Wavesailing action

Boy it is great when the wind blows on the weekend and especially when it blows hard. Saturday was a bit of a let down down at Vazon but Sunday was a whole different ball game.  Great to see some friends and to get some wave sailing in.
  Jas, Simon and myself wave sailed near Centers Sunday morning. Nice West side shore wind fresh F5 to strong F6 with gusts to 40 mph with a west swell pushing in.  Groin / beach had mostly intermittent lefts in the thigh to waist high range. Occasional right off the outside reef at suck ups as well. Small but ride able on a 80ltr.  Mostly sunny skies with patches of clouds today. Temp is 17 °C, the barometer is rising so sun should be on tap all day. Storm has kicked up the ocean and brought some pieces of surf with it. Not very organised but the weather is inviting even if the surf isn't exactly smooth. By mid morning the swell had picked up a notch on suck ups and started to jack up to shoulder high.  Inconsistent waves but there are pieces to be ridden if you wanted to get wet.
  The shore break was pretty decent, so you could sneak in a couple bottom turns and pretend you were at Lanes before you headed back out into the soup.  The word soon spread that the wind was blowing and it wasn't long before we were joined by the rest of the gang..
  I had a problem.  I had been sailing over powered- when the wind picked up another notch I was still on the 5.3. This is the good kind of problem though and after maxing the down and out haul I was back at it, until a nice ramp loomed up on the reef and I hit it full power into a back loop and came out the other end in a spirling spinning mess and blew the head of my sail just below the top batten.....
And so ended the sailing experience

Whoops!...Big winds down vazon and I came out in two pieces.
 Jen have you got any sticky tape.

Everybody got their fill Sunday after a good day on the water.  I can't wait for more.

Give a cat a fish

OOPS.... The small one on the left is Tucs

Cracking weather so who cares about the fishing. Glorious sunshine, clear blue skies and barely a ripple on the sea.   The bank fishing is slowing up it would appear with Turbot numbers dropping away, not yet replaced by much in the way of Brill but I'm sure it will come. Bass improving in numbers all the time but not in full swing yet. Good days and bad days on the Turbot. It is evident that the fish are moving around the banks so well worth trying one of the smaller and more obscure banks that tend not to be fished. Some good fish being caught with a double figure fish always on the cards.  Time to change the rod for some fins and get under the water to look for some flats.  I just had to 'nip' out for a 'short paddle' to chance my arm, and I succeeded on the second drift down the west coast with a little beauty of 14lb plus. Chuffed to nuts! 

Let's do lunch!

Chasing silver

Its been ages since I've written anything here. Partly because I've been busy fishing (for not much return, generally).

5pm sun rise

Yes... fishing heaven... one of those days you think.."IT cant get any better than this"
Well, the conditions were spot on, but not a sign of a fish.  Set the alarm for 4:45am. Sat bolt upright in the bed at 5:15am and wondered why the alarm didn't go off?...D'oh!.  The pick up was loaded and lunch was made the night before so just enough time for breakfast and a coffee then off to catch the tide and M.V Fortius.  Heading out in perfect conditions, Tuc, Gary and I set up with a small eel on a running ledge, the mark was Bank Du Nord Sark.  Anyway................after several hours fishing all the baits came back untouched. Then Tuc had one massive bite and the rod slammed over and back ...we waited...nothing...Then reeling in, he had that all to familiar feeling of a fish on the other end.
Something big??
A Bass??
Who knows?

And to show us how its done 

Out came the landing net to land a nice size Tub...
The sneaky snake had changed his eel for a Mackerel flapper.. And just to add salt into the wound the bugger had been using my spare rod for feathering up some mackerel,  we heard a funny noise and when I checked my rod the end eye was snapped off!
Ouch!
A repair will be done over the weekend..
Then the really exciting news, I saw 5 fins break the surface around 9 this morning. My second dolphin/porpoise encounter for the year! They were headed south and then turned east into the tide. I only saw them surfacing 3 times, 5 animals for sure, 2 smaller fin and 3 larger ones, hard to say if they were males or large females... Didn't get photo's either...

It was time to head off to another spot 2 miles north of where we were fishing in search for silver.
 We fished several drifts. Not a breath of wind in the air, the water looked very fishy I must admit. I know that I'll generally catch more when there's some movement in the water but there's something more enjoyable about fishing in calm, clear water.  After about 20 minutes, I was pleased (and a bit surprised) to see the boat alongside us pulled in a nice silver bar.  To cut the next hour or so short, that fish was the only one to show itself. As the tide began to push in, the water seemed to cloud a little and the whole thing just didn't seem so 'fishy' any more, and then Tuc was in.  I am still playing catch up here and Tucs into another one. This was all getting too much for me, so I put down the rod in a huff and picked up the camera and took some pics of the action. Now to cut along story short I'd been taking the p**s out of the captain over the last few weeks for his lack of fish catching skills and now it was pay back time. Surely it had to be my turn next to hook into a bass. On the last drift of the day  I was in and about time to!  It certainly was a tough day. It has been the same story for most of the month, we will find a fish or two and then go maybe hours without seeing one and then hit a few more in half hour.  Never mind always another day..  Well roll on July I say, lots to do and lots of fishing....   

Managed a nice 3lb'er, which did give me a great scrap for its size