Were well into spring now and as per usual in the last couple of weeks we have been working more to the west, which is what we will be doing hopefully for the next few months.

We had a couple of good trips on the John dory's in the last few weeks, but the other fish hadn't fetched out quite that far, but with the fish having spawned now along the coast, they should be heading to deeper water to fatten up, hense our pattern this time of year.

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The weather has been exceptionaly fine the last few months, we have had none of the usual prolonged spells of westerly weather, that we would normally exspect at this time of year. However it's still only mid march so I won't tempt fate by saying anymore.

So we have been pretty much none stop since the last storm we had the first week in January, the fishing has been steady with some good landing of haddocks, monks, whittens, and mixed flats.

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It's always good to get to the end of the year and put your feet for a few days, we have had a busy year this year and apart from a big refit back in june we have worked pretty much none stop up until december.

We had a week of stormy weather in the 2nd week of december and with it being close to the last market of the year, we called that it early and got on with some much needed mantainence work.

The fishing has been steady right through the year with good catches of monk, haddocks, dory's and a welcome return of good catches of whiten.

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Late last month we made a rare visit to Plymouth and landed alongside their excellent market building.

We always sell our catch on the Plymouth Trawler Agents auction, but we nearly always land our catches into our home port of Newlyn.







Just entering the lock gates at sutton harbour.


It was great to see all the staff who work at PTA and for the first time in five years we watched the catch being sorted and graded, then stored for sale the following morning.

The auction is held from 0600hrs onwards monday to friday, there are over 60 buyers who buy fish regularly from PTA.

All they have to do is put a bound in with PTA buy some boxes and thats it, the fish is then delivered to their door.

The buyers don't even have to turn up to the auction, as it is held online.










PTA also have a website which details the quantities of fish to be landed on the given day.

As always Dave, Alison, mark, Paul and the team couldn't be more helpful, when we arrived at Plymouth one of our crew had an absyss in his mouth which was really painful, so they organised him to see their own dentist for us, as the NHS dentist was fully booked.

So once agian many thanks to the team at PTA for all the help they give us through the year and for looking after and selling our catch so well.




Heading out passing the east side of the breakwater.

Plymouth as you can imagine is a very busy port, with plenty of naval activity in the sound, we had to pass up the east side of the breakwater (which has less room and depth of water), as there was a type 45 destroyer on the west side struggling to get the crew aboard from a tender ship, as there was plenty of swell running still from the southwest blow we had the night before.







The breakwater at Plymouth, it wouldn't be much of a harbour without this being here as it would be very open to the southerly swell.
I think I am right in saying that convicts helped build it, they had the right ideas back then.
Shame we couldn't get the convicts to build a breakwater in mounts bay from Low lea to the mount, it would give Newlyn and Penzance some much needed protection.

The boat is away at present, the fishing has been good of late with a good showing of monks, squid and whittens, the cuttles are starting to show further west as well. The haddock fishing has slacked off to what it was, but it always does this time of year.

October has been fairly settled for weather this year so we have been able to put a few trips in, it has been a busy mounth as usual.

The Tranquility headed back up to fish the north sea at the beggining of the mounth, as they had taken his quota for the year, in the area we work and he has quota left in the north sea to fish for prawns.







The Defiant hauling her nets.




So we found ourselves fishing on our own again, but it was not for long as we have been joined by Andy on the Defiant recently who had come west to join us in the southwest approaches fishing.

The Defiant is a 15meter trawler based in mevagissy about 40 miles up the coast from us.

We have been fishing mainly for haddocks, monks, lemons, megs, whitting, plaice with a good mix of other fish, the price for the haddocks has been down a bit the last few mounths, but it has started to creep back up in price.










We had a visit from HMS Tyne the last trip, it was a routine inspection, they were very thougher as per usual. I had just shot when they had boarded and after inspecting the catch I had to haul my nets again after only a couple of hours, which I was not to happy with, but rules are rules and they are just doing their job.











They checked the cod ends on my nets to make sure the mesh and twine size were correct, this is always a worry as sometimes our cod ends can shrink, so we always buy them bigger to allow for shrinkage, but I am glad to say the passed easily, as did the twine thickness test.



The Navy were aboard for nearly 3hours then they headed back to the tyne in their RIB off to inspect other vessels in the area.








The Navy do a good job with the boardings they are generally fair, but there has been talk of shifting the responsability to other organisatins for example the IFCA's. My personal opinion is that an independent fishery agency, like they have in Scotland would be best suited to this role, it would involve less manpower and they could use the same patrol boats as the navy, the navy carry 32crew onboard there fishery protection boats but they can run on 18crew.

