Monday 1 March 2021

Sole searching.


Derricks raised, the Brixham beam trawler,  Julie of Ladram makes her way to the gaps...


to land a big trip of Dover sole...


 from the Bristol Channel...



with big tides most of the fleet are in and landed...

though the crabbing fleet stop for nothing...


one visiting scalloper Debbie V...


while on the Julie it's all eyes down the fishroom guiding up the boxes...


where even if skipper Shaun doesn't exactly look over the moon...


relief skipper Nathan Marshall seems happy enough despite the fact that, unlike his old skipper Billy Worth's new Ocean Fish flagship Enterprise... 

Nathan can only land four not eight boxes at a time, so his 167 boxes of Dover sole and 223 of other mixed fish while take a while to put ashore...


for Monday's market in Brixham (the trip made much lees than expected - on a normal market it would almost certainly have been the port record)...


not that Nathan's two boys seem over impressed either, they just want Dad home...

but not before the job is done...


some parts of the fleet are turning orange...


that's two lorries bound for Brixham...


the Ivan Ellen is back ready to relieve the relief boat...


Crystal Sea has her doors ashore...


busy enough down the quay...


yet again the flags in the harbour...

fly at half mast...

Monday sees a hazy start to the day...


with plenty of top quality inshore fish up for auction...


there's a good mix of white fish...


the odd cod...


but big trips of rays for the inshore trawlers who have the knowledge and ear to target them...


this time of year is when many species spawn on selected grounds, hence the boxes of big roes from fish like pollack and cod...


hake, however are a different kettle of fish, they spawn from around February all the way through to July......


at this time of year there are more profitable fish to target than cuttles...


name that ray...


pollack are plentiful at this time of year as they head for their favourite spawning ground...


while these little chaps...


get much attention form the Belgian and local beam trawlers that have quota for them in the Channel - and the Navy's fisheries protection boat has arrived on the scene to referee proceedings.....

the Immy stuck to targeting ray...


while Ocean Fish's new Enterprise made the long steam down to the deep waters SW of Newlyn to target the increasingly popular Cornish aka, megrim sole...


and a good few boxes of monk...


all the inshore boats had good shots of grund fosh...


while Brackan on the Spirited Lady decided to hunt for haddock...


and the New Venture landed a very impressive 12 boxes of Dovers...


now if only I had known...


there's a few mackerel around at the moment...


and the odd bass...


and an even more lonesome black bream...


lemons are always worth picking up...


our annual Canadian visitors, the turnstones, pick over the market scraps...


and everyone is happy in their work it seems, that's what happens when you work smart not hard.