Years gone by.
25th September 2016. I got the Yamaha working ok on the Jen and have done a couple of trips squiding. The best day I had 18 kilos and they fetched £9.40 per kilo. The weather has put paid to that track for a bit. Mackerel prices have been low, around the 40p mark for mediums most days.
17th September 2016. Still waiting to get my gearbox back from evinrude. I was going to go out in the 'Jen' Thursday evening but it broke down that morning while Mark was out in it. It needs a new water impellor which should arrive in the post on Monday. I got my old yamaha 8hp out the shed and tried that yesterday evening. It's running but there is a problem with the thermostat. Going to try and fix it while the tides out and give it another try when the boat floats today. 2 boats, 4 engines and the only one working is my little 2.5 yamaha (get me in) auxiliary. They say crap happens in 3's so hopefully that's me ok for a while, fingers crossed.
Here's a picture of Mark and I about to give up on engine number 3 :-
11th September 2016. Here is a link to a video of me squiding the other day.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=975714499214334&id=100003273780776
If you can't get it to work, just go to my Facebook and watch it there...
Atasteofstives St Ives.
7th September 2016. I have been having problems with the new boats engine, first it was contaminated fuel that put me out of action for a few days, now the gearbox has seized. It has been removed and is being sent back to Evinrude to be fixed. I have been out on the 'Jen' with the new owner Mark for a couple of trips squid jigging. We had a few and the prices were good, over £8.00 per kilo. Hopefully I'll be squiding from my boat soon and posting a few pics on here.
22nd August 2016. Been off work with a bad back for a while. Went pollacking for a couple of hours this evening but only had a dozen. The mackerel men had about 80 kilos each (half small). Apparently mediums were 80p/90p this morning. Going to try the pollack up east on the ebb in the morning, if that's no good I'll try the mackerel on the flood in the afternoon.
12th August 2016. Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been too busy to get on here. There is still plenty of mackerel around and the price for mediums has been up since Monday, they have been 80p to £1.30 all week. Last Saturday I tried bassing but only had 2, but there were some big pollack. The biggest I had was a ten pounder, brilliant fight on a carp rod and light gear :-
4th August 2016. I have been busy catching plenty of mackerel. The price has be useless, the best I had for mediums was yesterday when they fetched 60p. This morning they were back down to 20p. If I wasn't catching a few large mediums that are staying around the £1.80 mark it wouldn't be worth the effort. Not so much on the market tonight, would be nice if the price went up tomorrow.
24th July 2016. Plenty of mackerel about but as expected the price is down around the 50p per kilo mark.
19th July 2016. I had been waiting a long time but I eventually got my fishing licence through for the new boat last week. The mackerel look like they are here to stay now, I had a few boxes yesterday afternoon. The early birds did well with catches up to 10 boxes. Mediums have gone down to the expected 80p per kilo on the market. I have tried the bass a few times but only had a couple. Back out on the mackerel this afternoon.
12th July 2016. There were plenty of mackerel out there yesterday morning, one boat had 8 boxes (2 crew), but this morning they had gone again. I had my inspection on the new boat today (Dylan is now called Last Light) and it passed with now problems. I will be taking all the paperwork up to Plymouth tomorrow morning and fast tracking the license. I think the white on black numbers look better than the black on grey it did have :-
I should be full on fishing in a couple of day now.
Looks like we have calm weather for a whole week, about time!
7th July 2016. A few mackerel have turned up at last. I had planned on going pollacking yesterday but found out that one of the early morning boats had caught 60 kilos of mackerel. So I did a low water on them and ended up with 160 kilo. The £6.00 per kilo had disappeared on the market this morning, mediums were down to £1.70 and large mediums were £2.50. There were only 8 kilos of smalls amongst it so it was a good days work. I did the same tide today but only had 75 kilos.
I did try the bass on Sunday but only had 2 fish.
2nd July 2016. I tried the mackerel for an hour and a half out Porthmeor. First drift nothing, second drift 2 fish and third drift nothing! Yesterday morning mediums were £6.00, doesn't really matter if you can't catch any though. Think I'll be trying the bass tomorrow.
28th June 2016. I had a long day up the "Stones" yesterday using live sandeels for bass. Plenty of pollack but I didn't see a single bass. The weather is looking pretty poor this week, might get out Thursday morning to try the mackerel. The last few I had fetched £3.00 for mediums and £4.50 for large mediums.
25th June 2016. Well well, the country voted out! That was a surprise. Hopefully in a couple of years time there won't be all these ridiculous laws from Brussels made by people that haven't got a clue what's going on in our fishing industry.
There hasn't been much to report on, the mackerel showed up for just one day this week. Dave on the 'Boy Nathan' managed to catch about 100 kilos. Apart from that the norm has been half a box. I had a couple of bass and a few pollack which fetched good prices, £12.50 for bass and £2.40 for small pollack. Looking like the weather isn't going to settle down this week, plenty of fresh westerly wind on the way.
17th June 2016. I went mackereling on the flood yesterday for 3 hours. There was a bit to be had, I ended up with 7 kilos of large mediums, 22 kilos of mediums and a few small that I kept for bait. My mediums fetched £2.00 and the large mediums were £4.00 on the market this morning.
14th June 2016. Still only small catches of mackerel lately and the price has gone down apparently. A few boats did very well on the handlined pollack last week, I know one had 1,300 kilos for the week. Quite windy this week but calming down for the weekend.
8th June 2016. There is a bit of mackerel starting to show since the weekend. Mark on the 'Jen' was in by 9 this morning with just under a box.
30th May 2016. There has been no mackerel about for days now. I have been at home getting pots ready for when I get the paperwork (registration and license) back for the new boat.
24th May 2016. Went mackereling with Mark on Saturday, wasn't much about but what we had were good sized fish. We ended up with 23 kilos. Mark went on his own over low water Sunday but only had 5 kilos. We swapped over and I did a couple of hours for 10 kilos. They fetched a good price on the market yesterday, £4.50 for large, £4.90 for large mediums, £3.90 for mediums and 50p for smalls.
20th May 2016. Mark an I had 3 short drifts out Porthmeor way, he did ok for the 1st time skippering the Jen :-
There was a fresh 20 to 25 mph west southwest wind that gave us a bit of a soaking each time we steamed back up for a drift. We had a couple of strings each :-
The mix was 7.5k mediums and 5k small. The mediums were around £ 4.00 this morning on Newlyn market. Better weather tomorrow, so we will try again and give it all the tide.
19th May 2016. I'm going mackereling with Mark on the flood today, I'll let you know how it goes later if I have time.
16th May 2016. The mackerel have been non existent for a few days from St Ives now, while Newlyn side have seen nothing but ultra smalls. Hopefully a few will show up as the tides start getting bigger this week. I might be having a try with the new owner of the 'Jen' as his crew, will be strange fishing in the bow on her. The picture below shows how much more beam my new one has :-
If I'm not mackereling with Mark on the 'Jen' this week, I'll be at home getting pots ready.
12th May 2016. Took the new boat out to get use to the gps map/fishfinder. Brilliant piece of kit. Everything else with the boat is spot on. I moved the 'Jen' and 'Dylan' is now on my moorings :-
Still got some paperwork to sort out before I start full on fishing. Fog won't stop me anymore like it did on the 'Jen'.
6th May 2016. I set off at 7am yesterday morning to give 'Dylan M1116' sea trials :-
I arrived at Solva in Wales at 3pm and we went and hauled a string of pots. Everything was in good working order. It had a new engine last year, an Evinrude etec 50hp (not the engine pictured above) that has only done 380 hours. The hull is made from 5mm marine grade aluminium and is solid as a rock :-
It cruises along comfortably at 12 knots at half throttle and I took it up to 18 knots with a little bit of throttle left to go :-
It has a huge working space for a 19ft boat and a much needed wheelhouse :-
I went ahead with the purchase and it should be delivered early next week. I drove back last night and got home at 4 am this morning! Next step is to get the mca inspection organised as soon as possible. Looking forward to this summer even more than normal.
As for the mackereling at the moment, I was informed that Trevor on the 'Bluebell' was the top boat yesterday with just half a box.
4th May 2016. I gave it 3 hours on the mackerel today and only had 13 kilos, 4 large mediums, 7 mediums and 2 small. I'm off to Wales tomorrow to look at a new boat. If I decide to have it I'll post a pic when I can.
3rd May 2016. I tried a couple of hours mackereling on the flood today but only had about 10 kilos. I will have another try tomorrow, hopefully the bigger tide will bring better fishing.
28th April 2016. I fished 3 hours of the flood tide this morning for just 12 kilos. They were mostly good mediums with a few large and small. The Newlyn boats are catching a few and the price has dropped to £1.00 - £1.30 for mediums. Not good weather, fishing and prices. Might be a week off.
27th April 2016. This northerly wind is easing off and backing a bit to the west tomorrow. I shall be going out in the morning and having a look for some mackerel.
