Fishing the Skerries

Flip and Josh's
latest fishing expedition.

Early Saturday morning we left Dartmouth with my mate Mark. (I've been nagging him to take us out for ages as we've not been on his new boat).
We hung a left at the mouth of the Dart for a bit of bass fishing. The weather was clear but the tide wasn't favourable so after a few drifts with no luck we decided to try a bit of wreck fishing.
There was a big swell, not helped by a constant and increasing Westerly wind so it was a bit choppy as well.
Josh went a bit quiet when we arrived at at the wreck, then a bit pale as well but stuck with it and soon regained his colour when the first fish came aboard, a 9lb Cod then a 5 1/2lb Pollock followed.

I caught the wreck and had to set up another trace. It was a big mistake not to have made some up before hand because as soon as I looked down to make up the new rig I started to feel a bit, ever so not very well ,
but I soon recovered once back on my feet.

A few more Pollock came aboard then Josh hooked into something big, possibly a conger as it
rapidly started taking line. Despite Josh's best efforts the line eventually snapped.
It became increasingly difficult to fish so we headed into the shelter of Start Point and drifted the South banks of the Skerries using thin squid strips and rag worm.
Martin has a new supplier of rag worm and told me that these were big and wild rag. Wild! That was an understatement, they were bloody furious when we tried to put them on the hook! A couple of yelps later as fingers were nipped and we were ready to start fishing again.
Within minutes of the lines going out our first two Plaice came aboard followed by a Brill of around 1 1/4lb then over the next couple of hours half a dozen more Plaice up to 2.2lb and a few Gurnard of varying sizes were
caught.
It was nice to get back into the calm of the Dart afterwards but apart from the wobbly waves we all had a really good day out.

Here's the rig I was using, it caught three nice Plaice, including the biggest of the day
and a Gurnard.
The trace is fairly long, about 2m with a size 2.0 hook. I added a 'booby' (the shiny little double gizmo in the picture), it rattles and spins, apparently flatties are not only attracted by the colours of the beads but also the rattle of the 'booby'.

Having proved successful I've decided that I like boobies.




Our next trip out with Mark is in three weeks time and we're both looking forward to it.

Before that we're going out with Paul and the lads from Weston again as they've booked a trip out from Lyme Regis.

Great report Flip and it sounds like you caught a cracking mixed bag. Well done. I also like boobies immensely but not the rattling kind

Morning BI, yes when the fishing is good we'll put up with all sorts of weather LOL. Josh and me were discussing boobies last night, got a few funny looks from matron (aka Mrs Flip)

I've just checked the rag we had left over and they are still looking fine. mmm nice Southerly wind out there today, I think I'll take Josh for a drive to Start Bay, we'll decide which area to fish when we get there, probably Northern end or maybe Blackpool, if it's fishable.

...just called Josh He's not very happy about being woken in the middle of the night (10:10 a.m.)
Oh dear, I'll try again in a minute

On second thoughts I'll send matron up

Great report Flip and good fishing. Glad to see that the rag held up, will be ordering more tomorrow for a Wednesday shipment. Will look more closley at boobies (sounds like fun) as I have not seen them in any catalogues. Who manufactures the ones that you were using?

See you soon.

Martin wrote:Great report Flip and good fishing. Glad to see that the rag held up, will be ordering more tomorrow for a Wednesday shipment. Will look more closley at boobies (sounds like fun) as I have not seen them in any catalogues. Who manufactures the ones that you were using?

See you soon.

Great I'll pop in and pick some more up Re booby beads here's a picture, it may help you track some down. From what I've read about them they are proving very good at attracting fish from boat and shore for most species.



Don't know who makes them though.

Josh and I managed to get another trip out on my mates boat yesterday :O) We Left Totnes and took the 5 knot (speed limit) hour long cruise down to Dartmouth. I never get bored with the trip down river the scenery is always stunning.

Early morning at Sharpham.
As we head down river to the mouth of the Dart we spend the time gossiping, deciding where to fish, drinking tea and setting up our rods.

The weather was brilliant yesterday, clear skies no wind and the prospect of a comfortable days fishing lay ahead. I was unable to
get to Newton to pick up any of Martins monster rag but we did have lug worm and squid so bait wasn't a problem.

Mark (skipper) was toying with the idea of going out to one of the wrecks further off shore but in the end we decided to stick with the inshore wrecks as this would leave us a few hours to drift the Skerries if the inshore wrecks proved unproductive.

We left Dartmouth and headed out to the Medina. The sea was calm and the sun was just beginning to put in an appearance.
Within minutes of dropping our lines a nice Pollock came aboard, then the inevitable Pout but the big fish proved illusive.
We did a few more drifts but nothing large was caught so we decided to try out a couple of wrecks that we hadn't fished before 'around the corner' from Start Point. The first was a bit small but the second wreck looked more promising.

A Pollock came aboard straight away then Josh hooked into something with a lot more fight in it.



This bass made his day, we had forgotten to pack our scales but it was around the 3 lb mark (2 3/4lb if we had scales ).
This wreck was proving a bit greedy on our tackle and Pongo, the resident clown, compulsive tidier upper and tea maker (handy to have on a boat) got snagged twice in a row and was threatening to give up and go below to spring clean the cabin so we called it a day there and moved on to the South banks of the Skerries.

With the neap tide the drift was painfully slow but Mark caught a couple of Plaice. We moved on to the middle bank.
With the lack of fish on the banks and calm sea we all drifted into doze mode. Pongo hooked into Gurnard, unfortunately he was making horrible noises so Mark landed it for him cos he couldn't be arsed to wake him up.
I had commandeered the only fold up chair on the boat and rod in hand did an impression of a nodding dog for the next hour, only the wash from the occasional passing boat provided any movement.

We moved on up to the bell for the last hour to pick up a few mackerel before heading home.

Once in the mouth of the Dart Pongo went into full on housemaid mode and confined us all to the cabin whilst he cleaned the fish, cleared up and scrubbed the deck, then satisfied that all was ship shape, kicked us all out of the cabin and tidied that up as well.

We shared the fish we caught equally between us when we arrived at Totnes which is a nice tradition on Mark's boat and everyone went home happy. We may not have caught a boat load of fish on this trip but it was another great day out.

I've managed to blag another trip in two weeks time which will be the last time on Mark's boat for this year as TBA insist that all boats on their moorings are taken out by October for the winter which is a bit of a pain for the anglers who moor they're boats there.

I'm going to have a quiet word with Mark and see if I can persuade him to go for a two tide session for out last trip out

Cool report - lovely Bass.

Thanks mate, I was well chuffed for Josh when he caught it. Didn't catch a lot myself but it was a very relaxing day out.

Who says that there are no fish in the sea You guys always seem to prove them wrong. Great report and great looking Bass Josh, did you get to take this one home?

Hi Martin, yes he did, his big brother made up a chilli sauce and sun dried tomato concoction, cooked him a bit of it for his tea last night. Sounded a bit iffy to me but he gave me a try and in fact it tasted great.
His brother doesn't normally cook, he was just visiting and the price he charged Josh for cooking it was a fillet of bass LOL