"Blindin' Breamin'!"

Each year I organise a trip when I charter a boat for the day so that my wife and I can take our kids boat fishing. We had selected June 4th as it was in the half term holidays and should be warm with plenty of fish to keep the children interested.

Having booked the date some 6 months in advance I watched the weather nervously. Having been seriously restricted in our efforts to fish out of Plymouth the previous week-end I was delighted when Dave Pitman, skipper/owner of Atlanta out of Weymouth confirmed that the forecast looked good and we would be off at 8am the following morning.

After a 5am breakfast and an hour and a half drive to Weymouth, we arrived at the quayside with rods, lunch, sun cream, a small cold bag for the fish (proved to be hopelessly inadequate!), and a "magic hat" (more of this later).

Dee, Dave's deck hand, quickly helped us stow our gear and we were soon away. Because the Mackerel had been patchy in the harbour we didn't bother with this and headed straight out to the ledges for a crack at the Bream.

Tea & biscuits to start the day

The water was decidedly sloppy and, as the Met Office had predicted, on the moderate side of slight. Despite being sunny, the wind remained cool and I started to wonder whether the shorts were a good idea!

I rigged the four rods I had brought for us to use. Mine, I equipped with a 2 hook Wessex rig, supplied by Moonfleet Angling. This was armed with size 4 hooks which I had embellished with very small yellow muppets. Polly (10) had the same rig but I left the bottom hook without a muppet to see if it would make a difference. Dave had advised that running legers with a few coloured beads had been working well so Karan (my wife) was set up with one of these, as was Maddy (8). Maddy selected a pink / purple colour combination - such things are important to an 8 year old girl!

Rag worm and squid were the baits all day and the quality of bait Dave had provided was excellent with the worm staying lively all day.

Having set the anchor we all lowered away to the sea bed. Polly was first to register a bite and reeled in a Poor Cod. Species number 1, we were off and running.

I then caught a small Bream which released itself at the surface, before Maddy showed us all how to do it and landed a moderate sized Black Bream (species number 2).

Maddy makes it look easy

Polly added a Pout (species number 3) on a double shot with another poor cod, whilst Karan saw the first of the Lesser Spotted Dogfish (species number 4) come to the boat.

The girls and I continued to catch a mixture of small Bream (returned) and doggies for about the next hour plus a surprise Pollack for me (species number 5). Sadly by now Karan was fighting the onset of sea-sickness, something that has only started to trouble her in the last couple of years. We had bought sea-sickness tablets but they didn't seem to be working from their position in the glove box of our car!

Doggies like pink beads too

With Karan feeling steadily worse, the swell not reducing and the tide dropping, Dave called for the lines to come up and we would head off to fish well inside Warbarrow Bay.

As he warmed the engine I had a last bite and the result was this very pretty Red Gurnard (species number 6). He was not very big so was returned to fight another day despite being good eating.

Red Gurnard

Dave took it steady as we headed further East and tried to dodge the larger of the swells to protect Karan's weakening constitution! We were however soon at anchor again, just before lunch time. The conditions were much kinder in here and with the wind dropping all the time it became much warmer and calmer. Karan started to improve and even managed to eat her sandwiches.

We fished in exactly the same way as we had done on the ledges and the response was almost instant. It was Maddy who again showed the way with a lovely fish for the BBQ.

Another fish falls to girly beads!

Polly was not far behind and was delighted to capture her first "keeper" of the day.

Sibling rivalry?

With kids out-fishing me at every turn it was time for drastic action. I couldn't even claim I was too busy sorting them out as Dave and Dee were constantly helping them unhook fish and re-bait. It was time for my "Magic Hat". Not only did I hope that it would see me contact the Bream, but also that it would find me a 3lb plus specimen which I have been hunting for years. I have had fish to 2lb 15oz but never quite getting to the magic 3lb mark. It was the skipper who enquired whether I had ever seen myself in the hat - what was he suggesting?

Within seconds the magic was working. The biggest fish of the day to that point, but weighing only a tantalizing 2lb 13oz.

Magic Hat and a "nearly" fish

The sport was fairly constant all afternoon with a flurry of 2 or 3 good sized bream coming to the boat every 10 to 15 minutes or so. Maddy seemed to be dropping off the pace so I re-rigged her rod with a Moonfleet Wessex rig, added mini-muppets and she was off and running again!

Polly was next to contact a good sized fish, again just short of the 3lb mark.

Another "nearly" fish!

It was Maddy however who made us all look like novices. She had a sharp rattling bite and wound in to what looked like a reasonable fish. I glanced down at the reel and could see that, despite Maddy winding in, the spool was turning in the reverse direction as her capture took line. As the fish came to the net Dee didn't hesitate in getting the scales out again. A cracking fish of 3lb 8oz. Not sure yet whether I am feeling pride or envy!

Catch of the day

During the afternoon, both Polly and I managed to catch small Ballan Wrasse (species number 7) and both Polly and Dave caught edible crabs (returned).

We all thought Polly had caught the Bream of a life time towards the end of the day but it turned out to be an excellent "double shot" of a nice 2lb Bream and larger Ballan Wrasse of around 3lbs.

Nice Wrasse

After a very quiet 45 minutes or so I was about to suggest we headed in. Polly had other ideas though and caught yet another 2lb+ Bream. Both Polly and Maddy followed this up with further fish and then we were done.

The day had been simply fabulous. We had some 40 of our target species, Black Bream, and it had not been a hard decision to return the breeding females as we had plenty of male fish for our own needs. We added to this a further 15 to 20 other fish of various species including a few rare Mackerel (species number 8) added by Dee.

The trip back to harbour was more like a cruise in hot sunshine with the beautiful Jurassic coast as a back drop.

For part of the way Dave gave Polly driving lessons!

Future skipper?

And as Dee gutted the fish we were not short of Seagulls for friends.

contact - steve@madpolka.co.uk

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