19th April 2016. There has been very little fish about on the handline for the last few days. Catches have been anything from a handful to a box. Stuart on the 'Little Christina' had about 300 kilos of big rays in his nets and about the same amount of spider crab. The weather isn't looking any good for a whole week now. Time to get some pots ready I think.
14th April 2016. Yesterday's low water produced 5k large mediums, 28k mediums and 45k of small. I went today for an hour before high tide but only had 13 fish. Next trip will be on Sunday.
12th April 2016. I did the low water yesterday for just over 60 kilos :-
9th April 2016. I went mackereling on the afternoon flood tide. Started fishing off Porthmeor and had about 30 kilos, mostly small. Then I tried up in the bay and had another 20 kilos, they were a much better size. Strong southeasterly forecasted for tomorrow so I don't think anyone will be going. My next trip will be Monday over low water. The last prices I heard were 5p for small, £1.70 for mediums and £3.10 for the big stuff on Thursday morning.
4th April 2016. I fished in the bay yesterday and had only 12 kilos. The prices went down this morning to around £1.50 for mediums and large mediums were £ 3.00 plus. I went again today and had 53 kilos, 28 kilos of it were small though. A couple of boats went further west and had better fishing.
2nd April 2016. I went mackereling just before high tide in the bay today for a couple of hours and had about 25 kilos. There were some good large amongst it. A couple of boats were coming in as I went out and they had 2 boxes of smaller fish each. I shall be having another go tomorrow.
31st March 2016. This mornings mackerel prices were not quite as good as yesterday but still very high. I got 80p for small, £5.00 for mediums and £6.10 for the large mediums. Next trip will most probably be on Saturday.
30th March 2016. I went mackereling over low water today :-
There wasn't a lot of fish but the prices have gone sky high at the moment. Large mediums and mediums were a massive £7.00 per kilo this morning! I ended up with 2.5k large medium, 18k medium and 15k of small.
25th March 2016. The mackerel shoals are close to the shore and a few anglers were filling their hooks this morning down the back of the island. Six out of six on one cast for Mark Hutchings :-
Great fun on the rod! The weather isn't looking good until Wednesday now and there is no market until Tuesday. Dave on the 'Boy Nathan' went today and had a few boxes of mackerel, apparently the percentage of good sized ones is improving at last.
24th March 2016. HAPPY EASTER!!!! I'm back with the updates after a winter of hibernation.
This week has seen plenty of mackerel being caught from St Ives and Newlyn. Dave on the 'Boy Nathan' came in at last light yesterday with about 10 boxes. Simon on the 'Kira' did the low water for about 25 boxes!
With 4 boxes out of every 5 being smalls and the rest only mediums, it looks better than it is. Newlyn market prices yesterday were 60p per kilo for mediums and a poor 5p per kilo for smalls.
18th September 2015. The mackerel catches have decreased as the tides got smaller this week. Earlier in the week I had a 7 box trip, last night it was down to just one box. It's looking perfect for a full days bassing tomorrow, I'll let you know how I get on.
9th September 2015. There has been a few mackerel about, no large catches. Trevor on the 'Bluebell' did best yesterday with 5 boxes in the morning. I went yesterday afternoon and had 6k large mediums, 40k mediums and 12 small. I heard that mediums were £1.60 and large mediums £2.40 this morning. I did try the bass last week, 6 hours for just 1 bass, 1 pollack and a mackerel.
1st September 2015. Dave on the 'Boy Nathan' had 50 kilos of mackerel last night and another 50 kilos this morning. Not much to get excited about as 40 kilos this morning were small. The conditions are a bit too poor for bassing, so I will try the mackerel later. I think Karl and Boco on the 'Gemma' planned to do the pots over low water but changed their minds, they didn't quite make it back on the moorings :-
This brisk northerly is here for the whole week, looking like it might ease off a bit on Saturday and Sunday. I'm itching to have a go on the bass. I have been told that medium mackerel were £1.50 to £2.00 this morning, so a couple of boxes of good stuff would do tonight.
28th August 2015. I went mackereling for 2 1/2 hrs on Wednesday and caught 84 kilos, 14k large mediums, 59k mediums and only 11k small. The prices were quite good with the big stuff fetching £4.60, mediums £1.40 and smalls 40p. I went again yesterday and had 124 kilos, 47k small and the rest good. Not sure but I heard that the mediums were around £1.50 again. Weekend off now with the next market being on Tuesday.
24th August 2015. Hard day yesterday, 6 hours polling for bass and I only had 1 and a couple of pollack. There was a few mackerel about this morning ( 2 boxes a man) so I'm going to try that tomorrow.
21st August 2015. The mackerel prices actually went up yesterday to around £1.00 per kilo for mediums. Dave on the 'Boy Nathan' did the low water again but didn't have so much. He ended up with 88 kilos, on a plus side there was hardly any small amongst them. Peter Tanner on the 'Frances Rose' PZ 437 had a squid on the wiffing line Wednesday evening, so there must be a few about. I shall be going bassing tomorrow and will have my squid jigs on board for a try if there's no bass about. Tomorrow is the best looking day for the next week. Lots more wind and rain to come, great!
19th August 2015. Dave on the 'Boy Nathan' tried the mackerel last night but only had 15 fish :-
He went again over low water today and did a lot better, catching about 200 kilos. Trevor on the 'Bluebell' went early and made water back in with 250 kilos. I tried the bass again yesterday but only had 2 fish. Here is a picture of Saturdays catch, only 7 fish but they were worth £160 :-
If the forecast is right I will be trying to catch a few more on Saturday morning. Mackerel prices are low, around the 50p mark for mediums. I don't think that will be improving with the quantities caught today.
16th August 2015. I went polling for bass yesterday for 6 hours and had 7 fish. They averaged 2 kilos each. I tried again today and only had 2, one was a beauty at just over 3 kilos. I plan to have another try tomorrow.
12th August 2015. Saturdays bassing wasn't very good, I only had 5 fish. I didn't go mackereling on Sunday, those that did had good catches, but got stung by really low prices on the market. The smalls went for 20p a
nd all other sizes were just 50p per kilo. The prices were up a little bit this morning at 30p for smalls, 50p to 80p for mediums and just £1.00 for large mediums. I tried the bass again yesterday for 4 hours and only had one 3 pounder. The wind is going to be quite fresh from the north quarter for the next two days, so my next trip will be on Saturday.
If the chap that gave me a lure to try down the quay ages ago reads this, could you send me a text on my mobile number at the top of the page (think you are a prison warden from the Isle of Wight) I would like to let you know how I got on with it. Cheers.
7th August 2015. I did the low water on the mackerel yesterday and had 174 kilos. The prices were not too bad seeing there was quite a bit on the market (a couple of Newlyn boats had 500 kilos each ). I had 62k of smalls at 40p, 100 kilos of mediums at 80p + £1.00 and 12 kilos of large mediums at £2.80 :-
Nice to see a smaller percentage of smalls. I plan to go bassing tomorrow and maybe mackereling again on Sunday.
4th August 2015. I went mackereling for a couple of hours Thursday evening and had 108 kilos. 55 kilos were small, 49k medium and just 4k large mediums. They fetched 40p, £1.50 and £2.60. I tried bassing up the stones on Friday for all the flood tide but only had 3 fish. Since then I have been out of action with neck and shoulders pains. There has been plenty of mackerel over the weekend, with some boats having as much as 400 kilos per man. I am hoping to get back out there by Thursday.
29th July 2015. Dave on the 'Boy Nathan' had 49 kilos of mackerel this morning and was back in by 7.30am. The prices on the market today were £1.00 for smalls, £2.00 to £2.90 for mediums and around £3.50 for large mediums.
28th July 2015. Finally got this working again, sorry for long time without updates! It's looking like next week is going to be nice and settled at last. I will be hunting for bass. There has been some fairly good catches of mackerel lately, but this unseasonably rough weather has put them quiet. The 'Boy Nathan' had 33 kilos yesterday on the ebb just off the Island but tried again today for nothing. I have had a few good catches of bass this month, the best being 39 fish. One trip I had 11 fish that averaged 2 kilos each. I caught something unexpected at Clodgey point on my live sandeel bait as well :-
26th June 2015. The mackerel are starting to show up a bit more now. One boat had 7 boxes over low water a couple of days ago and a Hayle pollack boat has found a good amount of large mediums miles off land. Prisky on the bait boat has been trying again but is only catching tiny eels. I have been 'wiffing' up snakes and bassing with them. Nearly beat my personal best a few days ago with this beauty :-
I had pollack to the same size (7lb) and the best fight I had was from this ballance wrasse :-
Fishing with light gear and anchored up in the tide, it took a good 10 minutes to get it in. He swam off unharmed. I shall be trying again on Monday, I'm starting to find the best spot to catch the bait now, had this lot in about an hour and a half last trip :-
The pollack men have been averaging 200 to 250 kilos a day.
