2021 archive.
Previous Months.

31st December 2021.

Seeing that the weather wasn't too bad I decided to give the boat a run and catch a couple of boxes of mackerel to salt down for bait. There was quite a lot of people in town and drivers not knowing where they were going. 



A naval ship had just anchored in the bay, not sure if its a fisheries vessel, could be.

(Since found out the ship was HMS Westminster, a type 23 frigate).



I didn't go far from the harbour, plenty of gannets working. Dropped the line on a huge mark and had a couple of strings of joeys. Came inside a bit where there were "proper" marks and started catching string fulls of good stuff. I only had the hooks in the water for 20 minutes and had enough for what I wanted.

About 65 kilos, only a couple of kilos of small. 



Took them home and salted them down. Kept half a dozen of the big ones for the frying pan. Result!



Plenty of wind on the updated forecast, Wednesday is looking like the only "gentle" day. It's going to be workable though, especially where the fish were today.



I expect a few will go tomorrow, I'll wait until Sunday. 



Hope you all have a good New year's eve! ?. 


29th December 2021.

Here's the latest from windguru:-



Porthmeor is looking good for the bass anglers.



There is a hint of some calmer weather on the way at the end of next week, would be nice to have a trip up the stones to see what's there.



27th December 2021.

The forecast is looking quite "colourful" for the next few days.



Sunday and Monday for Tuesday's market is looking like plan 'A' at the moment. 



Apart from "Girl Cherry" against the quay, not a lot happening down the harbour. 



Tides for the week:-



22nd December 2021.



No fish prices available for this morning's last market of the year. That's it now for Newlyn until January 4th. I'll be keeping an eye on the weather next week and might have a couple of trips out for pot bait and direct sales to London. 

Hope you all have a fabulous Christmas!


21st December 2021.

This morning's market prices at Newlyn:-


20th December 2021.   

This morning's market prices at Newlyn:-

There are half a dozen boats out over low again today. They are filling up before they can get back in again. The boats working 2 strippers are catching around 800+ kilos per trip. 

Half of the 6 tonnes on the market this morning were from two St Ives boats. 

Danny on the "Golden Harvest" is working 3 times as many lines and doesn't have to stop because he is full up! He lands straight to Fal Fish.



I'm guessing he is on at least 3 tonnes a day.


19th December 2021.

A couple of boats tied up waiting to come in by low water today, must have filled all their boxes?



I was planning to go on the flood but have other commitments. Don't think the prices are going to be that good tomorrow so not bothered about missing it. Mackereling is my least favourite track, especially if you have to catch loads to make a days work.

I might be wrong but doubt if they will be more than a pound for mediums. 


Tides for the week:-



18th December 2021.

Loads  of gannets working over the Eastern shore today. 



Only boat on the mackerel today as far as I know is the "Golden Harvest". A ring netter from Newlyn set up with six automatic mackerel strippers. He will be talking number of tonnes not boxes.



17th December 2021.  

This morning's market prices at Newlyn:-


Dave on the "Boy Nathan" shut one net Wednesday evening and hauled it in the early hours yesterday morning. He filled up with mostly decent sized kilo plus bass.



281 kilos in one tier. He deserves a bit of good luck as he has had a lot of problems with engines lately. A replacement 15hp that has cooling problems and a small "get you out there" 6hp that fell off the back as he was coming in the harbour! 

A brand new yammy 15 on the shopping list after that catch. ? 

A few boats did the early tide on the mackerel yesterday and had excellent fishing. Plenty of fish and the best run seen this season. Quite a lot of us went on the afternoon fleeting and had a poor run and less fish. I had 2/3 small.



Don't think I'll bother tomorrow, quite a fresh south easterly. Sunday is looking better.



16th December 2021.

I did the last couple of hours on the flood yesterday for three boxes. Much better run than the day before.



Salted 10 kilos of the smallest and landed the rest. Worked out at just over 2/3 of good stuff. 



Apparently I missed the best fishing in the first hour so I'll get out there a bit earlier today. The two handers with strippers had about 3 to 4 hundred kilos each.


15th December 2021.

This morning's market prices at Newlyn:-

Here's the latest updated forecast:-



Fresh easterly until the market shuts.



It might keep the south coast boats in port and make the mackerel well worth going for, £3 for mediums this morning was pretty good considering the amount landed. Over 2 tonnes of bass has brought the price down to £6.

I'm going to have a few hours this afternoon looking for medium mackerel. ? ?. 


14th December 2021. PM update.

There was a bit more ground sea than I would like for squiding but I gave it a go anyway. First drift I had 2.



Then I had 2 more drifts for nothing. Packed up and joined the mackerelers in the bay. Had a seal hassle me straight away.



By the time I packed up there were three chasing me around. Had a couple of boxes, over 2/3 were small.



Only 13 kilos of good stuff. 



Saw a few of the others doing a lot better.

A boat from Hayle I know tried bassing at the Bezzeck and had nothing. There is plenty of netted bass being landed on the market. 

Think I'll go straight on the mackerel tomorrow. 

No fish prices available again today, hopefully I'll be able to get them tomorrow. Tight lines ? ? ?. 


14th December 2021. 

Off to try the squid for an hour, if that fails I'll go on the mackerel. Will update tonight. ???.


13th December 2021.

No fish prices today. 

Found out that the last market before Christmas is on Thursday 23rd. Been advised not to bother with that one as there is no transport for export and prices are expected to be very poor. So the last main market is on Wednesday 22nd.


12th December 2021.

I had an hour and a half on the mackerel. Didn't get out there until most of the boats were packing up. The fishing was slow and I had 2 seals following me everywhere. Lost a whole set to them and then they had the lead and bottom three hooks off the new one. That was enough for me, wound up and came back in with just half box ?. 



Not enough to take to Newlyn so I salted them down for lobster bait. I prefer to dry salt them and reuse the salt a few times.

I use old boxes with worn bottoms that will drain and the salt stays good.

Easy to do, layer of salt:-



And a layer of mackerel:-



Then repeat until full. I've used baits that are over a year old that fish really well. 

There was plenty of ground sea today, starting to decrease tomorrow and a lot less on Tuesday. Think I'll give it a miss tomorrow and have another try on the squid or bass Tuesday. 



11th December 2021. 

There were a few out on the mackerel this morning and they had a bit of fish.



The run was half good and half small.



Apparently they are catching quite a lot on the south coast so the prices might not be as good as hoped. I would have gone today but I had to take the Mrs to get a new car. I plan to give it a couple of hours tomorrow. Quite a bit of wind but it's offshore.



The long-range has changed a bit but still looking good all next week.




10th December 2021.

No fishing or fish prices today!


9th December 2021.

A couple of boats tried the mackerel this morning. 

The water was murky and they were only catching ones and twos. There were lots of seals hassling them for the small amounts they managed to hook.

The fish are there though, so should be good next week when the conditions are right.

No fish prices today. 


8th December 2021.

The good news is that it looks like we will have a whole week of workable weather before the market shuts for Christmas. 

Light southerly winds on Tuesday and Wednesday, backing to a moderate south easterly and ending up light easterly for the last few days of the market. Perfect!



No mackerel on the market this morning. 

Here are all the weights and prices:-




Tides for the next 7 days:-



7th December 2021.

This morning's market prices at Newlyn:-



Good bassing surf running out porthmeor. 



Doubling in size this evening. 



A lot calmer in the bay but the water is already looking quite murky for hook fishing. I doubt if Thursday will be any good for mackereling, could be wrong. 



Not looking quite so bad from Saturday onwards. I'll be keeping an eye ? on it.



Tight lines ? ? ?. 


6th December 2021.

This morning's market prices at Newlyn:-




5th December 2021.

Plenty of surf off porthminster today, expect the bay will be filling up with bass this week.



It's going large Tuesday evening into Wednesday. 



Calmer for a day on Thursday but I expect the water will be too murky to catch much on the hooks. 


3rd December 2021.

Only a couple of boats out today making the most of the last calm day for a while.



The forecast is looking very colourful. 



Most boats staying on their moorings with it being a Friday and Nathan taking his punt out before the next lot of bad weather. 



His boat is up for sale, Tegan Mor, its an absolute tiger.



He put it safe over Hayle last week. If anyone is interested the advert is on Find A Fishing Boat.



Haven't been able to get hold of the fish prices today. 


2nd December 2021.

This morning's market prices at Newlyn:-


Quite fresh out porthmeor today. 



Workable in the bay for anyone that's keen.



Latest update from windguru. 



Tides for the next 7 days...


? ? ? ? ? ?. 


1st December 2021.

This morning's market prices at Newlyn:-


Had to go down and rescue my engine this morning. Had a kind call from a fellow fisherman that had noticed it was down and would be stuck in the sand when the tide went out. Not sure when it happened but there was no damage, just a bit of paint gone from the prop. Put the trailering locks on now so it should stay up. Must have been bumping the bottom quite hard on the fleeting or grounding last night.

There might be a couple of "hard shutters" giving the mackerel a try tomorrow, I won't be, still feeling rough. Next day I'm looking at going is Monday at the moment. 




I'm out on the bass for the last couple of hours daylight ? ?. 


31st October 2021.

I've run out of storage space on my website builder! In the process of purchasing more. Should be sorted by tomorrow, Tuesday at the latest.


29th October 2021.

This morning's market prices at Newlyn:-




28th October 2021. 

This morning's market prices at Newlyn:-



Looking at the latest prediction, I'm going to have to make the most of Saturday. 



My kind of weather ?. 



27th October 2021.   

This morning's market prices at Newlyn.



Plenty of ground sea and wind out there today.



I didn't fancy polling in it.



Don't think I'll be going tomorrow either. Friday is a possibility, Saturday looks even better with less swell.



Next week isn't looking good until Thursday at the moment, might change before then.



Decent sized tides next week when it's meant to be calming down, could be some good catches.



Tight lines all. ? ?. 



26th October 2021.

Did the low water yesterday, one of the tripping ribs seemed to be sinking a bit as I was getting ready to go aboard. They kept it afloat but it was very low in the stern. 



I went straight over to the eastern shore, there were plenty of marks on the meter but more ground sea than I would have liked. The fish didn't seem interested, it took an hour to catch the first one. After 3 hours I only had 3 in the box. Would have took this as a sign and moved out to the stones if there wasn't so much lift out there :-



The fishing was far to slow where I was, so I decided to go back to St Ives and fish Porthmeor on the flood. As soon as I got there the gulls were going mad and bass were splashing on the surface.



This lot were definitely feeding, fished it for a few hours and ended up with 36 keepers. There were quite a few undersized ones amongst them, must have put at least 15 back.



32 kilos, a third of them were 1-2's.



There were a few decent sized landings of mackerel from the south coast on the market again. A couple of our boats had a few boxes as well. Mediums averaged £1.36 this morning.


This morning's market prices:-



Monday's market prices :-



25th October 2021.

Didn't bother doing the late flood yesterday, going to do a long low water today.

I took Friday's catch to market last night, they were half 0-1's and half 1-2's.



30 fish came to 28 kilos.



There was a beauty bluefin tuna in the fridge, a 421 pounder! (191 kilos).



It was landed by one of the ring netters. The last price I saw for one was around the £7.00 per kilo mark.



A couple of the Falmouth boats had 300 odd kilos of mackerel each there as well.


24th October 2021.  

A few of the boats tried the mackerel this morning, they have been struggling the last few trips, only managing half a box at the most. Trevor on the "Bluebell" was going to do the low water but had a seal following him everywhere and caught nothing for the short time he was out. The seal followed him right back to the moorings. ? ?.

I think Prisky on the "Boy Daniel" was top boat today with just 30 fish.



Bit of ground sea starting to show on Porthmeor, there are a few bass being caught there.



I might give it an hour there later on the fleeting.

The surf is building tomorrow, nothing too drastic though.



Toying with the idea of doing a long day tomorrow, its not looking too bad. 




23rd October 2021.  

It wasn't very nice out there yesterday, nearly didn't bother but I went for it as it was forecasted to ease down. 

I went up east on the shore marks and it wasn't long until I realised I had made a good decision. Yet again I had one on the first line before the other one was out, 10 keepers onboard in the first hour!

Plenty of good marks on the meter. 



I had 24 on the ebb and it slowed down on the low water/first of the flood with only 4 more for an hour and a half. Thought I might be missing better fishing out the stones, so I pulled the lines in and steamed out there. Gave it an hour for just one bass, there wasn't any marks on my usual spots and Anthony who was up there hadn't had many bass, but he did have a box full of decent pollack. I went back to the shore marks for the last hour and had a couple more. Must have thrown 10 undersized ones back for the day and ended up with 30 keepers. 



Had my fish prices through this morning, was nice to see that my 1-2's were slightly higher than the average price and my one 2k fish fetched well above the £15.49 average.



Looks like we are going to have a long period of fresh south to southwesterly winds. Perfect for the shore anglers but not so good for polling. It will limit the amount that the south coast boats can get out though, which should lead to the mackerel prices rising. I did notice mackerel marks and a lot of bird activity over the eastern shore on the way in yesterday. I might be salting some smalls and landing the good stuff next week.


21st October 2021.   

Well yesterday's fire at the Balcony restaurant really messed things up for me. The driver for the London buyer couldn't get through the town to the quay to pick up my fish. So the only option I had was to land them on the market. I had stored them well and they were still looking good.



I didn't fill the boxes up and put too much weight on the bottom ones.



The fridge was all but empty when I was there, just one lonely box of medium mackerel. Looking at the prices that box (17kilos) fetched £115.77.



My bass fetch a little bit less after deductions compared to if they went on their trip to London, but it could have been worse. They could have been £8.00 like they were on Monday.

There was a bit of trawled fish on the market.

Here are all the prices for everything that was auctioned this morning:-


Here are all the prices for everything that was auctioned this morning:-



I'm keeping a close eye on the weather and haven't decided what to do tomorrow yet. 



It will either be the low water or the later flood tide.

Nothing settled in the long-range prediction. 



Tide times:-


20th October 2021. 

Hardly any fish on Newlyn market this morning, it was all over in 5 minutes. Here is the total list of what was up for auction:-



There has been a fire in the Balcony restaurant in town. The harbour has been closed to traffic.



Lots of fire appliances along the front. 



Apparently it's been closed off since about 6am this morning. 



Here is the latest update on the forecast:-



Looks like mackereling weather if the water doesn't dirty up too much.




19th October 2021. 

The wind eased enough yesterday to get up the stones for the last few hours of daylight. There were plenty of fish, had one on the first line before the second one was out. The marks weren't huge but they were all over the ground.



It was the best fishing I have had for the year. The wind eased right down and I was pulling a bass in every 4 minutes. I got parted out by a good fish, didn't get it close enough to tell how big it was. ☹️.

I fished until dark and ended up with 43 bass.



The largest was edging towards 2 kilos.

Haven't weighed them yet but I think they will average about a kilo. They will be on their way to London later. ?? ?.


Here's this morning's market prices:-


Mackerel (352 kilos).

Small £0.50.

Medium £2.03.

Large medium £3.30.


Pollack (4,064 kilos).

0-1's £1.85.

1-2's £4.83.

2-3's £4.91.

3-4's £4.93.

4+'s £4.79.


Squid (16 kilos).

0-0.5 £11.70.

0.5-1's £11.23.


Cuttlefish (47 kilos).

0-0.5's £3.20.


Octopus (112 kilos).

0.2-0.5's £2.36.


Haddock (1,161).

0.3-0.57 £0.69.

0.57-1's £3.09.

1-2's £3.44.

2+'s £3.68.


Bass (81 kilos).

1-2's £8.17.


Dover Sole (1,456).

0.17-0.22's £7.64.

0.22-0.28's £9.23.

0.28-0.4's £11.66.

0.4-0.6's £18.29.

0.6-0.8's £19.44.

0.8+'s £20.02.


Plaice (298 kilos).

0.25-0.33's £1.81.

0.34-0.45's £2.07.

0.45-0.65's £3.30.

0.65-0.9's £3.66.

0.9+'s £4.18.


Red Mullet (15 kilos).

0.2-0.3's £15.85.

0.3-0.5's £19.90.

0.5-1's £19.09.



18th October 2021. 

The bassing was really good yesterday, I had 10 onboard in less than an hour.



