29th Decemer 2012. Back home with Danish flu, will get out  there as soon as I'm better.

26th December 2012. Took a walk today and tried a different spot, bit deeper water:- 

All the snow has melted now, sunshine and showers:- 

Despite my best efforts, all I succeded in doing was drowning my worms:- 

Last chance to catch a fish in Denmark tomorrow, I am going to Aarhus to fish in and around the port, there is meant to be cod and coalfish there acording to the chap in the tackle shop, we shall see. 

23rd December 2012. I tried bottom fishing with live ragworm, a lighter version of my normal bass set up, there was a light dusting of snow 1st thing:- 

I was hoping for a sea trout but the snow soon got heavy:- 

Decided it was time to give up when the reel got totally covered! :-

21st December 2012. Just updated the tide times . No fish caught in Denmark to report about yet.

17th December 2012. I have taken all my gear off the boat today, officially on holiday as from now! Will be back fishing at the start of the new year. Here's wishing you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR. I will be posting some holiday angling pictures so check back regularly to see if I catch anything in Denmark!

16th December 2012. Nowhere near as big a surf as was first forcasted, there is a good wave but it didn't look 'fishy' enough to shut in the bay:-

14th December 2012. I brought my pots in yesterday and put them on the quay. I am going on holiday on Wednesday and they could do with being out of the water for a few weeks:- 

Boco (Stuart Knowle) has done another great job with the Christmas lights again:- 

Looking great! :-

Might be putting the bass nets out tomorrow. 

12th December 2012. Sorry for the lack of updates, one thing and another has stopped me getting here. You might of seen the weather on the news, there is a monster on the way this weekend. Huge ground swell forecasted, peaking to 7 meters on Saturday midday according to the windguru's info. That height refers to what the weather bouys are recording in deep water, it's less but still bloody big when it hits the shore! My kind of weather, bass nets ready, fairground ride anticipated and looking forward to it!

9th December 2012. The weather isn't very nice so it's plan 'B', stay home! 

8th December 2012. Plan 'A' at the moment is to go mackereling on the flood tide tomorrow morning. It might be a bit windy but I will have a look, west northwest 20mph forecasted.

6th December 2012. A couple of boats went out lastnight and shut bass nets, Stuart on the 'Little Christina' went west, not sure what he had and Tony on the 'Belle Betina' went in the bay and had 14 bass, half of them were eaten by seals. I did the pots, not much in them and most of the bait was still there. What I should of done was go mackereling, the chaps that did had 3 to 4 boxes each.

5th December 2012. Nothing to report other than next week was looking calm but is now looking like more fresh northerly winds which will keep me in again.

4th December 2012. It's looking fishy :- 

Northerly winds tomorrow means it's no good for shutting in the bay tonight. At the moment it looks like Thursday will be ok to get out and do something.

2nd December 2012. Looking like a rough week ahead, hopefully the shelter of the bay will provide a weeks wage. Will keep you posted.

1st December 2012. Thursday's bream fetched a good price on the market, the black bream were £4.00 per kilo and the Guilthead bream were £5.80 per kilo. Anthony on the 'Little Christina' took a few pictures last weekend when the bass were about, here is a sight we all like to see and old man Stuart has seen it many times:-

All those bass attracted a Porbeagle shark which was returned to the sea alive:- 

He took a couple of me hauling in Pen-enys:-

Another bass comes aboard the 'Jen' :-

I hauled the pots yesterday but there wasn't much in them, they had been left too long and the crab do escape by chewing through the netting eventually. I did catch a first for me, a pear cider can! :-  

Next trip might be nets in the bay Monday night. 

29th November 2012. I went at first light and hauled the 500 yards in the bay. Bass and mullet were expected, but the only sign of them, 1 1/2 mullet heads:-

I really love seals, grrrrr. But they don't seem to like gilthead bream, there were 6 nice ones in perfect condition. Quite a lot of weed so I'm not bothering with the flatfish nets for a while. I got 400 yards of the nets ready to go again and headed out to the cod track. Chris on the 'Lady Jacqueline' was struggling to catch mackerel deepish off the Island with only 10 fish in 2 hours:-  

Things got a lot better for him on the flood and he went back to Hayle with 70 kilos onboard. I shut the nets on the cod track and let them fish for an hour, then hauled them back up. Not much fish out there either. Dinner was the first thing to come up, a 1 3/4lb red mullet, my all time favorite fish to eat:-

To go with it there were 2 cod, 1 pollack, 2 haddock, 1 whitting, 18 black bream, 8 smooth hounds and a box of mergies for bait. The picture below shows the difference between the black bream (facing left) and the guilthead bream (facing right):-

The guiltheads have a bigger mouth and teeth, a bit like a piranha and they fetch a higher price. I think I am going to sort my pots out tomorrow and maybe catch a few mackerel. 

28th November 2012. I have shut the bass nets in the bay as did Simon on the 'Kira'. Tony on the 'Belle Bettina' and Stuart on the 'Little Christina' shut to the west. Conditions were quite poor with a fresh northerly wind. 

27th November 2012. I went down to check the boat and sea at 11am, there were a couple of windsurfers enjoying the conditions behind the quay:-

I don't think that my brown crabs that are in a floated store net just this side of Porthminster Point are going to be enjoying it quite so much:- 

I think they might be mushed, but they could be ok, certainly no lack of aeration! Not so much rain to bail out today but the rough weather has highlighted some needed adjustments on some of the moorings, mine included. Harbour Master Steve Basset and deputy Ian Kemp were busy sorting things out:-

Hopefully a few of us will be getting out tomorrow, Stuart on the 'Little Christina' has 8 tiers waiting to go west and the boat big enough to weather it. I will go west if I can, otherwise it will have to be the bay for little 'Jen' and me. Its looking very bassy out porthmeor:-

26th November 2012. Strong northerly winds slowly decreasing, possibly calm enough by Thursday to put the flatfish nets out. Friday and Saturday are forecasted calm at the moment. Getting sunny as the week goes on.

Just been down to pump the boat out, Good surf rolling in at the back of 'rampers':

I didn't think that anyone had been out but Simon and Rob on the 'Kira' shut nets yesterday and hauled them this morning:- 

My mooring neighbours did ok, they had 150 kilos of herring, some mackerel, a box full of mullet and a few bass. Looks like I might have to push some weather and get some nets out sooner than planned. With there being a few fish in the bay, I'm sure there will be plenty to the west again. Going to be keeping a close eye on the sea and the forecast, It is cracking over the reef (Clodgey Point) at the moment though:-

I am crazy, but not that crazy! 

24th November 2012. Got out the harbour at about 11am, the first tier in Trowan came up with just 2 bass and 4 mullet, very clean though, no weed at all:- 

The Pen-enys tier was better, 2 dozen bass and 5 mullet. I was hauling as Stuart and his son Anthony were coming back from Pendeen, they had plenty of fish today:- 

It was a lot calmer today. There is a northerly wind on its way for a few days, might not be going to sea until Thursday. At least I managed a days wage today:-

23rd November 2012. Stuart was landing his herring as I got down the quay this morning, this was only half of what he had:-

I am not sure but I think he had about 140st. I got away from the moorings at about 10am and 20 minutes later I was having my first bass haul for the season. The Trowan tier came up trumps with 65 bass in it:- 

The other tier was nearly as good. I hauled 500 yards and managed to shut 300 yards back to haul tomorrow. Washed and laid straight the fish were a pretty sight:-

I think that today was the best of it, I expect to have only about one box tomorrow, conditions aren't so good plus old man Stuart on the 'Little Christina' has shut where I am. A box will do me, I'm not greedy. 

22nd November 2012. I went to shut the cod track yesterday morning at high water but it freshened up and was a bit too uncomfortable by the time I was half way there, so I tried the mackerel for one drift and only had 3 kilos. Mike on the 'Suzie' had 2 boxes for all the flood, Trevor on the 'Lady Joan' had one box and Ian on the 'Mary Mo' had half a box. Plan 'A' is to shut for bass today either in the bay or to the west depending on how large the ground sea is in the afternoon. I have been sorting out anchors and chain for the bass ends as I have used my others on the pots. I managed to cut the chain after going through a few hacksaw blades. These 4.5 kilo anchors with 15 foot of decent chain dig in and stay where you put them:-

P.M. update:- Nets are in the water, 200 yards in Trowan and 300 yards in           Pen-enys. Plenty of ground sea, getting there was 'challenging', apparently they were talking about the weather on radio Cornwall this morning and a woman called in to tell them that some looney was at sea in a small boat, that was me! It wasn't that bad, a lot of wind and spray but the actual sea wasn't massive, just a decent wave rolling in:-

19th November 2012. A couple of netters had a bit of fish this morning, Simon and Rob on the 'Kira' had 60 kilos of mackerel and about 40 kilos of herring, Karl and Bocco had a bit more on the 'Gemma'. 

18th November 2012. When you have a small boat it is handy to have a decent sized punt to make some space aboard to haul your pots:- 

I made the most of the calm weather this morning and baited the pots. Had a few good brown crab but a lot of tiny ones as well. There were a couple of mackerelers out, Trever on the 'Lady Joan' fished two handed and landed just under 3 boxes as I was mooring up at 10.30am:-

The prices I had for my mackerel that sold on Friday morning were ok, large medium were £4.00 per kilo, medium were £3.10 per kilo and small were 40p. A few boats have gone around to Newlyn to fish, one being boy Stuarts ''Agan Proviyas'' who had his 1st bass shut over there for the year yesterday. He shut 4 tiers of nets from Lamorna onwards to the west and went to haul this morning, what he found was pretty grim. Two of the tiers had had the anchors taken off and were washed up onto the rocks, another tier had been taken away compleatly, anchors, ropes and nets. I don't think we have heard the last of this, could be the start of a Newlyn bass war!

15th November 2012. Fished over low water, started with towing sidewinders for bass at the back of the Island and across Porthmeor for an hour which resulted in this:-

There was far too much ground sea to get close in and fish where I wanted to. I spent the last 2 hours doing the pots, the ground sea and big tide got the brown crab moving and there were some very large hens (females) coming up. I'm not sure but I think it was the fisheries that went past hugging the coastline all the way:- 

I tried the bass for another hour with no success so went mackereling for the last 2 hours and caught 20 kilos. Next day at sea will be Sunday at the earliest, weekend off.

14th November 2012. I tried the mackerel today but it was worse than yesterday, only had about 6 kilos. Going to have a go at the bass again tomorrow and do the pots. 

13th November 2012. I managed to get out for a couple of hours before dark but the mackereling was very slow, ended up with 10 kilo's, good fish but not enough of them:- 

12th November 2012. Today can only be described as a 'lash up!' A few of us went mackereling on the flood, I had two drifts and only had two macs so I decided to try bassing at Porthminster point where it was sheltered from the fresh west/southwest wind. I gave it over an hour for nothing and decide to end the trip and head home. I had noticed 'Bethshan' come out, do one quick drift, then go back in. As I was going into harbour Gary was coming back out and told me he had just caught two boxes in 10 minutes! I had to go and give the macs another go, back out deep off the Island I had three more drifts for just 10 more fish. Most of the other boats had at least two boxes each, that''s what you call a lash up! I gave my dozen fish to Mike on the 'Suzie' as I was fed up by then. When I got on the quay there was a chap wanting to buy a dozen macs for a tenner, bloody typical. Eye test at specsavers tomorrow, I might get back in time to have a couple of hours before dark, can't be any worse than today can it, can it???

11th November 2012. It is thanks to them our life is as good as it is now.

I decided to wait until tomorrow, the onshore wind wasn't very inviting and no one else went out mackereling. Two boats hauled herring nets early this morning, not sure what Boco and Karl had on the 'Gemma' but boy Stuart on 'Agan Proviyas' had 9 boxes of herring and 2 boxes of mackerel. A friend of mine had a few bass on the rod last night, so I am definitely going to have a go from the boat with the blue and white sidewinders again:-

10th November 2012. Having a day off from going to sea gave me time to cook a plaice for my lunch. I wrapped it in tin foil with just a bit of salt, cooked it for 30 minutes on 170 :- 

If you tip it over onto a plate while keeping hold of the foil, it leaves the skin on the foil :-

It is then ready to eat, maybe a bit more seasoning if required :-

The meat just slides off the bones, full of flavour and moist, thanks to the foil keeping all the goodness in. Proper job! :-

When you have eaten that side, turn it over, slide the skin off with your knife and away you go again, delicious and healthy.