21st June 2015. There hasn't been much to report, the mackerel are still quite elusive. There was a couple of boxes caught by 2 boats that went early yesterday, but they have disappeared since. I have had a couple of bass on the rod but the problem there is getting enough bait. I have had to catch snakes (greater sandeels) on the hooks because the bait boats aren't catching any. One isn't bothering at the moment and the other has gone over to Penzance harbour to try that coast. It took me 3 hours to catch a dozen baits on Friday. The bass I have caught have all been 1 kilo and up, missed a lot of bites from smaller ones that struggle to take the large baits. I'm guessing that the lack of mackerel is down to the lack of sandeels about. Why aren't the eels here yet?
10th June 2015. I fished Saturday evening and Sunday morning for just 15 kilos of mackerel. The north east wind that's keeping the boats in since will be gone by Friday. The forecast is looking good for a whole week from then and with the tides getting bigger there should be a decent wage to be earned. (Hopefully)
5th June 2015. I fished all the flood on Wednesday and ended up with 39 kilos of mackerel and 3 kilos of herring. The prices were £1.50 for small, £4.00 for mediums, £6.40 for large mediums and £2.00 for herring. I did the last hour and a half of the flood yesterday and had 3k large mediums, 15k medium, 2k small and 2k herring. Nice to catch a bit at last. Next trip will be Saturday evening.
31st May 2015. I tried the mackerel for an hour and a half over high water in the shelter of the island today. I had just one sandeel. Will have a day off tomorrow and try again on Tuesday.
30th May 2015. I did 2 hrs first light at the corner of the island this morning for about 10 kilos, then went again on the flood for 3 hrs and ended up with a total of 23 kilos. 6k large mediums, 14 kilos mediums and 3 of small. I'm going to try again tomorrow afternoon.
26th May 2015. The mackerel have been very thin on the ground and the prices have been climbing for the past week. Mediums were up to a massive £6.00 per kilo by Friday. I went over low water yesterday and only managed to find 5 kilos of macs and 4 kilos of herring. Going to have another try tomorrow morning on the flood tide.
14th May 2015. I tried the mackerel again today and only had 12 fish. One boat had 20 kilos yesterday but the others only had a couple of fish. I might try on Saturday and Sunday.
11th May 2015. Still very little to report on. I had my 1st landing for ages on Thursday. Only had 17 kilos of mackerel, 11k mediums and 6k large mediums. The prices are sky high with the lack of fish about, they fetched £90.80. I tried again on Friday for 6 hours and only had 12 fish!
1st May 2015. Dave gave the mackerel another long try yesterday over low water for just 5 fish. So I tried the bass up the 'Stones' on the flood with Eddystone eels, not a bite. There were 2 other boats angling up there, I saw one catch 2 undersized pollack. I'm having a weekend off and plan to do the low water Monday morning.
29th April 2015. There has been very little to report on other than a few spider crabs being landed. Dave on the 'Boy Nathan' and I tried the mackerel for a few hours yesterday, I had 3 fish and he had 6. I had a few tows over the rough off Whore Point with an Eddystone eel for nothing at all. The wait for some fish to turn up goes on.
22nd April 2015. Dave on the 'Boy Nathan' had 20 kilos of mackerel this morning, about the same as I had yesterday. The size of fish is improving but there still isn't enough of them. I'm planning on doing the low water tomorrow, hopefully it will be a bit better with the tide easing off.
19th April 2015. I hauled the nets on Wednesday and it wasn't too bad. Had a few spider crabs, mixed flatfish and 29 kilos of ray. The biggest ray was a 19 pounder :-
I had a 2 lb lobster as well, so I started putting a few pots out On Thursday. Will be trying the mackerel and putting more pots out tomorrow.
15th April 2015. The fog has been playing havoc with the fishing. Couldn't haul the nets yesterday and it's not looking good today either. I did manage to catch 40 kilos of mackerel yesterday but 30 of it was small. Hoping it is going to clear so I can get out there today.
12th April 2015. I have a dead laptop, hence no updates for a while. Just realised I can use my phone! Duh! I tried the mackerel today on the ebb and only had 30 fish. Going to shut the nets tomorrow and have another search for mackerel.
31st March 2015. The wind eased off a bit yesterday and I tried the mackerel in the afternoon. I gave it over an hour and only had 8 fish. There was quite a lot of ground swell and the water was murky. It looks like I might get out again on the weekend, but next week the forecast is fresh east to southeast winds. Time to start getting some pots out.
27th March 2015. Sorry for the lack of updates but I have had some technical problems. There hasn't been much about to catch. I had a few crabs and plaice in the nets but the few times I tried mackereling it was useless. A couple of boats had 8 boxes Wednesday morning but they were all small. My nets are getting quite worn out now, so I have been making some new ones :-
It is looking quite rough for the week ahead. Might get out on Monday to try the mackerel if the water isn't too murky.
15th March 2015. I put 750 yards of flatfish nets out yesterday. I'm going to leave them fish for two nights. I have tried deeper off as there is nothing close in. Will be hauling them midday tomorrow. About time I caught some fish!
10th March 2015. I put 500 yards of flatfish nets out on Sunday and hauled them yesterday. Tried the mackerel before I shut the nets and had nothing at all. The nets were no better, just 4 plaice and something I had never seen before :-
I found out that it was a lumpfish. I put it back alive. Apparently this was a female and would of been full of lumpfish caviar, a cheap version of the real thing. Ugly bugger though :-
I am going to try the mackerel again this afternoon, but I'm not optimistic.
2nd March 2015. Over the last week a few boats have tried the mackerel nets, and each time they have caught nothing. Come Thursday the wind is easing off and going southwesterly, hopefully some fish will turn up. In the meantime I am going to start getting some crab/lobster pots ready.
23rd February 2015. There has been no fishing activity to report on with the bad weather we have had. It looks like it is set to continue for the next 7 days. There might be a chance to nip out and shut the mackerel nets on Wednesday, we shall see.
18th February 2015. I tried mackereling with the hooks yesterday afternoon and did 4 drifts for just 7 kilos. So I went over to Hayle Barr and shut the mackerel nets and came back in. Simon on the 'Kira' and Hodgey on the 'Mary Mo' stayed hook fishing and had a couple of boxes each. I hauled the nets this morning and the 1st one had about 20 kilos of good macs and the second tier had every fish damaged by the seals. I went with the hooks again this afternoon to try and have enough to make it worth going to Newlyn. I caught another 25 kilos of mostly mediums and smalls. Feeling rough with the flu, so I'm going to have a few days off.
16th February 2015. It was too rough today, so my next trip will be lunch time tomorrow. Dave on the 'Belle Bettina' went yesterday :-
He only had one box but Boy Stuart in the yellow boat ended up with a good 4 boxes. Hopefully there will be few out there tomorrow to catch.
13th February 2015. I have been very busy, went mackereling Tuesday morning and had 170 kilos. Didn't have time or room onboard to haul the flatfish net, so I left it for two nights. Wednesday morning I caught 240 kilos of mackerel, came in and landed them, then hauled the net. It wasn't very good, only had 11 kilos of dabs, a few plaice, one dover sole, two rays and a dozen crab. The mackerel catches had a lot of small in them, so I shut the mackerel net to try and catch some bigger ones which have been fetching £5.00 per kilo. (only had 11 kilos of large mediums in the 410 kilos on the line). Hauled the net yesterday morning and had 25 kilos of big macs, 25k of mediums and 27k small, so I did ok. I'm full of flu so plan to have the weekend off, back out on Monday hopefully.
9th February 2015. I'm back! I put 500 yards of flatfish nets onboard today and shut it over the eastern shore on the afternoon flood, very little swell, so hopefully there will be a few rays and plaice moving about. I was a bit short of daylight :-
Pitch black by the time I got back to harbour, Dave Simon and boy Stuart were landing as I came in, they both had about 10 boxes of mackerel each :-
Nice to see this much fish in February :-
The run wasn't that good, but still a good days work :-
I shall try the mackerel at first light and then haul the nets, will let you know how I got on when I get the chance.
25th January 2015. The mackereling is still very slow, I tried today and on Thursday, didn't fill a box either trip. I will have another go on Tuesday. The tide is smaller, which seems to be better for them lately.
21st January 2015. I tried the mackerel Monday afternoon. After 2 hours I only had this :-
It was very cold and I gave up. Dave on the 'Belle Bettina' came out late and only had 4 fish by 4.15, he stuck it out and they played up for the last hour of light. He ended up with 100 kilos! 2/3 mediums and a third small. They averaged out at just under £1.00 per kilo on yesterdays market. The Newlyn boats have been catching quite a lot, so the price isn't that good at the moment. Light northerly winds tomorrow so I will be giving it another try. Friday, Sunday and Tuesday look workable at the moment, but from next Wednesday they are giving it going strong northwesterly.
