Small tides + high pressure = very little time out of the marina to fish. Then just to top it off the Mackerel did a disappearing act and no sooner did I have the anchor down than a big bull seal turned up to spook everything! Some days are just like that.

Tope fishing from the boat has been crazy this year, I can’t remember seeing so many fish spread over such a large area or so many big females. Lots and lots of fish in the 60 and 70 lb bracket.

With all the thrusters now working it was time to throw the Gladius Mini over the side of the boat and see what happened. Raw footage, no edits, no sound. Once I realised I was using back to front controls and low power mode it went really well. In this video you can see just how well the 4K camera and auto colour balance works. Loads of plankton, jellyfish, then down to the bottom for a look at a reef before pestering a Fulmar and doing a quick hull inspection. Can really see how badly the hull needs cleaning although all the anodes seem to be in decent shape…from a distance.

Now the Black Bream are about thought I’d try anchoring some rough ground a little closer to home than the usual spots for them and see what was happening. Not a lot as it turns out, but an endless stream of Pollack on the light gear kept me entertained for a couple of hours.

On the plus side the weather just doesn’t get any better than what we’ve had recently. And there are more Mackerel around than I can remember in many years. This is good.

My dad once said if Mackerel grew to 7–8lb we’d never fish for anything else, he was probably right. 1 at a time and pound for pound they are the best fighting fish in UK waters in my opinion. So with all other offshore fishing being dominated by endless Spurdogs I cracked out the little Pen Rod (that I’ve only ever used for pulling tiny Trout from a stream) and gave it a go for Mackerel in around 100ft of water. Make Mackerel fishing fun and you’ll never get bored between bites again.

The replacement motors for my Chasing Innovation Gladius Mini have turned up so I thought it would be interesting to show what you get in a full set of replacement thrusters. 3,4,5 come as complete replacements and take minutes to fit. However thrusters 1 and 2 come as the motors and blades separate, you’ll need to retain the screws and little shim washers from your old motors. It took me about an hour start to finish to have all 5 thrusters replaced and tested. Ready to rock and roll.