I had a couple of throw backs but most of them were around the kilo mark. First time I've had to use 2 boxes for a while. ?. 

35 fish for 35.4 kilos.



Had a few pollack as well, only kept the biggest one. A decent 2 kilo fish.



There is a small window in the weather so I'm going to make the most of it, off up there again now.



It's the last chance until at least Friday. 



Tides for the week:-



This morning's market prices:-


Bass (72 kilos).

0.5-1's £9.71.

1-2's £9.96.

2-3's £17.07.

3-4's £18.00.

4+'s £20.00.


Mackerel (3,252 kilos).

Small £0.51.

Medium £1.04.

Large medium £3.07.

Large £5.50.


Pollack (231 kilos).

0-1's £2.05.

1-2's £4.22.

2-3's £5.34.

3-4's £4.69.


Jigged Squid (9.5kilos).

0-0.3's £10.80.


Squid (17.5 kilos).

0-0.25's £8.50.

0.25's-0.5's £11.01.

0.5-1's £9.88.


Red Mullet (37 kilos).

0.2-0.3's £18.33.

0.3-0.5's £17.50.

0.5-1's £19.00.

1+'s £20.00.


Cod (21 kilos).

1-2's £5.78.

2-4's £6.57.

4-7's £7.01.


Cuttlefish (99 kilos).

0-0.5's £2.89.

0.5+'s £3.93.


Dover Sole (3,332 kilos).

0-0.17's £6.05.

0.17-0.22's £7.50.

0.22-0.28's £8.94.

0.28-0.4's £11.56.

0.4-0.6's £19.00.

0.6-0.8's £21.58.

0.8+'s £20.51.


Haddock (1,083 kilos).

0.3-0.57's £0.60.

0.57-1's £3.50.

1-2's £3.63.

2+'s £4.59.


Octopus (113 kilos).

0.2-0.5's £2.57.



17th October 2021.

The first half an hour on the squid yesterday wasn't to bad, I had 8 and a large mackerel for supper.


Karl and Rob on the "Athena Fay" were out mackereling but not having much. 



For the next 2 1/2 hours I only had 2 more squid ?. 

I stuck the 2 trips worth on the market, 26 fish only came to 4.5 kilos. 6 to a kilo, that's not good. 



Going to try the bass up east today. ? ?. 


16th October 2021.

I gave the squid a good try yesterday. It was really slow, only a couple per drift. Tried trundling around looking for marks but there wasn't any. Thought I had a big one on but it was another octopus. 



I gave it a good 4 hours for only 16 squid, three good ones, the rest were small.



Most of the prices were down a bit on yesterday's market.


Bass (59 kilos).

0.5-1's £8.06.

1-2's £9.58.


Mackerel (2,982 kilos).

Small £0.66.

Medium £1.03.

Large medium £2.06.


Pollack (3,900 kilos).

0-1's £2.03.

1-2's £4.74.

2-3's £4.77.

3-4's £5.02.

4+'s £5.01.


Squid (17 kilos) 

0-0.25's £8.56

0-0.5's £10.53 

0.5-1's £11.54.


Jigged Squid (3 kilos).

0-0.3 £10.56.



15th October 2021. 

I was a bit late getting away yesterday, got up the stones a couple of hours before high water. There were hardly any marks on the meter but I managed to catch 6 keepers by high water.



It went quiet on the slack water. Having seen that there were more squid on yesterday's market than there has been, I packed the bass gear away and had a couple of hours trying for them.

As soon as the first line hit the bottom 2 squid grabbed hold.



I fished for an hour before I caught another one. It was a beauty though, looked like concord!



A £12.00 squid. ? 



It was better than the last couple of tries I've had, but still not good enough. I found one small mark after that, one line came up with 2 on it and the other line had 3. Ended up with 8 squid for 2 hours.



The bass came to 5.5 kilos.



And the big squid was a kilo.



Just under 3 kilos for 8 fish, that's a good average weight. 



I'm going to give it the full tide on the squid today. If I can find a few marks I might make a days wage. 

Perfect day for it, best it's going be for a while. 



Perfect tide as well, the dead of the neap.



There is a blast of ground sea forecasted for the middle of next week. Ideal for the shore anglers. 



Here's yesterday's fish prices :-

Bass (131 kilos).

0.5-1's £7.52.

1-2's £8.50.

2-3's £13.13.

3-4's £14.17.


Mackerel (1,110 kilos)

Small £0.69.

Medium £1.15.

Large medium £2.15.

Large £1.99.


Pollack (275 kilos).

0-1's £2.57.

1-2's £5.04.

2-3's £6.70.

3-4's £6.95.

4+'s £5.69.


Trawled Squid (107 kilos).

0-0.25's £7.12.

0.25-0.5's £12.92.

0.5-1's £11.76.


Jigged Squid (8 kilos).

0-0.3's £14.50.


Octopus (202 kilos).

0.2-0.5's £2.30.


Cod (203 kilos).

0.3-1's £2.14.

1-2's £4.14.

2-4's £6.12.

4-7's £6.79.

7+'s £6.72.


Haddock (559 kilos).

0.3-0.57's £0.60.

0.57-1's £3.79.

1-2's £5.08.


Red Mullet (753 kilos).

0-0.2's £0.91.

0.2-0.3's £16.06.

0.3-0.5's £19.97.

0.5-1's £19.01.


Plaice (260 kilos).

0.25-0.33's £1.63.

0.34-0.45's £3.30.

0.45-0.65's £3.81.

0.65-0.9's £3.55.

0.9+'s £5.96.


Dover Sole (1.030 kilos).

0-0.17's £6.51.

0.17-0.22's £7.59.

0.22-0.28's £9.95.

0.28-0.4's £12.75.

0.4-0.6's £21.55.

0.6-0.8's £23.52.

0.8's £22.90.


14th October 2021.

Got my hands on a 6 pound 6 ouncer yesterday. My first granddaughter! (5th grandchild). Only two days old, so tiny!


She is absolutely gorgeous ❤. 

I missed a nice calm day with quite a few bass being caught but some things are better than fishing! I Don't say that very often.

Tasty, Mark and mate had some nice bass on the "Ol'Tuss" out of Hayle. 



And Dave on the "Boy Nathan" found a few after blanking at a couple of spots. He had one nearing the 2 kilo mark.



I'm back on it this morning and will update later tonight or tomorrow morning. ? ?. 



13th October 2021. 

This morning's market prices:-


Bass (65 kilos).

0.5-1's £6.80.

1-2's £12.96.


Mackerel (2,307 kilos).

Small £0.63.

Medium £1.06.

Large medium £3.43.


Pollack (254 kilos).

0-1's £3.10.

1-2's £5.14.

2-3's £6.35.

3-4's £6.43.


Squid (28 kilos). Most I've seen this season ? ?. 

0-0.25's £13.02.

0.25-0.5's £14.90.

0.5-1's £14.69.


Red Mullet (27 kilos).

0.2-0.3's £19.71.

0.3-0.5's £19.99.

0.5-1's £21.00.


Dover Sole (11 kilos).

0.17-0.22's £5.05.

0.22-0.28's £9.54.

0.28-0.4's £22.00.

0.4-0.6's £23.55.

0.6-0.8's £23.01.


Cuttlefish (55 kilos).

0-0.5's £3.35.

0.5+'s £2.92.


Haddock (10 kilos).

0.3-0.57 £1.01.

0.57-1's £5.55.


And last but not least....

TUNA (209 kilos).

Size 9 £7.74 per kilo.


Fished over Godrevy yesterday from 1 o'clock until dark. It was quite nice to start with but it turned grey and cold in the northerly wind. Ended up having to put a third jumper on!



It started well, had 5 keepers in the first half an hour. The fishing was best at low water and the first of the flood the day before, so I was expecting a good catch. It didn't happen, plenty of marks there but they just weren't feeding properly. Ended up with a disappointing nine.



No decent sized ones, total weight was only 7.8 kilos.



One of those days I wished I'd stayed at home. That's fishing ?.


12th October 2021. 

This morning's market prices:-


Bass (196 kilos).

0.5-1's £7.33.

1-2's £8.99.

2-3's £15.71.

Hopefully the price dip was just for a day due to one boat landing quite a lot of large boxes of them lastnight.

Too many to be line caught. 



Mackerel (1,466).

Small £0.40.

Medium £1.12.

Large medium £2.96.


Pollack (220 kilos).

0-1's £2.82.

1-2's £4.97.

2-3's £6.84.

3-4's £6.95.


Squid (8 kilos)

£12.90.


Haddock (42 kilos).

0.17-0.3's £0.27.

0.3-0.57's £0.57.

0.57-1's £5.51.

1-2's £6.52.


Did the low water yesterday, started by trying the squid. By the time I had put the second line down the other one had a decent squid on it.



Good sized one of about half a kilo. The same line had only been back down for a minute and it had another one. Started to think I was going to be squiding all day but that was it, gave it a good hour more for nothing. Just the 2 for 0.8 kilos.



Packed the squid gear away and set the bass poles up. Tried a few of my spots for just one undersized fish. Was starting to think I should have stayed home and then I found a really nice bunch.



Had 18 keepers out of it before it went quiet. Fished until nearly dark and ended up with 26. 

No big ones, the best was only 1.3 kilos. 

Turned what was looking like a disaster of a day into quite a good one with 25 kilos.


Off out to try and find some more now.


11th October 2021. 

This morning's market prices:-


Bass (59 kilos).

0.5-1's £12.04.

1-2's £14.04.


Mackerel (2,289 kilos).

Small £0.35.

Medium £1.05.

Large medium £2.20.

Large £1.78.


Pollack (34 kilos).

0-1's £2.63.

3-4's £7.50.


Squid (5 kilos).

0-0.25 £13.37.

0.5-1's £13.73.

1+'s £14.54.


Off out now,  will update later. ?. 


10th October 2021.

I did the low water on the bass yesterday, it wasn't as good as I expected. Started over the Bezzack at Godrevy, there were plenty of good marks. 



They didn't seem to want to feed though, there was a seal there that might have been putting them off. After a good hour I only had 3 in the box.



I decided to take a look up the stones for the remainder of the ebb. Hardly any marks where I was, but I did manage another 3 bass. Had a couple of pollack as well, one was a decent 2 kilo fish.



It went quiet so I tried the Bezzack again on the first of the flood. There were less mark and the seal was still patrolling the area. Went up and down it a few times for nothing. 

I decided to fish the back of the Island until I could get back on the moorings, it could have been worse, I had another 5 keepers there. Took them into Newlyn last night.



11 bass came to a bit over 9 kilos.



There were a few mackerel landings in the fridge, 2 boats fishing the Falmouth area had about 900 kilos between them there. 130k of large mediums and the rest all mediums. I expect they will be putting another load there later today, that will be mediums around the £1.00 mark again tomorrow. 

Don't think I'll bother going today, bit of a northerly wind and the fishing wasn't great yesterday. I shall wait until tomorrow and give the squid a try.



The settled week is still on the cards, predicted to last until next Sunday. 



??????. 


8th October 2021.

I tried the bass at the back of the Island on the fleeting yesterday. There were a few boats on the mackerel. I could see Trevor on the "Bluebell" and Roger on the "Loopy Lou" both catching. Found out when I came in that Trevor had 100 kilos, a good couple of hours work there.



I had a bass straight away and then went quite a while before getting another one. The ground sea was building and there were 2 seals which didn't help. I gave it a good couple of hours and only ended up with three.

Like peas in a pod!



Dave on the "Boy Nathan" came out later than me and gave it until dark, he only ended up with 3 as well.



A measly 2.6 kilos. But I have high hopes for next week.



Haven't yet decided whether to try again later today, but Saturday is looking perfect for a long low water. 



Next week is looking spot on. I predict a decent squid landing before the week is over. ??. (Hopefully by me ?).



Good neap tides for them. ??. 



I've just found out this morning's prices, it's not good news for the mackerel men with mediums down to £1.05. Here's the prices for the most significant species in this area:-


Bass (59 kilos).

0.5-1's £12.04.

1-2's £14.04.


Mackerel (A price dropping 2,290 kilos).

Small £0.35.

Medium £1.05.

Large medium £2.20.

Large £1.78.


Pollack (34 kilos).

0-1's £2.63.

3-4's £7.50.


Squid (only 5 kilos) 

£14.00.


Cuttlefish (170 kilos).

0-0.5's £2.63.

0.5+'s £3.40.


Octopus (137 kilos).

0-0.2's £2.59.


Dover Sole (394 kilos).

0-0.17's £7.42.

0.17-0.22's £9.18.

0.22-0.28's £11.36.

0.28-0.4's £14.88.

0.4-0.6's £22.91.

0.6-0.8's £22.65.

0.8+'s £22.61.


Haddock (34 kilos).

0.17-0.3's £0.49.

0.3-0.57's £2.40.

0.57-1's £5.58.

1-2's £6.53.


Red Mullet (27 kilos).

0-0.2's £7.01.

0.2-0.3's £18.13.

0.3-0.5's £21.21.

0.5's-1's £21.70.


Plaice (1,630 kilos).

0.25-0.33's £1.84.

0.34-0.45's £3.92.

0.45-0.65's £4.76.

0.65-0.9's £5.97.

0.9+'s £5.54.



7th October 2021.

Steamed over to Hayle as soon as I floated yesterday, bit of a sand bar by the poles, had to keep to the port side going up there.


They have got a new pontoon next to the slipway now.



Ben from Rock Marine was doing the service, sound chap.      Did all the usual maintenance and replaced the impeller, internal anodes, plugs and timing belt. 



The timing belt was a simpler job than I thought, if you have the tools!



He noticed that the negative cable from the battery had been wearing on the steering, surprised it hasn't caused me any problems as it has gone right down to the wire. Tapped it up for now until he sends me a new one. I bleached the weed on the bottom of her while it was on the trailer. Didn't get back in the water until 6pm, so didn't have time to try the bass. I shall have a go for them later on the fleeting. ?. 

The mackerel men that did the flood yesterday had around 2 boxes each.


6th October 2021.

This morning's market prices:-

Bass (38 kilos).

0.5-1's £14.34.

1-2's £15.51.

2-3+'s £22.99.


Mackerel (62 kilos).

Small £0.32.

Medium £6.01.

Large medium £7.00.


Pollack (15 kilos).

1-2's £5.24.


Cod (27 kilos).

2-4's £6.51.

4-7's £6.57.


Haddock (110 kilos).

0.3-0.57 £0.49.

0.57-1's £5.17.

1-2's £4.17.


Whiting (44 kilos).

0.11-0.25's £0.19.

0.25-0.5's £1.40.

0.5+'s £3.30.



5th October 2021.

This morning's market prices:-


Bass (11 kilos).

0.5-1's £15.97.

1-2's £17.65.


Mackerel (790 kilos).

Small £0.44.

Medium £3.15.

Large medium £4.40.


Pollack (A massive 6,338 kilos!).

0-1's £2.42.

1-2's £4.75.

2-3's £4.67.

3-4's £4.79.

4+'s £5.02.


BBC weather is giving "gentle breeze" for 7 days on the trot starting Saturday. There has got to be some squid about when the tides get smaller. Hopefully I'll have the dilemma of bassing or squiding ? ?. 

My engine service is all arranged for tomorrow afternoon. Rock Marine will have her out over Hayle. 

Here's the latest from windguru:-



4th October 2021.

This morning's market prices:--


Bass (17 kilos).

0.5 -1's £15.56.

1-2's £15.50.


Mackerel (1,386 kilos).

Small £0.36.

Medium £2.88.

Large medium £3.17.

Large £3.16.


Pollack (162 kilos).

1-2's £4.63.

2-3's £6.56.

3-4's £7.54.

4+'s £7.54.


Cod (130 kilos).

1-2's £6.02.

2-4's £6.06.

4-7's £6.41.


Haddock (893 kilos).

0.17-0.3's £0.22.

0.3-0.57's £1.16.

0.57-1's £3.04.

1-2's £3.59.

2+'s £4.16.


Red Mullet (50 kilos).

0.2-0.3's £23.59.

0.3-0.5's £23.00.

0.5-1's £25.50.


Whiting (57 kilos).

0.11-0.25's £0.21.

0.25-0.35's £0.49.

0.35-0.5's £2.14.

0.5+'s £3.00.