The IFCA's would be best left at what they do best and patro within the 6mile limit around the coast that is where their exspertise lies, just a thought.

We headed up to Tom's boatyard last week for a short refit, we had quite a bit done in the 3days we were up the yard, with the stern roller fixed, new pipework in the engine room and other general mantainence work being done.

We also jet sprayed off the hull and sprayed a new antifouling on the hull, this is always well worth doing as it not only protects the hull, but it also reduces our drag in the water and we burn less fuel. So many thanks to Alan and the men at the yard for doing a great job as usual.






The Copius just ahead of us just coming out of the cradle, which is skippered by Dan Gumnow, she has just been sold to new owners from scotland and they are converting her to a scalloper.



The boat has headed east to work off the eddystone this week as the westerly strong winds have produced a large swell and this has made working to the west where we usually fish, more difficult.

The fishing has been good with a few cuttles amoungst the catch with a bit of prime as well, and there is less wind and swell that way.

The boat will be in tomorrow and will be landing direct onto Plymouth market for the first time ever, it will be nice to see the catch laid out on the market, something we havn't seen for over 6years.

Whilst fishing 35miles southwest of the scillies last week, Alec and the crew came across a very unusual catch.


They had no idea what this fish was, but they new it must have been a deep water fish, because its eyes were very large and dark, as is the norm for deep water species. It also had very diferent skin from anything we have caught before, as the skin was like a Cactus with little spikes all over it.


So they carried on their trip and put him down on the ice, so we could identify him or her when we got in.






After finishing their trip to the southwest of the scillies they headed back in with a good catch aboard and the creature from the deep.


We landed the catch as usual in the lorry at Newlyn, then we sent our catch  up to Plymouth Trawler agents for sale.


The guys at Plymouth also had no idea what type of fish this was, but luckily they new some of the scientists at the National Marine Aquarium next door to the market, so they took it over to be examined.


The scientists identified the creature as an Oil Fish, these fish usualy swim between 100-800 meters and are mainly caught in the deep waters of the mediteranian sea and the Mid and southern Atlantic ocean.


Their name come from the texture of their flesh, they are edible but the flesh contains an oil which if to much is eaten, the oil acts as a laxitive, which results in the obvious consequences.


There was a spot of bother apparently in Hong Kong not long back, when a quantity of these fish were sold as cod, as the taste is apparently not to different, and there was quite a few complaints, to say the least.

We think it is quite a rare catch for the southwest and maybe the UK we are trying to find out, but it was certainly quite a suprise, and very intresting to find out what it actualy was.











So many thanks to the scientists and the Plymouth marine labs.


We landed another catch this monday after a 6 day trip to the southwest, the fishing was pretty good once again with a good mix for the week. However we have been stuck in port since monday with a hydrolic problem.

We had a job to haul our nets using the net drums last week, we thought it was either a valve or a pump on the way out but we were unsure what it could be.

So we gave John from Fowey fluid power a call and he came down to have a look at our system, it didn't take John long to see it was the pump that was causing the problems, so we striiped the pump down and took the part numbers and orderd the new part from Mac Duff shipyards.


They took the part to the post office for an overnight deliverly, unfortunatly the scanner at Aberdeen airport thought it to be a security risk and it was refused a trip on the airoplane, so it has had to come by road, which has turned out to be a 2 day deliverely.


So we are still in waiting for the part that should have been here tuesday evening, we are hoping that it will arrive tomorrow (thursday) morning, and hopefully we shall sail after we have fitted it.

The boat is away at the moment, but for how long is anyone's guess. They sailed early Tuesday morning after the gale's over last weekend held us up.

The tail end of hurricane katia left us with a large swell running ashore in the early part of this week, but fortunatly the winds were only gale force. The weekend is looking unsettled again with strong northwest winds exspected saturday night into sunday.

It will be one of those wait and see forecasts, if the fishing remains good we'll carry on until our intended landed date of monday evening, if not we'll come in and land and get away when the wind eases.












The fishing has been fairly good of late with still a good showing of haddocks on the grounds, with the usaul monks, megs, lemons, whittings on the grounds. We havn't seen many john dorys of late, but we have started to see a few squids turning up.


The squids are a welcome boost to our trip this time of year and september is the month we usually start to see them amoungst our catch. The gurnards are starting to show as well in larger numbers.

The gurnards fetch a good price these days, especially the big tub gurnards which sell well in the local resturants.



