27th February

Moonshine - Searching for plaice.....

Over 30 years of commercial bait digging has created this lunar landscape

But it still comes up with the goods

Out with Peter Churchill on board the Moonshine, acompanied by my wife Radka, and my good friends Steve and Lee. The plaice were the target, and first stop was the rag beds of West Sussex. An hour and a half later, and we were on route for the marina. A late start, as I had only thrown the trip together at nine o clock the night before, and "Moonshine" was trapped by the entrance bar on the marina. We grilled and ate hamburgers as we waited. (I like fishing with Steve. His "field Cooking" is exceptional)

My plaice float rig. The float is a 3oz version.

We started full of enthusiasm, although reports were of a few boats doing quite well, whilst most boats were not. On this day we chased around everywhere. Sat off the beach at St Georges Road, tried the mouth of the Langstone entrance, sat on the "blocks", even drifted along the whole front of Eastney. We float fished, downtided, did just about everything we could think of, and stayed out until dark, but the only edible thing, which my wife later ate, was a whelk caught by the skipper!

Military vessel off our stern

Made picture of a pressure wave created by our travelling up a shallow creek (picture by Steve)

Another mad picture from Steve of our stern wash as we enter Langstone Harbour

The whelk, cooked, vinegared and peppered.........