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I was fortunate enough to be invited to Another day out on Madness. The plan was to head out to the 50 / 50 secret Ray, Bass, Mackerel, Conger, Gurnard and "anyone else who knows me" Mark. We decided to go for a leisurely start and go through the 8:30 lift. Took the slow journey out of the harbour and then picked up a bit of speed. Not too fast though as there was still a residual swell from yesterday. Got to the banks and saw YKnot (Mal) out there. We tried for quite a while but didn't get very much. Phil picked up a couple of Joeys (just big enough to keep for bait). He then had a few Congers followed by a good Bream. I had a little Conger and a small Shad. Followed by a smallish Gurnard. Martin had several Congers. We decided to move and went to another secret mark shown on Martin's plotter as "Chris's Bass mark". Well wouldn't you know it!!!!!!! Some cheeky blighter was already on it. We'll let him off . . . . . it was Chris. 🤣 We looked around for a suitable spot and anchored. The tide was almost stopped and the wind took us off course a bit. Not a lot happened until the tide turned. Then we (Martin) had to re-anchor. As the tide picked up so did the fishing (a bit). I had an eating size Mackerel on my lazy line. I had the biggest Conger of the day which Phil guessed at 5lbs ish and a good eating size Bream. Now I'm not sure if Martin had a Bream or not of if Phil had the others. Martin will clarify. I think it was 5 Bream in total. (help me Martin) Lots of Congers. Phil got a good but not massive Tope which we hoped was a Bass when he first hooked into it but Phil called "Tope" and was correct. Chris and Kev (Ark) decided to up anchor and try some drifting for Bass and about ½ an hour later we did the same. We didn't do any good so went back to the 50 / 50's to try drifting there. Didn't do any good there either. Decided to head back just in time for the 4:30 lift and a good scrub down. Phil the Gent as always shared the catch out between him & myself. (Thanks Phil) Martin didn't want any today. Didn't get many pictures today but if I have anything any good I'll post when I'm not so tired. If I've got any details wrong Martin please correct me. I'm very tired and now on pint number 2. 😉 Good news I suppose. Not one dogfish. ! ! 😉

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.