Rob Posted September 5, 2013 Report Share Posted September 5, 2013 Shark fever has struck the club. Not wanting to be left out, though one of the smallest boats in the club, I bought the gear for making some heavy traces up!I had taken my Ray fishing (now shark fishing) rods with us to Dartmouth, the intention was that these 30lb class rods would be great for sport for sharks.I had some info from Neil at Bournemouth Fishing Lodge, as he had recently been to salcome on Random Harvest.So, we has some family days on the boat, some mackereling, potting etc. Wednesday my longest friend and fishing buddy NickT came over to Dartmouth for a days sharking!We headed out, found mackerel and plenty of them. Then we started the 13mile journey to our drift site. We drifted for 5+ miles, mincing and rubby dubby scaking and making maccy soup all the way! 5 miles of drift and neary 5 hrs, choppy sea, F3 / F4 and the tide hadnt turned as I had hoped to push us back homeward. We decided to pack up and have an hour on the blondes before home. One rod in, feathers in and screaming run!!!!!! (This time it was not a gull (we had 4 or 5).Nick had picked the rod with the red ballon, and this was on the red! I set the hook and passed him the rod, after 5+ mins of screaming deep runs I saw a shape 20ft down in the clear water. It was a blue! Sat side on facing the tide, beautiful!Nick was surprised as I donned some gloves and advised it was coming onboard! The long thick trace was so easy to handle, my crimps held and we had ourselves a blue onboard after a careful tail and dorsal lift.Nick got too close and lost part of his trousers, luckily the lower end by his ankle!!!We did not have a sling onboard and we wanted to return her. We measured her, so if anyone has some size to weight tables for blues, I would be grateful.I estimated that she was 40-50lb. As they are quite slender compared to tope. And she was at least a 1/3 of the length of the boat!Nick held her tail for a good 10 mins next to the boat, she was relaxed and didn't struggle (as I put the rods out again!).He let go and she very slowly headed down with a waft of her tail, amazing!We fished on for another hour, but only a bird made us leap up with hearts pounding! The drift had headed north and then back home.Then I looked on the plotter, with the drift and the initial starting point, we had a long way to get home, 21miles and a sloppy horrible sea!In the morning I had been to the petrol station and bought 2 x 5litre cans with fuel as backup. I put the backup in the main tank (which was low) and connected the full reserve.The reserve got us 1/2 mile from the entrance of the Dart, hooked up the 12/15 litres in the main tank and we were back for 20:30 in the dark. The takeaway curry beat us by 10 mins, and was well deserved!Ah.......I thought holidays were supposed to be relaxing! Martin.C, Mal Thomas, niggle and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan F (bathclaret) Posted September 5, 2013 Report Share Posted September 5, 2013 Fantastic Rob - nice report and pics. Well done. "We decided to pack up and have an hour on the blondes before home" .... is that the pink house with the light in the window ? Duncan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gas Posted September 5, 2013 Report Share Posted September 5, 2013 Fantastic Rob - nice report and pics. Well done. "We decided to pack up and have an hour on the blondes before home" .... is that the pink house with the light in the window ? Duncan Great report Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuie Posted September 5, 2013 Report Share Posted September 5, 2013 Wow, I reckon we'll all struggle to top that.... dedication paid off big time. Looking forward to reading your new signature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niggle Posted September 5, 2013 Report Share Posted September 5, 2013 Brilliant Rob,well done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted September 5, 2013 Report Share Posted September 5, 2013 Well done Rob. Lucky it didn't bring it's Dad to sort you out ! Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted September 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2013 Well done Rob. Lucky it didn't bring it's Dad to sort you out ! Jim Next time I hope Jim!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted September 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2013 For anyone interested, I made traces with: HD shark wire (5ft) then 10ft of 500lb mono. Crimped with biggish swivels and a 9/0 circle. Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam F Posted September 5, 2013 Report Share Posted September 5, 2013 Well done mate. When you text me I assumed you'd gone on a charter.... Not on Jojo! Awesome :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted September 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2013 Small boats rule OK!!! Though JV would have been more suitable for the journey back to port!!!!! Don't underestimate the tiddlers! Inc yakkers, as I think JoJo is only a foot and a bit bigger than a yak!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted September 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2013 Alderney on JoJo? Now I'm thinking.......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted September 5, 2013 Report Share Posted September 5, 2013 Small boats rule OK!!! Though JV would have been more suitable for the journey back to port!!!!! Don't underestimate the tiddlers! Inc yakkers, as I think JoJo is only a foot and a bit bigger than a yak!!! I think Tiddler is shorter than a lot of yaks. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted September 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2013 Small but perfectly formed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted September 5, 2013 Report Share Posted September 5, 2013 Small but perfectly formed! I meant the boat Rob. You obviously mean me ! ! Jim Kingfisher 126 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ark Posted September 6, 2013 Report Share Posted September 6, 2013 Great fishing Rob , good report well done. Kev Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisE Posted September 6, 2013 Report Share Posted September 6, 2013 Excellent, guess what we'll all be fishing for next year! Good fishing and write up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve S Posted September 6, 2013 Report Share Posted September 6, 2013 Well done Rob, great effort. I'm wondering if that is the first Blue to a club boat? Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lofty Posted September 6, 2013 Report Share Posted September 6, 2013 If there's a small one then there's a big one I'm sure. Great effort chaps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coddy Posted September 6, 2013 Report Share Posted September 6, 2013 Well done Rob I wasn't sure if I was to believe you when you added Blue Shark to the species list Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted September 6, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2013 Well done Rob I wasn't sure if I was to believe you when you added Blue Shark to the species list Dave Bloody cheek!!! Thanks Dave, it was a long shot but paid off!!!! Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncan Posted September 7, 2013 Report Share Posted September 7, 2013 well done Rob - you certainly put in some effort and it's always good to see that rewarded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted September 7, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2013 It's why we do it isn't it???!!!! It was reassuring to know that the weather was not expected to get worse, as we had the CG on 16 for weather updates etc! Also, to have my PLB adds some reassurance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted September 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2013 A few pics from camera: niggle, Paul J and Stuie 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pirky Posted September 9, 2013 Report Share Posted September 9, 2013 Magical Rob ....well done to you and crew ... Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted September 9, 2013 Report Share Posted September 9, 2013 Very Very well done Rob. Just think of the fishing tales you'll be able to tell your grand kids ! Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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