I have to admit I do love squid, especially if it has been cooked well and served with a cillie sauce, there's litrally nothing quite like it







Cornish deep fried Squid just the way I like It.






So the boat should be landing either monday or tuesday, it's that time of year when we have to be flexible with our plans, but we'll keep you informed on the home page.

A couple of weeks back over the last big spring tide, we started to pick up large marks moving in to the north on our echo sounder.

This was probibly the sardines marking about 5-20 fathom from the surface as they moved in closer to the shore, as they usualy do this time of year.








The Virge De la Ocean, towing alongside the Tranquility,




This usualy heralds a change in our fishing patterns as the fish that we pursue also hunt the sardines, so they have started to gather closer to the shore as well.

This is quite the norm for this time of year, but it was intresting to read in this weeks local paper (The Cornishman) that sightings of dolphins, orcas and numbers of sea birds had increased dramaticly, after being absent for many months.

Following the fish as we do, we are lucky to be alongside many of these animals most of the time, as they to like to be in the best place for the best of the fishing as well.









Bringing the bag alongside.








The Bag just entering the hatch






The catch just droping out.


The local ring netters have started to have some good catches of Sardines over recent weeks
as well, some nights seeing 10-15 tonnes.

The fish seem to be bunching tighter this year as well, which has prbibly helped the fishing of them.

As we work closer to the shore we start to work alongside the inshore trawlers as well, this is a photo of Dave Thomas new boat the L'ogien.



As usual plenty of traffic heading up towards falmouth for bunkering, This bulker passed us up by 1/2 mile.








The fishing has remained good for us, the weather has been helping by remaining settled most of the time, we had a lovely day to the south of the scillies one day, when I took this photo of the Tranquility towing.








The boat is due back in tonight with a five day trip aboard for tuesdays market.

We have had a busy month so far for july, the fishing has been good with plenty of fish on the grounds.
We have been seeing a nice few haddocks like usual with a good run of monks, megs, lemons, and dorys in the catch.









Picture of the wolf rock lighthouse as we passed it up one evening steaming to the west.


The weather has been mainly fine but with the odd couple of days each week being more unsettled, with a westerly breakdown, but apart from last weekend the weather hasn't held us up to much.


On watch last trip we had a tug pass us up steaming to the east with a barge in tow which had a big crane onboard, he was heading for the lizzard and got round just before we had a gale of wind from the west again that night.










Sandris and girts taking the bag after another haul with the Tranquility towing in the background.










The Queen Mary 2 passed us by one evening head east, she was shifting that day travelling at 27knots, you can see her coming for quite a few miles, she makes a fine sight at sea.










Waiting To land one sunday, we had the harbour boat out to do some work on one of the scuppers on the side of the boat. So I headed out into the harbour to get a picture, we had just got back from the slip 3weeks before, as you can see the doors had started to take the paint off aft.









There has also been good fishing for squid up at lundy Island, although the fishing has been excellent at times, the price for the squid has been poor, which is a real shame as it's an important fishery especially for the boats on the north coast.


The squid they catch are quite small and they seem to congregate on the sandy ground just to the northeast of lundy. This is also the site of the proposed Bristol channel wind farm, so the fishery may be severly effected in future years.





Lundy Island couple of years back on a fine day.




Alec has the boat away this week and he is out to the west somewhere, he has been picking away nicely and is due in monday for tuesdays market.

Most of the fleet were in port early last week due to the weather, the markets havn't seen much fish so here's hoping the prices remain good.

Since getting back from our refit up at Tom's, we have put a few trips together now, the weather hasn't been to good at times but we have managed to push through.

The fishing has been good and we have been out to the western grounds opening up new areas to work. This can come at a cost at time's, we had to put a net ashore the trip before last to fix up, and this last trip we parted the footrope and the fishing line on another net, so we have had to leave that net ashore this time whilst the boat was at sea.

I have been in this week so Dad and I  have been busy striping the old footrope and fishing line and fitting a new one. It's nearly done now we only have to sitting the net to the footrope tomorrow on the quay. Just as well as Alec is due back in tomorrow with another trip. 


We have been working alongside Peter and Brian on the Tranquility as usual, I got a shot of her passing us whilst towing on a fine day recently.







Alec will be due in tomorrow, they have another good trip aboard, they saw a bit of rough weather again earlier in the trip so were hoping the prices will edge up, as not many boats were away earlier in the week.

We have a few jobs to do when he gets in and were hoping to put the net back aboard, we also put new rope sweeps aboard last trip so they need measureing as they wil have stretched and may be out of line. so lets hope the end of the quay is clear.