I had been invited and unable to attend some of the trips
arranged by Mark Everard last year so I jumped at the chance to join him and
his friends for a black bream trip out of Poole Harbour.
Bream are one of my favourite sea fish and I had caught one
by accident in the past so I was looking forward to learning more this time.
We set out on Silver Spray II out of Poole
at around 8am. Half the party were on this boat skippered by Sam, whilst the
other half were on the boat skippered by his dad.
The trip was a good chance to catch up with Adrian Pinder
who is working with the Mahseer Trust, a body I was co-founder of and was
delighted to hear of the progress although the latest report on the internet is
that the orange-finned Mahseer that made the Cauvery famous has virtually
become extinct due to pressure from the blue-finned that have been stocked was
not unexpected. You can read more on the
internet through Google.
When we anchored, we set up with rods, small hooks baited
with a section of ragworm and a long thin slither of squid on each hook. The sport started slowly and then I started
catching small pouting (really small) and poor cod, a fish I had never caught
before.
Sam suggested that all the leads hitting the rocks we were
using as a mark might scare the fish so try and cast 5-10 yards away from the
boat. This worked for me as I caught
five bream to around the 1.5 lb mark.
I did notice that the anglers using a boom keeping the bait
closer to the sea bed caught markedly more than I did with just leaders tied
direct to the main line as a paternoster rig – something to learn from next
time.
But the best part of the trip is the banter, learning about
the spread of sturgeon from the continent and being able to supply some
historical photos of the fish netted in the last centuries, and all the gossip
continuing to the local pub on the shore.
Thanks Mark for arranging it and I’m already looking forward
to next year.