Going to take the flatty nets off the boat in the morning to make room for mackereling. The tides are too big for the nets for at least a week, might have a try with the bass lines if the mackereling isn't much good.

9th October 2012. Hauled the pots this morning and had a basket full of browns:- 

There are no spider crabs getting into the pots other than a few very small ones. Quite a few other creatures coming up though:-

Fly crabs, hermit crabs, prawns, scorpion fish, whelks and rockling. Just some of the 'life' on the deck after hauling a string of pots, all put back alive. On the way to my storepot I could see something odd looking on Traz's floating storepot:-

A closer look revealed it was a seal pup :- 

I could of got a closer shot but I didn't want to spook him and bring his rest to a premature end. I landed what crab I had over Hawkins Fish. Next trip might be mackereling on Sunday. 

8th Novemberber 2012. Hauled the net this morning, no weed but not much fish either:-

One dover sole, a couple of dabs and a few plaice. There were a few large cock spider crab which I have stuck in the store pot. I plan to do the pots in the morning and land the crab to Hawkins Fish over Hayle. 

7th November 2012. I cancelled doing the pots yesterday because I couldn't get the bait out of my chest freezer, it had been turned off for two days and was still solid as a rock! I managed to lever a bag full of dogfish off the frozen lump this morning, went and shut the nets which I will haul tomorrow, then baited the pots up. There were quite a lot prawns dropping off the pots onto the deck, I fancied giving them a try and brought half a dozen of the biggest home:-

A bit of butter in a frying pan:- 

Add the prawns and some garlic salt:-

A quick stir and some more butter:-

A couple of minutes and they are done:- 

They were so delicious I am going to look into making a few prawn pots. 

5th November 2012. I'm not going out there! Rough as rats:-

I'm hoping that it is going to clam down enough by tomorrow to bait the pots up. The forecast is north/northeasterly about 14mph. It is improving and if its too rocky tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday all look workable. Going to get the flatfish nets ready for another shut.

3rd November 2012. Sorry for lack of updates, not had much to report and have been busy going up and down to the baby ward, my girlfriend became a granny on 1st. I got a hold of little Mariana:- 

It looks like my next trip to sea will be Tuesday or Wednesday. The herring netters have had a box or two of good sized mackerel over the past few days and they are fetching around £4.00 per kilo, so well worth having.

31st October 2012. There was a few mackerelers out this morning, not sure what they had. I will have another try on cod track next time the weather is good enough . The few good fish I had all came up one end, so a move in that direction should help. Need it to be quite calm as its a fair way out from the shore:-

Sat by the dhan flag waiting for the nets to fish, the four main spots in the background from left to right are Seal Island, Zennor Head, Gurnards Head and Pendeen:- 

30th October 2012. I went over low water and started mackereling, had a box full in the first 20 minutes but mostly smalls, then a pod of dolphins came past and the fish disapeared. I gave up on the mackerel and did the pots, there wasn't much in them. Then I went out on the cod track and shut 400 yards of net which I left in the water for just an hour. Hauled it aboard and had 9 bream, 3 cod, one haddock and 5 boxes of dogfish. I salted the mackerel down for next years lobster bait and froze the dogfish for crab bait. The forecast has changed yet again, lots of wind until Monday and the gound swell building to a peak on Saturday and Sunday, so the bass shut might be back on! 

29th October 2012. As often happens this time of year the forecast has totally changed and the bass net shut isn't going ahead later in the week as it is at the moment. I am going over low water tomorrow to try mackereling first, then possibly a shut on the cod track, there should be a few bream out there if nothing else.

28th October 2012. The first half of the week is looking ok for mackereling now, then come Friday everything is looking good for a bass shut, CLICK HERE TO LOOK AT WINDGURU'S FORECAST. A big surf with decreasing tide size and November is the time to start netting. The only negatives could be a large moon still, water not murky enough and the couple of seals that are working in the bay having bass for breakfast!

27th October 2012. It is loooking like a rough week ahead with Tuesday being the best chance to get out and catch something. There might be a bass net shut towards the end of next week if the water gets murky enough.

25th October 2012. Hauled the nets yesterday and had half a box of plaice, half a box of ray, a couple of turbot, dover sole and some crab. There was still plenty of weed so the nets are back in my garden ready for cleaning. Next trip wont be until Sunday at the earliest going by the weather forecast, it will be mackereling for Monday mornings market.

23rd October 2012. Thick fog made me cancel hauling the nets today, will be getting them tomorrow morning. There should be a few ray and plaice with them being out for two nights. 

22nd October 2012. I finished cleaning the seaweed out of my flatfish nets this morning, if you pull them over and under a few ropes a lot of the weed drops out: 

The nets are back in the sea and I have a carpet of weed in my back garden, good for the soil I believe! :- 

On the way back in from shutting the nets there was only one mackereler shoved out on anchor to do the first of the flood:- 

'Boy' Stuart is one of the more successful fishermen in the harbour, his boat the 'Provider' was washed off west pier in storms a few years back. It went out the harbour, across the bay and rolled up the beach in the massive surf at Hawkes Point. He rebuilt it with his mate and renamed it ''Agan Proviyas'', which is Cornish for ''Provider again''. :-

There is still a few holiday makers wanting to go on boat trips, John Marsh had the 'Seahorse' quite full today:-

Hopefully there will be more fish and less weed in the nets tomorrow. 

21st October 2012. I went mackereling at first light, had 19 kilos quite quickly and then it went quiet. Took them to Newlyn with yesterdays catch, there is a lot of fish in the fridge:- 

lots of boxes both sides:-

I don't expect my few kilos will make much in the morning:- 

But you never know your luck in this game.

There is a lot of ground swell forecasted for tomorrow, dropping off on Tuesday, if its not too big I plan to try the flatty net again, will shut it about lunch time. It is the last chance to get it in the water for the rest of the week. Wednesday has a freshening easterly turning into a strong north-easterly by Friday. 

20th October 2012. I left the harbour at first light to go and haul the nets, one of the sandeel boats was getting ready for a shut:- 

I have had better days, as I was hauling the first anchor up it went light all of a sudden, up came half the anchor chain with no anchor! £20 backwards before I start!! Then to top it off there was very little fish and lots of weed:-

What a mess! A few hours work to clean that lot. You have to take the rough with the smooth in this job, it makes it constantly interesting and challenging. There was a bit of good stuff amongst the weed:- 

The handliners are doing well, 'Shakari' was landing a few part boxes of good sized mackerel as I was leaving the quay:- 

I am going to join the mackerelers tomorrow morning, will shut the net again on Monday when the tide is a lot smaller, (less weed hopefully). 

19th October 2012. The flatfish nets are back in the water and I will be hauling them first thing in the morning. Stuart and John were waiting to get off the moorings at 5pm to go and have an hours mackereling, hoping for a 'last light feeding frenzy' :-

On his way out as Traz on the 'Dignity' was on his way in:- 

The water is clear, which is good for the handliners. There is still a few mackerel trips going, 'Seahorse' was dropping a few passengers off on the end of the pier:

It was a successful trip by the look of it with one of them carrying a string full of mackerel:-

Karl on the 'Athena Fay' did a couple of trips for 3 boxes of mackerel, he then took the 'Gemma' out and shut the herring nets, he was coming back in as I was coming back from the eastern shore:- 

Hopefully we will see some fish in the morning.

18th October 2012. I decided against shutting the bass nets lastnight, the water was still clear and the swell was not big enough for my liking. The tide is dropping down to 17.7ft tomorrow evening which is the same size I last hauled the flatty nets in on Sunday, with a nice bit of fish and no weed, so with a light southerly forecasted for tomorrow and Saturday its going back in the water.

16th October 2012. The handliners had a couple of boxes of mackerel each lastnight and were out again tonight. There is a very large surf predicted for tomorrow, depending on how big it is and the strength of the wind, I am contemplating shutting bass nets in the bay at last light.

14th October 2012. Lovely calm morning and some sunshine to go with it, made hauling the nets a pleasure:-

Had a nice mixture of flatties and half a dozen ray. Lots of brown crab again, landed 19 kilos of claws. The herring netters had slim pickings in the bay this morning as did 'Little Christina' looking for mullet and bass to the west.

13th October 2012. A change in the forecast has tempted me to get the nets ready and back in the water today. With the tide being quite big (17.7ft) tomorrow morning I have shut them over the eastern shore where normally there is less weed to catch, we shall see what comes up! I might try the mackerel if I have time.

11th October 2012. The fishing was ok yesterday but today there was hardly any fish in the net. The weather is changing for the worse

9th October 2012, Had a nice few plaice, a couple of soles and loads of crab in the net, landed 22k of claws. Shut back for another haul tomorrow. 

8th October 2012. Fog and more fog! The flatfish nets are back in the water and will be hauled tomorrow morning. The fog was as thick as pea soup over the eastern shore when I went to shut so I have had a try deep off Hawkes point. Plaice, dabs and crab expected, maybe a dover sole or two as well. 

7th October 2012. I finished getting all the nets ready to go again today. There is a few days of light winds ahead, so I will be shutting the flatfish gear in the morning. 

5th October 2012. After a stormy night the wind decreased to a gentle breeze in time for me to haul the net at 10am. The target was ray and dover sole, but you never know whats going to come up, thats why I fish! I had 6 ray and 2 damaged dovers. Surprisingly I had half a box of plaice which was very welcome. There was a lot more crab than I expected, that gave me a couple of hours work picking them out:-

There wasn't too much weed so all in all it was an 'ok' shut:- 

The weather is looking good for another shut on Monday, so that is plan 'A' at the moment. 

4th October 2012. 500 yards of flatfish net ready to shut:-

In the water over the eastern shore fishing away all night:- 

Target species are ray and dover sole. We shall see tomorrow. A few more mackerel showing with the handliners, Barry on the 'Boy Brax' had 3 boxes in as many hours lastnight. 

3rd October 2012. The handliners averaged about a box each this morning (mackerel) and the netters had about two boxes each. It is looking ok to put the flatfish nets out tomorrow.

1st October 2012. A couple of boats tried the mackerel first thing this morning, Barry on the 'Boy Brax' had half a box and Trevor on the 'Lady Joan' had a box full. I enjoyed the sun while getting my bass nets ready to go:-

Then it was back home to get another 500 yards of flatfish nets ready to go:-

Looking forward to catching a wider range of species when this gets in the water. It might be ok on Sunday to have a shut, but the forecast keeps changing at the moment and there is plenty of wind all week. 

29th September 2012. Did the pots yesterday, the spider crabs have all but disappeared but there are some good sized brown crab there. Trevor on 'Lady Joan' went mackereling on the flood but it was hard going, he only had about 10 kilo's. I heard that 'boy' Stuart had 100 kilos of mackerel and herring mixed in his nets. Looks like we have a windy week coming up, nets in the bay might be the way ahead.

26th September 2012. The wind is dropping tomorrow but it is from the northwest so it might still be choppy, the water is murky and the few boats that tried mackereling yesterday didn't have much at all. Not looking very promissing. 

23rd September 2012. The weather forecast keeps changing, it is now looking windy until Friday. Monday and Tuesday are fresh westerlies, Wednesday and Thursday are fresh Northerlies. A week of working at home by the look of it.

21st September 2012. Yesterday I mackereled for a few hours and only caught one box full. At low water I shut 200 yards of net hoping for a good amount of dogfish for pot bait and anything else that might be around. I only left the net in the water for 50 minutes and it had 5 boxes of dogs:-

Apart from a couple of bullhuss and half a dozen smoothhounds the rest were mergies (lesser spotted dogfish). Sometimes at this time of the year you can have the hassle of loads of soft worthless spider crab in this area but I only had one. As for tasty 'edible' fish, they were nearly non existent, one large bream, one small cod and a red gurnard:- 

I put three boxes of mergies in the freezer and put the other two in the pots this morning. My next trip out will be monday at the earliest, most probably mackereling. 

19th September 2012. I did a couple of hours mackereling for one box, half small and half good. Then I hauled the pots, no spiders left in the bay but there are a few nice sized brown crabs. I went up the stones after bass on the flood tide but never had a bite. Mackereling and then shutting the net tomorrow is plan 'A' at the moment.

