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  • 31/03/2012 Fishing Report by Scott Belbin on Lady Grace (Brightlingsea, Essex)

    31 Mar 2012 by Scott Belbin

    Report on-board Lady Grace

    We set off on high tide at 7am and steamed out to an inshore mark where we anchored up with enthusiasm. Aboard Lady Grace I had 2 beginners, their first trip out sea fishing, they had a little experience with coarse fishing and were bought a gift voucher each by their wife and daughter-in-law at Christmas. Gary and Roger sat eagerly waiting, not knowing what to expect. Being my last trip of the season I wanted to finish on a high leaving me eager to go again in November. Their first couple bites were little rattle bites so I knew what they straight away, they each had a whiting to start the day off. Followed by a more prominent nod nod bite on my rod, which I gave me a grin as I knew what it was straight away, as it got nearer the surface it unfortunately shook the hook out of its mouth, so I baited up quickly and got the rod back out fishing as I knew there was a codling out there. Within a few minutes I got another nod nod bite and this time I managed to get my codling aboard the Lady Grace, a very slender codling, not quite sized but a very welcome codling all the same. As the tide got underway Roger had his first decent bite of the day, being a carp angler he knew how to play the fish and made the most of it, as it started to surface a skate revealed itself. I was very pleased as this is the first skate I’ve had aboard the Lady Grace, I’ve caught many before on our bigger fishing boat, Galloper, but with the season I fish on Lady Grace, I don’t get much opportunity to catch a wider variety of species, my main catch is usually the codling and whiting over the winter months. So this early spring skate was a pleasant surprise. As I unhooked Rogers’ skate at the stern, Martins’ rod butt lifted off the deck and almost went over, I grabbed it quickly and handed it to Gary to reel in, from that bite I knew it was another skate. By 8.30am we had had 2 male skate between 4-5lb, 1 codling and 3 small whiting. We sat on this mark for another hour and by 9.30am we hadn’t had anymore so I moved further down the edge. At 10am Roger then had another skate, this time it was a slightly larger female so we let it go, she was about 6lb. Being small tides, the tide started to die down after 10.30am and the wind picked up a little so the boat laid across the tide. We moved once more before heading home at midday but that was all our luck used up for the day. Roger and Gary were extremely happy with their catch and now have the bug and want to come again in November for more of the cod action, in particular Roger after he saw the nod nod action that the cod gives on rod and line. Luckily I had taken pictures as their wives didn’t believe they had caught the skate and thought they had called into the fish mongers on the way home, I emailed over their proof which restored their wives faith in them.

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