Took the miss-firing loaner quad down yesterday late afternoon and things were quite busy. Reports of decent numbers of mackies on the morning high most likely the reason , or, perhaps simply a case of decent weather & less wind prompted many to do the trip.

As per Mark’s post on the book of face, there was a decent 18lb giant sea slug, aka conger eel on the higher bays and pictured was a good looking wrasse in amongst plenty of mixed sizes of mackerel over the morning tide. needless to say I am often very reliant on any of the day wardens posting up at least a mini report and by time I get down around about 5ish a lot of the day anglers have packed up either having had enough sun for the day, sufficient fish(rare) or simply the low tide combined with “anglers” only being armed with feathers give it up due to lack of catches on the lower tides. Ironic yesterday as I will explain below.

before I get onto what I saw once on the wall in the way of fish I will say a few words regarding fish care. Those that know me have already found out that I’m a bit of a stickler for people to , if keeping fish caught despatch them quickly and often will show people how. The marina in summer can get very busy not only with anglers but also general visitors that do like to have a stroll along (when open) both of the marina breakwaters.
As a result of this, many of the walkers are not anglers and they can be quite shocked to see dozens of fish being landed and left flapping on the concrete in effect suffocating, or the fish are dropped into a box/bag/storage while still alive and again left to suffocate.

Quite often anglers do not even think about this part of angling or indeed fish keeping. I doubt there is anyone that would want to be suffocated or drowned in such a manner, yes the fish are effectively drowning in the air. This is why I will always push anglers to dispatch fish prior to putting them into boxes/containers.

Now, with regards to storage and fish care, I was please yesterday to see so many cool boxes on the wall in preparation. Some even had decent amounts of Ice with them, One gent even had a Styrofoam box that he had filled with sea water, I must say it is good to see people looking after catches, especially when you consider that some anglers will stay on the wall 5 plus hours and then have 2 plus hours of traveling to do when they leave.

One more tip/suggestion for anyone keeping fish. Prior to leaving the sea wall, GUT YOU FISH. it adds to ground bait, but best of all it means you have less weight to carry home.

Ok, so, yesterday, as I said arrived on the wall about 5ish with quite a few on the walls quite evenly spread all along the wall upto about bay 46.
On talking and generally checking if folks were ok it seemed that there was little going on in the lower few bays (low tide ish) but there were clear signs of some level of mackerel activity with one or two below bay 12 with a few mackerel in boxes/buckets that were recently caught. pootling up to bay 20 I then saw a few landed as I passed and they also had recently caught a few. no great numbers individually but defo enough to keep people on the feed right along to bay 29. Most on the wall were after lunch arrivals so other than marks report there was almost no other catch info.
from 29 up most were basically sat staring at others further down the wall catching while those on the straighter part of the wall were remarking that it was very quiet….. Now , if one was to stop and think for a mo you might start thinking… erm yes there are rods in the water but they all look like bait rods. So, who on the straight section was feathering because the bulk were actually sat watching the bend ppl getting a few mackies here n there… yup almost everyone was sat, stating that there were no fish and yet they could see some people feathering and catching lower down …. go figure.

When I said almost Im betting you spotted the word “almost” yes on dude who I had seen that day earlier in the marina with his wife/partner had asked for info regarding parking etc and in good time found his way onto the wall and had had a few fish in his … yes…, Styrofoam box filled with seawater.

Anyhoo, a few more chats on the way to 46 and that as such was it tbh, the upper bays were empty which on its own is quite unusual as 55-60 is often regarded as prime bays. I came off the wall and stopped above bay 3 for a while having a chinwag and generally enjoying the afternoon sun until perhaps 7ish and headed leisurely for home. all in all I guess it was one of those “lazy hazy sunny afternoons”.

Well thats it until most likely a report tomorrow being as I plan to roll down the wall again later on today. If you are there, feel free to say hi and introduce yourself, for some , introduce yourself again being as I am somewhat notorious for forgetting peoples names.
And with that, I will ,until next time bid you all ADIEU
F