People:Myself and Smithy (non forum member)
Duration:Afternoon
Tide:Various
Weather:Breezy and dull
Bait:Mack
Rigs:Shrimp rigs, flowing traces, Shads.
Results:Grey Gurnard, Pollack, Macks.
Report:Finally, for the first time this year, after countless false dawns, numerous engine problems, a change of name, engine and a complete overhaul, Norfolk 'n' Fish, the boat "formerly known as Lesley Ellen" took to the waters of Lough Swilly on a fine August day. After months of frustration, all directed at various engine problems, it was with a huge amount of happiness that we set sail with from Buncrana on Sunday afternoon with the old Volvo 50 replaced with a relatively new Mariner 30.
After dodging the ferry, we launched from Buncrana slipway and headed North, heading up the lough. After an hour or so of fruitless searching for mackerel :? We headed for Dunree and positioned ourselves for a few drifts down along the rocks in front of the fort. Straight away we found the mackerel, despite nothing showing on the finder???!!! With fresh bait, baited shrimp rigs were the order of the day for Smithy with myself using a strip of mack on a flowing trace intially. We were plagued with mackerel, all of them virtually no bigger than sardine size. After finishing that drift, we repositioned, a lot tighter to the rock face and I changed over to using a clear and red storm shad on the baitcaster setup. Smithy wasnt long before he started hitting into Grey gurnard, coming aboard 3 at a time in cases. I began getting into some pollack on the shad which was super fun on the ultralight set up I was using. We hit this particular drift a few times with more greys and pollack showing. I had a super take on the shad and after a hell of a tussle and numerous reel scorching runs I had a lovely golden pollack at the side of the boat between 5 and 6lbs weight. Smithy at the exact same time managed to pull in a super Grey Gurnard of well over a pound and prob nearer a pound and a half.
All this of course was lovely but no day on a boat with me is without incident..... On finishing up one particular drift as we were getting too close to the rocks for comfort, the bloody engine refused to start, with much panicking and swearing and thanking god that we had the 4hp Johnson Aux in position and connected up we fired her up in the nick of time to get the hell away from the hard stuff! Of course, once we were well clear of the rocks there was no trouble starting the mariner at all....sods law isnt it. A lesson though for small boat men....the place for your aux is on the back of the boat, not the cabin or the boot of the car. After that little scare (and a quick change of trousers...) we decided to head for home. Norfolk, 17.5 foot Microplus, hammered back to Buncrana with the 30 HP 2 Stroke pushing her along at 20 knots which I was more than pleased with. There were one or two small problems with the engine losing power on the way back in so we were glad to see the pier at the finish. Much fun was had at the pier (again...) when after dropping Smithy off to do the trailer thing as I was manoeuvering into position for the retrieve the bloody Mariner croaked again. With half of Buncrana seemingly horsing out mackerel feathers off the pier, now was not a good time to be having problems. No trouble, fired up the aux again and brought her in on that.
For anyone who has never used Buncrana Slipway, trying to retrieve a boat in a northwesterly wind and a filling tide creates all manner of problems with the combination of wind and tide on the exposed slip doing its best to push you onto the pier makes it not a place for the faint hearted! That and the crowds of people around fishing and queuing for the ferry mean you could very easily unwittingly provide massive entertainment for the watching masses. Made it onto the trailer at the first attempt however but it took the two of us a serious bit of pushing and lifting and grunting to get her lined up on the trailer properly with the sea threatening to sweep it off the trailer at numerous points. For anyone reading this who was on the Pier on Saturday, I'd like to apologise for the amount of profanities that were uttered at that particular point....!
Once out of the water, we had a quick look at the engine as it appeared to be a problem in the fuel supply. Problem was quickly diagnosed to a cracked T shaped joint that feeds the oil supply into the fuel line. It must have been sucking pockets of air in along with it leading to the engine cutting out. Easily replaced anyway.
And so ended a fairly typical days small boat fishing along with Pete.... :D A few fish, a few horrible panicky moments and some great fun back on the slipway... You know what, I wouldnt have it any other way... It was great to be back out on the Swilly at last. :D I was delighted with the way the Micro handled the sea, she is a fine stable boat with very little list even with the guts of 26 stone at one side of her on occasion. Very pleased.
(I might just add that the 26 stone mentioned above is most definitely a combined weight.... :lol: )
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