Easy stuff...aka my boat fishing trip... Have been on a few boat trips with Darren` in the last three years, and all were from the compound in Stokes Bay which required launching via a slipway. Im not much of a boat driver, so Darren must have had kittens every time I had to “drive” it back on to the trailer at the end of the day in sometimes difficult conditions!! Luckily my good old mate now has his aluminium speed machine in a rather civilised marina, moored up to a comfy and weather protected pontoon. I think he was also happy in the knowledge that he would no longer have to indulge in the wonderful, if somewhat unique skill, of “not being able to reverse a trailer down a slipway very well”. Only slight downside at the moment, until he moves his beloved boat to the grown up part of the marina, is the short, but somewhat precarious, journey in a small dinghy to this isolated floating parking berth. Its only fifty yards when the tide is up via the “under the pier” route, but as it was low tide, it was at least three times the journey around the pier. Once aboard the overgrown fruit bowl, thirty stone of fat blokes make this supposedly buoyant mini boat taxi look a bit...well...low in the water.. We passed some rather puzzled looking sea cadets being put through a “learn about boat stuff” regime on a very nice training boaty ship. They must have thought we were putting on the “thats how NOT to do it” part of the class, and gazed at us in awe that two large blokes could fit into a milk crate....and not sink. Anyway, we arrived at “Garfish”, Darrens big nosed name for his piscatorial hunting machine, took the short journey back to the main part of the marina and loaded up our stuff. Due to the NW, off the land wind, expected to be a tad breezy in the morning, we opted for the safe option of the short journey to the deep water at Gilkicker, just round the corner from Pompey harbour. There had been a few cod, and apparently some good whiting caught here recently, so they were to be the target. It was a bit lumpier than expected, but easily fishable with tide and wind in harmony and both heading in an easterly direction. Two rods each were used. Darren only wanted COD, so used hooooooj hooks on both rods and didnt want anything else. I, on the other hand, just wanted to catch fish...one rod would be rigged up with pennelled up big 0s and whole squid, the other would be to hopefully keep me busy using two hook rig armed with small 0s. During the day some rather big saily boats obviously mistook us for the starting point of a race, and decided to have a “lets see who can get closest to the two fat blokes in the big nosed boat without scratching our VERY expensive racing yachts” game, and jostled for position all around us and the two other boats anchored close by. Not sure who won the bet, but they werent too close..well...not less than 20 feet anyway!! Another thoughtful pastime by a small group of apparently rich, but obviously bored, boat owners, was the “lets see how big we can make our bow wave whilst steaming at 30 knots though the middle of fishing boats in our gazillion pound speedboat” game...thank you....it was MUCH appreciated...b****rds!! Anyway, back to the fishing, the action was steady for me on my small 0 rod, with about 25 – 30 pout up to 32cm, 10 or so whiting up to 33cm, and a handful of dogs. Some fish were accidentally caught on the fish deterring big 0s, but nothing of any size.. I now have a nice pile of chunky pout fillets to devour...mmmmm....pout.... Made it back to port before dark, moored Garfish up to its nice sheltered pontoon, and took the short trip back in the fibre glass shoebox to the main marina via the shorter, under the pier, route... Thanks again Darren....I enjoyed every second....especially the part where I didnt have to “skilfully” park your beloved boat back onto the trailer..
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 13:43:09 +0000
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