Dover Sole (13 kilos).

0.17-0.22's £7.49.

0.22-0.28's £9.49.

0.4-0.6's £21.81.

0.6-0.8's £21.88.


The mackerel men working around the Falmouth area had around a thousand kilos between them over the weekend. That stopped the prices soaring, £2.88 for mediums is still quite good though. 


3rd October 2021. 

Looking calm in the shelter off the bay and the water doesn't look too murky either.


Nobody seemed keen to go on the fleeting, only boat that I could see off its moorings was the "Boy Nathan" and that was tied to the quay. 



My punt is desperate to have the rain water drained out of it. I'll have to go down and do it when the tide is out tonight. 

Looking a bit more lively around the corner at Porthmeor. 



Bet there is a few bass feeding in that.

Southwesterly tomorrow, expect a few keen mackerel men will be out there. Will be interesting to see the prices tomorrow, they should be pretty high after this weather. 

Don't think I'll be bothering. Find out tomorrow whether I can get my engine serviced, hopefully on Wednesday. Should have a couple of hours after that to try the bass before dark.



Much better weather on the way if the forecasters have got it right ? ?.



Big tides so I'll be on the bass rather than the squid. There has to be some squid there next neaps....surely ??. 



1st October 2021.

This morning's Newlyn market prices :-


Bass (35 kilos).

1-2's £14.00.

2-3's £19.85.


Mackerel (412 kilos).

Small £0.41.

Medium £3.06.

Large medium £4.91.


Pollack (A massive 3,618 kilos!).

1-2's £4.62.

2-3's £4.71.

3-4's £4.73.

4+'s £4.95.


Cod (117 kilos).

1-2's £5.32.

2-4's £6.42.

4-7's £6.58.

7+'s £1.50. (One 9 kilo fish).


Dover Sole (577 kilos).

0-0.17's £6.57.

0.17-0.22's £7.60.

0.22-0.28's £10.07.

0.28-0.4's £13.45.

0.4-0.6's £18.67.

0.6-0.8's £20.00.

0.8+'s £20.01.


Haddock (868 kilos).

0.3-0.57's £0.45.

0.57-1's £3.26.

1-2's £4.05.

2+'s £4.57.


Red Mullet (12 kilos).

0-0.2's £9.62.

0.3-0.5's £19.57.


The forecast keeps changing but at the moment it looks like mackereling will be the only option next week. 



But next weekend is looking great, hope it stays like that. ?. 



Big tides next week.




30th September 2021.

I decided to go for it yesterday. Wasn't very nice out there to start with so I gave the shelter of the Eastern carricks a try. After a couple of tows around the edge of the rough I found a bunch on the meter that was hanging around down tide of the rocks.



It was half an hour before I caught one. It didn't need measuring, easily undersize.



I went over the same spot a few times but only had one more which was even smaller. The wind had eased a little bit so I pulled the lines aboard and went up east.

There were plenty of good marks in a few places. 



I started catching straight away and most of them were keepers. The conditions don't seem so bad when you are regularly pulling in bass! 

The days are noticeably shorter, especially when you get up as late as I do ?. The night screen came on just after 7 o'clock.



I had about 30 and kept 22 for 20.6 kilos.



A friend of mine had an absolute beauty a couple of days ago on the south coast at an undisclosed location. It was just over 13lb 5oz (jealous!). I'm still waiting for that double figure fish.



It looks like there might be a couple of workable days next week. I might miss one to go up Hayle for an engine service. 



This morning's Newlyn market prices were :-


Bass (43 kilos).

0.5-1's £14.00.

1-2's £13.51.

2-3+'s £20.97.


Mackerel (108 kilos).

Small £1.51.

Medium £7.61.

Large medium £7.40.


Pollack (54 kilos).

0-1's £2.80.

1-2's £4.57.

4+'s £5.05.


Squid (only 0.8 kilos).

0.5-1's £14.44.


Red Mullet (5 kilos).

0.3-0.5's £21.81.


Haddock (790 kilos).

0.3-0.57's £0.47.

0.57-1's £3.02.

1-2's £5.00.


Cod (183 kilos).

0.3-1's £2.49.

1-2's £4.55.

2-4's £6.56.



29th September 2021.

Very little fish on Newlyn market this morning due to the bad weather. There were no bass, pollack or squid up for sale. 

Looking at the mackerel that were for sale I would guess that quite a bit of it was netted, I might be wrong but if it was line caught then that would be an exceptional "run" of fish. 

Large medium (135kilos) £5.63.

Medium (22.5 kilos) £3.66.


Here's the latest forecast.



I've got an hour to decide whether to do the late low water or not.....hmmmmm. 



27th September 2021.

This morning's fish prices at Newlyn market:-


Bass (325 kilos).

0.5-1's £9.28.

1-2's £10.89.

2-3's £19.98.


Mackerel (556 kilos).

Small £0.41.

Medium £3.04.

Large medium £4.68.


Pollack (495 kilos).

0-1's £1.79.

1-2's £4.75.

2-3's £5.96.

3-4's £7.49.

4+'s £7.59.


Squid (16 kilos).

0-0.25's £12.54.

0-0.5's £13.52.

0.5-1's £13.14.


Cuttlefish (7 kilos).

0-0.5's £3.97.


Scad (14 kilos).

£3.00.


Octopus (220 kilos).

0.2-0.5's £2.31. 


Red Mullet (77 kilos).

0.2-0.3's £18.87.

0.3-0.5's £19.41.

0.5-1's £18.35.


Whiting (30 kilos).

0.35-0.5's £1.69.

0.5+'s £2.62.


Haddock (1,008 kilos).

0.3-0.57's £0.58.

0.57-1's £3.01.

1-2's £4.45.



26th September 2021 

Did the low water yesterday and started at the Bezzeck off Gwithian beach at half tide ebbing. I had three sized bass in the first half an hour. Didn't have any in the next half an hour so I went up the stones for the rest of the ebb. By low water I had 10 keepers and no throw backs. 



I went back to the Bezzeck for the first of the flood and there were plenty of good marks.



I fished there until I could get back on the moorings and had another 8. Only had one undersized fish the whole trip. 



Landed just over 18 kilos.



I had a couple of mackerel on the Redgills and heard the tripping boats on the radio saying they were catching.

I was down to my last 5 litre can of petrol and the Tesco garage at Penzance had no fuel at all. The Co op garage on the way to Newlyn had fuel and a huge queue out onto the road. It takes some people ages just to fill up one can....



I liked this one...?.



I eventually got my petrol. I'm thinking about doing the late low water on Wednesday, it's the only day of the week that I could get out on the squid or go east on the bass.



Wouldn't mind being one of the first to have a decent amount of squid, the bit I landed this week fetched £15.33 per kilo. Wednesday's tide is perfect for it.



Dave on the "Boy Nathan" had a couple of boxes of mackerel this morning, so that's an option if all else fails.


24th September 2021.

Just got the boat off the moorings before it went aground, wish I hadn't! Did 2 1/2 hours of the ebb on the squid for one mackerel. The closest I got to catching a squid was when one of the jigs came up with a blob of ink on it. Spent the rest of low water up the stones trying to catch bass. Had a couple on the slack water but once the flood started there was just a few pollack. 



Even with the lack of fish I'm going to give it another try tomorrow, better make the most of the last calm day for a while. 



Quite a lot of wind forecasted for over a week.



Might have a couple of mackerel trips next week if the quantities and prices are right. ?. 



23rd September 2021.

This morning's market prices:-


Bass (202 kilos).

0-1's £9.72.

1-2's £9.45.

2-3's £19.20.


Mackerel (650 kilos).

Small £0.35.

Medium £2.57.

Large medium £5.42.

Large £4.73.


Pollack (1,007 kilos).

0-1's £1.62.

1-2's £4.59.

2-3's £5.50.

3-4's £6.17.

4+'s £6.17.


Squid (19 kilos).

0-0.25's £13.57.

0-0.5's £14.55.

0.5-1's £15.83.


*Boops boops, (4 kilos) 0.3-0.5's £9.69*


Not much mackerel around yesterday, only about ten kilos per man. I had a look at the back of the Island for bass marks on the afternoon flood, there wasn't any so I went squiding for a while. I only had 4 and they were all small ones, had a few come off on the way up as well. Should be better when the tide gets smaller.



Thought I had a big one on just before I packed up but it was the first octopus ? for the season. 



They are marketable but I let them go. Swam off happily after a squirt of water.



I took the miniscule catch to Newlyn with what I had on ice. 10.5k of 0-1's, 2k of 1-2's and just 2.5k of squid. You can see how small yesterday's few squid were against Tuesdays beauties. 



While I was on the market lastnight there was a local chap landing something that I have never seen before in my 40 years of fishing. Eight Boops boops! Never heard of them, even by their common name Bogue. He caught them while inshore netting for Red Mullet. Good looking fish, the photo I took doesn't really do them justice. 



You never know what's going to turn up, especially with the rising sea temperatures. Here's a bit of info on the Bogue:-


Boops boops (/ˈboʊ.ɒps/; Greek: βόωψ boōps, literally "cow-eye"), commonly called the bogue, is a species of seabream native to the eastern Atlantic. Its common name in most languages refers to its large ("bug") eyes.



The species is found off the coasts of Europe, Africa, the Azores and the Canary Islands, from Norway to Angola, and in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. It avoids brackish waters such as the Baltic Sea. A demersal and semi-pelagic feeder, it can generally be found down to 100 m (330 ft), and infrequently down to 350 m (1,150 ft).


Bogue for sale in Turkey


The species is commercially fished, with 37,830 tonnes taken in 2008. When cleaned and pan fried, broiled or baked fresh, they are good tasting, but when stored their gut flora soon spread unpleasant flavors to their flesh. Much of the catch is used for fishmeal or tuna fishing bait.


With the fishing being poor at the moment I'm having the day off and will try again tomorrow. 


22nd September 2021.

This morning's market prices:-


Bass (232 kilos).

0-1's £10.05.

1-2's £10.32.

2-3's £16.09.

3-4+'s £17.94.


Mackerel (492 kilos).

Small £0.41.

Medium £2.96.

Large medium £5.71.

Large £5.69.


Pollack (107 kilos).

0-1's £2.76.

1-2's £4.39.

2-3's £6.23.


Squid (3 kilos).

0-0.25's £11.08.

0-0.5's £13.97.

0.5-1's £15.50.


Great weather yesterday but poor fishing. I got away as soon as the boat floated and started bassing at the back of the Island. I did two tows up and back again for nothing. There were no fish marks like the day before. I pulled the lines aboard and steamed up the stones. I tried a few spots, no marks there either. I did avoid a blank and managed to catch one!



There was an hour and a half of daylight left so I packed the bass gear away and went to see if I could catch a squid on the slack water. Got nearly to the squid ground and came across another big buff drifting free.



This one hadn't been chopped off by a prop like the one I found two days before, it had a strop attached. Maybe a bigger boat somewhere has a new crew member that hasn't mastered tying knots yet ?. I'm getting nearly as much value in buffs as I am fish!

I had an hours squiding and managed to catch six.



The mackerel weren't there in any quantity either. Trevor on the"Bluebell" gave it a good try and only had 20 fish.

I'm going again on the fleeting today, will have a quick look for bass marks, if there isn't any I'll try the squid again. 


21st September 2021.

It had calmed down nicely yesterday, I didn't get away on the fleeting but had a couple of hours of the flood left to fish. Dave on the "Boy Nathan" has had a few sized bass on the close shore marks so I gave the back of the Island my best shot.



I had a bass on the Redgill straight away so put one on the other line as well. By high tide I had caught about 15 and kept 10.



I gave it an hour of the ebb and ended up with 14 keepers. 

Not bothering to do the low water, I'll stick to the evening tide for now. I think Trevor is squiding today, so if he has a decent amount I'll do tomorrow morning's ebb tide on them. The forecast is looking good all week.





20th September 2021.

This morning's market prices :-


Bass (92 kilos).

0-1's £8.53.

1-2's £10.04.

2-3's £21.00.


Mackerel (570 kilos).

Small £0.49.

Medium £2.40.

Large medium £4.08.

Large £3.40.


Pollack (591 kilos).

0-1's £1.09.

1-2's £4.17.

2-3's £5.55.

3-4's £5.02.


There were no squid landed over the weekend. I tried the bass at the Bezzeck yesterday, there were plenty of good marks all around it.



I had five throw backs before I had a decent 1.5 kilo fish.



I had been there for about an hour when I spotted a buff that wasn't there to start with. 



Looked brand new and had nothing written on it.



"No name, no claim" ?.

My large bow buff burst about 4 weeks ago and I've been making do with a small one, a perfect replacement!

I caught a few more at the Bezzeck, only one was just on the size limit. This is why I like the stones, you don't get so many small ones, but it wasn't looking very comfortable up there. I moved to the inner sound and had a keeper first tow through. Second tow one throw back and third time nothing. One last move to the outer sound where I had 4 the day before and I had 3 keepers and a pollack. The candy king seemed to catch a few more small ones than the Redgill but overall I can't say one is better than the other. They both have their moments. 

The 11 fish for 2 trips averaged a kilo each.



The few pollack will cover the fuel bill.



I'm going on the fleeting today, hopefully I'll find more sized ones ? ? ?. 


19th September 2021.  I went on the fleeting yesterday and tried the squid. Had nothing on the first drift, had one and lost one on the second. 



Nothing on the third drift, so I gave up and went up the stones. It was looking a bit lumpy from a distance but not too bad. Got up there and it was pretty big, couldn't get in and fish safely where I normally do.



Fished the deeper spots for an hour with no success, so towed my way over to the outer sound where the "hills" weren't quite as big. I have a few spots there where I normally catch a couple. I was using the same lures as the day before and the Candy King had a good kilo fish straight away!



There were a few marks but they didn't look like bass, more like feed.



The next fish aboard were 4 pollack. The biggest one took the Redgill and the others fancied some candy.



I moved to another spot and had 3 bass all on the candy, so I retired the Redgill and put another candy on for the last half an hour. It didn't have anything but the original one had one more bass. They were all about a kilo each. 



So that was a clear win for the candy king. 

Redgill 0 - Skerries 5.

We will have a deciding round later today if it's workable, not looking great though. Might have to drag myself out of bed early on Tuesday and Wednesday to do the low water.



Good sized tide for bassing. 



The mackerelers that went on the fleeting yesterday had about 3 boxes each. Might end up having a couple of hours on that if the bass spots are too lumpy. Tight lines! ? ?.



17th September 2021.  This morning's market prices :-


Bass (132 kilos).

0.5-1's £9.41.

1-2's £9.83.

2-3+'s £21.00.


Mackerel (347kilos).

Small £0.68.

Medium £3.27.

Large medium £3.45.

Large £3.12.


Pollack (A huge 5,666 kilos landed!).

0-1's £2.70.

1-2's £4.10.

2-3's £4.37.

3-4's £4.36.

4+'s £4.54.


Squid (17 kilos).

0-0.25's £12.02.

0-0.5's £12.51.

0.5-1's £12.77.


Went bassing on the fleeting yesterday. Thought I'd see how the Skerries Candy King fished compared to my favourite blue and white Redgill Evolution.



By high water I only had 3 bass, the candy king was winning 2-1.



Slack water was dead and I had this chap following me about for a good half an hour. 



When the ebb kicked in the Redgill had a small pollack and the candy king had a decent one that was over 2 kilos 



The last hour before I had to pack up to make the moorings was the best of it. The candy king had an undersized bass and the Redgill had 4 keepers. Final score for keepers :-

Redgill 5 - Skerries 2.

I'm having a day off today, haven't decided yet whether to bass or squid tomorrow. 


16th September 2021. This morning's prices:-


Bass (155 kilos).

0-1's £9.09.

1-2's £10.42.

2-3's £18.58.


Mackerel (228 kilos).

Small £0.37.

Medium £4.61.

Large medium £4.90.


Pollock (80 kilos).

0-1's £4.07.

1-2's £5.73.

2-3's £6.29.


Squid (22 kilos).

0-0.25's £14.13.

0-0.5's £14.03.

0.5 -1's £13.99.

1k+ £14.59.


I was running a bit late yesterday morning and then sat in a traffic jam on the harbour front for quarter of an hour. 



