Got there on Fri afternoon only to have the lovely assistant in reception apologise…. “We have sold the caravan you rented”. How very dare you I thought. “Yes I am very sorry, but we shall have to upgrade you” – Top Dollar I thought and a free bottle of wine – things are looking up

Got settled in the “van” and set up the essentials :

Sussed out the launch…

Packed up, and I was off…

Had a chat with the local fisherman bloke person who told me where the reefs were – lovely jubbly. Paddled out to the reef which was easy to spot on the FF. Lots of broken ground on the way out. First drop by the reef and full set of scad (new species on the yak for me ).

Drifted around and the FF alarm started to go mental with fish all over the shop – the rod buckled over almost straight away. Mackerel…. fasands of ’em !

It started to get dark, so on went the navlight and out went a couple of mackerel…

Nobody in sight, so I decided to come back in. Met Todaymueller, Hungryfisherman and Lureman just as I was landing – If I had known they were coming out, I would have stayed put. Gave John some coords and a pack of cuttlefish. Then went back to my centrally heated abode – did I mention I had central heating ?

Went out next morning and caught some more mackerel and pollack then decided to drift west close in against the rocks with the J13…

Great fun, but no fish – Lureman was also plugging and he had a pollack. Landed on a nearby beach to drain the main vein…

Then went back and did a spot of surveying with the side imaging switched on (see below). Finished the day off catching more mackerel and a smattering of garfish – one of them actually jumped into the yak – another first….

Map below shows the side imaging recordings which I saved (a load of the others did not work for some reason – shame – cos I had a really good track of the ground between the shore and the reef – right where the Welsh boys were fishing).

Stuck mainly to the pot strings, as the potters usually know a thing or two. But the snapshot below shows he start of the reef on the way out from the beach…

The images show the ground 30 metres to the left and the right of the kayak – you can cover alot of ground !

You can see the fish (lighter flecks on the bottom left) which I hooked into on this one …

And this next one shows the pot ropes going up to the surface and a tight shoal of fish near the bottom…

I have some free software at home which lets me replay and process the footage from the fishfinder so you can look at it again and set waypoints for bits which look interesting…

The raw images are much sharper/higher res. than these – but hopefulyl they give you an idea of what it looks like. When it is scrolling, you also get a better picture of the ground.

Went to Putsborough on Sunday on the way home – will post the info. about that trip on a separate thread.

What more can I say – A thoroughly unhealthy weekend with great company, great weather – great fun. Lets hope we can do it all over again next year.

‘Iechyd da’ to the Welsh boys – great to meet you all. “What Dee Say ?”