Friday 19 November 2021

Full on fish for #FishyFriday in Newlyn.


Not the brightest start to the day in Newlyn...


but there's plenty of top quality fish on the morning auction, even three large cod...

and a few boxes of those rock and wreck-loving congers...


at this time of year John Dory landings are just a trickle...


while young Tom on the Harvest Reaper always seems to pick up a few decent bass every trip...


to go with his ray...


reds and cuttles...


while Brackan's red mullet are absolutely top-notch quality as you would expect from a small trawler hauling after shorter tows - the Breton boats that work these waters reckon on hauling every two and a half hours, sometimes three during daylight in order to keep the quality as high as possible - fish swirling around in the cod-end begin to lose their scales after a while and while that doesn't affect earing quality it does affect how the fish appear...


just the one bream this morning...


while the big beam trawlers put ashore good landings of monk tails...


haddock...


big megrim soles...


and plaice...


leaving the Imogen to weigh in with a good shot of lemons...


in the fridge, the handline fish included a good few boxes of mullet...


and bass...


and you can tell from the glistening-golden skin of these pollack that they were all hooked aboard...


just a handful of silver darlings to end the week...



while mackerel continued to be landed in quantity...


it was the sardine fleet whose long night looking for fish eventually paid off with fish from the Charlotte Clare...


and the Pelagic Marksman



and the crabber Harriet Eve made for a busy scene alongside the fish market...



which kept the local gull population in something of a feeding frenzy for much of the time...

the netters are now waiting for the next neap tide...


it is just possible that this rudder became detached form a casualty of WW2 as there are many wrecks in the Western Approaches left oveer from the concentrated efforts of German submarines...


judging by the wear, this riveted rudder looks as though it was towed  for a full watch 


by the ports biggest beam trawler Enterprise...


unlike the beginning of the week the Mary Williams pier is now full of boats between tides...


including the two latest additions to the fleet, both drawing around 5m when laden with gear, ice and fuel...


the ex-Sapphire III looks smart as ever...


the stealthy lines of the St Piran,  IFCA's powerful patrol vessel...


the Cornishman's decks are ready for action again...


flowers surround a small plaque acknowledging...


young Conor who sadly lost his life doing what he loved best, servicing the same boats of...


Stevenson's beam trawl fleet that his father skippers.