18th September 2012. I am finally fit to go to sea having rested and took tablets for long enough. Will be trying the mackerel on the ebb tide tomorrow morning, then baiting the pots that are well overdue a haul at low water and then either mackerel or bass on the first half of the flood tide. I have got 200 yards of bass/cod net ready to shut out deep but will be waiting for the tide to be a bit smaller before I have a go. I'm sure there will be plenty of dogfish for pot bait out there if nothing else (hope for a few black bream to be honest).

15th September 2012. Still not fit enough to be rocking about. Have been spending the time off sorting some of my winter nets out. 

14th September 2012. Quite a fresh wind today but it is looking nice and calm tomorrow. Hopefully my back ache that started again two days ago will be better by then. I would like to get out early and fish over the low water. Mackerel, bass and pots on the to-do list. 

12th September 2012. The chaps that went early today had quite a bit of mackerel. I heard that one boat had 10 boxes but 8 of them were small. I had a try on the high water in the afternoon at the corner of the head and only had 2 fish. There are a few rays about, two of the Mcclary brothers and a couple of friends took their dads boat out angling for the day down west, here is Anthony with a nice ray:-

And his brother Richard with a couple more:-

10th September 2012. Not much new to report, still very little mackerel about, the chaps that went first light had about one box of good stuff and a couple of boxes of small. The ones that went from the moorings at 10am had about 1/2 a box each. Simon on the fast worker 'Hope' has been on the pollack and catching around 7 boxes per trip. I was told that he is steaming all the way to the Scilly Isles, worth it when they are nudging £100 per box. I did my pots, not much moving.

8th September 2012. Did the pots again, bit more crab into the store pot. I was watching the few mackerelers while I was hauling and they were catching nothing. Hopefully with the tides getting bigger next week some fish will show up. I plan to have a go on Monday but don't expect it to be much good until later in the week, you never know though.

6th September 2012. Did the pots, some good sized brown crab and a few spiders. The mackerelers were catching mostly small so I went bassing up the 'Stones'. Three hours towing sidewinders only produced one bass, not good. I was glad to get back on the moorings, there was a nice sailing boat leaving the bay as I was coming in:- 

She was under engine power as there wasn't a breath of wind. Another windless day forecasted for tomorrow. 

5th September 2012. Feeling better and plan to go to sea tomorrow. Pots, mackerel and bass hopefully. It was rough this morning, the couple of boats that went had two boxes of mackerel each. Updates should be back to normal from now. Here is a 20 minute film showing the pro hake netter 'Ajax' in action:-

3rd September 2012. Sorry for lack of updates, I'm not well, bad back and other ailments. Perfect weather and I can't get out there...Grrrrr.

29th August 2012. A few boats out searching for mackerel, it didn't look as if they were catching. I went to my store pots and landed the few spiders I had, total weight 75 kilos. A sunfish got very close to the boat:- 

He was laying flat on the surface before I got my camera out, I got two shots before he disappeared into the depths:-

With a fresh 20mph north northwest wind all day tomorrow it will be a day ashore. Friday is still looking good though and next week is forcasted to be calm at the moment.

28th August 2012. Quite a lot of us tried mackereling today and it was useless, a couple of fish each. I baited the pots and they were not any better, a dozen spiders and not much else. It was too windy to put the net out for pot bait so that has been postponed until Friday. Bit of a fish drought, hope it doesn't last too long!

26th August 2012. I can't go today and the weather looks bad tomorrow so my next trip will be on Tuesday. I need to get some bait for the pots so I am thinking about shutting a net out deep to hopefully catch lots of dogfish (mergies or morgies). There is the chance that something interesting might come up in it as well. I will try a couple of hours mackereling first.

25th August 2012. All my pots are now just outside the storepots, from Porthminster point down to the Island. A friend from Hayle with a larger boat and hauler managed to get the string up that seemed hitched:-

Chris got it to the surface to find a bundle of about 15 new inkwell pots tangled into mine. We found out who they belonged to and he came and sorted them out, Scott was very happy to get his lost gear back and threw me a tenner for a drink!

I had my MCA safety inspection on Monday and had a few things to put right and get. Didn't get away with having mobile phones instead of a VHF radio this time and had to buy one, after reading the reviews of the cheap ones I dug deep and spent £131 on a good one. It floats and flashes if you drop it in the sea, that could be handy:-

A set of flares, waterproof container and a light for my lifejacket came to another £100 :- 

The flares wont need replacing until 2016. I have never been so safe! 

22nd August 2012. Going to put the rest of the pots safe tomorrow and try the bass and mackerel. Unsettled weather on the way again.

20th August 2012. I tried the bass again up the 'stones' and caught three. As I lifted the first one the line broke and the fish landed on the gunnels, ballanced there for a split second and then fell inboard! :- 

I should dig out my landing net for the next trip with these good sized fish about. Light line fishes better but you risk losing the big ones.

Just as it was coming dark I had decided to haul my pots that are on the Eastern Carricks (rough off Porthminster Point) as I was doing so I heard someone calling and noticed two women waving from a boat. I did the pots and then went over to them, their engine wouldn't start so I took them in tow back to their moorings. Its not a nice feeling being stranded out there with it starting to get dark, been there, done that, got the t-shirt! The boat was called 'Bea Lucky'. Hopefully they will Bea more Lucky next trip:-

19th August 2012. Got out yesterday and did the redgill V sidewinder test. I went up the stones and towed one of each lure, after about an hour the first fish went to the sidewinder ( about 1 1/2lb ). Over an hour later I started packing up, wound the 1st line in then as I got hold of the other line a good fish grabbed it. The sidewinder had struck again. This time it was a beauty around 2 kilo plus ( nudging 5lb, haven't weighed it yet ). It made the first one look like a tiddler:- 

I put the other line back out with another sidewinder on :) and it caught an undersized bass, that was the tally for the trip. I think I'm converted! They swim perfectly with no need for hook adjustment, the hook is on top so less chance of snagging weed or rocks and most importantly of all, it catches!  The WINNER :-

Might be going up again later today for another try. There is very little mackerel around, most of the chaps are describing their catch in number of fish not boxes!

16th August 2012. Looks like the weather is staying poor until  Saturday pm, hope to get out and try the mackerel and then check the pots. 

14th August 2012. Not such a big sea coming tomorrow night as first predicted. I have moved the pots from Clodgey to Porthminster point and the 2 strings I have left deep cross the bay I have put more chain on the ends, they should be ok. Very little mackerel around, most of the chaps were on one box of good stuff for 6hrs. Frank Lander did catch a bass on his mackerel hooks today down seal island way. 

12th August 2012. Sorry for the lack of updates , I have been busy with gardening, housework (yuck) and family. The forecast that windguru is giving suggests that I should move my pots to their winter spot by Wednesday. There is a lot of strong south southwest wind on the way with a fair bit of ground swell. Take a look at the 7 day prediction here. I hope to do the pots today and bring the last string aboard into safer water deep off Porthminster beach and then get the rest moved on Tuesday.

8th August 2012. I have been setting up some bass trolling lines:- 

A bit of heavy potting twine to tie to the stern corner, then 40 meters of 60lb mono and then 12 meters of 20lb mono to the lure. I am going to use a 'normal' redgill on one and a sidewinder on the other to see which fishes best, the sidewinder is the one at the top:-

Not much fish about at the moment though, Tony on the 'Belle Bettina' only had 30 kilos of mackerel today and he normally does a lot better than that. Hodgey on 'Mary Mo' went bassing, he had a 2 1/2 pounder first cast and then didn't have another bite! 

6th August 2012. Tried mackereling this morning, only had a dozen fish in over an hour. I am sorting out my bassing gear. Plan to try up the stones Wednesday or Thursday.

5th August 2012, Did the pots this morning, very little in them and I have 3 that I can't get up. It's been a while since I hauled them and there has been quiet a lot of ground swell. Last night I had 5 boxes of mackerel but tonight only one. It has been 'one of those days'.

It was an evening of sunshine and showers or rainbow weather:-

3rd August 2012. I had 4 boxes lastnight and 3 boxes the night before. I heard that the price has dropped a bit but it can't be too bad if Ryan the Newlyn Market auctioneer is out there catching them still:-

If anyone knows that they are worth catching, he does!

In the background is the Trinity House vessel that tends to the marker bouys around the coast. She has been there on anchor for three days now, maybe waiting for the ground swell to decrease so she can do her job. 

1st  August 2012. The boats that went early yesterday had between 2 to 4 boxes per man. Apparently the prices were up to £3.00 per kilo for mediums and as much as £5.50 for large mediums. The fish didn't really start feeding properly lastnight until about an hour and a half after high water. We had to wait around but it was worth it:-

The plan is to do the same again tonight, they should be there again. 

31st July 2012. mackereled for 3 hours on the ebb tonight, caught 104 kilos, 10 l/m, 79m and 15s. 

30th July 2012. I tried mackereling yesterday afternoon but it was useless, 14 fish! I am going to have another try tomorrow when the tide is much better. 

27th July 2012. It was foggy again yesterday morning so that made me cancel the idea of bassing. I put 'Jen' outside the harbour on anchor so I could mackerel just after low water in the evening when it's not so hot.

The fisheries protection vessel was on anchor all evening in the bay:-

On my way down 'Rampers' I think I have discovered a new market for small mackerel, never seen so many crablines on the go:-

I thought they were waiting for boat trips but they were all filling up buckets with crabs. The seals were there as well, 50p per small mackerel, could be as much as £50 stood there!

I managed to get a lift out with a skiffer and set off around the Island, 'Eyes of Blue', (William Thomas) is back in action with a new engine fitted:-

The fishing was slow, I stuck it out right until sunset for 57 kilos. 10k large mediums, 37k mediums and 10k small. It was a gorgeous evening though:- 

As the sun went down I was just at the right angle for it reflecting off all the windows of the holiday flats at porthmeor, it looked like the buildings were on fire:- 

Fishing my way back towards the Island  it was nice to see this old beauty sail by:-

Then just after that, at the other end of the age spectrum, Gary on 'Bethshan' steam past me, coming in after a long day on the pollack:-

My next trip wont be until Sunday afternoon at the earliest, more than likely mackereling.

25th July 2012. Went mackereling last night for four hours and had 99 kilos. 11k large mediums (£2.70 per kilo), 66k mediums (£1.20 per kilo) and 22k small ( 40p per kilo).

Hauled the pots today for very little, one undersized lobster and a few spiders. The plan was to go mackereling again tonight but fog stopped play:-

You couldn't see from one quay to the other at times. Didn't fancy going out in that much. It's going to be another hot day tomorrow with the fog clearing early. I might be bassing if I can get bait.

23rd July 2012. The early risers had a lot of mackerel this morning but there was a lot of small ones. The chaps that went from the moorings had 2 to 3 boxes each. I have been busy making new deck boards for my boat 'Jen'. I knew those woodwork lessons at school would come in handy:-

I'm not doing a 'proper job', just keeping her going until I have the time and money to give her a full refit. Sealed, glued and screwed on top of the old deck for now. I might get the taste for it and make a start on my other 16ft pilot that has been sat in my garden for over a year. She is a better hull than 'jen', a lot stronger and has large ribs in her:-

I went to do the pots today but it was quite fresh out there, plenty of white caps so I decided to leave it be until tomorrow when it's meant to be just 5pm southerly.  

21st July 2012. My girlfriends birthday today so its been a day off the water. I tried bassing for ages yesterday, only managed to catch 4 bass and 1 pollack, they are going on the bbq tonight. One of my mates went mackereling this morning and caught 7 boxes, he was back in by 7.30am. He was going back out for more this afternoon on the flood:- 

I expect there will be a lot of fish on the market Monday morning and wouldn't be surprised if the price is down to 60p to 80p.

19th July 2012. Not much mackerel about yesterday, I had one box for 2 hours fishing and I have heard that the price has dropped as well. Off out for another try today and then hopefully bassing tomorrow. 

17th July 2012. Did 5 hours mackereling for 35 kilos,  14k large medium, 17k medium and 4k small. Very slow going, hopefully it will get better as the week goes on and the tides get bigger. 