When it eventually started moving I was left behind the slowest driver ever that was going down the quay. Having missed the fleeting and there being a lot of ground sea cracking over the stones, I decided to just try the squid again for a few hours. Plus the market bass price dropping to £8.60 contributed to the decision. The mackerel were a bit thin on the ground and Trevor on the "Bluebell" changed over to squiding. 



The boats that stayed on the mackerel ended up with between 10 to 25 kilos per man. 

The ground sea made the squiding challenging, there were a few feeding but a couple of times I had just a tentacle come up on the jigs when I hauled the gear up to go for another drift. If the squid go onto one of the handlines that I'm not holding and tug at the same time the swell lifts they can easily pull off, especially the larger ones. 

I did manage to get a dozen aboard, they are good sized squid for the beginning of the season. Normally it would be 4 or 5 to the kilo but at the moment it's 3 to the kilo.



I took them to Newlyn last night as I needed to get petrol for today. 



I recon they will be worth around a fiver each.

Tuesdays squid went direct to London and they were amazed at the quality. Apparently they had a couple of Japanese restaurants fighting over them ?. 



I will hopefully be catching some bass for them later. ?



15th September 2021. This morning's market price:-


Bass (227 kilos).

0-1's £8.61.

1-2's £11.64.

2-3's £16.69.


Mackerel (196 kilos).

Small £0.46.

Medium £4.65.

Large medium £7.01.

Large £4.50.


Pollack (238 kilos)

0-1's £3.00.

1-2's £5.99.

2-3's £6.91.

3-4's £6.81.


No squid on the market.


Yesterday's plan of action was to try the squid first. If that failed it was going to be the bass next and as a last resort do the last couple of hours of daylight mackereling. Trevor on the "Bluebell" tried the squid for an hour the day before and only had one, so I wasn't expecting much.

I had a long first drift with 2 handlines and a rod, 5 jigs on each and had nothing. I was coming to the end of the second drift and about to pack the gear away when one of the handlines picked up 3 nice sized squid. The rod started going and I had another one. The other handline came up with 2 more.



Brilliant looking things, love catching them!



Went back over the same spot and had another 5. 

Tried it again and only had one more. For the rest of the ebb I had the odd one here and there, when the tide went slack there was nothing at all, except for dolphins, seals and this sunfish.



I thought about bassing or mackereling but I was quite enjoying sitting down watching the rod and checking the handlines now and again. It's got to be the least energetic fishing track I do. Last light can quite often be the best time, I have doubled the whole day's catch in the last half an hour a few times. But it wasn't happening last night. I thought it was going to kick off when one of the handlines came up with three really good squid on just before dark, but that was it. One of them was a beauty at just under a kilo ??. 



I ended up with 22 squid for just under 8 kilos. 



Would have most probably earned more if I had gone bassing but it wouldn't have been as relaxing. 



Friday looks like a day off to me.



Off out again now. Going to try the bass on the flood first. ?. 


14th September 2021. This morning's fish prices on Newlyn market:-


Bass (138 kilos).

0-1's £10.50.

1-2's £10.06.


Mackerel (530 kilos).

Small £0.42.

Medium £4.02.

Large medium £4.62.

Large £4.08.


Pollack (120 kilos).

0-1's £3.63.

1-2's £5.44.

2-3's £6.70.

3-4's £6.97.


Squid (19 kilos).

0-0.25's £13.98.

0-0.5's £14.52.

0.5-1's £14.00.


Off out to do the late low water now, will update tomorrow. ?. 



13th September 2021. Lovely calm day yesterday. On the way up the stones I couldn't resist slowing down where I've marked previous squid hot spots. Only went over one of them and saw this.



If I didn't have a bass order for up to 40 kilos I would have got the jigs out and given it a try. I've had squid out of marks like that before but it might have been something else. I'm definitely going to drop a line there sometime this week. 

Got up the stones and unwound the first line, tied it to the pole strop and before I had chance to put the lead on this beauty came up and grabbed the Redgill ?. 



A £20 fish in the first 2 minutes, starts don't get much better than that! I picked away quite nicely. There were a few throw backs amongst them, caught my smallest one for the season, it must have struggled to fit that hook in its mouth. 



I ended up with 17 keepers, the biggest one was 1.8 kilos (4 lbs). 



A few more pollack starting to turn up amongst the bass as well. I had 7 averaging a kilo each.



The average bass price this morning is the lowest I've seen for the year, also it's the largest amount landed which is obviously why. 

Bass (348 kilos).

0-1's £9.24.

1-2's £10.09.

2-3+'s £19.50.

The big ones are holding their price, because no one is catching any!

The St Ives boats started having better mackerel catches this weekend, Trevor on the "Bluebell" had 70 kilos yesterday morning. That's halved the price of mediums down to around £3.00.

Mackerel (655 kilos).

Small £0.41.

Medium £3.13.

Large medium £4.36.

Large £6.00.

Not a lot of pollack landed so they are still fetching a good price. 

Pollack (208 kilos).

0-1's £3.76.

1-2's £5.99.

2-3's £7.35.

3-4's £7.50.

Interesting to see some squid on the market. No great shakes but a sign that they are turning up. 

Squid (35 kilos).

0-0.25's £15.00.

0-0.5's £14.10.

0.5-1's £13.85.

1+'s £14.63.


I've got other commitments with a choice of doing them today or tomorrow. I'm really fancying a go on the squid. So with tomorrow's small tide (good for squiding) and less wind I've decided not to go today and get my other jobs done. 

I don't particularly want to get up and do the early flood tide so I'll do the late low water, I like squiding the ebb and the first of the flood coming dark.

Gently tugging lines tomorrow please! ????. 


12th September 2021. Haven't been able to get any average market prices this week so only know what my bass fetched.

Monday's prices were down a little bit, most probably due to there being some larger amounts caught over last weekend.



Wednesday's 1-2's were up a couple of pounds.



I went yesterday over low water, the ebb tide and the slack wasn't very productive, I only had 5 bass and a few pollack.

It got better on the flood and I ended up with 18 bass.



No big ones again, there were a couple of 1.5 kilo fish but most were 0-1's. I put about 6 tiddlers back. 

They nearly averaged a kilo per fish.



A couple of St Ives mackerelers had 50 kilos per man yesterday, better than what I saw from a few Newlyn boats.

The updated forecast is looking a lot better all week. ?

No excuse for a day off ?.




Off to do the same again now. "If it works don't fix it". ???.


9th September 2021.  I went bassing yesterday on the evening flood tide. The first couple of hours was quite slow, had five keepers and a few throw backs. As the tide started to ease off the marks started to get better.



The last half an hour was pretty good, kept another 6 out of 12. The 11 fish came to 11.3 kilos.



The biggest one was 3lb 5oz (1.5k). They are on their way to London now. 

Dave on the "Boy Nathan" had really good fishing yesterday morning, so with the evening catches decreasing I made the very rare decision to get up early! Half past five!!

I had the lines in the water by 6.30. The dark was replaced by mizzle and I could just make out Jock from Hayle on the "Sea Maiden".



After what Dave had I was expecting to be 'licking them in', but it was half an hour until I caught the first one. I fished my usual spots, there were a few small marks but the bass didn't seem interested. Jock wasn't there long until he gave up and Dave wasn't catching either until he went further east and had a few. I gave it until 9.30 and packed up with just 3 bass. Knackered for the rest of the day now so won't be going on the late tide, nor will I be getting up at stupid o'clock again ?.

On the way in this morning I had a quick look for squid marks where I normally catch them, none there at all. So that's not an option yet. There was a bit of mackerel caught, one boat had half a box and another had a decent 40 kilos.

Here's the latest from windguru :-



And the tides for the next 7 days :-



I've had a great week, so I'm happy to relax and start again on Saturday. The fish have had quite a hammering, so could do with a bit of time to maybe bunch up a bit again. 

? ? ?. 


th September 2021. I fished Monday evening on the bass. There were a couple of Hayle boats and a couple of other St Ives boats on it as well. Caught Nathan on camera pulling a feisty one in. 



Just a small one that time but he's "living the dream" ?. 



There were quite a few undersized ones, I put about 8 back. He took a good picture of "Last Light".



Lovely calm day and plenty of fish coming aboard. The keepers were half 0-1's and half 1-2's, no big ones, think the best was only 1.3k.



There might be a couple of big ones later today on this large spring tide. They are in demand by the buyers, last 2 kilo plus one I landed fetched £19.99 per kilo.



The forecast is ok for a while other than Friday, which is looking a bit shuffly. 



I'll be finishing late tonight so will most probably update tomorrow. Tight lines! ? ?. 


6th September 2021. I went on the afternoon tide yesterday, it was nice and calm. There were a few other boats up there, no one got in anyone's way so it was all good. It was a bit slow to start with but got better. I ended up with 34 keepers for 30.3 kilos, which was perfect as I had an order for 30k.



Some nice marks up there to work on.



Dave on the "Boy Nathan" came up there late after trying the mackerel, he was struggling to start with but ended up doing quite well.



The boats that stayed on the mackerel had about  20 kilos each.

I took Friday's fish into Newlyn, icing them on their backs worked well again, hardly any redness.



They came to just over 31 kilos.



One boat had 125 kilos of handlined bass on the market. Another one had 100 kilos of mackerel.

Looks like tomorrow is the only day I won't be going for the whole week. ?.

I'll hopefully be pulling a few more in later. ? ?. 


4th September 2021. P.M. update. 

Ended up not going today. I got as far as looking over the back of the quay, flask and sandwiches ready to go. It was quite fresh and wouldn't have been any fun further out. Stuart, David and Aiden had just come in on the "Little Christina" from doing the low water and confirmed it wasn't very nice. They pulled up a few tasty bits in a bongo :-



Definitely going tomorrow. 



Yesterday's fish prices :-


Bass (17 kilos).

0-1's £16.51.

1-2's £18.74.

2-3's £19.53.


Mackerel (382 kilos).

Small £1.55.

Medium £6.43.

Large medium £6.72.

Large £6.77.


Pollack (150 kilos).

0-1's £4.82.

1-2's £5.52.

2-3's £7.09.

3-4's £6.21.


No squid at all on the market.


I went up the stones on the fleeting yesterday, had a bass on the first line out before the second one touched the water, took a while to catch the next one but then it was good fishing for the rest of the trip. There were some decent marks.



Had quite a few throw backs but ended up with 36 keepers. 



No big ones. Just the right amount to fill my ice bin with them iced on their backs in 3 boxes.



Going back up there again today. Freshening southeasterly but should be workable, no wave hight in it. ? ?


2nd September 2021. The mackerel prices were up a bit more this morning. Smalls were £1.50, medium a decent £7.30 and large medium averaged £7.00. There was a total of 170 kilos landed.

There was a total of 114 kilos of bass for sale that went for the following:-

0-1's £13.76.

1-2's £16.49.

3+'s £23.04.

Not a lot of pollack there, only 42 kilos :-

0-1's £2.58.

1-2's £6.42.

2-3's £7.02.

Squid were virtually non existent with 0.85 kilos landed @ £15.00. I know a Hayle fisherman that tried the squiding a couple of days ago, he only had one squid after trying for 2 1/2 hours.

Here's the latest prediction from windguru -



I'm bassing tomorrow, should be finished early enough to update tomorrow night. Tight lines! ? ?. 


1st September 2021. This morning's fish prices at Newlyn :-


Bass (79 kilos).

0-1's £13.72.

1-2's £15.45.

2+'s £17.89.


Mackerel (210 kilos).

Small £1.50.

Medium £6.43.

Large medium £6.11.


Pollack (216 kilos).

0-1's £5.00.

1-2's £5.10.

2-3's £6.92.


Squid, just one kilo @ £13.00.


I've had a day off today, might go bassing tomorrow, definitely back on it by Friday. ?. 



31st August 2021. This morning's prices on Newlyn market:-


Bass (350 kilos).

0-1's £13.22.

1-2's £14.09.

2-3's £19.99.

Damaged £6.62. Must have been some netted ones landed.


Mackerel  (285 kilos).

Small £1.17.

Medium £4.91.

Large medium £5.43.

Large £5.72.


Pollack (560 kilos).

0-1's £1.93.

1-2's £5.50.

2-3's £7.06.

3-4's £7.18.


Squid (29 kilos).

0-0.25 £13.49.

0-0.5 £14.44.

0.5-1 £14.00.

1kg+ £12.66.


I nearly didn't go yesterday, it was looking quite poor in the fresh east/northeasterly. I had an order for 20 kilos of bass which swayed my decision to go for it over the low water. I normally cruise up the stones at 15 knots but couldn't get above 5 knots without slamming. It gave me a chance to have a good look for squid marks on the way, didn't see any at all. Towing with the wind was fine but going back up against it needed constant steering and throttle. The fish were still there and feeding, I was catching one every 20 minutes or so. There were a few undersized ones, put half a dozen back. I had one decent sized fish that weighed in at 5 1/4 pound.



The sun hat was only out for half an hour and the prescription sunglasses got swapped for my normal ones. Ended up with two jumpers on, haven't needed to do that for a while. It was worth the effort in the end with a final tally of 22 fish for 21.5 kilos.



The wind did drop for the last half an hour of light, the sun even showed itself for 10 minutes before going down.



It was a much nicer trip back to harbour than the journey up there.



30th August 2021. Still having a few issues, it's not the Internet but the website builder. It's taking far to long to upload data, I'm working on sorting it out. (Think I've sorted it out now ?).

The fishing has been a lot better than the blogging. I did the low water on Saturday from midday until 8pm. I had a few to start with and then it went quiet. Thought I had the fishing to myself until this bugger showed himself. More than likely the reason.



I moved spots and luckily he didn't follow me. Got back into catching a few and by low water I had 10, all size.



Only took them out the box of ice to drain the melt. The ice machine on the quay was fixed just in time for the weekend.

When the evening flood kicked in the fishing got better. I pulled in another 21 which kept me busy. They were all put on ice on their backs and then covered over with more ice. 



I have a large insulated ice bin that fits 3 boxes at home, very handy. A brilliant start to the weekend. ?

I did the same tide yesterday and had the same result for the ebb, 10 keepers, did have a couple of undersized ones as well. The flood wasn't quite as good as Saturday but I still managed another 15. That made a total of 56 fish to take to Newlyn. 



There were a few around the 1.5k mark and only one over 2 kilos weighing in at just over 5 pounds (2.28k)



The 56 fish weighed in at just over 54 kilos.



I was told that a pleasure fisherman from Hayle had 6 squid ? yesterday on the morning tide, so when the bass stop play up I will be having another go at them.

The forecast is still looking quite good. Occasionally freshening from the northeast but no wave height with it. 



I'm off out to do another late low water. Will change over to the earlier tide tomorrow if I can get out of bed ?. 



28th August 2021. Had problems yesterday with the Internet, think it's sorted out today. Off bassing over low today. Will hopefully have time to update tonight. ????. 


27th August 2021.  Been too busy to update until now.


This morning's fish prices on Newlyn market :-


Bass (50 kilos).

0-1's £12.86.

1-2's £14.90.

2-3's £16.86.


Mackerel (920 kilos).

Small £0.55.

Medium £1.62.

Large medium. £4.78.


Pollack (450 kilos).

0-1's £3.87.

1-2's £5.25.

2-3's £6.54.

3-4's £6.89.

4+'s £6.78.


Squid (12 kilos).

0-0.25 £6.99.

0-0.5 £9.56.

0.5-1 £11.00.


I went bassing up the stones Wednesday evening for the last few hours of daylight. It was a bit lumpy in the fresh North easterly, Mike on the "Ol'Tuss" came up there and turned back, bit too rough for him. Gareth on the "Mark and James" was already there and catching.



For the first hour I couldn't catch anything, I could see Gareth pulling fish in quite regularly. They didn't look like big fish, just handy sized ones, so I changed my bigger lures I still had on from the night before to the Redgill Evolutions and started catching a few. I ended up with half a dozen that were all the same size.



Dave on the "Boy Nathan" came up for the last hour or so but only managed to find one fish. He took a nice shot of Last Light at last light....



It had calm down a lot by the time I steamed back in. Lovely end to the day. 



