well the wind and rain held off long enough for Merit 1 and kirsty 111 to get out for a 4 hr session . Bothe boats headed straight for the paddle wheel mark in search of Mackie and although not in great abundance it did not take long for Kirsty 111 to say adue and head off for fishing grounds around 9miles off douglas head.

Merit 1 were content to stay at the paddle wheel mark a little longer before heading off to their choosen marks. They did by the end of the night achieve a total of Twelve different ones. Although the species were different to a degree K 3 by the end of the night also managed twelve species aswell.

It was on the way out to the fishing mark that i decided on the nights pool between Micheal and i and it was to be a species hunt with all fish to count no matter what the size. Whilst under steam i started to prepare my traces which did not go down to well with the "skip" (but tough) and by the time we got there i was ready to get my 1st trace away. The anchor was deployed and the battle began.

within a couple of minuites Skips rod was bending under the strain of a spur dog, which to a degree set the tone for the night. 1-0 was soon 2-0as micheal caught a dog fish, the score came back to 2-2 by virtue of a spur and then a red gurnard. 2-3 to me with a grey gurnard and then the suprise of the night was Micheal getting a haddock along with a small grey gurnard (very small)to make it 4-3.

during all this the Spur dogs would not leave us alone and Micheal made a tactical move by using a small set of feathers which instantly caught him several mackie 5-3.I also got back into the game with a doggie and a very nice tub gurnard to make it 5-5. with the tide now running quite fast we decided to up anchor and fish the rest of the night on the drift .

Micheal then went ahead very quickly with 3species making it 8-5with the only whiting of the night, a cod and a red gurnard. i started to make a comeback with a cod and a haddock of my own and then a mackie to make it all square at 8-8.

micheal then produced a small Smut that he tried to convince me he had been fishing for and he thought that he was going to taste the sweet smell of another victory ,but i was not finished quite myself and got it back to a fin al score of 9-9 with a pouting that appeared out of the blue (nice one).

With the time hitting 10pm we decided to call it a draw and so we packed up and headed back to our home port of douglas. we met up with Merit 1 on the floating pontoon and chewed the cud on the nights adventures and all agreed that it is all starting to look good for the MANX BOAT FISHINGS 3 DAY FESTIVAL in just over 2 weeks time.

Micheal list for the night was ; HADDOCK,COD,MACKIE, DOGFISH SPURDOG,SMOOTH HOUND,RED &GREY GURNARDS AND A WHITING. Admins list was ; HADDOCK,COD, DOGFISH,MACKIE,RED,GREY &TUB GURNARDS,SPUR DOG AND A POUTING. Both anglers had also caught launce earlier and this made a total of 12 different species on the night.

Afew pics of our night out for you to enjoy;







and a double of spurs at just over the 30lb mark



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