16th July 2012. Didn't go yesterday, sat at Porthgwidden beach in the sun watching the chaps at sea catching very little:-  

Made the most of the little bit of blue sky we've had so far this month. I don't like seagulls but I didn't mind giving this little tame chap a few crumbs:- 

Quite rough and windy today, its calming down tomorrow so I am going to put some hours in and do a low water on the mackerel. 

14th July 2012. Still nursing a bad back, hope it's ok by tomorrow afternoon, I want to go mackereling. West to southwest winds all next week, a good 'fishy' direction. With the jumping tides(getting higher each day) there should be plenty of mackerel about. Come Friday the wind is dropping light and turning northerly, so I will get the pots done then if I don't get the chance during the week. They have had a long soak, should be a good haul hopefully. 

11th July 2012. Took a day off today, bit of back ache and lots of other stuff to do. Don't think I will be going tomorrow either, very wet and getting increasingly windy. Hope to get out on Friday to do the pots. The chaps that mackereled this morning averaged 100 kilos per man. 

Hodgey on 'Mary Mo' went bassing on Monday, he tried a few spots, including the 'Stones' but only managed to catch one bass.

10th July 2012. I mackereled on Sunday and landed 47 kilos of mediums (£2.90 per kilo) and 8 kilos of large mediums (£3.50 per kilo).

Yesterday I mackereled from 5pm (first of the  flood) until 8.30pm and had 20k large mediums (£4.00), 80k mediums (£2.90) and 19k small (40p). Same plan for today. I'm catching them from Clodgy Point down to the Island, with the best of it at ''Scuddy Main'' a patch of high rough ground deep off the middle of Porthmeor beach.

7th July 2012. Alarm went off at 6am and I could hear the wind blowing a lot more than it was meant to be, a quick look out of the window and I could see that the bait boats were on their moorings. Bassing cancelled for today. Next trip will be mackereling tomorrow.

6th July 2012. Mackereled lastnight from 6pm to 9pm and caught 6 boxes, landed 5 of them on the market and kept a box of small for bait. Hauled the pots this morning for 4 lobsters and a bit of crab. Might be bassing tomorrow. 

5th July 2012. Just called Stevenson's and Sons for this mornings mackerel prices, I got £1.50 per kilo for large mediums and 70p for the mediums. Not great but there has been a lot of fish landed this week. Going to mackerel tonight and hope that Friday's prices are up a bit. 

4th July 2012. I had the rods aboard ready to go bassing 8am this morning, both bait boats were out and it was nice and calm. Plan 'A' soon turned into plan 'B' when I found out that all the bait men were catching was very small eels. The rods went back in the car and I started mackereling. Nothing at the corner of the Island so I went across the bay and mackereled next to my pots, had a box in an hour and then it went quiet. Hauled the pots and had 5 lobsters, 3 of them came up in one pot! Then it was back to the Island for the first of the flood and the fish were there, I ended up with about 120 kilos. A Sea Cadet  vessel dropped anchor in the middle of the Hayle mens pots, nice looking boat:-

3rd July 2012. I tried the mackerel for about an hour and a half yesterday, it was useless, 7 fish. So I went and pulled the 3 pots at Clodgy Point and had this beauty 6 pounder! :- 

2nd July 2012. I went mackereling yesterday afternoon for a few hours, it was very slow going to start with and didn't get much better when the ebb was in full flow. As I was going out there were others coming in with just 12 fish for 2 hours. I ended up with 57 kilos. They were a good 'run' of fish, 16k large mediums, 35k mediums and 6k small. The early birds had good fishing, 120-150 kilos per man.

29th June 2012. Plan 'A' is to go mackereling after Sunday lunch, good wind direction (south/southwest), good tide size (about 16ft) and it's not meant to rain either!  

28th June 2012. I did a few hours angling today, started at the back of the Island where I found Hodgey and his mate on 'Mary Mo' trying to catch my bass! :-

We gave it 1/2 an hour there, I didn't have a bite and Hodgey had one small bass. As I was leaving to try Porthminster Point 'Boy' Stuart went past going west towing his other boat with him, saving petrol I guess:- 

I fished for about 2 hrs at Porthminster and had one bass (1.1k),  9k of (0-1k) pollack and 6k of (1-2k) pollack. The mackerel men didn't have much today, a box or two each.

27th June 2012. I had a few bass at the back of the Island yesterday just after high tide. It went quiet after a while so I moved to Porthminster Point, it was overcast and flat calm:-

I had a fish every cast within seconds! In 30 minutes I had run out of bait and the deck looked like this:- 

Pollack every cast with a couple of bass. Not seen that many pollack on the eastern carricks before, they were all landable size. Very enjoyable! 

25th June 2012. Been away from the the laptop, Had a few nice bass today at the back of the Island. Yesterday I had 111kilos of mackerel over low water, 22k large mediums, 67k mediums and 22k of small. I tried mackereling today but only had a dozen fish in an hour, very few and far between, neap tide all week so it might not get much better.

22nd June 2012. The weather is looking ok  for all of next week. Going to do a few hours mackereling in the morning, I think it is going to be a good week.  

21st June 2012. Did the pots this morning, the 1st string of nine that I had move deeper came up with two good lobsters and one throw back, the other two strings didn't have any, so I moved one of them deeper but the other has a pot hitched and had to stay where it is for now. Hopefully I can free it next haul and move it out deeper. Still plenty of mackerel about, my next trip will be after them on Saturday or maybe Sunday. The larger lobster weighed 1.4 kilos, I like seeing them come up! :-

20th June 2012. There has been plenty of mackerel about but I have been enjoying some angling, you can''t beat catching these little beauties:-

Prisky started catching plenty of large sandeels today, fantastic bass baits. Here he is yesterday hauling his seine net catching nothing but small eels:- 

16th June 2012. It is rough out there today but it is mostly wind sea and not much ground sea so the pots should be ok. Calming off rapidly tomorrow, hopefully the water will be clear enough for handlining mackerel, I will give it a try and if its no good I will do the pots.

Hope to have some more bbq's this week, mackerel with just sea salt, delicious:-

In the back garden if the weather isn't too brilliant and on the beach when it's sunny:-

The arches on the harbour beach took the smoke away from everyone:- 

Note one of the most important items at a beach bbq, the bowl of ice to keep the cider, beer and soft drinks cold. Very handy having a key to the ice room on the pier  :)

14th June 2012. Yesterday I did the pots, they had about £40 worth of crab. Then I tried the mackerel for a short while and had nothing, I should've stuck at it though, my friend ended up with 13 boxes lastnight and 8 boxes this morning. I missed out there! Bad weather now until Sunday.

11th June 2012. The mackerel were not there today, most boats only had a box per man. I did the pots. One string had moved and tangled a bit but wasn't to bad to sort out. Very little in them, a few crab and not a lobster in sight.

10th June 2012. Late finish tonight, Had 195 kilos, 22k large mediums, 120k mediums and 53k small. weather looks good for the next few days so could be a good week.

8th June 2012. Huge seas today, hope the pots survive it.

7th June 2012. Next trip out should be on Saturday chasing a few mackerel. My thumb is healing, don't want to do that again anytime soon!

5th June 2012. Well yesterday didn't quite go to plan. After 5 minutes of mackereling this happened:- 

Right in past the barb, I tried forcing it back out by pushing the shank against the gunnels but it wasn't going anywhere. Eventually back in on the quay a friend managed to cut to the barb and pull it out. Only the second time in thirty odd years I have had it happen so deep.

I got it cleaned and dressed, then went back out and did the pots. There were more spiders than there had been and two lobsters. Plus a few of the pots had caught dogfish due to the fresh mackerel bait I used last haul. These were stabbed and stuck back in under the bait band, great crab bait. On the way out Matt on the 'Sea Otter' was coming in from angling and looking happy with life:-

4th June 2012. Going to try the mackerel this afternoon and do the pots. I'm going to move the 3 at Clodgy Point and put them safe on the eastern carricks (off Porthminster Point) as there is a fairly large ground swell forecasted for Thursday and Friday.

2nd June 2012. Having a weekend off!

1st June 2012. Yesterdays mackereling went well, I caught 8 boxes in 3 1/2hrs. Landed 39k of large mediums (£4.30 per kilo), 114k of mediums (£2.00 per kilo) and 39k of small (30p per kilo). Didn't offer any up for delivery due to having my daughter and the late finish.

I saved 120 small mackerel from yesterdays catch so I could quadruple bait the pots today to see if it improves the fishing. Got down the harbour early and gave the hauler engine its 20hr oil change and did a few other maintenance jobs. There was a few tripping boats ''shoved out in the roads'' hoping for a good 10am first trip of the day in flat calm conditions:-

I hauled and baited the 3 pots at Clodgey Point to start with, one sized spider and a big conger eel. The cloud of the morning had cleared away and it was a really warm day:-

The conger didnt go to waste, it has gone to a french friend of mine who uses them as a base to a delicious soup. I then went and hauld the other pots and had about 20 kilos of spiders, a couple of brown crabs and three lobsters. Two lobsters weighed 1.7k together and the other was well under size and went back:-

Next trip will be on Monday. Hopefully bassing if the bait men are out.

30th May 2012. No fishing for me today, I had to be other places. Going to concentrate on the mackerel tomorrow, there has been some good catches with some of the chaps having over 200k. Friday is the last fish market until Wednesday next week, so with the big tides I expect I will go bassing and potting on Monday. 

29th May 2012. Hardly a ripple out there today, looks like a mirror. Off to haul the pots. Think its been 5 days since I last hauled them, (not counting the 3 at Clodgey Point). Hope a few of them have managed to retain a lobster each.

Did the pots, there were a few lobsters today:-

Nearly as much lobster as there were spiders:-

27th May 2012. I tried mackereling for about 45 minutes and didn't catch a single fish. One lad I spoke to had done 3hrs for just 20 fish. Before I came in I went and pulled the 3 pots I have by Clodgy Point. This was the third haul there and the pots have been empty until today, the first pot came up with a 700 gram lobster, the other two were empty but I am going to have a treat for my dinner tonight:-

Something that I never look forward to each year is the arrival of the self drive motor boats, but sadly they have landed on the beach:-

Experienced boat handlers have to take safety courses to work at sea, but an ''Emmit'' that has never been near the seaside can pay a few pounds to hire one of these for 1/2 an hour and is sent off out the harbour with a couple of instruction of where to go and how to turn the engine off on the way back to the beach. I have seen them hit under water rocks, travel miles away from the area they are meant to be and one actually ran up onto a large wooden floating store pot. It's unbelievable that its allowed. They also buzz around you when you are trying to do some quiet bass angling, scaring the fish off. Ok, thats my yearly moan about self-drives over, I don't like them much if you hadn't guessed haha.

26th May 2012. Rough out there today with the strong easterly wind:-

It is only wind sea and the water is very clear. Not much wind tomorrow so I will have a go at mackereling. With no boats at sea it shows how much the harbour has filled up:-

Get yourself into town today and enjoy whats on offer in this years St Ives Food Festival, heres todays events:-

Saturday 26 May

10am - 4pm - Food and Drink Producers Market - West Pier

11am - 1pm - Pasta making workshop with Mishmashkitchen - watch your kids get their hands dirty, making and rolling fresh pasta dough and creating authentic filled pasta shapes such as tortellini and mezza luna as well as the more well known spaghetti and linguini.  mishmash Kitchen will dry it out, and you can take it away to cook for your tea! Places are limited - £8 - to book call 07923 040070 or email info@mishmashkitchen.co.uk

12pm - 4pm - Face Painting and Hand Massage courtesy of Tregenna Castle Hotel - Harbour Beach

1245pm  - Kidz R Us - performing Sound of Music - Harbour Beach

Chef demos - 1pm - 4pm

Heart FM will be present on Harbour Beach

If you can't make it today then they are doing it all again tomorrow, I shall be bringing a few spider crabs ashore in the morning to be cooked and tasted by anyone who fancies it.