18th January 2015. The last 2 hauls of the nets have been useless. I tried the mackerel hooks yesterday and had 66 kilos. 3 large, 10 large mediums, 47 mediums, 6 small and 5k of herring. Going to try again tomorrow.
13th January 2015. I hauled the 300 yards of mackerel net yesterday morning and it was loaded (sorry about pic quality) :-
I had 11k large, 103 large mediums, 168 mediums and just 15 small. It sold this morning for just over £400.
I didn't have time to pick it all out and shut it back yesterday, so I shut 400 yards of bass nets instead. Hauled that this morning and had mackerel again, 6 large, 21 large mediums, 87 mediums, 42 small and 4 bass. I also had 50 kilos of herring and damaged macs that I have salted down for lobster bait. I have shut the mackerel net and the bass nets back today and am expecting a good haul again tomorrow.
11th January 2015. I had another haul of the mackerel net this weekend and had 85k of mediums and 46k of large mediums. A vast improvement on my previous haul. I have shut it back today and hope for something similar in the morning.
8th January 2015. I had 40 kilos of mackerel on Tuesday and shut the mackerel net. I hauled yesterday and all the mackerel had been had by the seals, this is what they left :-
There are lots more than normal this season. I didn't bother shutting back on that result, but 3 other boats shut. I tried the hooks this morning for half an hour for nothing. The boats that shut had plenty of decent mackerel, typical!
6th January 2015. The mackereling was good yesterday afternoon. I had 160 kilos, 3k small, 41k medium, 68k large mediums and 48k large! The mediums were £1.50 to £2.00 and the big stuff were £3.00. Best run of fish I can remember! Off out to catch some more on the flood now.
5th January 2015. I tried mackereling yesterday before I hauled the nets. I had 3 boxes of good sized fish on the hand line and 1 1/2 boxes in the mackerel net :-
The bass net had just a couple of dogfish. I landed 10k small (30p), 73k medium (£1.60) and 35k large + large mediums (£2.20). I'm off to catch some more this afternoon on the hooks.
3rd January 2015. HAPPY NEW YEAR! I have had a great couple of weeks off. I didn't have any fish on Fridays market, apparently the prices were low for all species. Mackerel were around £1.00 per kilo and bass were between £3.00 and £5.00. I heard that one boat from Cadgwith had 3,000 kilos of bass, not sure if that was in one hit or a few hauls. Anyway, I have started back today and have shut one tier of mackerel net and one tier of bass net in the bay to see whats about. There were a few gannets working, so there is a bit of feed about. I'll let you know the news tomorrow night.
21st December 2014. I hauled yesterday, the mackerel and herring have gone. There was only a couple of kilos of mackerel and a handful of herring in the small mace gear. The bass gear saved the day though, 44 kilos of mullet and 13 kilos of bass :-
There were a few gilthead bream as well. I had a clump of 10 fish in a yard of net in the middle of the tier, which was nice to see :-
There was quite a lot of weed, but i don't mind that when there is fish with it. That was the last haul until the new year. Have a great Christmas everyone!
20th December 2014. I put 300 yards of mackerel net out in the bay on Wednesday. It was a bit of a struggle hauling in the strong westerly wind on Thursday, but it was well worth it :-
I had 93 kilos of herring (only fetched 30p per kilo) and 49 kilos of mackerel, 6 large, 16 large mediums, 23 mediums and 4 small. The prices were £5.00 L, £4.50 LM, £3.90 M and 50p for small. It grossed £222, not bad for one tier of nets. I shut it again yesterday with one tier of bass net. Hopefully there will still be a few fish there today.
We had 5k large mediums (£4.50) 27k mediums (£2.00) and the rest were small (50p). A few of the boats have been having a nice bit of bass and mullet in their nets over the weekend, so I will be trying that soon. Small bass (0-1's) were around £6.00 this morning and the grey mullet were £4.00+. The last Newlyn market before it closes for Christmas is on Monday 22nd. The first market in the new year is on Friday 2nd.
8th December 2014. Managed to get out mackereling on Saturday, it was a bit slow, but I did manage to catch a box full. They were a good run of fish, 7 kilos of large mediums and 17 kilos of mediums. I was told they sold this morning for about £2.00 and £6.00. It works out at about £70 for the box, not bad! I might go tomorrow morning, but the water will most probably be murky after the last two days stir up.
5th December 2014. Wednesday was quite rough, but Dave on the 'Belle Bettina' went out and tried the mackerel. He fished for an hour without a bite before coming back in :-
The water was murky, which is more than likely why he had nothing. It calmed down and cleared yesterday. I tried the bass up the stones for nothing. Then I tried mackereling around the stones buoy for nothing. I ended up finding a few in the bay at last light. I had 24 kilos of mediums and 21 kilos of small. The prices have been really good all week. This morning they were £1.00 for smalls, £1.80 to £2.80 for mediums and £5.80 for large mediums. Bass has gone up to £7.50 from the poor £5.00 they have been lately, but squid is quite low at only £3.80. Strong Northerlies again today, colouring the water up, but hopefully it will be clear enough tomorrow to catch a few more on the afternoon flood tide with 12mph to 15mph westerly forecasted. Next week is looking rough, so the bass nets might get a soak in the bay.
2nd December 2014. Some fish have turned up at last! Thursday morning I had 67 kilos of mackerel in the bay at first light. They were a poor run, 26k of small and 41k of mediums. The prices were 50p for smalls and £2.20 for the mediums so they grossed £103.20. Not bad seeing I caught them all in 30 minutes. On Saturday I had a much better run of fish and a few squid to go with it :-
On Sunday I had 90 kilos and 40k were big which fetched £5.00 per kilo. Yesterday I had another 90 kilos of mackerel and 7 kilos of squid. Nice to earn some money at last. Thursday is looking good for getting out there again.
26th November 2014. When I was struggling to catch mackerel on Sunday, apparently there were bass up the stones. So i went up there Monday morning and tried all the spots for 4 hours on the ebb tide :-
I had absolutely nothing! Another boat was there and they had a couple of pollack but no bass. An hour before low tide I decided to come back and try the back of the Island on the first of the flood. Nothing there, so I tried Clodgey, nothing there either, so I tried Whore Point. After about an hour there I caught my first fish of the day :-
It was not much longer than the lure! He swam off ok to go and grow bigger. I fished my way back to harbour and had a mackerel and a snake (greater sandeel). Feeling peed off having wasted my time, I found out later that the other boat had a nice few bass on the flood tide up the stones. Double peed off! Being the kind of person that doesn't give up easily, I put the boat out on anchor yesterday morning so I could fish the first of the flood up the stones. It was a bit fresh from the Northeast but workable. When I got down the quay at low water, there was more surf than I expected and punting out to the boat looked risky :-
Ian Kemp ( harbour master assistant) lent me his dry suit so I could wade out to it. I got up to my knees and water started coming in! So I went back the the harbour office and borrowed his chest waders. I managed to get to 'Jen' and climb onboard, all be it with a wet jumper and t-shirt. I got up the stones just as the tide started flooding and fished until nearly dark. I didn't catch a single fish! I was gutted! The nice sunset on the way in didn't make up for the bad run of luck I'm having lately :-
If this continues much longer, I will have to seriously consider putting 'Jen' on a trailer and sticking her in Newlyn. They seem to be catching plenty of all species over that side. I'm going to try the mackerel in the morning, but don't hold out much hope for a decent catch at the moment.
23rd November 2014. We hauled yesterday and only had 1 bass and a couple of boxes of dogfish. Took the nets off today and I tried the mackerel for just 8 kilos. Looking very calm on Monday for a few days, so I am going to try polling for bass.
20th November 2014. We shut 5 tiers up East on Tuesday and hauled yesterday. The first 3 came up with just dogfish, the next one came up with 35 bass and the last one was too close to the surf to safely haul. We ended up with 290 kilos of dogs and 28 kilos of bass. Went again today and shut 4 tiers where the bass were, some good marks on the fish finder, so fingers crossed for tomorrow. Dave on 'Belle Bettina' did better today, he had about 100 kilos of mackerel.
16th November 2014. I went with Hodgey on the 'Mary Mo' on Friday to shut bass nets from St Agnes up to Newquay. We shut one tier at Chapel Porth (west side of St Agnes) and then went around to the other side to shut the next one. We were about to shut and the engine stopped on us. It was an electrical fault that we couldn't fix at sea. There was about a 6ft swell and we were well outside of the surf :-
We had to call for assistance and St Ives lifeboat was launch for us. It was nice to see it coming around St Agnes head :-
Hodgey wasn't looking too please with the maiden voyage :-
The trip back was cheap on fuel, but very wet once we came out of shelter from the land :-
We had to leave the boat on anchor outside the harbour because the electric trim on the engine wasn't working either. So we came in on the lifeboat and up onto it's trailer. Amazing piece of kit. Very thankful to the lifeboat crew for getting us back home :-
'Mary Mo' was all fixed yesterday morning and we went back to haul the one tier that we had shut. It had only one bass, four cod, 135 kilos of mergies and 190 kilos of smooth hounds. We landed the smooth hounds on Newlyn, they should cover the petrol bill. Looking at having another try on Tuesday. Dave on the 'Belle Bettina' went mackereling for an hour and a half on Friday and had 67 kilos, but since then they seem to have gone again.
