This past Sunday I took Alcatraz out for a morning trip from Dunbar – her first launch there in almost a year. There was a fairly chunky NE swell running for the first hour or two and, although this settled down a bit as the tide eased off, the wind and tide combined to a pretty fast drift of 1.5 knots or more. The fishing was fairly slow and only around 10 smallish codling came aboard in the first 2-3 hours (plus loads of mackerel, as I’m starting to refill the bait supplies for winter). A switch to anchoring produced a few more codling and a lonely coalfish, but I was surprised to find the anchor not holding properly in 65 feet of water on a rocky bottom and the boat gradually slipped backwards in the tide run.
Around midday the tide, swell and wind all slackened off enough to make it worth trying the River Garry wreck for a short while before heading back to the slip. More smallish codling and some ling chomped on the mackerel baits but there was a distinct shortage of anything over 3lbs which was a bit disappointing. I called it quits just after 1 p.m. and headed ashore with 25 cod and ling under my belt, but only 7 keepers from that total – a nice morning out, but hardly exceptional.
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