Wouldn't have had long to fish on the evening tide yesterday so I decided to do the low water. I had been itching to try the squid again and gave it a couple of hours on the ebb. 3 lines on the go, 15 jigs, one squid! Got that out of my system for a week or two.



It was s bit early to start bassing, half an hour before low, but I had 3 in the first 20 minutes and then it went quiet for a while. I was working where Gareth was the evening before, I normally fish that spot a little bit north of where he was (20yards) but moving that little bit definitely improved my fishing. I ended up with 16 keepers. 




25th August 2021.  There was a bit less mackerel on yesterday's afternoon flood tide. Trevor on the "Bluebell" had a box and a half. I was joined up the stones by a boat that I hadn't seen for quite some time.



Dave Simon's old boat, the "Mark and James". Its working out of Hayle now, the skipper definitely knew how to pole for bass.


Splashing on the surface -



And up over the stern -



Spoke to him a couple of times, when he had caught 6 and kept 3, I had caught 3 and kept 3, one of which was this cracking 6lb 10oz fish.



The last time spoke to him he had caught 15 and kept 10. 

There were a few marks to work on and I picked away until high tide.



Dave on the "Boy Nathan" came up late after trying the mackerel and caught 3 bass straight away, just before it went dead.

I ended up catching 13, all keepers. A good average weight of 1.33 kilos each. The chunkier lures are definitely avoiding catching the undersize ones.



I'll be doing it all again later today. ???.


24th August 2021. This morning's prices:-

Mackerel have taken a dive.

Small £0.40

Medium £1.95

Large mediums £4.24

(570 kilos landed)


Bass.

0-1's £13.80

1-2's £14.64

2-3's £15.49

(29 kilos landed)


Pollack. 

0-1's £1.94

1-2's £4.75

2-3's £5.84

3-4's £5.95

(357 kilos landed)


Squid 

£13.60 to £14.70, only 10 kilos on the market. 


The mackerel turned up yesterday, the boats had between 2 to 5 boxes each for the day. It was another perfect day for bassing up the stones. I didn't have anything for the first half an hour, I was using the same Redgills from the day before and one had seen better days so I changed it for one of my homemade lead head lures, blue and silver with glitter. It had a fish instantly. 



10 minutes later it had another one. I changed the other line for a green lead head and it had a 5 1/2 pounder!



I kept catching steadily. The only other fisherman up there for the evening tide was Nathan on the "Penver" who caught a few as well.



I fished until an hour after high water and ended up with 17 keepers and only one throw back. Don't seem to catch so many small ones on the chunkier lures.



They came to just under 19 kilos.



You can't beat calm weather and bass coming aboard, what a place to "work". Love it. ??.



Back up there again in a bit.


23rd August 2021.  Mackerel were few and far between over low water yesterday. John Boy on the "Nik Nak" only had half a box by the time the boats were coming afloat at 3pm and he is one of the best there is. Trevor on the "Bluebell" decided to try the squid on the fleeting, he had none but did find some mackerel marks and managed to catch 30 kilos.

I fished the stones for 4 hours and ended up with 12 keepers.



No big ones again, the best was 1.5 kilos. Anthony was up there and catching well, saw him pulling a few in. 




We had ten each when we spoke to each other, he lost the biggest one he had hooked, a good 4 pounder apparently. 

The conditions were perfect, didn't want to pack up but it went quiet again on the ebb.



I'll be up there again later, loving it! ?


22nd August 2021. I went on the fleeting yesterday afternoon. Karl and Rob on the "Athena Fay" were just off the Island and packing up mackereling. It was their second trip of the day and had only managed about 20 kilos in all. That made my mind up to go bassing. Got up the stones, first two fish I had were undersize and went back. Bites were fairly steady and by high water I had 15 fish in the box. I stuck at it over the stack water hoping that they would play up again on the first of the ebb but they didn't. Only had one more for the last hour and a half. No big ones amoungst them.



The ice machine on the quay hasn't been working for a couple of days so I took them into Newlyn lastnight. 16 fish for just under 15 kilos. 



Lots of dolphins and tuna about, could be the reason for the poor mackerel fishing. Sam on the "Bluefin" caught one of the tuna with his camera.



Looks like we are eventually getting our calm spell all next week and with good spring tides it could be very productive. High hopes ????. 



I'm going back up the stones in a bit, will be happy with the same again ????. 


20th August 2021. Everything went to plan yesterday, I got off the moorings as soon as I could at midday and steamed up the stones for a bassing session. I had a slow start, saw Anthony catch two before I had any. I had half a dozen in the box after a couple of hours. A bit before high water I thought I'd hitched the bottom but it started coming with me. It stayed deep all the way to the boat like a big pollack would. As it came up I could see it was a bass....."stay on stay on", grabbed the landing net and he went in first attempt. A 7lb 4oz (3.3 kilo) beauty!



It was a lean fish, if it had a belly on it I would have beat my best for the year so far (3.45k). Before I got it on the scales I thought there was a slim chance of beating Dave Simon's best for the season (3.6k) but no. Should have stuck a couple of mackerel down its throat ?. I fished until an hour after high water and ended up with 12 keepers for 15.5 kilos and a lonely pollack.



Yesterday's bass prices were :-

0-1's £13.91.

1-2's £15.66.

Mackerel were :-

Small £0.54.

Medium £5.44.

Large medium £5.91.


This morning's prices and quantities on Newlyn were :-


Bass (100 kilos).

0-1's £13.17.

1-2's £15.58.

2-3's £18.44.


Mackerel (620 kilos).

Small £0.82.

Medium £4.71.

Large medium. £4.22.

Large £5.43.


Pollack (130 kilos).

0-1's £4.98.

1-2's £5.75.

2-3's £6.79.

3-4's £7.05.


Squid (25 kilos)

0-0.25 £11.71.

0.25-0.5 £13.25.

0.5-1's £13.83.


Think I'll have the day off andsee what it's like tomorrow afternoon. Here's what they are giving at the moment but it keeps changing lately. 



Looks workable ?. 




19th August 2021. I had the first squid of the season yesterday. 



I wasn't planning on squiding but I forgot to set my alarm and overslept by 2 hours! By the time I had got out the harbour it was hardly worth setting up the bass poles and steaming up the stones. So I thought I'd have a couple of hours mackereling. Spoke to a few of the other chaps that had been fishing for quite a while and they only had a couple of kilos each. I had one drift for nothing, that's when I decided to see if any squid have turned up yet. 

There were a few marks on the bottom, these ones were just scad:-



Half an hour later I went over this mark and felt the unmistakable tugging of a squid :-



Had it up very gently and it stayed on, the first of the season was on the deck.



Zoom into the pattern on its back, fascinating creatures!

I went back over the mark again and had two on one line and one on the other. I had one more after that and then it went dead.



The last one I had was a good squid, especially for the beginning of the season, weighing 600g.



That's a nine quid squid ? at the latest prices. The five of them came to 1.8k. Not a wage but it's nice to know that they are starting to show. Give it a couple of weeks and there should be a viable amount there.

A few boats (who's owners can get up on time) fished the stones. I know one had a couple of bass and the other did a bit better, but it was slow going. I'll show them how to do it today ? ?.


17th August 2021. Half a dozen of us tried the mackerel this morning on the fleeting. I did two drifts for just one mackerel. I did see John Boy on the "Nik Nak" pull in a 3 and then a 4. It was workable in the fresh North Westerly but not enjoyable catching sod all.



I gave up, moored up and did an engine oil change. Peter Tanner came in with about 20 fish, as did Trevor. John Boy and Dave on "Boy Nathan" were still out when I eventually left the quay.

As for the nice calm spell forecasted a few days ago, looks like it's on hold until next week now. 

The wave hight is dropping so it might be ok for bassing up the stones tomorrow.



This morning's prices on Newlyn market were as follows:-


Bass (20 kilos)

0-1's £13.50.

1-2's £14.77.

2-3's £17.35.


Mackerel (200 kilos)

Small £1.85.

Medium £5.38.

Large medium £5.90.

Large £6.42.


Pollack (28 kilos)

0-1's £4.78.

1-2's £6.92.

2-3's £7.93.


Squid (only half a kilo) £14.50.


There were a few decent sized mullet in the harbour today,  I'll have to tell Dave to get his cast net into action. 



16th August 2021. The average mackerel prices this morning were :-

Small £1.51.

Medium £5.86.

Large medium £6.01.

Large £6.62.


Bass were :-

0-1's £13.83.

1-2's £15.89.

2-3's £20.70.


Pollack :-

0-1's £4.46.

1-2's £6.26.

2-3's £7.50.


There was a bit more squid there this morning, 23 kilos in all (until now there has only been 4 or 5 kilos a day on the market) they averaged £15 per kilo.


With Saturdays mackerel fetching £300 I'll be having a look at getting out there again tomorrow to catch some more.



15th August 2021. I did the low water yesterday, there was more wind than what had been forecasted so I decided to try the bass in the shelter of the head.



I heard that the early risers had a few bass up the stones, must have been a lot less wind first thing. I trundled out the harbour and set the lines up as I went around the head. First troll down with the tide I had a sized bass, not bad for 5 minutes work!



I went up and down a couple more times and had another one that was just on the size limit. I was seeing quite a few marks on the meter that I'm pretty sure were bass.



It looked like I was going to have a good days bassing but then I started getting plagued by weed, the lures were clogging up within minutes. 



I had the lines aboard and steamed down Whore point for a try. Only had one tow down and back up as there are lobster pots right where I normally fish. Came back up to the Island and the weed had gone. I caught another 2 bass but they were both undersize and went back to fight another day. Then the water turned milky at the Island side of Porthmeor, seen it lots of times but not sure what causes it.



There were still marks on the meter so I decided to keep at it and hoped that it would clear on the first of the flood, which it did. An hour fishing with it clear for nothing and I'd had enough. 

As a last ditch attempt to make a landing I packed the bass gear away and tried the mackerel. I wasn't expecting much as last time the fish didn't play up until near the high water. I was quite surprised to have 3 string fulls of good fish first drift. A couple of hours later I was coming in with 2 boxes.



Most of them were good mediums around the 300g mark.



The 2 bass only came 1.6 kilos. 



That's bassing on the shore out of my system for a while, I'll wait until I can back up the stones.


13th August 2021. The mackerel men did better than they have been yesterday morning, catching between 2 to 4 boxes each. There was too much wind for bassing up the stones on the evening tide so I went mackereling for a few hours. It was really slow to start with and the others that were out gave up early. The fish played up a little bit near high tide and I ended up with a decent box full. Really good run of fish, there were only 3 small ones.



The price dropped on yesterday's market to small £1.04, medium £3.93, large mediums £5.93 and large £5.29. I'll be happy if I got that this morning. 



Having a day off today, tomorrow looks the best wind wise for the next few days. Think I'll be making the most of it and doing a low water. 



Looks like we are going to have a good spell of settled weather from Wednesday.


 


At the moment the BBC website is giving "gentle breeze" every day from Wednesday right up to the next Wednesday which is as far as they have forecasted. If they are right there will be some serious bassing getting done. ? ? ? ?. 

This morning's prices for the three main species this time of the year were :-

Bass 0-1's £13.69 and 1-2's £14.49.

Mackerel small £0.10, medium £2.88, large medium £5.15 and large £5.70.

Pollack 0-1's £4.14, 1-2's £5.13, 2-3's £8.56 and 3-4's £8.67.



11th August 2021. I fished from 5pm until 9pm lastnight. There were some quite decent marks to concentrate on.



The fishing was really good, I was catching a keeper every 10 minutes on average. Anthony was up there, I saw him pulling a few in. Dave came up later after mackereling and missed the best of it. I ended up with 22 sized ones and a few throw backs.



There were a couple of half decent ones, the biggest was just under the 2 kilo mark.



They came to 22.75 kilos. Hopefully they will sell for around £14/£15 per kilo, I'll find out later.



I can't go today, too many other things to do. The forecast isn't looking great anyway. 



Hopefully it will change and I can get back on them again soon. ? ?.


10th August 2021. I tried the mackerel on the fleeting yesterday and got bored very quickly! Saw that Gary on the "Bethshan" was out on the squid ground and decided to join him. First two drifts I had a couple of takes that didn't stay on, I was starting to think that there were a few squid there. Third drift I caught one of the culprits, a poxy scad! Spoke to Gary and he hadn't had any squid either. Karl also had a try earlier on and didn't see one. I packed up early and went home. 

The weather is good enough for bassing up the stones today, I shall go on the fleeting until last light. There were no bass on this morning's market again, so hopefully if I do have a few they will fetch a decent price. 

This morning's prices:-

Mackerel £1.00, £8.15 and £8.78.

Pollack  £5.31, £6.22 and £6.75.


9th August 2021. There was a bit more mackerel on Newlyn market this morning, 170 kilos in all. The prices were:-

Small £1.06

Medium £7.19

Large medium £8.56

Large £9.09

Pollack were around the £5.50 mark and there were no bass landed.

Karl tried the mackerel again this morning and had another 10 kilos. I shall give it another go on the fleeting this afternoon and try to do better than yesterday!

Here's the latest forecast:-



8th August 2021. I tried the mackerel this afternoon, there were three other boats out. Stopped to see how Karl on the "Athena Fay" was getting on, he only had three fish after a few drifts.



I did 4 drifts across Porthmeor for three fish that came up on one drop. I ended up fishing the corner of the head and had half a dozen more there.



Gave up when it started raining. Karl ended up with about 10 kilos two handed. John on the "Sandpiper" had 10 kilos at the corner of the head while we were struggling out deeper. The water was quite murky, should be better tomorrow. 


6th August 2021. This week's price trend for bass, pollack and mackerel :-

(Prices in order of size)

Bass.

Monday. £13.60, £15.36 and £18.99.

Tuesday. £15.19 and £15.27.

Wednesday. £13.53, £14.77 and £18.35.

Thursday. £14.16, £15.02 and £17.55.

Friday. £14.94 and £15.55.


Pollack. 

Monday. £4.56, £7.51, £7.90 and £7.74.

Tuesday. £4.49, £6.05, £7.49 and £7.07.

Wednesday. £2.88, £4.59, £6.49 and £7.59.

Thursday. £2.89, £4.33, £6.83 and £7.33.

Friday. £4.33, £4.11, £5.79 and £5.93.


Mackerel. 

Monday. £1.01, £5.55, £7.09 and £7.01.

Tuesday. £0.56, £5.55, £6.06 and £6.56.

Wednesday. £1.51, £7.13 and £6.12.

Thursday. £1.10, £6.51, £6.88 and £7.03.

Friday. £1.50, £11.96, £11.05 and £7.87.

There was only 45 kilos of mackerel on the market this morning, resulting in the sky high prices.


My "garden feature" is back until March next year.



For what I get out of them this time of the year I can earn more staying on the bass, mackerel or squid (soon hopefully ??).

The unseasonal conditions continue, nothing settled in the foreseeable future. 



I might mackerel on Sunday, there were a few about yesterday and you don't need many at £150 to £300 per box! Monday is a mackerel or bassing day and Tuesday's light winds will definitely see me up the stones again. Decent sized tides, so I'm fairly confident that the fishing will be good.



Gary on the "Bethshan" had the first try on the squid a few days ago. He gave it a good couple of hours and didn't have any at all.

So it's still a couple of weeks too early as expected. I'm making up more sets today. I use 30lb fluorocarbon strops on a 48lb back line, 5 jigs per set.



I'm hoping that the new jigs fish as well as I expect, if they don't I'll have to fork out for some yozuri's at £7.00 each to mix with them. I will start the season with sets of all the new ones and sets with them mixed with the W.S.B. Tackle ones. A couple of people have ask what make the new cheap ones are, here's a picture showing the details. 



Tight lines! ? ? ?.


4th August 2021.  It's been a busy few days. The bassing has slowed down but still catching a viable amount. Lovely calm day yesterday and I was the only boat on it for most of the trip. I did 4 hours and ended up with 15 fish.



The biggest one I hooked came off just before I got it to the gunnels, it looked a good 2 kilo fish. ?. 

They averaged  just under a kilo each.



The average bass prices on Newlyn this morning were:-

0-1's  £13.53.

1-2's  £14.77.

2+'s  £18.35.

The mackerel are still hard to find and mediums were up to a bit over £7.00 per kilo today. 

