Boat Fishing

Friday was moving house day, downsizing to a smaller house on the Island because the home in France is where we spend most of our time. Friday was also a date when I had a longstanding arrangement to join a group of friends for a fishing expedition. So, while Susan grappled with crates and boxes of books, I took myself off to the harbour to join up with Tony Hart, skipper of one of the best fishing charter boats in Jersey.

Yes, you're right I owe ..... bigtime!

So, Tony's boat is a fast 33' Aquastar,a powerful sea boat with huge twin diesels which whisked us ten or twelve miles offshore in what seemed like a remarkably short time for a sailing boat man like me. Fishing was for Mackerel initially as bait fish for more interesting species later in the day. Sea bass and Bream were the main catch, along with dogfish and blond ray (which we released). Catch of the day, I guess was a huge mean looking Conger which took twenty minutes to haul aboard. It was at least six feet in length. We kept it on board long enough to photograph and then released it, much to everyone's relief. It had me wondering for a while whether we had caught it or if it had caught us.

On our return, the plan had been to stroll into town and visit a few pubs. Truth is however, that we were tired, pretty dirty and we stank of fish. Best not to inflict ourselves on the good people of St Helier on a Friday night. So I was home at a reasonably time with a basket of good sized Bass and Bream. Both are pretty tasty fish so, in some way, I contributed to family well being even though I wasn't around to assist with the house move. Well, that's my view of it anyway.

Meanwhile, you notice I have made a few changes to this site, largely because I want it to become less of a blog and more of a resource for anyone seeking the freedom of  the sea for small expenditure. So, as well as this diary, there will be pages added, of  resources, hints, tips wrinkles and advice and I'll try to develop some kind of logic to what goes where so that it is easy to navigate. In particular, once the boat has been found, I'll list and comment on materials, tools, and gear used, to advise on their suitability and my experience of using them.

I'd also like to post up, (AND ACKNOWLEDGE) your own tips, tricks, and ideas - so come on, if you have discovered something interesting or useful, pass it on to the rest of us via this corner of the net! No reward I'm afraid - but the satisfaction of knowing that you've made a contribution to at the simple sailors out there.

Finally, John Almberg ( the unlikely boatbuilder) commented recently that he thought my list of shallow draft, bilge keel, gunter rigged GRP boat may actually contain no examples. Well, John, much to my surprise, (and yours I guess), I have found one boat at least that fits the bill. More about that later!

Seaward