I’m going to roll 2 months in to one update mostly because October has been a total right off. I’ve spent a hell of a lot of time down on the boat over the last month but alas no fishing, more on that later but I suppose it’s best to start at the beginning, or as close to the beginning of September that I got.

Whilst the UK seemed to have unbelievable conditions all the way through August for sea fishing us poor buggers on the Isle of Man were left feeding on the weather scraps. Moaning about the weather again? Yes I bloody will, August was a total wash out, managed 4 trips out, 3 of which ended in me smashing through large waves to get home. I’d also promised to get some people out looking for Whales and Dolphins and in the entire month there wasn’t even 1 single day where that was possible. It was sunny some days, it was warm on plenty on them, but an endless chain of weather systems bringing westerly winds killed my fishing. BUT when I did get out I caught.

What started off as a really poor month both in terms of the fishing and weather actually turned out to be one of our best in a long time. The main goal for July was to connect with the big Tope that we have caught in previous years around the same time. To do that we’d need fresh bait and this is where the problems earlier in the month began!

Thanks to the weather this one is going to be a bit of a short and sweet update, that won’t come as any surprise to anybody subscribed to our YouTube channel. June was utter shit in terms of the wind and then just as we did get a couple of half decent days the clutch decided to explode in my car leaving me without any way of getting to the boat. Not too upset because the weather was only “half decent” i.e. the sort of days you’d fish if your life depended on it but not if you wanted to enjoy the experience. Anyway on to what I caught.

May 2019 was actually a bit rare, for once in May we got the nicer weather from the start of the month instead of only a few days at the end for TT. Of course by the end of the month the weather had turned to shit and as I type this now on the 20th of June we’ve only had 1 trip out since. 2019 aint going to be no 2018 for summer weather.

In 2 words, Bob Barlow happened! I’ll not to go in to too much detail but it’s enough to know that in March 2018 our lives got turned upside down when after months of not being quite “right” my dad was taken in to hospital with what we all thought was a mild stroke. Except it wasn’t and 6 months later, 3 of which were spent getting a diagnosis, he passed over to the great fishing spot in the sky. The cancer that finished him was a one in 500,000,000 bit of bad luck, about right for this family! So the best summer weather wise that I can ever remember was spent backwards and forwards, a couple of days at home on the island and then long days in Liverpool keeping him company as he went through his chemo.

I’ve been dreading catching up on this. In technical terms I suppose what you would call 2017 is a cluster fuck!!! To recap in shorthand goes a little like this.

April was a good month, the weather was pretty much what you’d expect for an April on the Isle of Man (crappy) but the kayak really helped to open up a lot of options and so I got out a few more times than I normally would. The fishing has been really good and all our usual spots have burst into life. I haven’t heard from anybody who has been out and not caught something which is hopefully a good sign for great things ahead.

Having been away in the sun for 3 weeks we only got back on the island half way through March although by all accounts “we hadn’t missed much” weather wise. Fortunately things did settle down towards the end of the month and we managed to get a couple of sighter trips in to see what was going on out there.

Moan moan moan, that’s all I ever seem to do on here so just to make a change lets start with some positive news. On the 31st of October we had our best days fishing ever. Not ever this year, or ever on this boat, but ever. No fewer than six personal bests, and by personal I mean both me and the old man, in the space of 3 hours fishing. Whiting, Haddock, Tub Gurnard, Red Gurnard, Spurdog and Bull Huss.