Report, Alderney - May '08

Day 1

The long awaited Alderney 'turbot challenge' trip on Silver Spray finally came round, and so did some severe weather, with gale force winds - typical! Our departure on Monday was delayed from 7am to 2.30pm because of the strong Easterly winds, and heavy rain, which also meant no wrecking on the outward trip. We did however stock up on some Mackerel on the other side of the Channel on the way over.

Picture of Braye Harbour.

Day 2

With a lull in the weather, we made our first trip out to the turbot banks, and soon Ellis was reeling in the first fish of the trip.......a doggie, which was quickly followed by many more! To get us away from the dogs, Andy repositioned Silver Spray for another drift and Chan boated the first flattie of the trip - a nice brill of around 4lb.

Andy Herman with the biggest flattie on Silver Spray - 9lb 14oz turbot

With the end of the days fishing looming, we moved up to the South Bank, and on the first drift, Ellis lost a big fish to live launce (probably a big bass). I managed to boat bass and pollack, but no flatties turned up.

Terry and his 2 brill - biggest 7lb 14oz

Day 3

We woke to a gentle wind, but heavy rain, and again made our way out to the banks, the first two drifts of the day resulted in two turbot to the boat, to fresh mackerel bait. We then had a quiet spell, where the wind dropped, and the sea was like glass, but within 20 minutes the wind had kicked up to a force 6, which conbined with the rain, made fishing difficult. The conditions became unfishable so we decided that we'd have one more drift with the weight out to slow us down. That final drift produced my 1st turbot of the trip, to a long thin strip of mackerel, and at only around 4lb or so - I released to grow bigger. We winched in the weight and steamed on in to Braye Harbour.

Day 4

Our final day on the banks, and the best. First 3 drifts produced 3 flatties, and we finished the day with 10. Ellis boated his 1st ever Brill, which turned out to be a specimen at 5lb 8oz.

A couple of drifts later, I managed my 1st turbot of the day to a strip of manky mackerel, as the fresh mackerel were proving elusive (to say the least!). Plenty of launce around the banks, but only the rogue mackerel or two, which caused a problem as the flats were showing a clear preference to fresh bait.

Turbot

Down came the rain again, but the wind didn't increase too much, and as the mackerel bait was coming to an end, I baited up with a strip of old garfish, and immediately had a bite, but had the bait stripped off the hook. Next drop, I bound another garfish strip on with bait elastic, and within minutes of starting the drift, I hooked and landed my 1st ever brill.

Brill - 4lb 13oz

In an attempt to hook one really big fish, we moved onto the South Banks, but failed to latch onto one. I did however manage to catch a bass on live launce, which completed my 'grand slam' of turbot, brill, and bass for the day. The fish was released.

Day 5

As forecasted, the weather was glorious. Hardly any wind, and not a cloud in sight - there couldn't be much more of a difference in weather between Monday and Friday. Our plan was to hit some of the wrecks on the way back to Poole, and after about an hour or so steaming we stopped off on our first wreck of the day. Andy had not fished this one before, so out tackle headed to the bottom not knowing what fish were underneath - if any.

After a few blank drifts, at the same time, Chan and I hit into fish. He brought up a 12lb 8oz pollack, and I winched up my 1st ling of 2008.

14lb 8oz ling

The 'experimental' wreck did not produce any more fish, so we steamed off another couple of miles to the next one. Again we arrived and drift fished the wreck. The wreck produced a mixture of ling, pollack, cod, pout, and coalfish, to various tactics.

Ellis with a pollack

Coalfish on Silver Spray

With the tide having justed turned, Andy decided that we would anchor over another wreck for an hour or so on the conger. With plenty of fresh pout to use, within 30 minutes of putting the flappers down, everyone on the boat had connected with an eel. The biggest went over 50lb.

40 - 50lb conger

The conger finished off an unique 'grand slam' of wreck fish for one day - cod, pollack, ling, conger, coalfish, pout.

'Team' photo on return leg

We were just pipped out by the other charter boat in the competition (biggest flattie), but we had the better fishing, after boating 20 or so flats during the time that we were there, and everyone on board catching at least 1 fish each.

Species caught - Mackerel, Launce, Cod, Pollack, Ling, Tub Gurnard, Turbot, Brill, Conger, Pout, Dogfish, Bass.