OSM sea trials, The Ling Rocks, Sat May 15th

[petekd]

People:Scotsman and I

Duration:About 2 hours longer than was really appropriate. 9am-7.30pmish

Tide:Down and up

Weather:Nice in the morning, continued to build throught he day to downright uncomfortable with wind chill negating the nice sunshine.

Bait:Mack, Gulp Rag (shite), Frozen Crab (worse)

Rigs:All sorts.

Results:Cod, Mackerel, Pouting, Poor Cod, Ling, Coalfish, Haddock, Whiting, Red Gurnard, Grey Gurnard, Cuckoo Wrasse, Dogfish.

Report:
Set off from Oysterhaven on a calm, warm sunny morning with Lee for a few trials on his recently acquired OSM 510 prior to resale. We made the customary stops for mackerel on the way out past the Sovereigns to no avail although the canny scot cheekily poached a pollack bouncing feathers on the bottom to take the first fish of the day. Not to be outdone, on another stop a couple of miles further out, I tried the same trick to lift into a decent cod around the 6/7lb mark that somehow contrived to throw the hook at the side of the boat and despite my best efforts to grab him, took himself back to the depths and prevented me getting off to a flier. Spot marked for further investigation another day we made our way to the Lings and managed to grab 4 mackerel to at least get us started. We neednt have worried too much about bait as a rod left dangling over the side at 30 feet pulled in another 20 odd in short time as we set about our fishing.

Fishing on the day was for the most part slow enough but we managed a fairly steady stream of bits and pieces although nothing of much note drifting various areas of the rocks. A move was called for and we headed for some flat ground and increased the range of species with some nice Red Gurnard amongst other bits and pieces including a brace of welcome haddock. The wind runniing with the tide made drifting along this stretch a nightmare however having to spool off over 200metres of line on occasion to give the fish a fighting chnance of hitting the baits. We took a move out of what was a steadily building sea and headed in close to some cliffs not far from Nohoval and threw down the hook. A lack of ragworm put paid to any realistic chances of having a wrasse blast on the rough ground and Berkely gulp was a waste of time aside from one small Pollack. Big baits dropped to the bottom in hope of a huss or Conger to boost the species count were savaged by umpteen doggies with doubles and trebles coming to the boat. Being by now somewhat tired after the days shenanigans and a little demoralised with a biting wind whistling through we decided to haul anchor and head back to port as the bellies were also in need of filling. Lees anchor finally decided to give up the ghost and no amount of hauling or manouevuring and hauling could shift it so it had to be sacrificed to the sea bed I'm afraid. Not a bad day out at all, if we had a bit more variety on the bait front, we could easily have bumped the species count up a little too. One or two nice new spots marked for future perusal also.

[thescotsman]

Yes it was a bit of a long trip with not enough food on board, Pete was threatening to eat me for the last hour or so.
You forgot pollack on the species list though, 13 for the day. Was looking good after the first drift with 8 species on board, but slow enough as you say. Very happy to finally get myself a red gurnard (and a decent enough looking mark for them) and a welcome haddock which is always a bit of pot luck to pick up.
Next time we're bringing a variety of bait and see what else we can winkle out. We'll do the dog on it and hit as many marks as we can.

Also nice you captured me without my life jacket on! (Got a bite whilst putting on my fleece)

[grady]

good variety of spesies you got there nice fishing, well done as at the same day fortune turn away from me we got broken engine half way to the first mark while we whait for the boat to tow us back to the pier we managed few tiny pollock well can't blame anyone it's just engine nothing lasts forever

[twinkle]

nice one lads 13 species is not to be scoffed at in difficult conditions [empty bellies] im looking forward to getting the edelboy launched on wedsday and get a few in myself instead of just reading about it

[junior conger]

well done 13 species in a day thats fair going