If this was a Friends episode it would be called “The One Where The Boat Shits The Bed”, cos that’s exactly what happened! Having not really enjoyed much joy with the boat up until the middle of July I was looking forward to getting in a solid few months, that was the plan anyway. The boat (or more precisely the engine) had other ideas.
From where the last report left off things were actually really good. I took a trip out on the Casey J on July the 27th, a long trip to have a nose across some of the wrecks south around Port Erin. With reports of Mackerel being caught “everywhere” I ignored the mini freezer full of bait I had, knowing fresh always fishes much better. Pretty much inevitable then that on the first stop no Mackerel, second stop…no Mackerel. First wreck…no Mackerel. Not wanting to lose anymore time I chucked down one of the frozen Squid supplied free by Nicky and sure enough within 10 minutes had a decent sized Ling onboard. That was as good as my fishing got as things got a bit messy, current, wind over tide, boat full of amateurs wreck fishing deep water, chaos! I was using 2lb of lead to hold bottom in anything resembling an up/down fashion, of course 2lb leads are not standard issue here so with most others making do with what they had a lot of the lines were spent fishing closer to 90 degrees than 180. And then when a few Tope started to hit, holy shit balls, you couldn’t have paid me enough to try and sort out some of those tangles. But you know the score, any fishing is better than no fishing and among us we managed my Ling, plenty of Tope, Pollack, a few Mackerel turned up and one of the young lads pulled up a big Scad, haven’t seen one of those around here in years.
The next day it was up early and out with my brother and nephew trying to get him his first “shark” (Tope). By now (the end of July) the Tope were getting caught everywhere so I figured it would only be a half hour job, to be honest it was a little bouncy and not the best conditions for the young fella so a quick out, catch a Tope and in would have done nicely. Would have. Anchored on a spot that never fails. No fresh Mackerel showing but at least I brought some frozen with me this time. Not a sniff, not even a bloody Dogfish! That has never ever happened on that mark before. After a couple of hours we moved in to deeper water where I “knew” we’d be plagued by Spurdogs within minutes. A 20lb+ Spurdog makes a good shark substitute for a Tope, in the mind of a 6 year old anyway! But no Spurdogs either, no Tope and not a Mackerel anywhere. Total washout of a day.
The 7th of August we were back out again, this time both brothers and nephew as we went to spread my dads ashes on his mark. A trip that was “years” in the making (due to mercenary c***s) but we finally got my dad to rest this year. Again not a great forecast but I was determined we were going, I had a gut feeling that something was brewing with the boat, nothing definite, just a strange strange feeling and I was determined to get my dads trip in before anything happened. We went to his mark, tried for a Tope for Leighton whilst Mark was fishing for Callig. 15-20 Callig later and a few fresh Mackerel for bait the Tope rod went off, 15 minutes later I had a huge Tope just under the surface when the hook straightened. Bastard. Still no Tope for Leighton to see. From the moment we spread my dads ashes we were accompanied by a Seal for this entire trip, spooky but nice at the same time.
The 10th was another of those trips that I enjoy most, get a couple of people on the boat with little or no experience and get them in to some decent fish. I had a mate back home from Dubai that had been trying to get out for years, today was the day. Headed straight south in what was amazing weather, flat calm and stinking hot. The Mackerel played ball and whilst waiting for a Tope run I set him and his young fella up with a couple of spinning rods. The Callig were hitting every cast and a great time was had. Then the Tope rod shot off, I handed the rod over, he puffed and panted for 10 minutes, quarter of an hour before handing the rod back. 10 minutes later we had a lovely 35-40lb female Tope at the side of the boat ready for pictures. The t-bar made ease work of getting the hook out and we let her slide away back in to the deep. With the young fella getting a bit tetchy and bored and with other things on their agenda for the afternoon we headed back in shortly afterwards but mission accomplished. It was one of those perfect days where the weather, bait and fish all play ball nicely.
