Well finally here in the Isle of Man we had a weekend that was fit enough to get on both days for some boat fishing or so I thought. Saturday saw the sun shining for a while and although the wind was coming from the North East it was still fit enough to get out on my boat Bones II. How ever both the weather and the fishing turned out to be not so good or as forecasted, so apart from a hand full of very small Codling and Callig there was not much to report about.

Sunday though was a whole new day and the weather was far more conducive to get out and wet a line or two. Bones II started at the back of Douglas Head fishing for some bait and found small Mackerel and Launce not very hard to find. In addition to these bait fish there was a real abundance of Whiting, and although most were under size by the end of the day enough were taken for a good feed.

Having secured enough fish for bait i set off in a southerly direction to Bear Rock in search of Cod and Callig. Small Callig did not disappoint but there was no Codling to be had here. I moved towards my Tope mark which takes me over the Afton Wreck and so i decided to have a dabble here, on my first drop i landed a very nice Cuckoo Wrasse and after this only a few small Callig were landed.

I left the Afton and carried on out to my Tope mark not expecting very much but the Whiting kept on bending the rods and i even managed to land a small Red Gurnard. The weather for the day was fantastic and it was one of those days that you were glad to be out wetting a line just for the pleasure.

Time caught up with me and i had to head back into Douglas to beat the flap gate, however it has to be said that boats will have to watch their speed when approaching Douglas as the boat "BOY JUAN" clocked me on his "RADAR GUN " doing 28 knotts on my approach to the harbour, Peter Canipa (BOY JUAN) said that Bones II looked mighty fine traveling at speed on her approach.

Peter Canipa had fished Douglas bay and the back of Douglas Head and had found both mackerel and Whiting in large numbers but not many were of a size to keep for a feed.
Trampie under Skipper John Maddrell came out for a short time but encountered GPS problems which he will have to get sorted out pretty quickly as our first com petition for 2016 takes place in April.
Here are a couple of photos of my day out.