Pushing west

David Stevens — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 05:33:43 +0100

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.

The weath...

Update last couple of months

David Stevens — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:16:51 +0100

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.

We have been seeing so...

Looking Back Over 2011

David Stevens — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 07:58:21 +0100

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, had...

Visit To Plymouth

David Stevens — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:16:07 +0100

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.

Routine Inspection

David Stevens — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:42:16 +0100

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.

Beast From The Deep

David Stevens — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 05:10:24 +0100

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 th...

Feeling Autumnal

David Stevens — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 06:25:36 +0100

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 rem...

Sardines Moving In

David Stevens — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 07:55:46 +0100

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 alo...

Busy Times In July

David Stevens — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 06:44:19 +0100

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.

T...

Nets On The Quay

David Stevens — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:55:50 +0100

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 ...

Back To Work Again

David Stevens — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 06:43:50 +0100

It's been a while since my last blog, I spent 3weeks away at sea and was hoping to post a blog whilst we were having a re-fit at Tom's boatyard, but we were so busy I never had time.

The fishing was good before we left for our re-fit and we have been working well to the west of the scillies. We have been seeing a good mix of fish from the usual haddocks, monks and megs to a nice few turbuts and some really good sized Dory's and hake's.

Busy Days At Newlyn and Fish Moving West

David Stevens — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:49:28 +0100

We have been in and out of Newlyn landing regularly as per usual, Newlyn has been pretty busy of late, with quite a few visiting boats landing into the port and transhiping their fish to other markets.

One day last week with the harbour already full with boats, we had to wait outside for enough water to get in, and there were 3boats and ourselves waiting for landing berths outside the gaps.

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