Today I struck another item off my bucket list…….. Yep, I went deep sea fishing.
We went out for a 4 hour fishing trip with Mermaid tours in Penzance, I was not the only novice onboard and as one of the regulars told us “women usually catch the fish and always the beginners!” after a slight detour to check out a pod of dolphins we settled down and got a chance to get our gear wet.
Some of the group were after mackerel using feather lures (a string of 4 shiny tassel’s hiding 4 hooks), our skipper showed us how and reeled in 2 Mackerel almost as soon as the lure touched water. These were promptly put to use as bait as the rest of us were after Haddock. I carefully watched the instructions and in it went…….. low and behold I caught the first fish (apart from the bait Mackerel) It was a small Whiting, apparently not worth keeping as the crew unhooked him and back he went…. My first ever fish and I didn’t even get a photo!
Silence descended as we got down to the serious business of fishing…… the fish were not too serious though as only 2 Haddock were caught and the odd Mackerel. So everyone reel in and off to another spot! Mike caught a Haddock, then a Dogfish (a type of shark which was wrapping itself into knots trying to get away……. he went back over the side to fight another day!).
The fish weren’t coming in fast enough for the skipper, so he moved us elsewhere to try a few other spots. Pollack and Gurnards were caught but nothing big…….. then the tales started! You know the ones, how they were all pulling in 10lb Cod last week! By this time I was getting a little disheartened as I was getting no other bites!
Skipper decided to change tactics and go after Ling & Pollack, which meant changing the tack too what looked to me to be a odd setup but hey I’m the novice! With new tack and jelly worm bait we try again, with warnings off the rough bottom and trying not to get hooked down there.
I managed to get tangled with my fellow fishers on more than one occasion and then it happened!!!!! Yep! I had just dropped her down and I am well and truly hooked on the bottom, the rod bowing down and round the stern…………. Captains mate to the rescue! A man of few words he takes my rod, does a couple of dips and jiggles and hands it back with “You’ve got a big one! Reel her in”
Woohooo! Good job I had seen those fishing movies, with a little coaching and a lot of reeling I landed a 12lb Ling!!! Biggest and last catch of the day!
Guess what is for dinner tonight? Probably for the rest of the week too!
- What a smile
Yvonnes Ling Cod