I had a bit of a shorter trip on the bass today as I wanted to get the last dozen pots in. There were a couple of other boats on it, Nathan on the "Penver" had done the early low water and Anthony was out on the flood trying his new poles out.



Mike on "Ol' Tuss"had a go for a while. Thought we were all going to get a visit from the fisheries but they steamed on by heading west, must have been home time!



I did 3 hours for 10 keepers and just the one throw back. Had a few small pollack that I didn't bother keeping as well.



Small run of fish again. 



Had the pots up, quite a lot of undersized lobsters and three keepers for 2 kilos.



It's not looking good for a few days now. Time for a bit of a rest.




2nd August 2021.P.M.  The ring netter "Pelagic Marksman" landed a 280 kilo tuna this morning on Newlyn market.



Stunning creature, shame it can't be sold due to rules and regulations. It has to be donated to science.

There were a few more marks up the stones today, I found one decent clump that I concentrated on for a few hours. 



The fishing was good and I ended up with 21 bass.



I had a couple of throw backs and no big ones. They averaged a bit less than a kilo each.



They are on their way to a London restaurant/fishmonger at £15 per kilo. 

I'm going to make the most of the next two days and then it looks like the weather is going to put a stop to it.




2nd August 2021.A.M. Went bassing yesterday from 10am until 2pm. Wasn't expecting much with it being a small tide. There wasn't any decent marks, just a few small ones here and there.



The fishing was slow apart from a frantic half hour when I had 10 sized bass. I ended up with 13 bass and 4 pollack. 



The biggest bass was 1.75 kilos.



Doing the same today, might bring the last dozen pots back in on the ebb if the bassing is slow.


31st July 2021.  Lots of schoolies on the Eastern Carrick (Porthminster point) last Sunday filmed onboard the glass bottomed St Ives boat Nemo.



The bass stock seems very healthy this year, I'm certainly having a good season so far. 



You can see the video on his Facebook page.



I decided to give it a miss today and try the bass tomorrow morning. The water should be nicely settled by then. Its a small tide so I'm not expecting good fishing, but you never know.

If the bass aren't feeding I might try the pollack for a couple of hours, very little on the market yesterday, small ones fetched £6.00 a kilo and anything over a kilo were £9.00+!

The forecast is looking good for the next 4 days, then there is another blast of wind and sea predicted. 



30th July 2021. The latest bass rules and regulations issued today :-

Statutory guidance

Bass fishing guidance 2021

Published 23 July 2021

Contents

  1. 1.Recreational bass fishing
  2. 2.Commercial bass fishing
  3. 3.Charter vessels
  4. 4.Minimum Conservation Reference Size (MCRS)


1. Recreational bass fishing

Recreational fisheries, including from shore, in ICES divisions 4b, 4c, 6a, 7a to 7k are limited to catch-and-release only during 01 January to 29 February and 1 December to 31 December.

From 1 March to 30 November, not more than two seabass may be retained per fisherman per day. In recreational fisheries in ICES divisions 8a and 8b, a maximum of two seabass may be retained per recreational fisherman per day throughout the year.

The minimum size of European seabass retained shall be 42 cm.

For further information please see The Sea Fisheries (Amendment etc.) Regulations 2021

These rules apply if you are fishing from a boat or from the shore.

2. Commercial bass fishing

The catch, retention, transhipment and landing of bass during 2021 is subject to restrictions. Those restrictions relate to;

  • when and where you can catch bass
  • how you can fish (gear type) and whether you have an authorisation to do so
  • how much can be retained

2.1 Authorisations

If you want to catch and retain bass you must have an authorisation to do so. Commercial fishermen will be authorised to catch and retain bass with certain gears. Authorisations are being issued to vessels with a track record of landing bass during the reference period of 1 July 2015 to 30 September 2016 subject to any successful transfer requests.

If you have been issued an authorisation you will be authorised to catch and retain bass with the gear types listed on your authorisation, subject to the specific limitations for each gear.

2.2 When and where you can catch bass

You must not catch, retain, tranship or land bass caught from a vessel or the shore from the following ‘prohibited’ areas:

Sea areaInternational Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) divisionSouth West ApproachesICES VIIb, VIIc, VIIj and VIIkIrish or Celtic SeaOutside the 12 nautical mile limit of UK waters in ICES VIIg and VIIa

During January and from 1 April until 31 December the catch, retention, transhipment and landing of bass in the restricted areas below, is only permitted if you have an authorisation from the MMO to do so. Fishing for bass in any restricted area is prohibited during February and March.

Sea area International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) division

North SeaIVb, IVcChannelVIId, VIIeCeltic SeaVIIf, VIIg*Irish SeaVIIa*South West ApproachesVIIh

(*Inside UK 12nm limit only)

2.3 How you can fish when operating in a restricted area

Subject to having an authorisation issued by your fisheries administration you are only permitted to catch and retain bass with the following gears:

  • fixed gillnets
  • hooks and lines
  • demersal trawls and seines

You are not allowed to catch and retain bass with any other gears, including nets that drift with the current or are capable of doing so.

You cannot catch, retain, tranship or land bass if you have not been issued an authorisation.

2.4 Fixed gillnets

Fixed gillnets are considered by the MMO as falling within the definition of ‘static nets’ in article 6(23) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1241 of the European Parliament and of the Council as being “any type of gillnet…hat is anchored to the seabed for fish to swim into and become entangled or enmeshed in the netting”.

Fixed nets are defined as being fixed to the bottom of the sea in a permanent position by any method such as weights, anchors or stakes and it must be set so as not to be able to drift or move with any current.

Where a net is out of the water (i.e. on a fishing vessel) it must be immediately capable of being fixed to the bottom of the sea by any method such as weights, anchors or stakes either attached to the net or capable of being attached immediately prior to the net being deployed. In the absence of adequate means of fixing the net to the bottom of the sea being present the net will not be considered to be a fixed net.

For the avoidance of doubt, anchors, weights or other items attached to the net which do not fix it to the bottom of the sea or prevent it from drifting (regardless of the state of the current), will not be considered sufficient to consider the net as a fixed net.

No bass can be taken by shore-based fixed gillnets (gear codes GTR, GNS, GNC, FYK, FPN and FIX) except from permitted shore-based nets up to the following limits;

  • 26 nets in relation to the NWIFCA district
  • 5 nets in relation to the NEIFCA district
  • 1 net in relation to the D&SIFCA district
  • up to 50 nets in the Welsh zone.

For further information please see The Sea Fisheries (Amendment etc.) Regulations 2021

2.5 Use of multiple gears

A UK fishing vessel may only carry one authorised fishing gear on a fishing trip when retaining bass on board. If you fish using more than one of the permitted gears in a single calendar month the lowest of the catch limits for the gears will apply.

2.6 How much can be retained

You can only retain and land bass subject to the limits below. Catch limits are not transferable between vessels.

 Demersal Trawls and SeinesHooks and LinesFixed Gillnets NetsAll other gears (including drift nets)Fishery RestrictionsClosed February and MarchClosed February and MarchClosed February and MarchAll bass catches prohibitedMaximum catch limitMaximum 5% by weight of all marine organisms per trip. Unavoidable by-catch of 380kg per calendar month5.7 tonnes per yearBy-catch of 1.4 tonnes per year (Unavoidable by-catches only outside the English and Welsh zones)All bass catches prohibited

2.7 Landing Obligation

The landing obligation does not apply to sea bass. Therefore any catches with unauthorised gears and catches with authorised gears over the authorized limit must be discarded.

(Outside the English and Welsh zones unavoidable by-catch of 520kg per two consecutive calendar months only). Limits for the English and Welsh zones and those outside the English and Welsh zones cannot be used in conjunction

During February and March all bass fishing is prohibited and bass catches must be returned to the sea. Fishers should take all reasonable measures to avoid and minimise bass discards.

2.8 Vessel Replacement and transfer of authorisation

If you are replacing a vessel that has a bass authorisation a transfer of authorisation will be considered providing the replacement vessel is no larger in engine size and tonnage. Where the single hulled replacement vessel is 8 metre or under in overall length the provision of no increase in engine size and tonnage does not apply. It is the responsibility of any vessel owner to seek relevant approvals from the MMO prior to making a commitment to purchase a new fishing vessel, where they are wanting to transfer any existing authorisation.

Owners intending to sell vessels being replaced should also make the purchaser aware that the vessel being sold will lose its authorisation to catch bass once the transfer is completed (written evidence from the purchaser to confirm their understanding may be required).

Where a vessel is lost at sea and/or is damaged beyond repair a transfer of authorisation will be considered providing the replacement vessel is no larger in engine size and tonnage. Individuals wishing to transfer an existing authorisation to a new/replacement vessel should contact bass@marinemanagement.org.uk as soon as practicable, providing evidence that their circumstances meets the above mentioned criteria.

Authorisations will transfer to a new owner of the vessel when the ownership of the Union vessel is transferred. The current catch uptake by that vessel will also be transferred – i.e. the catch limits will not be reset. For example, if a vessel has used all of its hooks & line annual catch limit then the new owner of the vessel will not be permitted to catch and retain further bass using hooks and lines.

3. Charter vessels

If you have a licensed fishing vessel and have been issued an authorisation you can catch and retain bass in accordance with that authorisation, your fishing licence and this guidance. Within ICES divisions 4b, 4c, 6a, 7a to 7k from 1 March to 30 November if you do not have a licensed fishing vessel, not more than two specimen of European seabass may be retained and landed per recreational fisherman per day in the restricted area.

If you have a fishing vessel with a licence but without a bass authorisation you could still take recreational fishermen out to fish. From 1 March to 30 November not more than two specimen of European seabass may be retained and landed per recreational fisherman per day in the restricted area. However, no bass may be sold in relation to any recreational fishing.

In ICES divisions 8a and 8b, a maximum of three seabass may be retained per recreational fisherman per day. Recreational bass restrictions include fishing activity from a vessel and the shore.

4. Minimum Conservation Reference Size (MCRS)

The MCRS (‘minimum size’) for bass is 42cm.

You must not retain, tranship, land, transport, store, sell, display or offer for sale specimens below the MCRS, but must return them immediately to the sea.


29th July 2021. Tried to get up early this morning but turned the 6am alarm off and went back to sleep. The plan was to try the bass for a couple of hours and then grab the pots that were in the shallows. Managed to get up at 8am and haul 5 short string of 3. Brought them back in with me and they are now in my garden until next April. Had a dozen lobsters in them but only half were size.


A couple of good ones boosted the weight up to 5.5 kilos. 

It's wasn't looking that nice up the stones, don't think I missed much by not getting up early.

We have a blast of wind and sea tonight but after that it's looking quite settled. 



I hope to try the bass on Saturday but if its too shuffly I'll more than likely go on the mackerel. The average mackerel prices this morning were :-

Large £6.62

Large mediums £5.74

Mediums £3.92

Small £0.64



28th July 2021. Far too fresh to go bassing today but it's looking good for a low water tomorrow. 



It's definitely not going to be too hot and I won't need my sun hat ?.



It's the last day for a while that there is still a half decent amount of tide in the water, around the 15ft mark on the pm flood. 

Quite likely that the bass fishing will drop off again the same as it did last neap. Been thinking about an early try on the squid, Dave on the "Boy Nathan" sent me a picture yesterday of what he had last year on the 15th of August.



I looked back at my landings and the first I had last year was on 1st September. It was a bit earlier the year before on 21st August.



I've past the time today getting some gear ready for them.



I've gone through the new cheap jigs first and put a bit of superglue on the join of the spikes and the bodies. 



I think they are going to fish really well. The colour is perfect, the size and shape is good and they don't have the stick on eyes that the wsb ones have that peel off in no time.

I'll put a couple of handlines onboard and give it a try when I have a spare hour.

I plan to start bringing the pots back in next week. This time of the year I can earn more concentrating on the bass and hopefully soon the squid ?. 

The mackerel fishing is still ok, two or three boxes per man this morning with plenty of good sized fish amoungst it.

The average prices on Newlyn this morning were :-

Large £6.70.

Large mediums £6.46

Mediums £3.50

Small £0.64


27th July 2021.  I went up the stones on the Sunday afternoon fleeting. I was straight into fish and had these three by the time I had both lines set up.



The usual flocks of seagulls weren't there picking feed off the surface but there were about 30 ganets scouring the area and diving in every 5 minutes. I saw a couple of big splashes from feeding bass. The biggest I had was 1.9 kilos. The majority of the fish were staying deep, there were plenty showing on the meter. 



I fished until an hour after high tide and ended up with 20 keepers. I put about 8 undersize ones back. So for Saturday and Sunday I had a total of 33 bass for 32.9 kilos.

The sky high prices we were getting at the beginning of the season have long gone and they seem to be averaging around the £12 mark for anything under 2 kilos. I had been in contact with a London based fishmonger and restaurant owner that was offering to have the fish picked up and pay £15 per kilo. I was looking at the choice of about £370 after landing dues and commission on the market or just under £500 to send them up the line and hope that I got paid. I took the gamble and needn't have worried as payment was in my account this morning. 

I did the same tide again yesterday. The mackerel men have been doing well, catching around 2 to 3 boxes a trip. The run has been good with about 2/3 being mediums and large mediums.  

Nathan de Rozarieux has added the 16ft treeve "Penver" to his fleet and was on his way out mackereling as I was getting ready to go. He informed me that it has bass entitlement and will be following me around. ?



I think he had about 100 kilos on the market lastnight, nice start. Mediums were around £5.00 on yesterday's market. Stick to that mackereling Nathan, you don't want to follow me around and take a pay cut. ?

The bassing started really slow yesterday, I towed for and hour before I caught the first one. It got better as the tide eased off and I ended up with the same as Sunday, 20 keepers. There were 3 decent ones that bumped the average weight up a bit. 



22.3 kilos and a couple of pollack. 



I tried landing 1.5 - 2's in hope that they might fetch a bit extra but it didn't make any difference. 

0 - 1's were £11.59 this morning, my 1 - 1.5 and 1.5 - 2's fetched the same price @ £12.98.

The tally for the one landing I had in last week finally came today, £16.80 for one pollack was good. The bass price was a bit higher than today's as well.




25th July 2021.  I was all set up and fishing the stones by 4 o'clock yesterday. No other boats up there to start with. There were a few birds working but I wasn't finding any marks on the meter. I started with a blue and white Redgill evolution on one line and a glitter bomb on the other. Sam, a pleasure fisherman from Hayle appeared and had a couple drifts quite a distance away from me and had one undersize bass. He then went deeper off for a drift but it wasn't very comfortable with the wind against the tide and he headed for calmer waters around Godrevy Lighthouse. Just before he left (I had been fishing an hour by then) I had my first fish on the Redgill, it was a bit over a kilo.



Decided to change the glitter bomb for another Redgill, as I just finished doing it another sized bass took the other line. Thought they were going to start playing up but it went dead again. I had a good search about and still couldn't find any decent marks.

I stuck at it and when the tide eased off the fish started to venture up from tight to the bottom.



Both lines started catching. I couldn't "dog tide" as there wasn't any, so it meant having to keep coming around in a circle to bring the lures through them. Didn't have any big fish but only 3 were throw backs and I ended up keeping 13.



My prediction of 10 kilos before I went wasn't far off and wrong in the right direction. They averaged a kilo each.



Should be £150 worth going on recent prices. I'm back on it again today and will update tomorrow. ? ?


24th July 2021. Looking workable later.



I'll try and make the most of the next few days before it freshens up later in the week. Bit of a breeze but no wave height today. 



Looking pretty flat up Godrevy way.



The tide is a bit over 17ft today which is plenty to get the bass feeding if they are there. I'll go on the fleeting at 3pm. Looks like the evening is going to crown the day. 



Expectations aren't high but I recon I'll have around 10 kilos??

Will update late tonight or tomorrow with how it went ?.


22nd July 2021. It was one of those days when you know the fishing is going to be rubbish but you still go to prove yourself right ?. I was going up the stones for the bass, Dave on "Boy Nathan" had already been out for quite a while on a shore mark and had only 3 bass, 2 were undersize and the other just size. He then tried the stones and had another 2 undersize fish, I was on my way up there when he told me so I decided to try the mackerel instead. It wasn't really a great idea as Trevor on the"Bluebell" had done the low water for just a quarter of a box, it was that slow he tried the pollack down the western carricks, there wasn't any of them either. He informed me that mediums were £6 per kilo and with the afternoon tide being a bit bigger there was a chance of a few showing up. 

