The Sea Angling Diary

I have sea fished for more than 50 years, I worked at sea from 1976 until November last year, I have fished from the shore or ships all round the UK and Australia, New Zealand, South America, The Caribbean, and other places I can’t remember!
I started fishing in my home town of Plymouth while at school and worked with a commercial fisherman too for a couple of years before going to sea.
I was Master for the last 33 years and fished from every ship I was on, wherever it went. I caught many fish over the tears and ate a fair few of them.
My last ship was the Whitchampion based in Southampton and operating mainly on the south coast between Portsmouth, Southampton, Poole and Plymouth, with occasional trips to Rotterdam, Antwerp, Aberdeen, Peterhead and Portland.
I haven’t fished in the sea in UK since last September I think, I went to Australia for three months after retirement and have not really had a chance since I came home. I will go fishing on the Ayrshire coast at some point, until then I fly fish my local river the Irvine for Trout and possibly Salmon.

I enjoy using the app and reporting sessions, I never measured fish before I started using it, the only fish I routinely kept were Mackerel, my favourite to eat or catch.

I am a very much an occasional sea angler due to living over an hour from the coast and with a busy work and family life my free time is very limited. I normally only go sea fishing once or twice a year and this is more often then not when we are away on a family holiday. It has meant that I have been able to fish in Cornwall, The Isle of White, Suffolk and the North Norfolk coast. My most recent beach fishing trip was during the February half term holiday. We stayed near Holt in North Norfolk and a short drive away is Weybourne beach.
I arrived at a empty carpark at 4.30pm, the track to the carpark partially flooded after a day of heavy rain. It was still raining as I unloaded the tackle of telescope rods, a compact tripod and small bag of tackle the very limited amount of gear I could squeeze into the car with still allowing room for the family’s luggage for a week away.
I was glad of the small amount of gear as I began the walk along the steep banks of shingle setting up about 200 yards to the left of the carpark.
By now the rain had stopped and a strong mild wind blowing from off the land behind me made for a clam sea. I quickly set the rods up with much excitement to be back sea fishing after not being since October last year. On the first rod I tired a two hook flapper rig and baited with fresh rag worm on a 6oz lead this was then cast out. I set the second rod up with a pulley pennel rig baited with a whole squid.
I had about an hour until high tide. With in 10 minutes of casting out my first rod, the tip slammed over and I reeled in two whiting of just under 30cm each. Next cast on the flapper rig and this time a whiting and a small dab. The bites came quickly with the bait not being long in the water before getting a tap on the rod tip and another whiting or Dab to reel in.
As dusk set in, I sat and watched the rod tips enjoying a cup of tea and the relaxing gentle crashing sound of the waves on the shingle beach.
By 9pm the bites had slowed down with a smaller Dab to finish the session. I ended the session with 11 fish in total the largest being a 35cm Whiting. A thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing session on a beach I had not fished before and definitely look forward to fishing again on a future tip.
Even though I only sea fish occasionally I still wanted to take part in the sea angling diary project to give something back to angling, also to help with the scientific monitoring of marine fisheries.
The sea diary also gave me a great way of recording my catches and the rigs, baits and venues I have fished that I can refer back to for the next time I fish there again.

I got involved in the Diary because I felt that there is very little known about fish behaviour and the science behind angling. Why is it that I can catch one day, but not the other? Why is it that the guy fishing a few miles away can catch whilst I can’t? By recording everything in detail, I’d like to think that we are helping to contribute to a better understanding.It was also an opportunity for the recreational angler to have a voice, and hopefully for the results of all the surveys to demonstrate how important angling is, whether for economic reasons, or mental health/relaxation and so on.

The online Web based tool has been my companion since I first enrolled a few years back, the annual reports are particularly useful. These annual reports allow me to access and look back on overall catches from past years. I use this data to produce tables and charts which show changes in fish species count and distribution, as I look for year on year trends.

I like the fact that this project is always being looked at. I.e. It’s not something that was created and then never thought about again. The regular emails to fill in the month are quick and easy.