10th November 2014. I put 2 short tiers of bass nets in Manshead Saturday afternoon. It was to rough for me to go any further. I hauled them yesterday morning. The 1st one came up with weed and 2 bass, the other one had more weed but 16 bass :-
I managed to go further west with three time the amount of net yesterday. I had high hopes this morning when i went to haul. In 600 yard, all I had was one mackerel and a dozen dogfish. Very disappointing. Then I found out that the bass only fetched £5.00 per kilo. My mate Hodgey has got his boat (Mary Mo) back in the harbour after a refit. He has had the engine put out on a pod, had a central console fitted and a few other bits done. He gave it a sea trial yesterday morning and is very happy with it. There is a lot more room and she planes so much easier. He took it up to 32 knots. Brilliant! :-
With the lack of fish here, we will be going further a field on his boat soon. I will keep you posted on how we get on.
6th November 2014. I shut the herring net yesterday and hauled first thing this morning. I had 60 kilos of herring and 4 kilos of mackerel, which wasn't too bad, seeing that there are more (seal) holes than net left in it. Mackerel prices (average) went down today from £1.50 to 70p for mediums and £3.50 to £1.55 for large mediums. I'm going to see what my herring fetch before I decide what to do tomorrow.
4th November 2014. I have had a great long weekend off, back to work now. Dave on the 'Belle Bettina' tried the mackerel yesterday afternoon :-
It was calm in the bay, but out Porthmeor there was a fair sized swell running with a fresh west southwest wind :-
He got as far as the corner of the Island and fished it there for a while. There were hardly any fish, just a handful of smalls. As Dave came in, I went out and tried poling for bass at Porthminster Point. After an hour towing for nothing at all, I packed up and went home. Matt on SS10 put herring nets out yesterday, I will see if I can find out what he had later. There is quite a lot of ground swell and fresh west going southwest wind forecasted for Friday and Saturday. At the moment it is looking like it will calm down from Sunday afternoon for a few days.
30th October 2014. The herring gear came up nearly empty, one live mackerel that the seals didn't have time to rip out, about 20 herring gill covers and this anchovy :-
The next move might be bass nets on Saturday.
28th October 2014. Hauled the herring net this morning, had 25 kilos of good herring but nearly twice as much damaged by crabs and whelks. There was very little mackerel about on the hand line, I did an hour for 10 kilos. Shut the herring nets back for one more try.
27th October 2014. I had a hard low water yesterday, 6 hours for just 2 bass! The day before was ok, 17 bass on the poles and a box of mackerel. I tried the mackerel this morning at first light and had 35 kilos (7 s, 26 m and 2 lm). Mackerel prices this morning were 70p to £1 for mediums and £1.50 to £2.40 for large mediums. Herring were apparently 80p per kilo, so I have shut the herring nets tonight. I'll let you know if I have any.
24th October 2014. I put the herring/mackerel nets out Wednesday evening. There was a seal hanging around so I waited until nearly dark before I shut. I hauled just as it was coming light yesterday morning, there were 4 seals patrolling up and down it, bloody things! There was nothing left of value in the nets, a few mackerel gills showed that they had had their breakfast. Before I went in I tried the mackerel hooks at the corner of the Island and had a few smalls and a couple of mediums :-
Dave Simon on the 'Belle Bettina' had 60 kilos on Wednesday afternoon, only to discover that a lot of the Newlyn men had 4 times as much. This resulted in the prices going down to 60p for mediums and only £1.20 for the large mediums yesterday morning. I took all the nets off and had a go at poling for bass yesterday, I had one down Whore Point and two at Porthminster Point, so not good. I will have to try and get up the stones for a go soon. Quite a lot of fresh southerly winds next so that might keep some of the Newlyn men in and the bit of mackerel around this side should be worth catching.
21st October 2014. Hauled the flatfish nets yesterday afternoon, wasn't impressed! Normally the spider crabs have near enough gone by now, but I guess they haven't :-
Only fish in it were 5 plaice and one dab, useless! :-
Thinking about trying the bass nets tomorrow. The mullet I had last shut fetched £2.80 per kilo which wasn't too bad. The bass price was down to £6.00 for 0-1's and £6.60 for 1-2's.
19th October 2014. I have shut 800 yards of flatfish nets in the bay. Fingers crossed for a few plaice and dover soles tomorrow.
18th October 2014. I put two bass nets out Thursday down west and hauled yesterday. The first one came up with 5 bass and a box full of mullet. The second one had a bass in the first yard aboard and that was it for value, just a few wrasse and pollack in the rest of it. I shut both of them back where the fish were, plus another one in another spot. Hauled them all this morning for just 6 mullet, so kept the nets on board. Good sized mullet, there were three around the 5lb mark :-
I think I'll try the flatfish nets and the herring nets tomorrow.
15th October 2014. Monday was too poor with a fresh northerly wind. Yesterday was nice and calm though, so I tried 300 yards of net out deep in hope of catching black bream. I shut on the last of the flood and just gave it one hour in the water. Glad I didn't leave it any longer, it came up with lots of near worthless dogfish (about 20st). The only fish worth keeping were two bream and 5 red gurnards :-
I was expecting a lot more than just a feed, but the gurnard fillets look very tasty :-
I was going to stay out over low water, but didn't bother after that result. Dave on the 'Belle Bettina' came out as I was going in and he did the low water, he only had 5 kilos of mackerel and 9 kilos of squid. Think my next move will be a shut on the bass somewhere soon.
9th October 2014. Quick update. The fishing has been useless, three seals left a few mackerel heads in my nets last shut. I'm away until Monday afternoon, I plan to try the mackerel or squid then.
5th October 2014. I tried mackereling for half an hour and only had one small gurnard. I have put 300 yards of mackerel/herring nets out tonight in the bay. I'm not feeling too confident, but I might have a lucky haul tomorrow.
3rd October 2014. I went mackereling Monday evening for the last hour and a half of daylight. As I was going out the low water boats were coming in with just a box each or less. I went out deep and found a few large mackerel just as it was getting dark, I ended up with 13 kilos. The evenings are drawing in :-
Tuesday I went bassing, started at Portminster point and caught 4. then I tried behind the Island, Whore point and Clodgey for one mackerel and a pollack. Then I tried at Rampers and just had this flounder :-
I put him back and went back to Porthminster point. It wasn't the right state of the tide, but I caught another 8 bass there before I went in. They were quite good fish for there, 12 weighed 10 kilos. So I planned to go again on Wednesday and fish there the whole tide. On the way out the harbour, Rob Yeo's (yoyo) dog was doing her favourite pass time, diving in and chasing the seal around the harbour :-
The seal never lets her get closer than a few yards before swimming off :-
Not sure what she would do if she ever reached the seal, she is fast for her little legs though :-
Dave on the 'Belle Bettina' was on his way out to do a low water :-
I tried Porthminster point for well over an hour for nothing, so I decided to go East and try a few spots. There was a lot of ground swell which made fishing quite awkward :-
I found the bass though and ended up with 27 which weighed 23.5 kilos. The ground swell got even bigger yesterday and Prisky didn't go baiting, he has finished for this year now. I think my next trip will be trying the mackerel on Sunday afternoon.
29th September 2014. I have had laptop problems, hence the lack of updates, all sorted now. I had a good week last week, with the best day being 39 bass. Mackerel prices were good at the start of the week with mediums £2.00 to £2.50 and large mediums around £5.00. The prices went down as the week went on, I heard it was due to the ring netters catching quite a bit mackerel. Dave on the 'Belle Bettina' went yesterday and had 39 kilos, I'm not sure if the price has gone back up yet but he told me that there was very little on the market last night. On one of my bassing trips last week I had a very friendly sea pup come right up to the boat, I actually stroked him at one stage :-
20th September 2014. I went poling up Godrevy on Thursday and it was quite quiet. After 4 hours I only had 3 bass and 3 pollack. So I decided to try the mackerel for the last 2 hours and managed to catch 64 kilos. I had 22k of smalls that only fetched 30p but the 42k of mediums went for £3.80 per kilo on Newlyn market. I got back in the dark at low water and had to wait to punt in with the fish because the lifeboat was about to run up the beach :-
My punt is unstable at the best of times, didn't fancy the lifeboats wake or being plowed down by it as it went full power onto the beach to the tractor :-
Yesterday, mackereling wasn't an option with it being Friday, too long to keep them for Mondays market. So I went squidding at first light. There wasn't much happening, 6 squid and 3 cuttlefish for 2 hours, so I gave up at low water. Prisky was out baiting on the flood, so I went bassing up Godrevy at high water for most of the ebb. It wasn't good, only 4 bass, 2 pollack and a mackerel. I've had better days, not much to show for 2 trips :-
As I was getting bait, Peter Tanner was just coming out in his new boat 'Frances Rose', Looking very nice :-
It has a Solent hauler, the same as mine :-
Boco is still bringing his pots in, at £1,000 for a string of 10, you don't want to risk losing them. He was giving them a fresh water rinse before putting them away :-
I went to go mackereling this morning, but the fog was to thick. I will be going later when it clears.
