Becky M Newsletter

Monday 27th December, 2004

On the last set of jottings I apologised for being late because of all the good weather that we were getting, and that I was too knackered when I got home to slave over a typewriter to give a report.

Well there isn’t any chance of being able to use that excuse this time, the weather has resumed to its usual pattern, (wet and windy), the fishing has become a bit slow,(we are in my opinion still in need of a good cold spell) and I am beginning to write “cancelled” a bit too often into the diary.

Now Christmas is fast approaching, and the year is coming to an end, and I find that I am about two weeks behind with my write-ups so I suppose that a review of what we have done these last twelve months would be in order.

I decided to do these “Jottings” as I called them earlier this year mainly to give you, my customers an idea as to what was being caught, and the chance to arrange your own trips accordingly.

January saw a continuation of Cod being caught, along with Channel Whiting, and Rays, plus the inevitable Dogfish and Pout, and the occasional Conger. The weather was reasonable allowing me to get out a couple of times a week.

February saw fewer Cod but we still had the Channel Whiting around, and the Rays were still showing, and we even had a Smoothound.

March came , and looking back I only managed four trips, but I did have the boat out for a spruce up. The outstanding trip was the one that I done for Ted Entwhistle, where we found some good Blonde Rays, eleven I think, with six of them over 20lbs and the best one about 27lbs, all but two were returned.

April, was when I saw the first House Martin of the year, and Rod Lewis boated the first Black Bream of the year on the 8th, there were plenty of Rays caught, and the Smoothies were beginning to show, but it wasn’t until the middle of the month that we began to get into the Bream. Towards the end of the month we began to catch Tope.

May, and we were into catching Black Bream regularly, along with Wrass, and Garfish. By the middle of the month we were catching Mackerel, so that eased the bait situation a bit, as fresh is always better than frozen. We also ventured out mid-channel and found some Cod, and Pollock for our efforts. During the Black Bream sessions we also managed to find the occasional Bass as a bonus.

June continued much the same as May, with some excellent light line fishing, plus a couple of good sessions on the Bass. This was also the month when I had to make my way down to Poole for the species comp, and as I had won it last year I had to defend this , but unfortunately I wasn’t successful this time. Still it is great to meet up with other skippers. As you all are aware, the summer months I do spend a lot of time in Christchurch Bay doing the light line fishing as I find it exciting, and for the newcomer, challenging, but great sport.

July, and August was much the same with new customers being introduced to the light gear and them coming back for more of the same. July also saw our association’s light line comp, and Paul Copeman was the boat winner on Becky “M”, and he narrowly missed out on the main prize. Better luck next year Paul.

September came along, and I got up on my high horse about the proposed introduction of rod licences, writing to DEFRA etc. so we are still awaiting the outcome on that issue. This month was also notable because having never had a Trigger Fish onboard before, we managed two in a week, the best one fell to Nigel Collins weighing 3lbs 1oz. We also had a run of strong winds throughout this period, but we still managed to get some Bream, and Bass.

October continued to give us a bit of a run of strong winds, but they did ease off towards the middle of the month. I struggled to find many Cod, with just the occasional one coming aboard, but the Bream hung on as did the Bass thank goodness.

November saw us being blessed with some settled weather, the cod were beginning to show, and the Congers had taken lessons in how to make anglers think they were into Cod. Everyone in the association was preying for fine weather, and a good showing of Cod for the British Cod Championships. Well we got the weather, but the fish stayed away. The second day saw me get a rope wrapped around my prop coming off the mooring, and Spike Spears getting wet to release me. This put me into a foul mood all morning, even Terry evacuated the wheelhouse and left me to it, by the time I had anchored up I was in a better frame of mind, and the crew fished their socks off. Enough to get me the Top Skippers Prize, well done to them all.

Hear we are now into December, the weather has turned to rat crap again, we are still waiting for a cold snap to kick start the fishing again, and Christmas is now here, so I will stop moaning, and hope that you all get what you ordered on your wish lists, thank you all for your company over this last year, and may all your lines be tight next year.

A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL AND A SUCESSFUL 2005

Dave

Monday 6th December, 2004

Well I am late again, sorry, but with all this fine weather that we have been having, well if the days are booked, then I have to go to sea, because we can never be sure if it is going to last.

I have been able to find a few Cod for some of my crews since our British Cod Championships, and I was even lucky enough to sneak a half decent one out myself. It weighed in at 27 lbs 10 ozs, the heaviest one to be taken onboard this year. Well some one has to start the ball rolling. This was soon followed by one weighing 26 lbs 7 ozs caught by Rob Quest, well done Rob. The same trip saw Chris Lee grab one right at the end of the day weighing 15 lbs 10 ozs. Now Chris has been trying to get himself the biggest fish on their in house competition for the last twelve years, and he nearly made it, still it was a personal best for him, he has now got his “mug shot” onto the picture gallery on this site.

For all of you who have not yet caught their best ever fish, don’t give up, just persevere and eventually it will come along.

We have also been catching some very good Channel Whiting as well this last week, although they did tail off on the very small tides, they are now showing again, (to-day Wednesday) with some good sized ones amongst them.

At our recent West Wight Skipper Association AGM, Tim Doswell decided to stand down from competition secretary, and for my foolishness I have taken up the position as of now.

That’s about it for now, as my eyes are beginning to resemble pee holes in the snow, so until next time.

Tight Lines,

Dave.