Special Alderney Report May 2006
This trip to Alderney was a bit different to my usual exploits on Tamar Lady, with a crew of
8 we had chartered "Shogun" skippered by Colin Johnson, a magnificent 38"" x 18" catamaran.
The motley crew consisted of "Pasty" Pete Brunton, Richard "ABR" Walton, John Irwin,
Karl "Snowy" Hide, Maurice Shepherd (72 yrs young!), Joe Lawrence, Dave Woodard and of
course myself.
The weekend didn't start too well, Karl and Maurice had travelled down with me on the Friday
evening prior to departure, on the Saturday, we finished off the jobs on TL and celebrated
with a meal in the Caribou, on returning to the car we were greeted by a couple of PCs to be
informed that some muppet of a boy racer had lost control of his car and deposited it into
the side of my parked car, at least he had the decency to report it and is insured.
Anyway my car was towed away and we were without a car. Sunday we were joined by the rest of
the crew.
Monday 1st May 2006
Come Monday morning we were up early ready for departure, but the weather had other ideas
with heavy rain and strong winds, but we knew it was due to improve.
At midday we had the call from Colin to give the OK and by 13:00 everything was loaded and
we were leaving Northney Marina. There was still a bit of a sea running and the first half of
the journey was a bit lumpy, we stopped off a couple of times mid channel to catch a few
mackerel for bait on the first day's fishing. The second half of the crossing was a lot
smoother and we arrived in Braye Harbour at 19:00.
We made our way to our digs; the "Victoria Hotel" and then out to grab some food and beer.
Tuesday 2nd May 2006
08:30 saw us leaving the Harbour and heading for Banque de la Schole, initially we drifted
with the anchor dragging to slow the drift (a bit like Steve's anchoring!) and Richard was
first off the mark with the first Turbot of the trip.
As the tide eased the anchor was dispensed with and it was easier to fish, turbot then came
regularly through out the day.
Wednesday 3rd May 2006
Again leaving at around 08:30 we went around to the south of the island to get some launce,
the little buggers were really elusive and only a few were secured, we then drifted the
South Banks for a couple of hours in the fog, but things were dead and there was not even
a bite!
Around lunchtime we moved off to the Casquets Bank and had some nice Turbot during the
afternoon, plus one of the biggest garfish I have seen to Karl, it was weighed at 1lb 9oz.
Thursday 4th May 2006
The plan was to secure some mackerel (played hard to get) and then fish the Schole again in
the morning and the Casquets in the afternoon, however when we arrived at the Schole it was
packed with charter boats and private boats, so after only one drift we agreed to move
immediately to the Casquets which we had to ourselves.
Again it produced some good Turbot, there was one mad spell which produced 5 fish within
10 minutes!
Friday 5th May 2006
We departed the Island at around 08:00 for home, stopping off at a couple reefs and a wreck
on route which produced some quality Pollock.
For the return journey we were blessed with some fantastic weather, brilliant sunshine and
flat calm (now that makes change!) and we returned to the Marina on Hayling at around 17:30
So all in all a very enjoyable trip with some good fish boated.
Colin's an excellent skipper and also a nice bloke who kept us on our toes!