17th September 2014. Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been away. Started back yesterday and went bassing up the stones with live sandeels. Dave on the 'Belle Bettina' came up as well:-
It was a bit choppy, but workable, only other two boats about were Hayle potter, 'Ocean Breeze' and the Fisheries Vessel in the distance :-
I fished it for about 2 hours and had a 4 pounder and a 5 pounder. Also had a few pollack. On the ebb I tried a few spots along the Eastern shore, Hayle estuary and Porthminster Point. I had a few in each spot, it was a long day, but was well worth it :-
There is a bit of mackerel about, Dave had about 40 kilos in an hour or so last light yesterday. It was too windy today, but hope to be out again tomorrow.
11th September 2014. I went bassing a couple of days ago with live bait, but it was very slow. All I managed was 4 fish. One was 4 1/2lb which was nice, just not enough of them for 6 hours fishing. The easterly winds have set in which normally makes the fishing worse. My mate tried the mackerel last night and only had 10 kilos, he tried again this morning and only had 25 kilos. Most of them were small, so not worth going. At the moment it is looking like we are going to have to wait until next Wednesday for a change of wind.
7th September 2014. Sorry for lack of updates, been very busy. I had a great day Friday on the bass. Started with some great bait from David Prisk :-
I tried a few spot up east and finally found a good bunch, ended up with 30 fish :-
I went polling for the bass yesterday in the same spot and only had 4 fish. I might try the poles again in the morning or wait for bait in the afternoon.
3rd September 2014. I cancelled the squiding today as I had an order for 120 kilos of mackerel at a good price. I went on the fleeting at 8.30am and caught 70 kilos of good stuff with 30 kilos of smalls. I had 4 squid on the mackerel feathers, a nice sized John Dory and a codling that was just undersized. Plan 'A' is to go squiding tomorrow when I float at about 9.30. Medium mackerel went up in price this morning with some fetching £1.00 per kilo and Large mediums were around £3.50. Squid on the market ranged from £5.50 to £6.50 per kilo.
2nd September 2014. I have been squidding for the last few days. Sunday I had 56 squid for 11 kilos, yesterday was better with 85 squid for 18 kilos but today it was quiet. Only had 20 for 4 kilos. Caught a few cuttle fish and a nice sized john dory as well. The squid prices have been between £6.00 to £8.00 per kilo. There was quite a lot of ground swell today which might be what put the squid quiet. Will have another try tomorrow.
29th August 2014. I did a couple of hours behind the quay on Wednesday evening and had 10 boxes of mackerel. I went again last night and had another 8 boxes. Last nights sample were 7k large mediums, 121k mediums and 83k small. Not sure what my prices were but Dave had 20p, 60p and £2.00 this morning. A couple of the boats had a nice bit of squid yesterday so I plan to try that when the wind eases off on Sunday.
27th August 2014. I tried bassing Saturday morning for four hours and caught nothing. The mackerel prices were up to £1.00 for mediums yesterday but went down a bit today. I had 20p, 80p and £2.60 I went last night for a couple of hours and had 1k large mediums, 64k mediums and 33k of small. A couple of boats had 20 to 30 squid each yesterday, so I might be trying that in the next few days. Looking like the weather is going to settle down from Sunday onwards.
22nd August 2014. I went mackereling on Tuesday and caught 300 kilos in a few hours ;-
It looks good but the prices are at an all time low. Some are selling at a pathetic 15p per kilo. I wanted to go bassing with live eels on Wednesday but Prisky couldn't catch any, all he caught was tiny whitebait. So I tried polling with Eddystone eels and caught 3 bass and a few mackerel. I left the boat out to go up the stones yesterday morning but the forecast wasn't right, it was fresher than it was meant to be so I tried polling at the Island, Clodgey and Whore Point. Didn't have a single fish, so I drifted back with the squid jigs out and blanked doing that as well. Hopefully there will be some bass about next week on the bigger tides.
18th August 2014. Sorry for the lack of updates but I have been away having a great time! Apparently I haven't missed much. Dave on the 'Belle Bettina" went mackereling from the moorings last night and had about 30 kilos, so he is having another try from the end of the quay tonight :-
There is still a bit of lump out there, but it is due to calm down a bit :-
The south coast catches have decreased from 500 kilos to about 100 kilos now and the price for mediums has gone up to 60p - £1.00. One day last week Hodgey on the 'Mary Mo' had 150 kilos this side. Prisky is hoping to get out baiting in the morning, if he does I will be out bassing. If there is no bait I will try the mackerel or the squid. I'll let you know how it goes.
12th August 2014. One boat from St Ives had 200 kilos of mackerel this morning, Dave tried last night and only had 20 fish. The Newlyn men are filling up, a friend of mine had 1,260 kilos. Others had over 1,000 kilos as well. I hear it is about 40p for mediums.
10th August 2014. For those of you that didn't see the video of me catching a 7lb bass, here it is.
8th August 2014. Still plenty of mackerel on the south coast. They have been averaging 100 kilos per man with some boats having over twice that. The prices went down this morning to 80p for mediums but large mediums were still up anywhere between £2.00 and £3.80.
7th August 2014. I went bassing up the 'stones' on Tuesday. I fished for an hour without a bite, then a 4lb bass and a decent sized pollack took at the same time :-
The weather men got the forecast wrong, it was meant to stay around 10mph from the southwest but it freshened up to a good 20mph. So it was a wet trip back to shelter at Porthminster point. I fished there for 2 hours and caught 5 more bass, three of them were undersize and were returned. It's a good place to fish, but there there is the problem of lots of self drive boats buzzing all around you :-
Apparently there are lots of mackerel being caught on the south coast. Big catches around the Looe area. Prices were reported to be £1.80 for mediums.
4th August 2014. Well I caught my first squid for the year :-
Only a baby, I stuck it out until dark in hope that they would play up a bit, but they didn't. I ended up with just 3. The mackerel men had a couple of boxes on the ebb tide yesterday, but on the flood it was barren. I'm going to do the low water up east on the bass. I'll let you know how it goes.
3rd August 2014. Looking a bit fresh to go bassing up east so I think I'm going to try the squid this evening. There wasn't much mackerel about this morning, one two handed boat came in with just half a box.
31st July 2014. Sorry for the lack of updates, it has been a crazy week. There has been a few more mackerel showing with some boats catching about 100 kilos per trip over the last few days. Squid are starting to make a show as well, I'm looking forward to having a go at them when conditions aren't right for bassing. Two days ago, I thought I had beaten my personal best bass :-
But it was 5 ounces short of my best, it weighed in at exactly 7 pounds ;-
Yesterday was good, Dave is getting the hang of it now and just managed to reach double figures, he is loving it :-
I had 21 and fresh out of the slush ice they were looking pretty :-
Next trip will be Sunday or Monday on the bass.
24th July 2014. Sorry for lack of updates, I have been catching up with my old best mate Dave Simon. We have had a couple of days out on the bass, yesterday was a long day. Dave started enthusiastically :-
But after 9 hours without a bass and me having caught 11, he didn't seem quite so keen :-
But he was woken up by the biggest bass he has ever caught, a cracking 5lb 5oz specimen :-
Dave is going to try the mackerel on the high water in the 'Jen'. I'll let you know how he gets on.
21st July 2014. Didn't manage to get out there today, still recovering from a brilliant week end. Apparently the mackerel are near non existent, with some of the best doing all low water for just 10 kilos. Hope to leave the harbour at 5am in the morning to go bassing over low water. I saw a big shoal of mullet in the harbour Saturday morning which is a good sign.
18th July 2014. Haven't been since Tuesday and wont be going again until Monday, having some time off to sort a few things out and it's party time tomorrow. Normal service will be resumed next week!
15th July 2014. Short update, 25 bass yesterday and a longer day today only produced 8 bass and 6 pollack. trying again tomorrow.
12th July 2014. I had a great day, the new reels are perfect and the bass were feeding. I caught 30 and kept 25 :-
25 fish weighed 18.5 kilos. The mackerel men had a bit more fish today, 2 to 4 boxes per man. I'm having a day off tomorrow, back out again on Monday.
