Fishing at Sunset

LB and the boys, armed with assorted doomed worms wandered down the beach this evening for a spot of shore fishing. They always set off with high hopes although personally I never expect a fish supper! I am usually regaled with tales of big "knocks" and the ones that got away but tonight they were more successful. The ragworm and lugworm proved their worth as several bass and a flounder were caught. The fish were all a bit on the small side so lived to tell the tale. I joined them for half an hour, to watch and take some photos. It's very peaceful on the beach in the evening.

Red sky at night.............. or BBC weather? Which to believe? This is the sunset while the lads were fishing, BBC says rain tomorrow. Let's hope old weather lore is the more accurate!

Elvie

Fathers and Sons

The boys and I have been fishing on and off for many years, but we've not done much together recently. Some months ago I booked a fishing charter out of Dale, looking to head out to the Smalls lighthouse some 18 miles offshore, hoping to catch some big fish. I also invited a couple of close friends and their sons to join us. Our boat was named Volsung, and the previous week Andy the skipper had the victorious Welsh boat angling team aboard for an international competition, so I felt very confident in his abilities.



We would only be able to get out to the Smalls if the weather was perfect, and as the great day approached we were all listening to the forecast with fingers crossed. Luckily it couldn't have been better. So yesterday on a fine sunny day, with light winds and a flat sea, we headed out to try our luck.



The fishing wasn't spectacular, but we caught several good sized pollack and 3 good sized codling. The seals which swam around us seemed to be enjoying themselves also.



I was struck by how difficult it must have been to build the first lighthouse on the site. It was built of wood and was designed to sway in the wind. All the materials would have had to been delivered by sailing ship!

At the end of the day I was shattered and had an early night, but Chris and son H, had a cod supper cooked by our neighbour on his BBQ. Apparently it was superb. LB

Bird Shit Island & swimming by Skomer

Lots of scrolling for you today as I've posted four photos! Had a wonderful day on our friend Clive's boat to Grassholm, about 15 miles off Broadhaven and home to one of Britain's largest gannet colonies, hence its local name. Downwind the smell of the sh*t is pretty appalling but as there was little wind today it was quite localised & we avoided it as much as possible. You'll have to enlarge the photos to see the birds properly.
Gannets are magnificent, elegant birds that we only see as singles or pairs close to shore, it was wonderful to see them en masse with large flocks coming in, in V formation, from the ocean. The boys had a good days fishing, catching mainly pollack and coalfish, all of which were released back into the sea. The sea itself was an amazingly flat calm as you can see from the photo.

On the way back we stopped off at South Haven, a quiet cove on Skomer Island. There we all dived in for a swim. The water was cold initially but ok once you were used to it. As you see there were several other boats there.

We were surrounded by wildlife. Canadian geese and rabbits looked down from the grassy slopes of the island, puffins flew around us, spider crabs, in abundance crawled beneath us and in the water were sandeels, jellyfish (they only stung a little bit!) and a seal. The seal was quite curious, the two little blobs in the distance in this photo are me and the seal. Unfortunately the zoom on the camera has stopped working and as its only a very old 1 megapixel camera & enlarging the photo just gives two big blobs so you'll have to believe me!

Anyway another great day and probably the best weather this year.

Elvie