After fishing for an hour and a half I'd had enough, should have stayed at home!



9 fish. Nowhere near a landing. A couple of fillets for mother and the others have gone into salt for lobster bait. Definitely a day off tomorrow and more than likely try the bass on Saturday. 


20th July 2021.  I did the low water Sunday and as expected the fishing was very slow. The only place there seemed to be any fish was in-between the inside stones. I averaged a bass an hour on the ebb.



It was definitely an apple juice on ice kind of day. ?☀. 

Had a few pollack with them, one decent one that weighed 2.4 kilos gutted.

I was hoping that it would be a bit better on the flood, but it was worse. Only had one bass on the flood but the pollack kept feeding, ended up with 15 of them.

Dave on the "Boy Nathan" came up there for the last hour and a half of light and blanked.

I packed up in time before dark to get Saturdays lobsters out of the storepot to take to Newlyn. That was the plan untill I hauled it up and found this.



6 of the 7 that I had in there escaped through a hole, the exact spot that I repaired with a couple of cable ties a few weeks ago, grrrr. ??. The only one that was left was the one clawer which must have been a bit too big to squeeze through. 



So if anyone catches a lobster with green taped claws, you are welcome! I've still got 3 pots on the Eastern Carrick so maybe I might see one of them again ?.

Without the lobsters to take to market I decided to ice the fish down and try to catch some more the next day (yesterday).

I didn't fancy another long low water, it's exhausting in the heat, so I went on the fleeting yesterday. Started where I had the bass the day before, gave it an hour for just one pollack. The birds started feeding a bit to the west so I steamed to them and had 2 undersize bass and a couple more pollack. Toby from Hayle was out and had tried all over the place, he had one keeper and 2 throw backs when I spoke to him. 

I decided to give up and go to Newlyn early. 



The largest bass was only 1.4 kilos.

The pollack might fetch £50.



The tides are starting to jump tomorrow and are up to about  16ft on Thursday (6.2m converts to 16ft at Smeaton's Pier on the chart below). That should improve the fishing, can't get much worse. 



Cooling down on Friday but a fresh easterly wind. I might have a couple more days off and go on Saturday. 





18th July 2021.  Here are all the bass prices for the week, the 2 kilo plus fish are in high demand. Dave on the "Boy Nathan" not only beat my biggest fish so far this year at 3.6 kilo's, it beat my highest price for a single fish, fetching a whopping £88.34. ???. 


Monday:-


Tuesday:-


Wednesday:-


Thursday:-


Friday:-


I just did the pots yesterday, they were long overdue. I kept 7 lobsters and threw back at least 10 undersized ones.

Only a few more weeks and I'll be thinking about bringing them in. I can earn more on the squid and it's a lot easier work. Toby from Hayle caught the first squid I've heard about this year while trying to catch some scad for bass bait yesterday. This was about a mile north of the head. Ryan on the "Asper" told me they are seeing squid eggs coming up on the pots. Won't be long and I'll have the bassing or squiding dilemma ?. 

A couple of seasons ago I was trying to find a make of squid jig that was cheap and fished as well as the expensive yozuris. I'd been using them for a while but eventually was down to my last repaired one. 


A shout out on Facebook lead to nothing, searched everywhere online and couldn't find them. Then last week, what appears to be the exact same make popped up on ebay, only difference being they were pink instead of red, which I considered to be even better.



I snapped up 45 of them for £65.



Straight after they became "no longer available" and a new listing appeared with them at £3.50 each! Shortly after that they were sold out. 

When the fishing was really slow that last old red one would catch better than the yozuris. I remember one drift it had 4 out of 5 squid when there were 14 other jigs for them to choose from. Rather excited to see how these new pink ones fish. ??.

Dave had a couple of bass on the ebb yesterday and I know there has been a couple caught up there already today, so I'm going to do the ebb and the late flood tide. 


16th July 2021. Day off today, too many late finishes, couldn't get up this morning. I fished from 7.30 until 10 o'clock lastnight and ended up with 9 keepers.



The biggest weighed in at 2.25 kilos. 



I've got 107 kilos of bass in for the week, that will take a bit of beating but the way this season is going I think it could easily happen.

Going to try the morning flood tide on the bass tomorrow and finally get the pots done on the ebb.

No need to talk about the weather, its perfect and staying that way for a good few days. ? ?.


15th July 2021. I went down the harbour at low water yesterday to sort out the buff ropes on my punt, it was looking calmer than I expected. 



The tripping boats are having a really good season, lots of holiday makers filling the boats up.

As for the fish shop, they have laid the foundations but no sign of any walls yet.



I came back down on the fleeting to go bassing,  Anthony was just coming in from mackereling, I saw him haul 5 boxes up on the crane, a good days work. Definitely an option if the bass go quiet. There are loads of small sandeels around at the moment, the bass are spitting them out and the pollack I had yesterday was full of them when I gutted it. Most probably what's attracting the mackerel. 

I got set up and started fishing by 6.30, towed around for an hour for nothing. By that time Dave on the "Boy Nathan" got up there and had two bass quite quickly. He caught them on the "glitter bomb" lure, I was using the 2 blue and white 2012's that I had 16 on the day before. I swapped one for a glitter bomb and 10 minutes later I had my 1st bass. Looked like blue and white was off the menu! I changed the other lure for one of the homemade lead heads with a green and silver body that also had glitter in, came back around over the same spot and had a double take. The chunkier lead head had this beauty. 



It weighed in at 2.85 kilos (6lb 4 1/2oz).

The glitter bomb had a decent 1.8 kilo fish.

The next few fish all took the lead head, so I changed to working 2 of them. I Kept picking away but you know you haven't got long left when your meter turns to night screen. 



I ended up with 11 keepers and no throw backs for a change. 

A beauty last light.


With a waxing crescent moon over the town. 



The couple of boats that did the evening mackerel had around 3 boxes each. Talking to Ryan on the market and medium mackerel were £3.00 per kilo yesterday morning. Apparently bass were about £12 for ones below 2 kilos and £17 for the ones above. 



If the prices were the same this morning, these few will have fetched around £190. I'll find out on Saturday. 

I plan to do the same again later, I'll try and work out what lure they fancy for supper a bit quicker this time. ????. 


14th July 2021. I went bassing Monday evening from 5pm until dark. As soon as I had got the second line out, the first one had this skinny but long 1.8 kilos fish.



There were lots of birds working and a few marks in deep water.



For the last few trips I've been using the blue and white Redgill evolution, they have been fishing well but they do get worn out after catching a dozen or more fish. The pollack hammer them more than the bass do. I was down to my last 2 and hoped they would survive. 

The fishing was really good,  I had half a dozen keepers in the first 30 minutes. "Ol' Tuss" turned up, they were trolling with their rods but weren't catching, maybe not getting deep enough. 



The fish kept biting, quite a few annoying throw backs though.At one stage it reminded of my best ever day polling in my old boat when I had 80 in 4 hours, constantly pulling a fish in while another was waiting on the other line.

By high water I had filled the first box. The Redgills had seen better days and weren't swimming quite right anymore so I changed them for a couple of blue and white eddystone eels 2012's. Didn't change the fishing, if anything I seemed to catch a slightly better run of fish, but that might have just been a coincidence. They kept feeding and I packed up at last light with 37 keepers and 5 pollack. 



There were a few around the 1.8 kilos mark but no sign of the bigger ones that were about on the weekend. They averaged over a kilo each, weighing in at 40 kilos. Best trip of the season so far. ????.  



If the prices Tuesday morning were the same as Monday's then that lot will have earned me £515. Not bad for an evening session.

I went again last night and had one straight away, high hopes of repeating it but the bites were less frequent. 

The cruise ship "Britannia" was not far off the stones and was communicating with a rescue helicopter.



She is a massive 330 meters long and has 1,350 crew!

Someone needed winching off and taking to hospital. I heard the helicopter asking the captain where on the vessel was best to do the lift and he said "Midships, port side, next to the 2 swimming pools, you can't miss it" ?.

Dave got up there a bit after me and fished the outside marks. It looked like he was catching quite well but I stuck it out where I was, catching one every 15 minutes or so. We both ended up with 16 keepers each and half a dozen throw backs. 



They averaged exactly a kilo. 



That's 82 kilos for the week so far, will try and top the 100 tomorrow. There were quite a few mackerel landings in the fridge lastnight, most of them ranging from 10 to 40 kilos.

Thanks to those of you that occasionally look at an add on here?. 


12th July 2021.  The weather wasn't very nice on the fleeting yesterday so I decided to give it a miss and watch England lose. I did the Newlyn run just before the match started, there was hardly another car other road!

The fish came out of the ice looking perfect again.



The scales on the quay were pretty much spot on with the big one weighing in at 3.45 kilos.



There was hardly any mackerel on the market, one Newlyn boat had 10 kilos and John on the "Sandpiper" out of St Ives had 12 kilos, mostly mediums. I wouldn't be surprised if they fetched      £8 to £10 this morning. 

I just phoned up and got my prices, they were as follows:-

Pollack 0-1's £3.87, 1-2's £4.80.

Bass:-

0-1's £11.70.

1-2's £12.57.

2-3's £24.62.

3+'s £24.65.

That means I've smashed my personal best price for a single fish. It was just under £62, it now stands at £85.04!!!

£136.74 for the two biggest fish, loving it. ?. 

We have a breezy north westerly for a few days. Should be workable up the stones as there isn't much wave hight, trying the mackerel is an option. I'll see what it's like when I float later.



There are quite a few flat calm days coming up according to the long-range forecast, no rain and plenty of sunshine. Bring it on ? ? ?☀?. 



l just heard from Dave on the "Boy Nathan" who has been fishing the early tide. He has beaten his personal best this morning with a fine 3.5 kilo fish. Well done that man!


11th July 2021. I was a bit late away yesterday, stuck behind very slow holiday makers driving along the harbour front ?.

It was flat calm so I turned her on and skimmed up to the stones at 19 knots.



Dave on the "Boy Nathan" had been fishing for a while for just a couple of small pollack. There were birds working and quite a few fish marks but they weren't biting. For the first couple of hours all I had was 2 bass. It was getting near to high water and I was thinking about packing the lines up and doing the pots, and then the fish started feeding. It wasn't "boiling" but fairly steady. I stuck at it for a couple of hours into the ebb and ended up with 12 keepers. 



There were a couple that made the 2 kilo mark and a few that were just legal size. They came to a total of 14 kilos.



I had half a dozen throw backs and a few pollack with them.



There were a couple of pleasure boats up there, one of them was "Ol' Tuss" with Mike Loncar (Tasty) and Mark Hutchings onboard. They had a bit of sport on the rods. Mark sent me a few pictures. One of him with a decent bass.



And one of Tasty with a nice pollack.



And a couple of me in the distance. 



I love it out there.



I stored the fish in the usual way, layer of ice, fish on their backs, cover over with ice and put in an ice bin.



The plan is to do the same today and take them all to Newlyn tonight. As for the mackerel, I heard that one boat tried early yesterday morning but only had 5 kilos.



10th July 2021. I went bassing again yesterday, the conditions were about as poor as I'd fish the stones in. A fresh wind on the bow meant nearly constant wheel adjustment and it was raining! It made working the lines a challenge. My efforts were rewarded with this 7 1/2 pound (3.4 kilo) beauty. ?. 



Put next to another sized bass for some perspective, it could have had it for dinner. 



Don't get many that size in a season, very happy ?. I'm going to get that 10 pounder one day. 8 pound 15 ounces is my best so far. 

Mark Clacey came up there but didn't stay long. Wind with the tide might have been moving him over the ground a bit too fast, effecting his drift fishing.

I did the 3 hours up to high tide and had 9 keepers out of 10.



Bang on 12 kilos, worth getting a bit wet for.

As I was punting ashore a holiday maker asked me if I knew anyone that would want his rods and reels. Ahhhh yeah, me!

A spinning rod with a small Shakespeare fix spool and a larger 3 piece rod with a decent sized fix spool. Plus a beach rod rest. 



I'll definitely make use of them when the squid season starts next month. 

I got the tally this morning for Thursday's catch, the prices were good, especially for the 2 larger bass I had. £21.53 for 2-3's. Yesterday's big one might beat the highest price for a single fish so far this year (£62) with a bit of luck.



I'll be going again on the fleeting, looking a lot more comfortable today. 




9th July 2021. Stuck to the plan yesterday and tried the mackerel as soon as I floated. Had a quick drift across Porthmeor before the other couple of boats got there for just 5 fish. So I steamed a bit further west for a longer drift. That produced 7 more fish. They were quite good stuff, just not enough of them.



The other couple of boats weren't catching either, should I stay or should I go? At the risk of them playing up near the high tide I packed up and steamed up the stones. Jock on the 'Sea Maiden' from Hayle was the only boat up there.

Thought I'd give it a hour bassing and still have time to do the pots before I had to make the moorings. Didn't bother putting the polls up to save a bit of time, just towed the lines from the stern corners. I had only just got the second line out and the other one tightened up with the first bass, a cracking 2 kilo fish. Ten minutes later I had another of about 1.5 kilos. It was a bit of a rush then to get the poles up as it looked like I wasn't going to do the pots after all. Much easier to avoid a hooked fish picking up the other line when they are 30ft apart. I had half a dozen keepers in the first hour. 



As the tide eased the fishing changed. I started to catch as many throw backs as keepers and a few pollack. One was a decent fish, 2.3 kilos.



Kept picking away the occasional good bass until one of my lines decided it didn't want to stay connected to the pole any longer. Think the link I was using got flicked opened and that was the last I saw of it. Note to self, go back to tieing them on, ditch the links. Could have put another line out but I'd had enough by then, so I packed up with 12 keepers. 



Just over 14 kilos. First landing for the week. No idea what the prices have been like, should be a good days wage though. 



Not a lot of mackerel on the market last night. John on the "Sandpiper" who was one of the boats fishing Porthmeor with me yesterday ended up with 25 kilos, quite a lot of large mediums as well. The Newlyn boats had similar amounts. 

Freshening up from the south later, hopefully it will stay workable. 


7th. July 2021. I've had a few days off, been taking lots of painkillers for my gum since I had a tooth out. Haven't missed much fishing with the way the weather has been. I went down to the boat this morning, put a new fuel filter on and did a gear oil change.  



Going back down in a bit to change the engine oil. The forecast has changed, but still looks ok. Tomorrow's low water is too early for me so I'll be going on the fleeting at about 2 o'clock. 



I'll decide tomorrow whether to mackerel or bass to start with. Hopefully it will be nice enough to do the pots on the ebb. ?.


4th July 2021.  I tried the mackerel at high water for about an hour and a half hoping to get some to salt down for bait and maybe enough good stuff to make a landing. It wasn't happening though, only had 18 fish. 



Think I'll have a couple of days off. Its calm over low water tomorrow but too early for me to get up to catch the tide. There's a quick blast of wind Monday night into Tuesday. 



Not much ground sea forecasted with it and being a small tide my pots should be ok in the shallows. Calms down on Wednesday and looks good from then on.



There were a couple of large mackerel in the few I had, they will be supper tonight for the misses and me, the rest will hopefully tempt a few lobsters into the pots next week.  ??


3rd July 2021. Had a picture sent to me yesterday from Mathew, a Portreath potter/basser of a very rare occurrence. Shame it was damaged.



I've had a couple of small ones in pots years ago but that one was a beauty. 

Work has started on the fish shop down the quay at last.



Will be interesting to see how that comes along. The fish prices have been so high on the market for the last few months I think it would have been a problem. To have paid the fishermen more than market price (£8 to £12 per kilo) for the mackerel and then add a small mark up to pay the fishmongers wage would have resulted in a very expensive product. I would feel guilty selling at a sky high price. It wouldn't have been an issue this week as the prices have dropped to a more "normal" level, £1.60 to £3.00 for mediums. 

Monday's prices weren't too bad. Bass were where I would expect them to be at this time of the year and the lobsters a little bit up on last year. The few small pollack fetched a decent £3.81 per kilo, I heard that the bigger ones were up to £7.00.



Tuesday saw a drop in price to what I would consider below average for prime line caught bass.