24th May 2012. Thick fog messed today up. Yesterday was good though. Took Em and her boyfriend Lawrence out bassing in the morning. We got live eels from Prisky and then anchored up just behind the Island where I had the fish the day before. There was a fairly large ground swell:-

I set up the first rod and cast out. Before I got the other rod out of its bag the reel started screaming, I picked it up and struck, a minute later I was unhooking a 2 3/4lb bass. Cast out again and before I got the reel on the second rod I had another bass. That was the only two sized bass for the day:- 

Em took some shots but had forgotten to charge the camera and the battery died. After about 30 minutes Lawrence had started to feel quite green. He was going to be sick and the camera needed charging so I dropped them both back in. I went back and fished for a while but only had one small bass after that. The fisheries came into the bay to check on a few Hayle potters, seen here in the distance with tripping boat 'Isla Bea':-

Em wanted to film Godrevy Lighthouse and me hauling my pots that are 2/3 of the way there. Lawrence had seen enough of the sea so I picked Em up at low water armed with a fully charged camera. She got some great shots of me potting, unluckily the lobsters were not moving and we only had one undersized one, a few spiders and some browns. Pots all done we headed for the lighthouse:- 

I took a few pictures with my mobile which aren't very good quality but it was nice to be there:-

I wanted to put Em ashore on the Island but the sea was a bit too lively:-

22nd May 2012. Had 17 bass today but a lot of them were small. Em is coming out to film me tomorrow, good forecast, sun and no wind. Great!

All the fish were caught just off the Island around Carneverus rock, all on live sandeel. Very overcast today. Will be there tomorrow with a blue sky, catching bass and working on the suntan.

As I was going out yesterday I took a picture of one of the most well built 18ft Plymouth Pilots in the harbour. Rob Yo (yoyo) built ''Bluebell'' from scratch and cut no corners, she is a fine boat:-

 21st May 2012. My friend Em Cooper who made my website promo video is coming back to St Ives tonight until Saturday. She is going to come out and film me bassing and hauling pots, she is very good and it should be well worth watching. Off to do the pots at high water tonight.

Tried mackereling first and it wasn't too bad so I stuck with it and ended up with 101 kilos. A third of it was small though.

20th May 2012. Not much mackerel out there this weekend, but there is plenty being caught over Newlyn side which is going to make our smaller catches worth a lot less. My mind is turning to hunting down some bass.

19th May 2012. Going mackereling at 2pm. The prices I got this week were Monday:- £2.70 for large mediums, £1.30 for mediums and 25p for small. Friday:- £4.00 for large mediums, £3.60 for mediums and 30p for small.

17th May 2012. Strong easterly wind, no one will be doing much out there today. Tried mackereling yesterday and had 20 fish for an hours effort so wound up and did the pots. Had 2 lobsters, one keeper and one throwback, not much crab though so I have moved the gear a bit deeper. Tried mackereling again after the pots and had about 30 kilos.

15th May 2012. I have got a few more pots and back ropes ready to go today, will be putting them on the boat in the morning and shutting them on the flood. Going to put them on the rough by 'browthen rock'' just east of clodgy point. The 1st lobster I caught last year came up from there and weight 6 1/2lb!  Going to mackerel the flood and then do the pots on the high water. Very light winds all day tomorrow, should be nice out there.

14th May 2012. Small tides and yucky weather at the moment but if the forecast is right its going to be calm and settled from Wednesday until Monday. With the tides slowly getting bigger it should be a productive 2nd half of the week.

13th May 2012. Sorry for lack of updates, I have been having problems with the site. All working ok now and will update the news tonight. Yesterday on the way out mackereling there was a basking shark just off the pier.I filmed it but haven't got it ready to go on here yet. Off to do the pots.

As I left the harbour three boats were arriving back from Newlyn, 'Hope', 'Peter Pan SS138' and 'Norah T SS53', the last two pictured below :-

Did the pots for one lobster, a basket of spiders and a few large brown crabs. Going to get another string of nine pots ready to go by Wednesday. There has been a couple of bass caught up the 'stones' by Gary on 'Bethshan' so if the mackerel go quiet I will have a go maybe on Thursday.

The mackerel prices i had on Tuesday were £2.40 per kilo for large mediums and 80p for mediums, there was a lot of fish on the market. Wednesdays prices were £2.40 for large mediums, £1.00 for mediums and 65p for small.

9th May 2012. I didn't fancy the wind and rain today and its looking even worse for tomorrow. It might be Saturday until I go again.

8th May 2012. Been very busy, had 8 boxes of mackerel today, 34k large mediums, 109k mediums and 51k small.

6th May 2012. Not a bad day today, 2hrs mackereling on the last of the ebb at the corner of the head (the Island) produced 60 kilos. I then did the pots which were a bit disapointing, a few spiders but not much else. Then another 1 1/2 hrs mackereling for another 60 kilos on the flood.

As I was going out the 'San Pablo 3', an angling tripping boat from Hayle was towing the 'Sea Otter' back to harbour :- 

Matt and his boy saving petrol :) 

5th May 2012. I have been out of the county today so i don't know whats been happening down the harbour. At sea most of the day tomorrow and will update the news in the evening.

4th May 2012. 'Dignity' came back home from Newlyn yesterday, looking good as usual :

There isn't many boats you can walk under in the harbour ;- 

She was against the quay loading up with pots, as was 'Little Christina' which was a little bit dwarfed by her :-

I came against the quay when the tide was in and put the 3rd string of 9 pots aboard :

Shut them near the other 2 strings and came back in. I hope to be hauling them on Sunday at low water. Plan 'A' is to mackerel before and after the slack water, would be nice to see a lobster. Prisky tried eeling over Hayle Barr in hope it was better than behind the quay but there was nothing there either.

3rd May 2012. I got another string of pots back out today, thats 18 in the water and another 9 ready to go tomorrow. I tried the mackerel for a while and didn't have a single fish, A few boats had a couple of boxes, I'm going to have to try the early morning once I have the pots out. The Newlyn men are catching quite a bit of mackerel, (200k some of them) which has made the price 1/2 over night. 

A tug stopped off in the bay, not sure what he is up to, as long as he doesn't drop anchor onto my pots!

2nd May 2012. At last a few of my pots have gone back in the sea today, one string of 9 half way to the stones on a bit of shoddery ground (slightly rough, not mountinous and hitchy) Will be taking another string to join them tomorrow. Tried the mackerel on the way back for 1/2 an hour, not one fish. The early birds (5am) had about 2 boxes per man.

Both bait boats were out today but the eels were not playing ball, Prisky said the fishing was 'useless'. The water has a lot of glit (plankton) in it, that stops the eels seeing the net and being 'hearded' by it. They were catching handfulls instead of boxes full.

30th April 2012. Far too wet and windy for anyone to go out today, still going to be quite windy tomorrow from the south east. Might have to wait one more day to put the pots back out.

29th April 2012. Went down the harbour when the rain eased off to pump the boat out. There had been 2 punts sunk and mine had parted out its moorings. Some kind person had tied it back up onto a spare mooring. This is the last of the rough weather, surely.

28th April 2012. The mackerel prices were good, Wednesday's were large medium £4.30, medium £3.10, small £1.00 and herring 50p. Thursdays were large medium £4.50, medium £3.90, small £1.80 and herring £1.00. Gusts to 50mph tomorrow but soon calming and becoming workable by Monday evening.

27th April 2012. A combination of backache and bad weather means I am having a weekend off.

26th April 2012. Fished the evening tide again, 6 to 8.30, landed 7k large mediums, 24k mediums, 13k small and 2k of herring. Hodgy on 'Mary Mo' did the low water 2 handed and had 80k when I got out there. I was told that the prices this morning were around £4 for large mediums, £3 for mediums and 60p for small. There is yet another blast of strong wind coming for Sunday (gusting to 50mph) but from next Tuesday it is looking settled, hopefully the pots will go back in the water then. 

25th April 2012. I did the right thing coming in early yesterday, the others didn't catch much, 1/2 a box was the best. Jen floated at 5pm just as the rain cleared away and the sun came out for a bit :-

Fished from 5pm until 9pm, it was a bit slow but much better than yesterday. Ended up with 7k large mediums, 26k mediums, 8k small and 1.5k of herring. It was a late finish so didn't offer it by text, I landed it all. Apparently mediums were anything from £3.00 to £3.90 per kilo on the market this morning.

24th April 2012. The eariy birds didn't have any fish today, Simon on the 'Kira' only had 20 mackerel. That made me change my mind about going out over low water as well as it was quite rough and the water was murky. I went on the flood about 4.30pm and did two drifts for only 7 mackerel and 4 herring. The fish might of turned up later but I wasn't impressed and came in.

23rd April 2012. There was a bit of fish this morning with the chaps that went early. Karl on 'Athena Fay' PZ49 had 70k. I expect Gary on 'Bethshan' had about the same. They are both against the quay so I think half tide ebbing must be fishing ok :-

I think they would of made the moorings otherwise. This makes me optimistic for tomorrow over low water. 'Shikiri' was also out and had 30 kilos with only one kilo of small amongst it. Looking forward to tomorrow now :)  I pumped Jen out and measured for the next new section of decking. Once the deck is done it will be paint up time.

22nd April 2012. Just seen Gary on 'Bethshan' waiting to go out mackereling, its still very rough out there. He did go yesterday and had 40 kilos, half of which was small. Not enough to run those two big outboards.

21st April  2012. Too rough today if I had the chance to go, my next trip out will most probably be Tuesday mackereling and then again on Thursday to get the pots back out.

20th April 2012. I'm busy this weekend but 3 boats went out on the flood mackereling today, 'Bethshan', 'kira' and 'Mary Mo'. I spoke to Karl on 'Kira' who was fishing 2 hands (2 crew) and they had 2 boxes, but most of it was small, only 8 kilos of 50 kilos wasn't. They fished from Newlyn as well earlier today and had 2 boxes that side, they were good sized fish tho. I'm not missing much at a box of small per man from here. The forecast is very changable still so I'm not predicting when I'm next going to sea. Plenty of surf and wind on the way.

19th April 2012. Had a look at 4pm and the water is very murky, no point trying to hook fish. Plus the sea was still quite rough and the tide hadn't started ebbing against the the wind so it would of got a lot worse. The forecast keeps changing twice a day but next week is looking pretty bad, lots of wind most days. Come on settled weather, where are you?

18th April 2012. I heard on the radio that the lifeboat rescued 3 surfers off  Porthminster beach this morning, its has to be rough to be surfing there. Rampers was being surfed when I went down to pump the boat out :-

Plenty of ground sea in the harbour, all the boats were left skew whiff :-

We have had the worst of the the rough seas, calming down now. Might even get out tomorrow for a try on the mackerel around 4pm, but I expect the water will be too murky, will tell with a look over the quay wall. Just seen the updated forecast and there is another blow coming Monday and Tuesday with large ground sea again, the pots will stay on the quay for a bit longer I think.

Found the rescue story :-

St Ives RNLI inshore lifeboat crew rescue three surfers
The volunteer crew of the St Ives RNLI Inshore Lifeboat launched at 11:10 in the morning on Wednesday 18th April to rescue two surfers and a third person who had got into serious difficulty in rough conditions off Porthminster Point
The teenage surfers were spotted by a passer by on the shore who dialled 999 to report that there were people... in difficulty in the sea off Porthminster.
The St Ives RNLI inshore lifeboat was launched at 11:10 with Station Mechanic/2nd Coxswain Robert Cocking at the helm, and crewed by Barney Stevens and Paul LeBas. Robert said that ‘when we reached the casualties we found that they were in serious difficulty as they were unable to get to shore against the tide in very choppy conditions and rough seas’.
‘The two teenage surfers had been joined by a third member of their group who had swam out to try & help them. Fortunately we reached them all before anyone was seriously hurt and were able to take them all back to the safety of Porthminster Beach.’
St Ives RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager Derek Hall noted afterwards ‘These three young people were very lucky in the end, had they not been spotted things could have been very different as the rough seas generated by the force 7-8 winds meant that they were in real trouble. We would always recommend that surfers only go out in conditions which they are able to handle, and should one of their group get into difficulty to contact the Coastguards for help by dialling 999.

17th April 2012. Half of the tripping boats have gone up Hayle estuary where its always calm. Isla-Bea, Cornish Crest and Seahorse have stayed, the latter having lost her rudder the other day would of had to be towed. The sea is starting to build and there are some ganets working in the bay. I think if I can get out there on Thursday when the size of the tide is perfect there will be some mackerel to catch. Depends how big the ground sea is.