11th July 2014. Not sure if there were any mackerel today but on yesterdays Newlyn market there were just 17 kilos of mediums. They went for nearly £6 per kilo. This has to be shaping up to be the worse mackerel season ever. I have 2 new Shimano ST6000RA Baitrunners to try out tomorrow on the bass. Looking forward to it :-
The other reels I have tried didn't like the salt water at all, hopefully these will be much better. Light winds and an 18ft tide tomorrow should result in a good few bass. Only down side is that rain is forecasted from 11am until 5pm. I'll let you know how it goes.
8th July 2014. Had a fairly good day yesterday, ended up with 16 bass. I didn't get home until 11pm and then was out again this morning at 5am. I had 11 keepers on the ebb but nothing on the flood today. Scott on the 'Brodasea' from Hayle managed to get my pots up that have been out there since last year, they are now on the quay waiting to be sorted out. Something to do while the weather is choppy Wednesday and Thursday. Mackerel have been extremely thin on the ground, with some of the best 'hands' coming in with just 15 kilos for all over low water.
7th July 2014. I'm off out for a long days bassing, will update if I have time tonight.
4th July 2014. I struggled to catch anything for the first 5 hours of yesterday. I started by taking a look at Porthminster point, But the 'Sandpipers' pots have move right across the spot and made it too difficult to fish, so I went over to the Bezzack. I spent 3 hours drifting over the rough but only had 2 bass, I tried in on the beach for an hour and only had one more bass in there. There was too much surf, couldn't get in close enough. From there I tried Hayle Barr, same problem, the waves were too big. I ended up fishing in the shelter of Manshead and the Island. It was worth sticking at it as I ended up with 18 bass for a total weight of 14 kilo's.
2nd July 2014. Looks like there is a few lobsters moving, this came up the steps as I was about to go to sea :-
Very nice! Prisky was having an off day and only catching small eels this morning, Ammo had plenty of large and I got my bait from them. First stop was Porthminster point, where John on the 'Sandpiper' was hauling his pots :-
Headphones on, music or a radio 4 play? Didn't ask!
An undersized Spider in mid flight, there are a few good ones amongst the throw backs though. Which was the same with the bass there, I had 4 this size :-
They all went back and swam off. Amongst them I had 3 keepers, one was 2 1/2lb. It went quiet, so I moved to the back of the island. It was very slow there and I managed 3 more keepers. When I'm bassing, I like to be stealth like, which is hard in some places, the fish stop feeding when disturbed. If you use a jet ski, speed boat, or a fast fishing boat or tripping boat, please please please give us anglers a good birth. Thanks. Ohhh, forgot one, but I'll let them off for hovering over my head, might need them one day :-) :-
So I headed for Clodgey for a try, the Manshead beach is still there :-
Hope I get a chance to lay on it this summer, I dropped anchor just up tide of the rough and started fishing. I was about to move on and I had a bite, it was a sized bass. So I gave it another 30 minutes, had a strange slow bite, it was this little beauty :-
If it was a bit bigger I would of had it to eat, John Dory is delicious. I did manage to catch one bass before I decided to go east for the first of the flood. To start with it was float fishing over Gwithian :-
Had 4 on the float. Then I went in on the beach and had another 6. I ended up with 17 for 13 kilos. Plan to have another long day doing the same tomorrow.
1st July 2014. I have been busy, had a good day yesterday, 20 bass. Going to have another go in the morning. There has been a bit of mackerel about, nothing like it should be though. I'll try and get on here tomorrow night with some info on the days fishing.
29th June 2014. It was a long day yesterday, I tried 5 different spots but none of them had much fish on them. Ended up with these 8 :-
None of them made a kilo, only 5.4 kilo's in total. There was a bit of mackerel about yesterday, John on the 'Sandpiper' had 40k in the morning and I think he went again in the afternoon for about the same. I'm off out now to try the polling for bass.
26th June 2014. Some of the low water boats had a bit of mackerel today. My next trip will most probably be bassing Saturday morning. (If you read the bass recipe yesterday, I forgot the olive oil, have updated it now).
25th June 2014. Yesterday started ok, I got good bait again and started fishing at the back of the Island. First cast I had a bass that was just under size, he went back to grow a bit bigger. Then next cast I hooked a good fish, it took a while to get it to the boat in the tide with light tackle. But it wasn't what I hoped it was :-
23rd June 2014. Quick update as it's been a long day, I don't normally see 4.15am! I got some great bait from Prisky and managed to find a few fish :-
I had most of them on the ebb and low water. The flood was a bit disappointing. Slush iced onboard and then iced on their backs at wild harbour fish :-
Placed on a bed of ice and then covered over with ice. They were nearly all schoolies, only one fish over a kilo. From what I have heard, there is hardly any mackerel being caught this side, you can count them on your hands. I plan to do another 4.15am tomorrow. ZZZZZZZZZ.
22nd June 2014. As I was going out at low water, Frank on 'Kelly Girl' was just coming in from mackereling first light. He had tried all the way down to Gurnards Head, all he had was four mackerel. The bassing wasn't much better. I polled the 'Stones' for over 3 hours and had two small pollack. I had a couple of small bass in on the shore on the way back. I'm hoping to have an early start tomorrow with live eels. I'll let you know how that goes.
21st June 2014. A couple of boats were out this morning and had a bit of mackerel. It was a bit fresh to go bassing so I have put the boat out in the bay ready to start polling at low water in the morning.
19th June 2014. I went polling up to the east this morning for 3 hours. They weren't exactly jumping aboard but I managed one bass per hour. They were good fish :-
The 2 in the top box weighed 2.5 kilos together and the other one was the best for the year so far, 2.72 kilos (6lb). I'm going to have a day off tomorrow and get back at the bass on Saturday. The forecast is looking good, nothing to stop me for the next 10 days (other than sun stroke!). There is a fair bit of mackerel about and they are up around £1.80 for mediums. Hodgey had about 100 kilos (1/3 small) yesterday, with plenty of herring mixed in as well. Herring and small mackerel will hopefully keep a few large bass interested in hanging around for a while.
18th June 2014. Sorry for lack of updates, just been at sea most of the time and too knackered afterwards. I had a good day yesterday, 21 bass that weighed 16 kilos. The mackerel men did ok as well with some having around 100 kilos. Great weather today, blue skies from start to finish :-
It was hard going today, after 7 hours I only had 3 bass. Kept at it though and ended up with 14 for 10.5 kilos. I might try the polling in the morning and make water in. Freshening up a bit from the north later in the day.
15th June 2014. I gave 'Jen' a good scrapping over low water today. She was full of barnacles and had quite a lot of big mussel under the bilge keels :-
It was that bad I recon I'll get an extra 2 knots out of her tomorrow. Light easterlies backing northerly forecasted, no more than 5mph until the evening. So it will be another full day bass angling. I had one good one yesterday that weighed in at 1.7 kilos :-
A few more like that would be nice. The bait men are catching plenty of large eels so I'm confident that it should be a good day. Mackerel are still few and far between, Karl and Boco tried yesterday morning and only had just over a box.
14th June 2014. I have some time at last! Yesterdays polling was a complete blank, I did 2 hrs without a bite. As far as I have heard there has been very little mackerel about since the 4 boxes from Darren. I did a full days bassing with live bait on Thursday and had a bit of variety. Four mini "postage stamps" turbot, all swam off happily :-
A ballan wrasse, rare for them to take a live eel :-
Hodgey was out the same time but was having "one of those days", he only had one undersized bass that he returned, amongst the variety, I had 10 sized bass. Then to top it all off when he had obviously had enough :-
I hooked and landed this little beauty :-
Sea trout or salmon peel, was returned alive to the bbq on the beach....I mean the sea.
Other pictures I didn't have time or the technology to post were..... Nathan's Tegan Mor coming back into St Ives after a great refit and new engine :-
She is looking lovely. Thanks to Nathan for putting my name forward for the sustainable bass fishing filming, it went really well, I hope I get hold of some of the footage :-
I had a visit from my boy while fishing the carracks, apparently if you don't have an engine, you can catch without a licence and sell the catch, this could be a topic for "something fishy" :-)
As for today, I did office hours, 9 to 5, and caught 20 bass, kept 16 for 12 kilos. Need a day off tomorrow to catch up with the house work and have lunch with mother. Will be chasing Prisky for more live eels Monday morning. Have a great weekend!
13th June 2014. My laptop froze last night so I couldn't update all I had. I'm off polling for bass now and will update as soon as I get a chance.
12th June 2014. Been too busy to get on here. Working on updating it now.
Starting with yesterday, there wasn't much mackerel about, apart from the couple of low water men who had 4 boxes each. One of them was Darren pictured below :-
I haven't heard anything about the mackerel prices for a few days. But they should be worth good money considering how much is about. I had a great day yesterday, thanks to a mate putting my name forward to be filmed for a sustainable line caught bass film. So I had these two passengers for a couple of hours yesterday :-
Lovely people, felt like being with friends. They were filming for a London venue that wanted footage about where their food came from. It was great, bass 1st cast, filming under water and a first for me, and i'm waiting to see how it came out, I casted a camera out on the end of my line. A sandeels view?