Obviously the supply went up and met the demand. I know my mate from the Isle of Wight, Andy (the guy that makes the lures) has been "licking them in" this week. He has had a few days in a row of 80 kilos per day!


Thursday's bass price went up a bit on both sizes.



By Friday the the good catches Andy was having of fish up to 2 kilos turned into 30 undersize ones for the day. He's had a bumper week though, good on him. ???

Don't think it had anything to do with it but my price for 1 to 2's went up to the highest for the week.



It's been a good week even though the price are back to normal.

Think I'll nip out tomorrow and try to catch a few mackerel for pot bait. ? ?.


2nd July 2021. Went on the ebb yesterday and got the pots done. First string of 3 had 5 lobsters in, 3 of them were keepers.

Always nice to see the first pot like this.



I did the 24 pots up Godrevy for 9 keepers, 2 of them were one clawers. Came back to do the last 3 at porthminster point, they didn't blank, had a very aggressive sized lobster in one of them.



Got him taped up and put him with the others. 



Stuck them in the storepot to keep them happy until I was done bassing on the flood. Got up the stones at low water and set the poles up. The blue and white Redgill Evolutions have been fishing best for me since the run of fish got smaller, been using just them for the last few trips. Had the first bass after 40 minutes towing my usual spots, quickly followed by another. The tide started picking up a bit and I was expecting the bites to keep coming. Went another hour before I caught the third. Dave on the "Boy Nathan" got up there an hour later just as I was pulling in my 4th. I fished another hour for one more bass and a couple of tiny pollack. Dave had one bass and a wrasse! I've never had a wrasse on the poles, this was his second. 



I left him up there at 9 o'clock and steamed back to get the lobsters. Don't know how he did for the last hour. I moored up and went straight to Newlyn. 

Should be around the £150 mark for the days effort. 



The bass averaged just over a kilo and with no throw backs it looks like the tiddlers might have moved on. A run of 4 pounders next week when the tides start jumping?? Would be nice. ???



Saw auctioneer Ryan on the market and he informed me that  the medium mackerel had gone up to £3.00 yesterday morning but landings that side were bigger lastnight and he thought the prices might drop again. I could do with a box of small mackerel to salt down. I've just about run out of pot bait. 


1st July 2021. Had my tooth out yesterday after a lot of injections, so much better without it. I was fine to go to sea and went on the fleeting. There were a couple of other boats already fishing. It was pretty much like the day before, catching a keeper every 15 to 20 minutes. Dave was up there and was struggling to start with but did well in the last hour.



Leroy, a pleasure fisherman out from Hayle was up there and had this good sized one.



He sent me a couple of photos that he took of the sunset, was a gorgeous evening. 



That one was Dave edging closer to my spot ? and another one of me.



I fished until 10pm for 11 keepers and then steamed back. That made 20 fish with yesterday's to take to Newlyn. 



They averaged just under a kilo per fish.



The mackerel catches over that side where a lot smaller today, most of them had about 30 kilos. I heard that mediums had gone down to £1.60, they most probably will go up again tomorrow. Trevor on the "Bluebell" did the low water on the mackerel this side today but only landed half a box. 

I have no idea what the bass prices are like this week, haven't  bothered ringing up. I'll find out on Saturday. 

I will do the low water tomorrow, pots on the ebb and bass on the flood. Windguru has changed its forecast and it doesn't look like the ground sea is going to be an issue after all next week, so I'll most probably shut back in the same place. 



30th June 2021. Change of plan today. I've had toothache that's been getting worse and managed to get a dental appointment this afternoon. Haven't been for so long I thought I would have been struck off the books. I can't do the low water so I went lastnight for a couple of hours. Headed straight to where I found them the day before and there were fairly good marks again. 



Had steady fishing, still a lot of small ones about, I was throwing 1 in every 3 back. Most of the ones I kept were a bit bigger than the day before. Ended up with 9.



I've got them on ice and will go and have a couple of hours later (if I'm fit enough to after treatment) to try and add to them. I recon there is 10 kilos there. The lobsters will have to wait until tomorrow. Couple of fine days ahead. 



But there is a hint of some ground sea on the way next week. 



I'll move the pots out of the shallows again to be on the safe side. If alls well and I go tonight it will be a late finish and I'll update tomorrow. 


29th June 2021. Didn't think I was going yesterday by the forecast I saw Sunday night, but it changed and it was lovely out there. I went on the fleeting at 6pm. There was one boat there that had done the low water but hadn't caught much at all. I fished for a good hour before I caught my first one. The fish were in deep water and near the bottom.



Once I found them I picked away steadily. The fish got smaller near high water, I was only keeping one out of every three by then. Packed up at 9.45 with 12 sized bass and a couple of small pollack. 



12 fish weighed nearly 11 kilos. 



Couldn't see any other bass in the fridge, hopefully the prices will be decent. There were a few good mackerel landings from Newlyn boats. One had 100 kilos and another had 150.

Might go again tonight, I'll see what it looks like. Definitely doing a long day tomorrow.


27th June pm 2021. The rain and wind eased off this evening so I nipped out and got the lobsters from the storepot. All alive and kicking, took them to Newlyn with the fish.



I might have a look on the flood tide tomorrow,  depends on how much rain there is. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are looking perfect for bassing and potting. 



A few of the Newlyn boats had a bit of mackerel. One boat had about 20 kilos of bass, 10 of mullet and a few guilthead bream, beach netted maybe?

Hopefully my effort will fetch £200 to £250 in the morning. 



27th June 2021. Last weekends fish fetched a good price on Mondays market. 

The one big bass went for £44.68, not bad.



Was Thursday's mackerel price the last of the mega money? 



As Friday's prices dropped a lot.



40p for my smalls, would have kept them for bait if I had known. 

I've heard that a couple of boats that were last to be auctioned only had £1.00 for mediums. Also heard that a few boats deep off on Thursday had 100 to 150 kilos each. Think I'll be concentrating on the bass and pots for a while. 

A long day at sea yesterday, it was worth it though. Didn't start very well, forgot to put my gloves in the bag and all I could find onboard was 2 right handed ones. At least I had one gloved hand for baiting. The dhan on the 3 pots at Porthminster point was broke, luckily I had a spare. Thought I'd haul them and move them up east with the rest. This little bit of rough keeps on giving this season, 1st pot came up with two lobsters. 



The next pot had a one clawer and the last one blanked. 



One of the rules:- "never move away from fish", so they were shut back in the same place. There were a few fish marks there as well.



I went up east and did the rest of the pots that I had put in deeper water, quite a few days ago. The fishing was good, ended up with 12 keepers, about 8 kilos.



I moved a dozen of them back into the shallows where the fishing was better last time. I'm hopeful for another good haul later in the week. 

Pots done, it was time to bass the flood. I had only been fishing 10 minutes and the first one was onboard. Not your normal looking bass, had some body curvature going on. 



It was steady fishing, but there were quite a few throw backs. Some good marks but they were on the move all the time. 



I stuck it out for all the flood and ended up with 10 sized ones. 



Wound my lines in and was trundling back to harbour gutting the 5 pollack I had, looked up and a black wing gull had got tangled in the line from the pole while going for the guts. I was untangling his wing and the bastard bit me (yep, didn't have any gloves on). Two bleeding slashes to finish the day off. 


25th June 2021. Hard going on the mackerel yesterday, made a bit easier by the calm sunny conditions. Was handsome out there.



One of those days when everyone is watching each other to see if they are catching more than the odd one or two. The best I had was 13 on one drop. 



Gave it 4 hours for not very much. Same run as yesterday, half good, half small.



Hardly any fish in Newlyn last night so I expect this morning's prices will be the same as yesterday's. 



Day off today and a long low water tomorrow. Hopefully I'll see some lobsters and few bass. ???


24th June 2021. I found out yesterday's mackerel prices, good stuff is still worth a fortune. 3 large mediums fetched £11.66!


Large mediums - £10.60.

Mediums  - £8.67.

Smalls - £1.63.

With a 50/50 sample yesterday's effort made £111.

Don't think I would have done as well on the bass going by what other boats had.

Another good jump in the tide today should help the fishing. I'll start on the mackerel again and see how it goes. 

The forecast has changed a bit (might change back again). Quite a lot of northerly until it settles from Wednesday onwards 



Saturday is looking good for a low water trip, pots on the ebb and bass on the flood. 

Looks like July is going to start off flat calm. I could go on about the "Good old days" before we started destroying the atmosphere and we had proper summers.....but I won't. ?



Will let you know how it goes later. Come on you large mediums and mediums. ???



23 June 2021. I raced off the moorings and had a drift on the mackerel before the others got out there and had 9 fish. Second drift 3 fish, then 1. About to wind up and go bassing when I had a string full. That kept me on it. Gave it until an hour and a half after high tide for these.. 



Made the right decision as a mate was up the stones with a couple of other boats and they had nothing on the flood. I would have packed up at high water and done the pots but I had left the bait and fuel on my punt, its an age thing. ?

Took them to Newlyn, half were mediums and half were decent sized smalls.



Hopefully the prices will still be crazily high.



None of the Newlyn boats had that much on the tally. I'll most probably ring up for the prices in the morning to see if it's worth doing the same tomorrow. Dave on the "Boy Nathan" tried the bass at high water and the ebb for 4 pollack and a bass. 


23rd June 2021. A.M.     Mackerel or bass, mackerel or bass....... can't decide. Doesn't look like anyone is doing the low water on the mackerel to give me a hint of what's there. So plan 'A' is to have one quick drift on the mackerel (possibly at the expense of a couple of bass), and if it's no good go bassing. I'm going to take pot bait as well, incase the bassing is rubbish to. Will update later.


21st June 2021.  I had high hopes for the bassing yesterday after Saturdays showing and steamed up there at 18 knots,        (I was only getting 14 before I cleaned the weed off the bottom on Friday). I set the poles up and noticed that there wasn't a single bird working, not a good sign. I did the first hour for just 2 small pollack and a throw back bass. I found a mark and steadily picked away at bass for a while. There wasn't one that didn't need measuring and I was throwing 2 out of 3 back. They didn't play up on the ebb like the day before and I ended up with six keepers. 



I had a couple more bigger pollack before I called it a day.



Took them to Newlyn with Saturdays iced ones.



The bass were looking handsome. 



The biggest one topped the scales at 2.56 kilos, just over 5lb 10oz. A £50 fish maybe?



A good start to the week. 



Looking good for trip on Wednesday. The tides are a lot bigger and might produce a few bigger fish. 



20th June 2021. Got the prices for the week yesterday. Monday's landing was a good one. 



Wednesday's smallish pollack fetched a half decent price and the 2 kilo bass fetched £39.



Thursday's prices :



I fished from 10.30 to 3.30 yesterday, started with an undersized bass which went straight back.



Had a few pollack next and a couple more throw back bass, I was trying a 'skerries' glitter bomb that seemed to be fishing as well as the blue and white Redgill.



After an hour I started catching some keepers, even got the landing net out for one of them.



Thought it was huge but it had the other line tangled to it with another bass on. 

The box started filling up nicely.



There were plenty of birds working nonstop.



The fishing was that good I was considering missing the moorings and staying out, but the wind started to pick up and some very dark clouds appeared. 



I packed up and made water in. 

Ended up with 20 sized bass and put about 10 undersized ones back.



Here is the biggest one along side a minimum size fish.



Kept 11 pollack as well.



All iced down ready to go to Newlyn with today's catch.

I'll update again later or tomorrow.  


17th June 2021. There was a lot more ground sea yesterday than was forecasted. I went over low water and did the pots first on the ebb. It was a small tide but the swell had started to move the strings that I had in shallow water. Had a couple of small tangles to sort out.



Plenty of weed and hitches. Was lucky not to loose one pot, parted out one side of the spinner strop but the other side held and I got it back. 



Got them all done and shut back into deeper water. Had 7 sized lobsters and 5 throw backs. The plan was to bass the "stones" all of the flood but there was hills of sea up there, so I tried the mackerel instead.

Trevor on the "Bluebell" had been fishing all the ebb down the Carricks (Seal Island) and only had a third of a box when I saw him. The price had gone up to £9.00 per kilo for mediums on yesterday's market. 

I unwound my line and had 4 fish on before the lead hit the bottom, I was looking at them thinking "well that's 6 quid already". ? ?.

I then went on to fish for an hour and a half for just 10 more.



Trevor ended up with 10 kilos of good stuff and 3 of small. 

I got back on the moorings as soon as I could and went to Newlyn.



Not much of a landing but should fetch around £70 to £80. 



Still looking ok for a try on the bass Saturday. 




No sign of a settled spell on the long range forecast. 


16th June 2021. Finished too late last night to update. I just got off the moorings before the boat went aground on the ebb at midday and polled until 8 pm. Keriolet is back in action after a long refit. Fine boat.



This is her last time she was in the harbour back in September.



First fish on the ebb was a bass but that was followed by pollack after pollack. I had 17 kilos of them.



Total turn around on the flood. I had 15 bass, 5 of them were throw backs. Ended up with 11 for just over 12 kilos. 



The biggest one was spot on 2 kilos. 

While I was on the market, Mr Pascoe informed me that the price of the elusive mackerel is on it's way up again, £7.80 for mediums yesterday.


I tried using the Redgill Evolution today for the first time.



Thought they would sit right more easily than the older versions that the line goes through the nose. But the nose is quite soft and bendy making them swim off line. I cut a big chunk of the nose off and they swam perfectly. They out fished everything else I tried yesterday. Quite impressed, so ordered a couple more packs. 

Out again today, going to get the pots done on the ebb and get back on the bass for the flood. Will let you know how it went tonight or tomorrow. ????.


14th June 2021. I decided to try the bass again yesterday on the flood as Dave on the "Boy Nathan" had a couple and some half decent pollack Saturday evening.



Plus one of the low water mackerel men said it was really hard to find any, not catching mackerel is harder than not catching bass!

There were quite a few birds working, towing through them for an hour only produced one small throw back. Changed the green and silver lures over to blue and silver and had a keeper straight away. Dave was up there again and was catching a few.



Perfect millpond conditions.

I gave up chasing the birds around and concentrated on my usual spots. There were a few sketchy deep marks on the sounder.



Fished until nearly dark and ended up with 6 keepers and a couple more throw backs. The biggest one was just under a kilo. Where have all the big ones gone??

Headed for the storepot to get Saturdays lobsters to take to Newlyn, gorgeous conditions.



All the lobsters were alive and kicking when I got to the market. There wasn't a lot of fish in the fridge for a calm weekend. No mackerel landings on the tally sheet. Gary on the"Bethshan" had about 10 boxes of pollack there. 



My guess that the lobsters were 12 kilos wasn't far off.



Phoned up for the prices this morning and they were :-

0-1 Bass £14.50 per kilo.

Lobsters £14.51 per kilo.

Down a bit but still good prices. 

Stuck in today waiting for an annual gas safety service ?.

Think I'll have the whole day off and do a longer trip tomorrow. 

Looking like another cracking day tomorrow. 



Wednesday is looking good as well apart from the chance of a bit of thunder and lightning. Bit breezy from the North on Thursday and Friday. 



13th June 2021. I did the low water yesterday and started with the pots. The 3 that I left on porthminster point were just outside the "no go zone" so I thought I'd have them up first and take them east where all the others are. Couldn't believe my eyes when the first pot came up with 3 sized lobsters in it. Then next pot had another one and the 3rd was just full of spider crabs.  

I thought I had cleaned that little patch of rough up!



A great start to the day. Those three got shut straight back.

Then it was around to Clodgey Point to haul the three there. They all came up blank, just a couple of velvet crabs. Someone had shut next to me so those ones were staying aboard and finding a new home. Came back around to porthminster and put the 4 in the storepot. 



Then it was up to one of my favourite places, Godrevy Lighthouse.



What looked like some sort of anti aircraft weapon at a distance on the headland turned out to have a radar spinning around on the top of it.



I found a spot for the 3 pots I had onboard and got on with doing the rest. I had another 14 sized lobsters from 21 pots. Then it was back to the storepot.



18 keepers is the best I've ever had from my handful of pots. I reckon there is about 12 kilos there. The last landing I had sold on Tuesday for £18.62 per kilo, I'll be happy with that again tomorrow.