Stonefisher Charters
The UK's premier self-drive fishing boat charter
News & Pictures
I put 'new news' at the top so please read from the bottom of the page up!
Fishing with Richard Dean, Hugh Cook, proprietor of the Elephant's Nest at Mary Tavy, took the brunt of the banter when he drew a blank at the baitfish mark. The repartee soon changed direction when Hugh landed the biggest fish of the day, a 14lb-er, from the first drop at Hand Deeps, ironically caught on one of Richard's launce!
Janet Cook form Cornwall hired a boat for the day as a birthday present for her husband. The group had a really good mixed bag including plenty of pollock, codling, coalfish and a nice brace of red bream for the birthday boy!
A happy customer with a nice pollock from Hands Deep. After over three weeks of very poor weather and sea conditions a ridge of high pressure at last made reef fishing a possibility! This good specimen was one of several double figure fish taken at the weekend, the best tipping the scales at 14lbs.
A cracking day at 'The Stone' for Sean Powell and Hayley! Lots of Pollock around 5-7lb provided good sport and the biggest mackerel I've ever seen provided the group with a barbeque supper!
What a beauty! Joe Morrish from Bude pulled in this fabulous cod on a trip to Eddystone. It was his first time out with a new rod - a great way to christen it with a fish tipping the scales at 13lb 6oz! Joe's group did hook into bigger fish on the day only to be broken up and have a hook straightened. You never know what's down there!
Crew members from the luxury yacht 'Samar' took a busman's holiday with a weekend fishing trip. They had a mixed bag of 8 different species including a spider crab hauled in from 160ft of water!
A nice brace of ling! On Stonefisher 1, Ross Wilkinson took this lovely 15lb ling at Eddystone on live launce and 8lb class tackle! He also took a 9lb pollock from the same mark. Further west, Sabrina Turner, fishing on Stonefisher 2 with dad Dale took this very nice 6½ ling from 'The Brendans'.
After a morning of smaller fish from the West Rutts and halfway wreck, Joe Morrish from Bude picked up this very nice Barn Pool conger. Using the mackerel as a size guide and the same formula for Gavin's eel below, I estimate this fish at 35-40lbs. The last picture with the gripper almost in place was taken just before the eel turned once more, bit through the mono and returned to the depths to fight another day!
Barry Cahill's long journey from Cambridge was rewarded with a variety of species including his first conger! The Barn Pool saved the day (again!) being nicely sheltered from the persistent strong winds.
Barry's fishing buddy Gavin had the best fish of the day, also with his first conger! Using the tope estimate (Girth² x Length / 800) I estimated this fish at 36lb - a nice fish at any rate from the river but I'd be interested to hear if anyone has a more accurate weight by length guide for eels?
The Stonefisher boats proved to be an excellent viewing platform to watch the spectacular air display for Navy Days.
With the persistent strong winds I decided to take my brother and son, Isaac for a day's fishing in the Sound. We had 9 species in total, starting with some good bass up to around 4lb off Fort Picklecombe. Isaac had the best two fish of the day with a terrific gar and then in the shelter of the 4-5 Westerly at the Barn Pool he picked up this very nice 10lb 10oz thornback - not bad for his first ray!
Isaac into is first ray at the Barn Pool. It was a bit of a struggle to get 'the beast' out of 100ft of water but he was well pleased with the result!
Mike Vincent with a lovely summer pollock taken on his second trip with Stonefisher Charters. This brightly marked Ballan Wrasse was taken on the same trip just off the Mewstone seen in the background.
On the same weekend as above, Mike Vincent's group of keen fishermen tried their hand around the Stone instead of their usual fishing grounds off Bude.
Unfortunately, the Plymouth waters were not fishing at their best, producing pollack up to just around the 7-pound mark. Bigger fish would have been a bonus but who could fail to enjoy conditions like these 10 miles out to sea?
With freshening South-Westerly's the conditions were only just good enough for Bob Black's experienced group of anglers and boatmen from Falmouth, Truro and Poole. Dave Huxley landed the best bag of the day including this lovely 15lb pollack.
How about this for a pollack caught in the summer on dead neap tides? John Rogers from Mount Batten Boat House was fishing The Stone with Ross Wilkinson and Paul White of Plastimo/XM. This 14lb-er was the best fish of the day with several other fine pollack and ling including this 12lb-er for Paul.
The fishing and weather was superb for Ross's trip. The day was rounded off with some spectacular dolphin activity around the boat and riding the bow wave on the way back to QAB.
Plymouth's Jimmy Bond took this nice 12lb pollack on a live sandeel. He was fishing a mark on the Philips with Boat Fishing Monthly's editor Jim Whippy.