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31/10/2022
Fishing Report by Shaun Pedley
on Our Joe (Paignton, Devon)
31 Oct 2022 by Shaun Pedley
Report on-board Our Joe
2 BRITISH CONGER CLUB GOLD MEDALS CAUGHT IN ONE DAY (97lb 14oz & 86lb) AND WINNERS OF DART FISHING FESTIVAL ! ! !
Fishing aboard OUR JOE - L with a group of anglers, mainly members of the British Conger Club. The main target? Conger Eels!!!
The weather didn’t help for the first couple of days as we were forced into staying inshore to fish the Skerries Bank for Rays although we had a great number of rays the best fish was only a blonde of 21lb. This gave us a great opportunity to stock up on bait for our main event on the Wrecks.
The forecast was looking good until the night before when about 12-15 knot’s of east wind over a small flood tide was looking inevitable for the day. Setting off from the River Dart in the early hour darkness to fish through the night and catch the ebb with the wind instead.
The lads were baiting up and I dropped anchor as Paul Cashmore reminded me that he and Kevin Turner had entered the British Conger Club Interport competition for the day. Now that has been known to curse the days fishing for plenty of conger fishermen in the past as you only have one day a year you can enter this.
After Our Joe - L settled at anchor I was confident the positioning over the wreck was right and the lines were falling away in the tide at a comfortable trajectory. Bait, Location & tide were bang on and I suppose the angers weren’t half bad either so the boat was filled with confidence from the off. First bite was a small conger released at the side followed by Paul Maris smiling and saying “I think you’ll need the net for this one Shaun!”
Me with the brand new net in hand we all saw a fine eel surface after 2 or 3 dives pulling 20lb of drag on Paul's Shimano Talica II speed Reel. It took two of us to lift the net in and with the fish now on the deck we all smiled and said ‘That’s the one we came for!’ and only the second eel of the day.
After a bit of breakfast, a couple of cups of tea and a bit of T-baring smaller eels off for me. Kevin Turner was into another half decent eel that surfaced along way from the boat and dived down again. A shorter run than the eel of Paul’s but this fish was pulling faster for sure. Kevin done well to stop the fish going too deep for a second time and on the second surface we could clearly see this was bigger than Paul’s, who up until now thought he had the biggest of the year for the BCC (British Conger Club). With Kevin’s rolling out of the net onto the deck of Our Joe - L you could see the size difference and was looking close to the magic 100lb!
As the tide eased it was time to up anchor and move to fish for ling and bream on the drift with slightly awkward conditions. We started our drifts on the second wreck and another boat came over to drift to but with the lads all having a bit of a break I thought we should shift inshore to give the tide time to turn for another go at some eels If we could settle at anchor. So far we had a couple of decent eels for the Dart Fishing Festival for Kevin & Paul M and also Kevin and Paul C were half way to a good score for the BCC interport with Kevin’s Eel, weight yet unknown.
Dropping the anchor with a small flood tide against 15knots of wind I said to the Anglers, you’ll get a couple of short windows of fishing before we’ll swing off and I will have to reposition the boat again. During the 3 windows we stayed Paul C managed to hook and surface a half decent eel of 42lb that got released at the side of the boat. Job Done!!!
Results time.
The anticipated weigh in time with plenty of interest in our two fish boxes came. Paul Maris Personal best eel for the year going 86lb and winning ‘Best Fish From Wreck’. Kevin Turners personal best Conger going 96lb 14oz winning ‘Best Fish overall’ ‘Best Conger Eel’ and ‘Best Fish of the Day’ as well as smashing the Best Eel so far in 2022 for the BCC by 25lb! This also confirmed the combined weight for Paul C and Kevin’s interport entry going 138lb 14oz. Happy Days.
Credit goes to the Anglers, they put their faith in me as a Charter Skipper when they book ‘Our Joe - L’ and this group always fish as a team in these competitions. Everyone aboard was happy to be on the boat when these fish were caught which as a skipper makes things a lot easier. Well done to Paul Maris & Kevin Turner on this occasion for hooking a couple of magnificent eels and thanks to Steve Batchelor at Stainless Steve engineering for making up the Conger Net at short notice after my last one broke. With one of his excellent nets aboard, a gaff really is a thing of the past!
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