11/10/2025
Yesterday turned out to be quite eventful. After an almost non existent start with the Tohatsu, we eventually got it to fire up; I must get that issue looked at, it should still be under warrantee! I made the decision that whatever, I would not be cutting out the engine just in case we couldn't get it started again.
Heading out from Mylor, there seemed to be very little activity on the fish finder and the morning seemed to be devoid of fish. It was a calm day, with quite big tides. So it should have been a very promising day.
Mark was the first to find fish, with a ballan wrasse, then a mackerel about an hour later. I took the boat along the shoreline in the hope of being able to hook into a bass, but I guess they just weren't hungry.
So we headed out to do a spot of jigging and still nothing. After a while, I spotted a lot of birds taking interest, so we headed over to investigate.
Oh joy, there was a feeding frenzy. Small fry were boiling the sea all around. We tried casting lures to see if it was bass feeding. But getting nothing. So we dropped the feather traces and hit into the largest mackerel I've seen in a very long time. I had a full string on first drop, and with the size of them, it was quite a fight getting them to the boat. Occasionally we would also get a few sardines hitting the feathers too. So these small fry were getting chased by both mackerel and sardines; quite the feeding chain.
After a while, we got bored with chasing the feeding frenzy, so we left them to it, and decided to just drift fish from there.
To my surprise, a squid was next on board. I'd hooked it on the feathers! Followed by more mackerel, which seemed to be hugging the bottom. Then even more surprising was the fish Mark caught next. He was confused as to what it was, but I said it had the unmistakable thumb print mark of a haddock. A haddock in cornish waters? It wasn't very big, so it went back. Mark confirmed, this morning, after a bit of googling that it was definitely a haddock.
I'm not sure if my camera picked it up, as after he'd returned it, I'd noticed my camera holder had slipped it's position and Mark had forgotten to take a photo. Will have to rethink that camera set up too! But a definite first for Mark, well done!
After a while, we were both getting funny pulls on the feathers, and I thought it could be squid. So I changed over to a squid jigs to see. It wasn't long before a cuttlefish came to the surface, and whilst I was just netting it, it gave out a big sq**rt of water and was off. Undeterred, the jig was down again and into another cuttlefish. This time I did actually manage to net it, I was happy, because it was my turn to have a first and I'd been eager to try cuttlefish.
Time was getting on, and we needed to start heading back. So Mark took the helm whilst I gutted the fish.
All in all, we both had firsts and quite the multi species trip!
Can't wait to see the footage, and hopefully there should be some hilarious out takes at the end!
