Yea yea yea, no “Beatles” and yup I know this one is past due, but, occasionally I get distracted by real life and forget to sit & type up something here.
Sooooo In the words of Marvin Gaye… “what’s going on”(if you don’t know, look the man up)
lets start with your favourite and everyone else’s, with… yup MAY ROT.

I recon its safe to say that the MAY ROT (algae bloom) is well and truly with us, but its not all doom and gloom as it does (on the walls) seem somewhat patchy and shifting about. It seems that the tide as it ebbs & flows is moving it about quite a bit so if you do set up with dark patches in front of you there is a good chance that as some point that it may thin or even move. Quite strange this year as usually its like pea soup everywhere until the water temps rise enough to start killing the stuff off en mass.
How to tell if its dying off?, easy the water surface develops that brownish foam that many mistake for sewage. The foam may stink like bad eggs and collect floating debris in it but its defo not sewage its the algae throwing out its final twist as it dies. The more sunshine we now get the better as the sea temp will rise above the levels that the algae can survive.

By now you may be realising that I don’t have a lot to say about the fishing but, thats not quite true as the weekend just gone turned into a bit of a conger fest for some people with myself and some of the wardens seeing a few of those giant sea slugs being caught on the higher bays (yea you know where). Anyhoo across fri, sat & sun I saw evidence of 7 that were 5 foot plus & 2 or 3 up quite close as 3 were picked up Sunday while I was there.

I did have a dabble on the dropping tide Sunday but only had the one plaice that when hooked took off like a bream on speed, once I got it in I found out why, no perfect lip hook for me, ohhhh no, straight through its eye was I, no wonder it fought more than most plaice !..
Friday closing time on the wall saw a 9lb+ stingray landed above 30 somewhere, Im still hoping someone out there got a piccy but Im sorta giving up on that.

Overall the weekend wasnt the easiest but there were some mackies over the high tide for 5-6 days in a row, the standard amount of plaice and a sprinkling of bream also to be had… (may rot slowdown on catches is showing). adding to the tallies also were tub and grey gurnards, dab and flounders, strangely enough there still seems to be some dogfish about and we are also seeing the occasional small smooth hound and a few rays. Bass catches seem low on the wall but that may be a case of few actually targeting them when they are about. There are smaller species down the Vs but tbh they are a bit hit & miss amongst the clearer patches of may rot & so far I can only confirm 1 mullet caught of about 3lb but, there may be more as many of the mullet dudes say little.

Overall Id say things are okay ish and prob better than I would expect for this time of year with the may rot building fast to its full levels.

WEATER ALERT for those reading this far, Sat & Sun starting to look quite iffy and if XCWEATHER is correct there is a high chance of the fishing being closed on both days but, I will post here and on the FB group as fast as I get the info.

And finally, no not “good night from me & goodnight from him” A word or two about the spider crabs………. WTF are they ?, nope not really seen any, one or 2 caught on the wall, one pictured on the gallery was a big bugger too, so by now I would have expected the things to now be marching in ranks of 20 abreast like some Napoleonic division of Frenchies aimed at the east wall. Flip, I swear some years they arrive with knives & forks at the ready to demolish baits and lines. This year it seems that either they are late… or getting jiggy jiggy somewhere else…… hmmmmm summat to ponder as I consider a dabble on the east today.

Ok so it wasn’t quite finally, I near forgot to add a reminder if you havnt noticed the additional notice on the home page re the shop and some bait availability at weekends
I have been asked to post the following info from/for the shop

SHOP INFO

from 6th June, NEW opening at weekend. Friday & Saturday’s only
The shop will be open till 6.30pm
and then from 7pm till 8.30pm will be doing bait and tackle on the east wall. This is a trial run and weather dependent if all goes well it will continue

Aaaannnnnddddddd with those final words and these, until next time folks.. I bid you all ADIEU
F