16th April 2012. A few boats went early on the ebb and tried the mackerel. There was no fish down Pendeen but the couple of boats that stayed at the corner of the Island had 1/2 to 3/4 of a box each. I went on the flood and managed to get all my pots back :-

I landed the few spiders in the store bags rather than leave them out in the sea thats coming. Only had 36 kilos but at least they are money now. The pots will be staying on the quay until next Monday when I will be taking them deeper towards the 'stones' if the forecast is good enough. Get them on some rough ground and have a few lobsters and good sized browns hopefully.

15th April 2012. The mackerel have gone completely. I haven't tried since Thursday but the chaps that went today near enough blanked and yesterday they only had 20 fish or so. I managed to bring in 19 of my pots today and will try to get the last 8 that are out there tomorrow. They will be safer on the quay when that stormy weather arrives :-

Tripping boat 'Dolly Pentreath' is against the quay, she won't want to be there on Tuesday, if I had a large wooden boat it would be going up Hayle estuary tomorrow :-

Another wooden tripping boat in the harbour is the Cornish Crest. She has had a shelter put on her this season, should keep the holiday makers a bit drier on those rainy and sea spray days :

14th Arpril 2012. No update yesterday as I was away from the PC being dad. I didn't go to sea yesterday and luckily didn't miss anything. The chaps that went had less than a box except for Gary on 'Bethshan' who having seen what was being caught here steamed around from Newlyn and caught about 40 kilos at Pendeen on the way. Not only was Thursday a good catch for me but the prices were up as well, due to there being no mackerel anywhere else. Large mediums were £4.60 and mediums were £2.70, I grossed £418.30 for the 4 hours fishing. A well needed change of luck!  Really bad weather coming on Tuesday and Wednesday so i am going to bring a few of my pots in out of the way tomorrow on the flood tide, better safe than sorry. I salted down about 250 small macs yesterday, that will do a few baitings this summer.

12th April 2012. Fantastic day today, caught a car full in about 4hrs, just over 200 kilos. 7k large mediums, 143k mediums and 50k+ of small that I have kept to salt down for lobster pot bait. Yesterdays prices were £4.10 for large mediums, £1.40 for mediums and just 30p for the smalls. Only problem I had was lack of space for hauling pots so I will have a look at them tomorrow. Lack of space aboard due to fish is a very welcome problem to have for a change! Hodgy on 'Mary Mo' did 2 trips 2 handed for 350 kilos and Simon on 'Kira' had 3 boxes in a couple of hours.

11th April 2012. At last I have caught enough to make a landing :

2k large mediums, 48k mediums and 13k small. Mediums were about £1.50 per kilo on the market this morning but there is less fish in the fridge tonight so it might be higher tomorrow. I had about 50k on the ebb close to the Island and the other bit on the flood out deeper. At low water I had another try at one of the strings of pots that I couldn't get up the other day, managed to get 6 up and sorted. So thats 18 back in action with 10 left to have a go at tomorrow. A couple of boats went mackereling at first light and had a box per man. I am looking forward to going again tomorrow, it was a 'rock n roll' day today but so good to catch some fish for a change.

10th April 2012. Going to go over the low water tomorrow to give me the best chance of getting the pots up. Hopefully they are clear from other gear now. Will have a couple of hours to try the mackerel before the tide eases. My luck has got to change soon, surely. Hodgey on his fastworker had 17 kilos of mackerel on Sunday, that was two handed, so there is a few about. Hodgey's boat is center of this pic :

9th April 2012. Found out lastnight that 'Bethshan' wasn't over the eastern shore mackereling and has actually gone around land to fish out of Newlyn. I don't blame Gary, not much to catch from this side at the moment. Yesterday on the flood i went out to the pots again to have another go at getting them up. I managed to haul, bait and shut back one string of 7 that wasn't showing in the morning so was pleased with that. Then I managed to get one pot up from another string but there was just too much weight on it to pull anymore. Phil from Hayle who is working 30'' 10mm steel bar pots came over to sort some of his gear out. Some of his pots have moved into mine and I would pull my boat under before I got the gear to the surface. I left him sorting out the ones that were tangled with mine, so hopefully next trip out I might be able to get all mine sorted. At the moment i can only haul 12 of the 28 I have out. Wednesday looks ok wind wise, still a fair bit of ground sea forecasted tho, will just see what its like at the time. The wind is going to be in the north a lot for the whole week which isn't good for this coast unless it's very light.

8th April 2012. The other day when I said ''Things can only get better'', looks like I was tempting fate and they have just got worse! I got out first thing this morning to check the pots, 1st time since we had the stormy weather and it wasn't a pretty sight. Lots of dahns right next to each other, others tangled and stowing (under water instead of on top where they should be) and more bad weather on the way, great! On the plus side I did manage to haul 5 pots from one of the 4 strings of 7 aboard and they were fine, no damage, so it is a case of going over low water when there is a lot less tide and depth to sort them out. I did some maintenance on my power pack yesterday, if it wasn't for this little beauty I would have no chance of sorting the mess out :-

Gone are the days of hauling 3 or 4 pots in one lump by hand thank god. Only other boat activity I saw was Gary on the 'Bethshan' over the eastern shore mackereling. Will be interesting to see if he had anything, if he does then I will be chasing them with him.

6th April 2012. It has calmed down a lot, will be going to check the pots tomorrow. I have made a few new dahns (marker flags) as from the quay I can see that I have at least 2 broken or missing, hopefully the pots will be ok. I do use an anchor on the southern ends to stop them moving out the bay in rough weather. The tide circles the bay and it is ebbing to the north this side for 10hrs in 12

5th April 2012. It got even rougher after I took yesterdays pictures. My friends boat sank on the moorings and had to be took out when the tide retreated. Hope his outboard engine will be ok, 'Sea Otter' is the smallest punt in the harbour, Matt takes his boy out angling in it, good to see youngster being shown the ropes. She will be back in soon ;-

4th April 2012. So glad I managed to land my crab yesterday, they would of been smashed about with fatalities in the surf today :-

Dismal weather, it was only a week ago I actually got sun tanned out there! Poor enough where the storepots are, even worse around the corner out Porthmeor way, cracking over Clodgey Point :-

The lifegaurd has put the red flag up, DAMN! and I was going for a swim today, oh well.

It might be calm enough to do the pots on Friday but it won't be very comfortable. Roll on summer!

3rd April 2012. Did the pots for a basket of spiders and a couple of browns. Landed everything at Hawkin's Fish, 112 kilos of spiders and just 8 kilos of browns.No rejects, he took every crab. I wanted to empty my store bags because of the 35mph northerly wind coming tomorrow, didn't want to lose it all. It is going to be too rough to go to sea until Saturday at the earliest looking at the forecast.

The newest and largest tripping boat appeared in the harbour,'Isla Bea'. She is a beauty.

2nd April 2012. Haven't been down the harbour today, been busy making pots, number 33 is on the table. High tide is 3.37pm tomorrow so the boat will float at about 12.15. Going to do the pots and hopefully land my spider crabs to Hawkin's Fish in Hayle if they want them.

1st April 2012. While I got a couple more pots aboard to add to one of my strings John Marsh on the tripping boat 'Seahorse' mopped up (got the propeller tangled in) a set of moorings :-

Had a quick look to see if I coould free it but it was too far under the boat. He got a lad in a wetsuit to dive down but still couldn't free it completely. So that was his days work finished until the tide went out at 5pm.

'Shikiri' and 'Kira' both tried mackereling and were on the way back in by the time I was coming out the harbour, no fish at all. I hauled my pots for one sized spider per pot. It will get better, soon hopefully!

Hauled the pots, a few more spiders getting into them. About 1 1/2 kilos per pot with the odd brown crab. I did try an hours mackereling and had just one fish. A few boats tried at various times of the day and it was useless. Karl on the 'Athena Fay' steamed about hunting pollack and that was no better, 4 small fish. The chap on the 'Shikiri' was out most of the day mackereling and said he was catching a fish per hour, he finished up with a feed for the family. Hard times!   Here is todays addition to my collection of spiders :

26th March 2012. Got up at 6am but it was too windy, still might get out there later. 

It didn't calm down until just before dark. Tomorrow is looking much the same but from Wednesday onwards it is looking like all systems go! Nice calm spell on the way, the pots should be worth doing, they have had five nights fishing come tonight. Gary on 'Bethshan' was on the moorings when he came afloat at 5pm but I noticed he was out mackereling at 6.30pm, maybe he had a bit more than half a box yesterday.

25th March 2012. It was too windy when I had the chance to go and do the pots today, hope to get out tomorrow sometime. P.J. came back from Newlyn yesterday in 'Silvery Sea' pictured below, he will be spider netting to start with.

In the background is Gary on 'Bethshan', he was mackereling over Hayle yesterday afternoon and told me he had 1/2 a box. He was going for another try today.

24th March 2012. Don't forget to put your clocks forward an hour tonight, I prefer fishing in the evening and it will still be light at 8pm on Sunday, great! Spring is here and the BBC forecast for St Ives is giving full sunshine every day, take a look :- BBC Weather.  I still plan to do the pots in the morning, the forecast has changed from yesterday, winds a bit lighter through the week so might try mackerel and pollack, need to catch more than the running costs tho! Busy making spider crab store bags today.

23rd March 2012. It is looking like being a poor week ahead, the wind is going to be east to southeast right up until Thursday afternoon. That's not a very fishy direction. Not too windy on Sunday morning so I hope to nip out and do the pots with the last of my frozen dogfish, other than that it will be a week of getting more pots ready. On the plus side, its a dry way, should be a pleasant sunny week. Might even think about painting the boat. :

22nd March 2012. Bit of a fresh south easterly today but it wasn't too bad out there. Had a quick try mackereling but it hasn't got any better yet, 13 fish in about an hour. Hauled the pots for 20 kilos of spider crab and 5 decent brown crab. I donated the brown crab for a raffle prize, the Seagrass restaurant in St Ives is having a charity food and drinks night to raise money for the R.N.L.I. tomorrow. Top class food, why not pay them a visit, its a good cause. John Marsh arrived in his tripping boat 'Seahorse' today, ready for the season :-

21st March 2012. Didn't go down the harbour today, been making more crabpots. Going to haul the pots tomorrow if the wind decreases soon enough, if not I will do them on Friday.

20th March 2012. The day started well, got some perfect eels from the bait men. Tried a few casts at the back of the Island but there was nothing there so steamed up to the 'Stones'. Fished about 3hrs for 5 pollack :-

You can't catch them if they aren't there! Even my favorite spot south side of Heava rock wasn't working :-

On the way back I had a visit from the fisheries, it didn't take them long to check my catch!

Had a hour to kill while waiting for the tide to come in so tried the mackerel, just 11 fish. Like the song, ''Things can only get better''.

19th March 2012. I had one drift for 6 mackerel and a snake (greater sandeel) so gave up and did the pots. Two dozen sized spiders and 1/2 a dozen sized browns from my 12 pots. Need to get more ready! 3 other boats tried the mackerel and had next to nothing. The bait boat 'Ammo' was out and catching eels, even tho my mate the seal was hassling them, you can see his black head just infront of the net :-

The bait men are going to be out first light in the morning so I am going to have a day with the rods, should hopefully have some pollack if nothing else. You can't beat live eels for bait.

18th March 2012. The forecast hasn't changed, only Thursday is a no go day in the next week. Quite rough out there today in the fresh northerly wind. I am going to give it time to settle down in the morning and go mackereling at midday, then do the pots. I have just dug my angling reels out of the cupboard and not a moment too soon. They are stiff with salt and need a lot of TLC. I like to use 2 rods with bait runner reels, there are lots of different ones on the market. I am using these ABU Cardinal's :-

If the mackereling isn't any good tomorrow I will try and get some live eels from the bait boat 'Ammo' on Tuesday and go hunting pollack either down Whore Point or up the Stones or both. There is always the hope of a very early bass as well. Dream on me!

17th March 2012. Well I'm 48 today, still only feel about 30 most of the time! When I hauled the pots on Thursday I baited with one small mackerel, so went today to put some lasting dogs in. Had about 12 kilos of spiders and a few browns. Main thing is the pots have good bait now with a jumping tide and a bit of ground sea, next haul should be good.

Matt Lander came out in his punt and shut a couple of pots, then went mackereling, 3 fish and one fell off!

The first tripping boat has arrived in the harbour, Mike Laitey's 'Dolly' is on her moorings :-

Day off tomorrow, go see your mums! Monday I plan to try the mackerel and do the pots, maybe I might get the rods and reels ready for an early try on the pollack and bass. Next week is showing good for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday weather wise, Thursday is workable but fresh easterly.

