Training Day

A change of location today. I also left the lure gear at home and packed some crab and fish bait with the targets being  tope and smoothies. 

This was to be a proper shakedown bait session on my new rig, plenty of tide and I ended up with four moves lifting and laying the anchor. The winds were supposed to be light and they were, from 11am to 12.30pm. After that I had 3ft waves running down the length of boat till about 3.30pm. I checked the forecast on my phone at the time, 9mph..aye right.  I can’t say it was enjoyable and the fishing wasn’t great, dogs, dabs, cod and two thornbacks. Off the water it would be a nice day but while sitting with my feet over the sides to stabilise things I was cold, two pair of socks, neoprene socks over my drysuit feet, boots and a wet arse. The revo 16 is a much wetter ride than my outback but it's a water sport after all. It’s still cool out there at the minute despite the sunshine. 

The Scotty rocket launchers with slip discs worked great mounted behind the seat, my trolley works better than my old one and the boat is very seaworthy, it really eats up the miles, wind and waves. I didn’t take as much as a breather when I lifted the anchor to head in, that was with a headwind and the nose into the last of the flood. I would have been more relaxed at anchor in the outback but there are positive trade-offs. At one point today I decided to try to catch a dab for a change of bait for tope swapping a crab bait for mackerel strip on my two hook uptide rig. Ten minutes later I hooked what I believe was a tope which straightened the hook! Onwards we go, it’s early days down the SW.