Marina buddy Martin has been fishing very well this year on a distant bank for turbot and today, I managed to wangle an invite to join him on another foray on board his extremely capable craft 'The Blueprint'.
To say that the fishing was 'rock hard' is something of an understatement but , one thing I've always admired about my skipper mate, is his patience and determination and I was more than keen to play along.
We did catch several 'huge' greater weever , some very close to the British record of 2lb 2oz, and the first time I'd even seen one in the flesh. These curious looking fish, which derive their name from an 'old french' language word meaning 'dragon or 'viper', have, like their smaller cousins the lesser weever , a rather nasty venomous sting, and should be handled with extreme care even when deceased.
The specimen pictured above was flicked off the hook and returned to grow into a record but others were kept as they do make an extremely tough fillet bait.
We did take a small brill each, again a first for me (others have caught them on my boat) and prior to typing this I had one for lunch and am happy to report that they taste as good as they are reputed to .
However, our main target was conspicuous by their absence until , late in the day, this one showed up on my 'bling rig'. A most welcome sight.
Challenging fishing indeed but no less enjoyable (it was a beautiful day) and a real treat for me as its highly unlikely I'll ever be able to carry out this sort of trip in my own boat.
Ironically, the following day, a turbot was caught on our local plaice ground just a couple of miles out of port . Just goes to show!!
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