16th March 2012. Went down the harbour, all the boats are on the moorings and I couldn't see any Hayle men out either. Plan to haul the pots tomorrow if its not too windy, took some dogfish out the freezer, my favorite bait for brown crab. For the spider crab, fresh mackerel fishes realy fast and it is viable to do the pots twice a day when the season is in full swing. I hope people get wise to how good spider crab meat is, 3 times as many people prefered it from normal brown crab when they did a taste test on Monty Halls TV program :- The Fisherman's Apprentice. Click here to watch it on bbc iplayer.

Below is a 5 minute sound bite highlighting some important facts about the delicious spider crab, the French have got it right, we should learn from them.

15th March 2012. No change with the mackereling, had 6 kilos in about 2hrs. Did the pots and the new design traps fished better than the other pots I have out, which is great. So every pot I get ready from now on will be made this way.

More browns than spiders at the moment, it wont be long now and the spiders will take over on the sand.

The sandeel men on 'Ammo' were out again today, yesterday they had 72 kilos in porthmeorr beach. 3 potters from Hayle shutting more gear in the bay and the dive boat was on the razorclams off Hawkes Point

14th March 2012. Tried the mackerel first light, hasn't got any better, I had 22 fish (5.5 kilos). Put some new dahns (bamboos with flags) on my pots to mark clearly where they are because the Hayle men have started shutting their long strings of pots all around mine. I caught more snakes (greater sandeels) than I did mackerel, perfect bass baits but still about 6 weeks too early to try bassing:-

The sandeel season has started, bait netter  'Ammo' pictured below had their first trip yesterday behind the quay. Six shuts produced 50 kilos of eels, which included over 100 packets of extra large. They were fishing in  porthmeor this morning where there was plenty of shelter from the brisk southeast wind.

13th March 2012. Didn't fish today after yesterdays mackereling. The pots aren't worth doing everyday yet either. I have been getting more gear ready. If it's not too foggy tomorrow I will try the macs again and do the pots. Stuart didn't have much out deep yesterday, 3st of dovers for about 2,500 yards of net.

12th March 2012. Fog and more fog today! Hauled the pots and had my 1st lobster, wasn't expecting any untill May, especially from off the sandy bottom in the bay. He was a bit of an odd bod tho, both claws had been previously damaged and he had a leg missing :-

Had a few good sized crabs but nothing to shout about, stuck them in the store pot and went mackereling. Still not many macs about and I wasn't helped by my new friend who followed me around for 3hrs. I took a short video of him on my phone so not good quality but good close ups, take a look :-

I'm normally not that keen on seals but this one is so tame he would swim with the boat while I fished and kept putting his head on the gunnels to look for fish. He didn't pull any fish off the line, just waited for me to feed him. As seals go he is the cutest I've seen. 

This was my view for most of the day :- 

The fog cleared out to sea for 10 minutes to reveal a ''Pirate Ship'' traveling west, It wasn't the Black Pearl tho, this one had an engine :-

11th March 2012. I didn't do the early tide, went at 4.30pm. Had about 50 mackerel but they were all small, might of been a couple of mediums if I stretched them so they are destined to go into the pots tomorrow. Also had about a dozen pollack but they were too small as well, one was just on the size limit. Will try again tomorrow, might be a better run of fish over the low water.                                                                                                        

A few more boats appeared in the harbour today, Ian Hodgkinson put his fastworker in and a couple of angling/pleasure boats turned up. Stuart on 'Little Christina' shut his nets out deep on the sole track. The Fisheries Patrol Vessel was in the bay, they launched the rib which checked a Hayle boat, then it went into St Ives, maybe for supplies.

10th March 2012. Not much happening fishing wise today. All the boats were on their moorings for the afternoon flood tide.

A large boat came into the bay as I was down the quay, think it is a coastgaurd vessel :-

I will hopefully get out for a try on the mackerel tomorrow, if not first light I will go on the flood about 4pm.

9th March 2012. Only one Hayle boat in the bay over low water, he dives for razor clams, I think they are worth big money but I will stay above sea level. Maybe Lewis (ref: yesterdays post) could go for them :)   I have had trouble with my stern mooring chain for ages and there has been a bulldozer in the harbour over the low waters for a while now trying to level the beach out so we got him to dig my moorings up.

The old dug up and new plough anchor and chain buried deep in no time, brilliant!  He has been trying to clear the sand away from the pulley moorings by the fisherman's co-op :-

Big kid building sandcastles really :-

Looks like the weather is settling down all next week, lightish winds mostly from the south or southeast, hopefully the fishing will improve!

8th March 2012. The forecast was right, there was plenty of surf today, even in the harbour. All the boats were surging back and forth which made it challenging for Lewis Stevens when he was untying his punt. More used to building he was caught off balance and ended up face down in about a foot and a half of water! He was ok, after a few choice words he carried on and went aboard his boat 'Cynthia' pictured below:-

Think I would of gone home for a change of clothes at least, he's a tough man, that made it easier for me not to laugh out loud (hahahaha).                

The fishing was useless, I had 2 drifts for just 9 mackerel. So I hauled the pots and they were no better, half a dozen browns and the same of spiders. Lewis in his squelchy wellies did the whole tide, don't know what he had yet but I don't think it was much. No one else went out, wise men!

7th March 2012. Far too windy to go to sea today so its a day of crab/lobster pot making and hook tieing. Thanks to Laurence hartwell for putting my video advert (top right) onto his blog http://blog.through-the-gaps.co.uk/ . He has a lot more viewers than I do, so thats great and very kind of him. An even bigger thank you to Em ( http://www.emcooper.com/)for filming and editing it for me, you did a brilliant job!

Looking at the latest forecasts for tomorrow, the wind is dropping away but there is going to be a lot of ground swell all day tomorrow, thats not good for mackereling and with the amount of fish that was there yesterday, I'm going to give the low water a miss. I will have a quick try when the boat floats on the flood about 2pm, If there is no mackerel I will check the pots to see if the crab are crawling more on this bigger tide.

6th March 2012. Well was it worth getting up at 5am to get out on the ebb tide? After 2hrs mackereling the box looked like this :- 

So I took a break and did the pots. Had a few brown crab and spiders and then tried mackereling on the flood tide. Two more hours of pulling that 3lb lead up and down, the box then looked like this :- 

4hrs and I could still see the bottom of the box, thats fishing! 

5th March 2012. The sea is calming down nicely, should be a fine day tomorrow, the morning being the best of it. 8mph first light, slowly increasing to twice that by late afternoon. The cloud will increase with the wind. Plan 'A' is to mackerel, do the pots and then mackerel again. Tides are perfect, jumping up to about 16ft. The forecast is giving it quite poor on Wednesday. Less wind on Thursday but more swell.

4th March 2012. I don't fancy going out there today!

Plenty of indoor work to be done on days like today. I found that my pots fish a lot better when I add some 5mm netting onto the slope up to the trap, bit fiddly but worth doing.

I have also found that by increasing the angle of the slope the pot performs better. I have gone from 40 to about 65 degrees, seems to hold more and makes escape harder.

3rd March 2012. No boats at sea from Hayle or St Ives today as far as I can see. Odd job day today. Lewis Stevens, the newest addition to the St Ives mackereling fleet (he has had enough of building) now the new owner of 'Cynthia', had his 1st trip on Thursday and had a box and a half of mackerel and herring mixed, then yesterday he had mostly herring which he kindly gave to me. I will be salting these down for lobster pot bait.

You can dry salt or wet salt any fish for potting bait. The only difference is if you let the juices drain out or stay in the container you use. I prefer dry salting, bit less mucky to handle and you can use the salt again. All you need to do is put a layer of salt then a layer of fish and repeat until done. Salted bait has a few advantages over fresh and frozen, It firms up soft fish like mackerel, whiting and herring making them last longer, conger eels don't like to eat it, if you use fresh mackerel a conger can go through a whole string of pots stealing all the baits and stopping them fishing, it keeps for ages and most important, lobsters love it!

Been busy getting pots ready, replacing perished bait bands and hook straps, re roping bars, removing pot mouth barnacles and fitting traps.

2nd March 2012. Not much fish about this morning, the few boats that tried mackereling had mostly herring. Looking at the forecast it will be Tuesday before I go to sea again. Strong northwest winds on Sunday veering northerly and slowly decreasing Monday.

1st March 2012. What a beauty of a day, flat calm, sunny, warm, great. Hauled the pots and the spiders have started getting into them, early yet but averaging one large hen per pot. It won't be long and they will be filling up. The early bird mackerelers had 2 or 3 boxes per man.

29th February 2012. The couple of boats that went at first light had 60 to 80 kilos of mackerel each. I went at midday and hauled the nets for a few plaice and far too many spider crabs for fine netting. Most of the spiders were undersize and left holes in the net. So the flatty net has been took home and will stay there until about November. I tried the macs for over an hour while waiting to get back in, only had 12 fish. Going to haul the pots tomorrow and see if they are any better, its time to get some more pots ready to go out. Not many sole with Stuart (Little Christina), think he had 30 kilos 1st haul and only 6 kilos the 2nd haul. He had other fish that made it worth while tho, rays, smooth hounds and other flatties.

28th February 2012. Started mackereling about 9am and had a box full for 2hrs fishing. Hauled the net which didn't have much, 6 good plaice, 1 dover, a few dabs and quite a few spider crabs of varying sizes.

Nice to see the larger plaice starting to come in but it looks like the net destroying spiders have reached the bay already.

Shut the net back and then mackereled again for 1 1/2 boxes, ended up with 63 kilos for the day.Gary on the 'Bethshan' arrived back from Newlyn as I was on my way home, the fishing on the south coast isn't as good as it was. I expect a few more boats will turn up soon.

27th February 2012. When I was landing my mackerel last night there was one happy skipper who had 185 large boxes of cuttle fish, when I asked what that lot was worth his inky face smiled and said 'twenty thousand pounds hopefully'. Now I know why they call it ''black gold''. 

Here is a fisheyes view after they have made the mistake of taking my hook. 

This week is going to be mild with light winds, brilliant! I have shut the nets deep off Hawkes Point ready to haul tomorrow. I am hoping that there might be a some large plaice and maybe a few dover sole, we shall see in the morning. Stuart on 'Little Christina' shut the sole track (between 8 to 10 miles north of St Ives) yesterday and hauled today. He had a lot of spider crabs which are a hinderance and take a long time to take out of the nets but also had what he called 'a very good days work'.

26th February 2012. Busy day, landed 47k of mackerel and a few herring. I have got some stills from Em to put on here. Here's a couple to be going on with:-

The fish on the right is not a mackerel, looks like a baby conger, not sure what it is tho, it didn't take the hooks that's for sure.

25th Febuary 2012. No fishing today, will try the mackerel tomorrow.

My mackerel prices per kilo this week:-

Tuesday 21st: small 20p, medium £4.30, large/mediums £5.00.

Wednesday 22nd: small 10p, medium £3.30, L/M £3.50, large £3.50.

Friday 24th: small 40p, medium £1.50, L/M £4.20, Large £4.30.

24th February 2012. There was a lot of ground sea today, I left the harbour at half tide ebbing and had to time it right as a few of the waves were breaking off the end of the quay. First I baited the pots up, still very little going into them. Then it was a steam accross the bay to haul the nets, they were not much better, couple of rays, 1 big plaice, 3 dovers and a few dabs. I had to have another go at the mackerel after yesterdays show, fished an hour and a half for about 25k. Not such a good run as yesterdays fish, quite a few small.

23rd February 2012. Fished for an hour and a half for 12k of mackerel and then beached the boat behind the quay. I met a lady on the quay who is a film maker/animator. She was keen to get some underwater footage for a film and asked if she could come out with me. We went just off the Island and I started mackereling, had the best fishing for ages! String fulls of good sized fish. Emily got lots of footage of the fish coming up on the line and shaking them off, lots of other shots as well. She is going to edit it and send it to me to put on here and my other website :- atasteofstives.com . Ended up with 60 kilos of mackerel, good days work. Plus I shut the flatty net to haul tomorrow.

