They were all using 50lb braid. With some of the unmovable 'lumps' down there, we all reckon there must be some 100lb+ monster down there. My third fish was a mere 40lb but I just didn't have any energy to do anything more, and I welcome the arrival of the bream with open (now aching like hell) arms. Using the same rig as the first day, I got a even bigger bream again on the top hook with a squid head. This one was 5lb 5oz. Sadly, in the frenzy of the breams jumping on the hooks I didn't take any photo of that fish. On the day I fisnished with 3 eels and 12 breams and a gunard. 2 pb on one day, can't be bad, can it?!
On the finally day-today, the weather was awful, wind was force 45 forecasted, but it was 29 knots out in the channel, force 6!!!!! Terry did try to drift a couple of wrecks but it was very difficult trying to work a shad while trying to hold on to the railings. We gave up in the end and started our steaming back to brighton.
A wonderful trip and wouldn't mind going back for the 100lb+ conger next year.
BTW all my congers were caught on pouts, while most other opted for mackeral flappers. Mackeral seemed to work better than pouts, they got more fish, may be it's the blood?!