The 11th was supposed to be the same again, this time with a mate from work and his young fella, I don’t think I’ve ever had anybody so enthusiastic onboard (except maybe Sarah). He was in to everything having never fished before in his life, an absolute star. The day started badly on the fishing side, the Mackerel buggered off again, the deep marks holding nothing, not even a Spurdog. Spots where I’d caught lots of Tope were empty. We ended up heading close inshore for some Callig fishing and for the first time ever I though we were going to blank on that as well. First mark, nothing. 2nd mark nothing. Getting desperate we heading for a little wreck that “always” holds fish and that I know nobody else fishes. At last I got them both in to some nice 4-5lb Callig, the young fella giving it some stick and massively out fishing his dad. But going from never really holding a rod, to casting, winding, changing lure all within a few hours, great stuff. Having that “strange” boat feeling again I decided we’d only stick around long enough to fill their boots before heading a bit closer to Peel, then we stopped for half an hour on the Mackerel on the way in. This time using spinners to capture 1 fish at a time we got the job done. Ace day had by all but I knew by the time we were going up the harbour something was off a little….
The engine shits the bed. I check the engine bay after every trip, always have done and always will do with every boat. The golden rule is better safe than sorry, if anything goes wrong you aint just getting out and walking! After that last trip I checked and what I found was a couple of gallons of coolant sat in the bilge along with it pouring from the heat exchanger! Fucks sake. I knew it, I knew something was building from a few weeks before. I was straight on the phone to George, heat exchangers are not cheap and this seemed to be leaking from a couple of places. A few days later I got the verdict, one of the gaskets had gone but even worse there was a hole in the casing itself. That Mercruiser heat exchanger “should” be mounted and secured on 2 brackets including vibration dampening, but it was only secured 1 side on mine. The other side was bouncing up and down on it’s bracket for years until eventually it had worn through. It’s what did the gasket as well, the extra movement and vibration eventually tearing it. Manx boat owners….no words. If you don’t want to spend money maintaining a boat properly don’t buy one. Luckily I’ve got a mate who’s a welder, he sorted the puncture no problem. The gasket on the other hand was a 4-5 week special delivery item. In the meantime I figured we’d might as well fully service the heat exchanger. George did an ace job cleaning both the water and oil sides and even had to make me a couple of seals when Mercruiser couldn’t supply them (not made anymore). We were just getting there mid September when I got a panicked phone call. Your boat is making strange noises! No shit it is. The muffler now decided to split, filled the bilge, activated the automatic bilge pump whose float switch stuck in the up position and ran dry for a solid 24 hours. You couldn’t make this stuff up. As 1 half of the engine is coming together it was time to pull apart the whole exhaust system. Jamie to the rescue on the welding again, a new exhaust pipe fitted and please god no more problems. It was well in to October before the engine was back in a state where it could be used. And by then the weather and had truly left us with gales aplenty. In fact it took until mid November for me to give it a proper shake down run outside of the harbour, all ace now, even made a few more tweaks so that everything is much more in the optimum oil pressure and engine temperature range. The Bobby B is ready for action again…in 2023.
With my boat out of action I treated the brother and nephew to 1 last trip on the Casey J in August to get him his Shark. Success at last. On the 21st of August a long day around Niarbyl produced plenty of fresh Mackerel, plenty of Tope and plenty of smiles and pictures. Having the extra manpower onboard and being part of the tagging program means that Leighton could get up close and personal with some very big fish, he was made up. Nicky runs a great service and I’d strongly recommend it for anybody who reads these reports and thinks they’d love to give boat fishing a try. You just need to book, turn up and fish.
The rest of the year was spent shore fishing on my own, walking around picking up the odd Bass. Absolutely loved it, I was even in 2 minds at 1 point about giving up the boat completely but that may be a step too far. It gets in your blood and having been boat fishing from when I was 5 I can’t imagine not doing it, even with the crazy expense.
If you’re looking for a summary for 2023 on the Isle of Man then I’d put it like this. A relatively quiet Tope season where the Mackerel proved to be hit and miss. The rock fishing off the planet with loads of huge Callig about on the good days, but again very quiet on the bad days. The Bass fishing this year has been the best ever, you can literally catch Bass all around the coast of the Isle of Man now and even in to the winter months, even December and January 😉
Personal highlights of the year have been the number of people I’ve been able to get out and catch their first fish. Also the number of people who have come up to me to say they’ve seen the videos and it’s got them fishing (either again after years or just from scratch) …and in 1 case inspired somebody to buy a boat, huge step but I love the commitment! My old man loved/obsessed over fishing in a way that is impossible to describe, but I know he’d be delighted to know that our buggering about and showing how anybody can catch a fish around the Isle of Man has inspired people to get out there and give it a go. Being friendly and giving out advice when you’re asked costs nothing, if it makes 1 persons day with their first fish then it’s well worth it.