Check Emily's website out :- www.emcooper.com

22nd February 2012. WET and WINDY! Yuck. A day for tieing up mackerel sets infront of the tv in the warm. Much better day tomorrow, will be mackereling in the morning and shutting the flatty net.

21st February 2012. Fished first light until 9am for about 15 kilos of mackerel. Beached the boat and went again from 1pm until 3pm for another 12 kilo of mackerel and a few kilos of herring. Apparently the market price this morning was £3.60 for mediums and £4.20 for large mediums, so worth putting in the effort. Think its going to be too windy to go tomorrow. Four other boats mackereling today had similar fishing.

20th February 2012. Had a box full of mackerel and some herring on the handline. Flatty net wasn't much good, just a few plaice, dabs and crab. Stuart hauled his wreck net but there were only 4 smooth hounds, one pollack, couple of cod and loads of bull huss that he put back. 'Athena Fay', 'Kira' and 'Tiger' were coming out as I came back into harbour, they did the second 1/2 of the flood for about 10 kilos per man.

19th February 2012. Got down the harbour at 10am just as the sun was high enough to shine over the quay onto ''Jen'' and make getting the nets ready to shut more enjoyable:  

Simon Freeman had some bleech left over yesterday after doing the bottom of his boat and kindly sprayed mine as well, thanks mate!

As the boats came afloat it was just Karl and myself going out to try the mackerel. Karl has the fast worker 'Athena Fay', pictured below perched on the bow dragging her of the mooring:

I had one long drift on the mackerel for just 3 fish. I spoke to Karl and he had the same. I gave up and went across the bay and shut the flatty nets. Karl stayed out, don't know what he ended up with yet.

Just before I left the harbour Stuart brought 'Little Christina' against the quay and put a bin full of 5 inch wreck net onboard. He is hoping to have some more smooth hounds in it tomorrow, his last lot (400 kilos) fetched 90p per kilo, pretty good! 

And then off to shut it near a wreck 2 miles north of Pen-Enys point :

18th February 2012. We have a decreasing north north/west wind all day tomorrow, looking like it will be light enough by the time the boat floats at mid day to venture out and see what mackerel is there. All next week is going to be south westerly by the forecast at the moment, should be able to work most days. South westerly is a fishy way for this coast and with the ''jumping'' tides (getting bigger) it could be a good week, my glass is half full! :)

My Newlyn market mackerel prices per kilo:-

Tuesday 14th: small £0.50, medium £3.10 and Large/mediums £3.20.

Friday 17th: small £0.40, medium £1.90, L/M £3.90 and Large £4.10.

17th February 2012. The mackerel were not there this morning, had a few drifts for about 5 kilos. Simon and Rob on the 'kira' didn't stick it for long either. I baited up the pots, there were a few large brown crab but mostly small throw backs. The nets had a few flatties, didn't have enough to make a landing. There were a few dolphins in the bay, always nice to see. Too windy tomorrow, next trip Sunday.

Hawkes Point was bellowing smoke today, saw a fire engine racing past Porthminster Hotel obviously heading that way. Haven't heard what was burning yet.

16th February 2012. Started mackereling at 9am and had a couple of boxes by 11am. Over 50% were large and large mediums. Fished for another hour for just a few fish. Wound the line up and steamed across the bay to the eastern shore and shut the flatty nets. Plan 'A'  tomorrow is to mackerel, do the pots and haul the nets. Todays catch below, just before re-icing :-

15th February 2012. Looking forward to getting back out to sea tomorrow. A friend of mine has put me onto a good website that shows you all the vessels in any area you choose. It gives you the name, type of vessel, speed, direction and more info if you click on the vessel that interests you. It's called marinetrafic.com take a look :-

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?level0=100

Just been looking at it and there is a big clump of fishing vessels about 20 miles south of the Lizard, 3 uk boats and the rest are French. One Newlyn boat (Louisa N) on the sole ground this side, 10 miles north of St Ives.

14th February 2012. No change in the weather forecast, still no good for tomorrow and Thursday is still looking good. There is plenty of mackerel being caught over Newlyn side, some boats are coming in with 250 kilos per man.

13th February 2012. Handlined at 8am for 1 1/2hrs, had about 20 kilo's of mackerel and herring. Freshening northerly wind made it increasingly uncomfortable, especially when the tide started ebbing against it. Only 2 other boats out, Karl and Boco on 'Athena Fay' plus Simon and Rob on 'Kira'. They had similar fishing. Looks like the onshore wind is going to be a bit too strong tomorrow and Wednesday, hope to get out again on Thursday.

12th February 2012. Not much fish in the nets, 1 dover, 10 small plaice and 20 dabs. Had a few mackerel and herring on the handline but not enough to make it worth going to market so they are on ice. Going to mackerel all morning tomorrow and hopefully have enough to make a landing. Simon on the Kira stuck to the mackereling and had a couple of boxes and a few cod. A few Hayle boats were out handlining, ''Padstow Pete on Seron'' , ''Tasty on A Few Dollars More '' and ''Whats his name on Boy Harvey'' :)

11th February 2012. Shut the last end away at 5pm just as the sun was going down behind Steeple Hill. The tide is still a bit strong to be shutting really (18.4ft) but I think the next chance to shut weather wise would be Thursday, can't wait that long! Hauling first light, hope a few dovers are moving. Don't think anyone else went out today.

10th February 2012. Don't think anyone went to sea, mucky, wet misty day. Dry, with plenty of sunshine tomorrow, thats more like it! I will be shutting the flatty nets at last light.

Duchy College has announced that it, with support from Seafood Cornwall Training and the Sea Fish Industry Authority, will deliver apprenticeships in fish and shellfish proficiency skills in the UK's Cornwall and Devon. Read more here.

Wave Hub in Cornwall gets first energy device. Read more.

9th February 2012. Went down the harbour while the tide was out and got the nets ready to shut back, enjoyable in the sunshine!

After being without a prop and propshaft for quite a while, Stuart's 'Little Christina' is now without her rudder for some reason.

Kevin on the 'Tiger' leaves the harbour at 3pm to have a couple of hours mackereling before dark. In the background is the 'Kira' on anchor after fishing the ebb tide for about 30k of cod and 30k of mackerel. Yesterday Kevin and Colin had about 30 kilos of mackerel each. The last few days have seen some very large mackerel, up to a kilo each.

Off into the distance, 'Rampers' rocks clearly showing through the water so the fish won't have trouble finding his hooks.

8th February 2012. Next trip to sea for me will be Saturday to shut the flatty nets over the eastern shore ready to haul on Sunday morning. Big tides and car trouble means I have to have a few days ashore. I saw a couple of boats out mackereling today, think it was 'Tiger' and 'Cynthia'. Did see the Tiger circling so there might be a bit of fish there.

The harbour seems to be getting emptier every winter.

7th February 2012. Left the harbour at 7.30am and went out to the 'cod track' (3/4 of a mile north of the western shore). Fished until 11.00am for 10k of mackerel and 7 cod. Simon and Rob on the 'kira' had similar fishing and beached the boat at low water. I hauled my flatty nets after a freezing steam across the bay. A lot less fish and a fair bit of weed made me decide to keep the gear onboard. Stuart and one of his boys Anthony on 'Little Christina' had a good haul of smoothhound, about 12 boxes, and 1/2 a box of dover soles. The alternator belt snapped on my car so I'm without transport until tomorrow, hopefully no longer, another reason for not shutting back. Hope it warms up a bit soon!

The result of 3 hours handlining, hard going!

6th February 2012. I tried the mackerel at first light, 1/2 hr without a fish, so gave up and hauled the net. 4 dovers, 2 ray, 1/2 a box of dabs and a few crab. No weed, had the 500 yards cleaned and shut back by 10.30am. Tried the mackerel again and had 6 macs and a dozen herring. Hauled the pots for nothing, had a box of bait that needed using or dumping so stuck it in the pots. Simon on the 'Kira' went out deeper at first light and fished until about 11 o'clock for 3/4 of a box of macs, a box of whitting and a few cod. As I was mooring up Colin on the 'Cynthia' and Kevin on the 'Tiger' were leaving the harbour to go mackereling.

Anything you catch in February is a bonus really. Nice to have weather to get out there and do a bit.

5th February 2012. I shut my 500 yards of flatfish net in the middle of the eastern shore (Hayle to Godrevy). Plan 'A' is to go mackereling at first light for a couple of hours and then haul the net at low water. Stuart on the 'Little Christina' hauled his sole nets this afternoon. He had 6 dovers, a few other mixed flatties, a dozen large mackerel, quite a bit of crab and a fair bit of weed. I don't think he shut back. I hauled a few pots on the way in but there isn't any crab moving into them, 5 pots had one large hen and a dozen throw backs. The forecast is pretty good for the week ahead, no wind at all tomorrow with the rest of the week being light easterlies, apart from Wednesday when its a little fresher but workable.

4th February 2012. Check out the 'other fishing news' page, lots added today.

Hauled the nets, only a few dabs came up so I didn't bother shutting back. Simon on the 'kira' tried catching cod on the handline but blanked, mackereling wasn't much better either, he had a dozen fish today. Stuart on Llittle Christina' is back in action now he has got his new propshaft fitted, he is shutting sole nets deep across the bay this afternoon.

3rd February 2012. Hauled the flatty net, wasn't very good at all. Only 3 rays, about 10 kilos of dabs, a few crab and a couple of plaice. I have moved away from Godrevy and tried a shut deep off Hawkes Point to see if there are any more plaice lurking around the mussel beds that are there. I did better than the few mackerel men that tried today, Simon Freeman went as soon as he was afloat, pictured below pulling his boat 'kira' off the moorings on the flood. Apparently he only had one mackerel.

2nd February 2012. Not qiite as windy today as it was forecasted to be and plenty of sunshine too. I have had a box full of dogfish on the boat for days now so I hauled the pots and baited them, not much crab moving at the moment. Saw one other boat out, Hayle mackereler, Chris Stevens.

Nice calm evening, hopefully there are a few good rays gliding about over the Bessack, finding my nets! We shall see tomorrow.

1st February 2012. Didn't shut early in the morning, waited until midday when the temperature rose to a toasty -2 degrees. It's the 'dead of the neap', thats when the tide is very slow and the nets fish a lot better. Because there is a fresh freezing easterly wind tomorrow I am going to leave the nets fish for 2 nights. I have shut the best spot in the bay to catch rays, hoping for 30 kilos upwards. The chart below shows exactly where the gear is, just to the right of the word 'bay'  in the center of the pic marked by 2 flags.

29th December 2011. Rumour has it that the 1st market is on Wednesday, thought it might of been Tuesday, anyway, plan 'A' is to shut the bass nets on Sunday.

28th December 2011. I was down the harbour for a couple of hours today, strengthening my deck ready for my new pot hauler, not another fisherman in sight! Not so many birds working in the bay either.

27th December 2011. Christmas over and time to get back to work, boy Stuart shut his bass nets down Pendeen xmas day, not heard what he had. His dad shut yesterday and I was told he only had 7 bass. Lots of gannets diving in the bay this afternoon, must be plenty of sprat or herring about.

Time to get ready for Christmas, hope you all have a good one!!!!! 

21st December 2011. No more markets now until January 2nd or 3rd.

20th December 2011. The mackerel men had about a box each yesterday but only a bucket full today,

19th December 2011. No fish in the bass nets in the bay, a few boats tried mackereling, not sure what they had. 

18th December 2011. Two boats have gone west and one in the bay, all shutting bass nets.

17th December 2011. NNW winds keeping the boats in but there has been reports of bass being caught from ''rampers'' pier.

16th December 2011. The large seas we have been having are gradually decreasing,, hopefully there will be a chance to make a landing or two before Christmas.

15th December 2011. Boy Stuart hauled his nets and had plenty of whiting, herring and a good few boxes of mackerel. Should fetch a good price with most of the inshore fleet staying on its mooring for days now.

14th December 2011. Only one boat  went to sea, ''boy Stuart'' shut his herring//mackerel nets at last light.

13th December 2011. No Fish!! Jen hauled for 0. Janet Anne had 5 morgues and a mackerel. No birds working, water still a bit clear. No other activity. 

12th December 2011. Gale force westerly winds and large ground sea, 17ft tide, only option was bass nets in the bay. Jen shut 2 tiers and Janet Anne shut 4 tiers. Full moon but good cloud cover and heavy rain.