Steve picked me up with the sun shining brightly so it promised to be at least a nice trip. Once the monthly checks were completed we left the mooring and headed towards the mouth of the Dart. When travelling to Brixham Steve said it looked rough out which was a surprise to me but sure enough it was decidedly lumpy as we heeded past the Mewstone.

We continue to be surprised at the sea keeping qualities of the boat and today's trip certainly was a good test with a large swell running. The conditions were such that in our previous boat (Quicksilver ???) we definitely would have turned back. However, knowing conditions out over our mark may be a little better we soldiered on, taking spray over the wheel house several times.

There was an air of expectation when we saw several gannet's diving over the mark and Mike was soon into a fish! The expected bass was brought to the surface only to transform itself into a mackerel! A few more drifts saw Mike into another fish which he forecast to be another mackerel, only to turn out to be a nice sized bass!

The swell was not uncomfortable due to the frequency of the waves but when the boat was in the bottom of one particular trough the following wave height was around 8 - 10 feet! At times the two other boats fishing at the same site would all but disappear!

Mike then had another fish hooked. Bass this time.....nope, another mackerel which wasn't much bigger than the lure and was returned straight away. We never land mackerel and only have the odd one for bait but today's pair went back to fight another day.

You may have noticed that the one landing the fish today was Mike so Steve decided to concentrate on the landing net. Things started to quieten down so we moved to a more sheltered mark where on the first drift Mike again was into another fish but this time it was bending the rod considerably and Mike was having difficulty retrieving it so Steve took the rod and during the transfer the fish got away! It was a big disappointment since both Steve and Mike wanted to see what had taken the Storm lure. Best guess would be a large Pollack but we shall never know.

Another couple of drifts and it was back to the mooring. Steve was having some fun with surfing when past the Mewstone,  before the headland calmed the sea. A sunny trip up the river to the mooring where the fish was gutted and boat tided up.

Ships log

Date: Friday 04/06/2010

Weather: Force 5 SW

Sea state: heavy swell

Engine hours at start: 221.8

Engine hours at finish: 223.2

Crew: Steve Mike

Time off moorings: 1000

Tide:  High Water 1230 ?????

Author: Mike (skipper)