10th June 2014. I had a bit of a strange day yesterday, started ok with getting plenty of bait from Prisky :-
I went across the bay and fish around the bezzack for an hour or so, not a single bite. So then I went in closer to see if the fish were on the beaches :-
Same result in there as well, nothing. My friend was fishing up the stones and had only one pollack. So, I decided to try up Hayle Estuary. It was a lot calmer place to be :-
I gave it another good hour and still not a single bite! Seeing I was nearly in Hayle harbour, I decided to not waste the bait and put it in the tanks I have use of over there. So up the Estuary I went :-
It's been a while since I've been up Hayle in the boat :-
I tied up to Padstow Pete's 'Sron' and took most of the eels to the tank :-
I had about a dozen small eels left on the boat, so on the way back to St Ives I stopped and had one more try. Bass first cast, and the next and the next! I caught 8 bass and 3 mackerel, then ran out of bait! Unbelievable. Tomorrow I am being filmed for a large London Restaurant that wants to show customers where and how the line caught bass get to their plate. Should be fun.
7th June 2014. Might have a try tomorrow, but not sure whether to go for mackerel or bass. The tides are still small and its still fairly windy, so it might be a waste of time. Last catch ended up on the plate and was very nice :-
The bass (above) was baked in tin foil with a bit of salt @ 150 degrees for 40 minutes. It was soft, tasty and moist. The pollack was filleted, skinned and boned. Then marinated in garlic salt and lemon, coated in flour, then egg and deep fried. Both were blinking gorgeous! Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are looking perfect wind and tide wise, should be a fishy end to the week.
5th June 2014. With a freshening wind forecasted, I didn't get bait today and planned a short trip just polling. I tried the 'Stones' from 8.30 until 11.00. There was hardly and tide moving and the same went for the fish, just one bass and one pollack, the ones on the left of the picture :-
The wind started to freshen so I went inshore around Godrevy and fished for another hour. Had the other bass and pollack, bit smaller than the Stone's fish. My mate Hodgey went mackereling today and only had 12 fish, same problem I think, not enough tide in the water. Day off tomorrow due to fresh southeasterly winds, not sure what the plan is for Saturday yet.
4th June 2014. I got down the quay a bit late yesterday morning and missed Prisky for the bait. But luckily, 'AMMO' were still out catching eels :-
Got my bait and it was pretty much a repeat of Monday. 11 bass and 33 pollack. I had one under sized bass that went back and lots of under sized pollack. Amazing how greedy some of the tiniest pollack are, they are not much bigger than the eel :-
The ten sized bass weighed 8 kilos and the 2 days worth of sized pollack came to 38 kilos. Very small (neap) tide tomorrow, so I'm going to try polling up the 'Stones'. Looks like a week of southerly winds starting from Saturday. Fresh southeasterly on Friday, so that will be a day off :) Some of the mackerel men had a couple of boxes yesterday. I had 8 mackerel on the rods, so there is a few about.
2nd June 2014. I got bait from Prisky again, good sized stuff as well. Half filled the ice bin and set off at high tide this morning :-
Fished a few spots for 3 hours and only caught small pollack. About an hour before low tide I found a bunch of bass and managed to catch 9 in an hour. Ended up with the 9 bass and 35 pollack. Market prices this morning were around £8 for the bass and a great £1.90 per kilo for the small pollack. i'll be out searching again tomorrow.
1st June 2014. Very busy yesterday. Got some great bait from Prisky in the morning :-
I fished a lot of my 'hotspots' and did quite well. Live bait almost always beats off lure fishing. At one spot while I was there I had 5 bass and a lot of smallish pollack, 'Granddad' from Hayle, who was polling, only had one bass in the same time :-
I had fish in all the spots I tried, ended up with a good landing :-
21 kilos of pollack and 19 kilos of bass. I was happy with that, good days work. Hopefully I will be getting bait from Prisky again in the morning, looking like a long days angling ahead. I'll let you know how it went when I have time to get on here.
31st May 2014. It's 8am and I'm just about to go bassing with the rods all day. Hope to have some fish pictures to put on here tonight.
29th May 2014. Apparently the clutch cable on my car has snapped and needs a new one ordering. So it's looking like a day off today. The forecast is 15mph northerly for today and then lighter winds for the rest of the week. Looking forward to some more flat calm conditions like a couple of days ago up the 'Stones' :-
Chris on the 'Anne Marie', a Hayle potter.
28th May 2014. Well I tried the mackerel yesterday and had only 5 fish in about an hour. So I tried the bass and had a couple of good ones. Went bassing again today, wasn't much doing, just a couple of fish again. As I was leaving the quay tonight, my clutch cable on the car broke or became detached, leaving me needing a tow. Hopefully I can get it fixed in the morning.
27th May 2014. The bass weren't there yesterday, it was a waste of time. I should have gone mackereling. Some boats had well over 100 kilos. So that is plan 'A' today, I have left 'Jen' out on anchor so I can go on the first of the flood. If I have time I'll post how it went tonight.
25th May 2014. I went up the stones and in around Bassets Bay, polling. Didn't do too bad today, managed to catch nine and only one was a throw back. The biggest one fell off as I lifted it and just landed inboard, nice when your luck is in :-
I'm still landing to Wild Harbour Fish Company, so quality has to be the priority. Off the hook and straight into the slush ice bin. Then from the bin into a polly box with ice for the journey from St Ives to Hayle :-
A layer of ice, then the fish placed belly up and covered in more ice has been discovered to be the best way to keep them in pristine condition. Today's fish averaged nearly one kilo each, with the biggest being 1.88k :-
I plan to do the same tomorrow, I'll let you know how it turns out. Not heard if the mackereling has got any better today. Trevor went but he was moored up and gone before I got back.
24th May 2014. It's looking good for tomorrow, 8mph south southwest. Plenty of rain forecasted so it will be an oilskin top day. I will go on the fleeting at about midday and make water back in at 6pm. Quietly confident that there will be a few bass, I'll let you know how it goes.
23rd May 2014. I'm definitely going to try the bass again on Monday, might even have a go on Sunday if the wind isn't too fresh from the south to work the 'Stones'. Next week is looking workable every day, perfect tides as well, could be a good one at last!
21st May 2014. I wasn't at all hopeful this morning, but the weather was so good I decided to give the polling a try :-
I steamed up to the stones on the fleeting (boat coming afloat) at 8am. Had a pollack after about 45 minutes fishing, then my first bass for the year! Broke my duck! I had 2 lines out, both with eddystone 2013 eels, one blue/white and the other a blue/white glittery shown below :-
Both fish were on the glittery one and then it caught another bass and pollack. I changed the normal blue/white for another glittery one and that caught a bass and pollack as well. Come slack water high, I move to inside the light :-
As soon as I got there I had a nice pollack of about 2 kilos. But after another 2 hours fishing I only had one more small pollack. Should of stayed at the stones. So ended up with 5 pollack and 3 bass. Better than the blanks I have been having :-
Apparently the water temperature is up to 12 to 13 degrees after last weekends sunshine. This might be why I spotted the first mullet in the harbour this morning. There were 8 good sized ones coming into the shallows on the flood by the middle steps, nice to see!
As for what I know mackerel wise, Mike (smallie) did the full tide here yesterday for 20 kilos. Last night over Newlyn, rumor has it that some of the boats had up to 500 kilos!
20th May 2014. My mate Hodgey went this morning on 'Mary Mo' and only had one mackerel. Ian Bullus was out as well on his boat 'Dreamcatcher', he managed a whopping six mediums! I'm considering venturing out with the poles tomorrow, not enthusiastic though.
19th May 2014. Not much to report this side, they are still catching mackerel on the south coast though. The prices went down on Newlyn this morning, they were £1.30 for large mediums and 80p to £1.00 for mediums. There have been some good catches of bass over that side as well and up Newquay/Padstow. Seems to be something to catch on the hooks everywhere apart from here!
18th May 2014. I had a try on the bass this evening. Started down 'Whore Point' but there wasn't much movement in the water even thought there was still plenty of flood tide to go. No bites, then had a quick cast behind behind the Island, no good. Then had a couple of casts at Porthminster Point with the same result, useless! I was told that only one boat tried the mackerel at first light this morning and they had just 20 fish. The wait continues!
16th May 2014. I gave it another try on the mackerel last night on the ebb tide. Started at 7pm and by 8pm I still had an empty fish box! Mike (smallie) had been out since he floated on the flood and only had 10 kilos. Three full trips he has done and he hasn't even filled a box. I have never known it this bad in May. At least the sun is shinning and there is the St Ives food and drink festival to go to tomorrow at porthminster beach.