Live from Mount's Bay - Cornish Sardine Fishing aboard the Pride of Cornwall with Dan the 'Sardine Man' Downing

Stay tuned for live-casting from the deck of the sardine boat Pride of Cornwall with skipper Danny Downing. Sailing at 19:30 from Newlyn to begin the hunt for a shoal of sardines in Mount's Bay.

Sonar, sounder and chart plotter - the main tools of the trade in the wheelhouse of even the smallest ring-netter in Newlyn...

taking the boat out through the gaps...

past the classic trading ketch, Irene at anchor off the prom...

skipper Danny 'Sardine Man Dan' Downing...

 keeps one eye on the sounder for marks...

it's now a waiting game as Danny explains what is happening...

while crewman Ian looks on expectantly...

as the hunt continues steaming around the usual places for decent marks of fish...

it could be a long night...

when suddenly Dan spots a suitable mark of fish and shouts at the crew to get ready for shooting...

and the hauling process begins...

watched by the ever-present gull population of the Bay looking for a lazy dinner...

with the huge the net flaked out in the stern net pound...

by the rest of the crew...

skipper Dan heaves in the footrope that effectively draws the net in under the fish to close off their escape...

and it's not long before most of the net is stowed aboard leaving a small pocket over the side of the boat teaming with Cornish sardines...

so while the net is stowed in the pound back aft...

the fish are then scooped up by crewman, Ian Richards...

and Tom Hicks...

who use a brail to scoop the fish into the tanks full of iced seawater...

the net is then prepared for the next shot...

and the process repeated over again...

until all the fish are brought aboard...

including the last few stragglers, then it is time to steam for home...

and see what some of the others have caught....

before landing the first trip of the night and setting off later for a second shot.

First fish auction after the Fish Festival

Apologies that the postings have been a bit erratic over the last few days - when your better half is responsible for the Newlyn Fish Festival things get hectic - also, being part of the festival crew also means that, on the day itself, opportunities for getting pics were somewhat restricted - and that included the trawler races which I spent in the wheelhouse of the Sapphire II, thanks to skipper Paul Corin who very kindly allowed me to use it as a comms centre for the race - a collection of the photos form the Fish Festival can be seen here...

all back to normal on the morning after the festival...

with a handful of boats, beam trawlers, netters and trawlers landing...

Monday's market had boxes of witches...

monk tails...

and, all sorts of soles from star boat of the Fish Festival, the Sapphire II...

some beautiful brill...

and line caught bass...

as well as trawl fish the netter, Govenek of Ladram put ashore a big trip of hake...

while another netter had a good shot of ray...

you know where you are - the home of the most unique festival in the country - the West Briton says so!...

Stone Bass, these guys were on the menu at the Porthminster Beach Cafe a couple of weeks ago...

the best, a brace of MSC Certified Cornish hake...

name this fish...

the sun rises behind the Mount...

and over the Jubilee Pool...

with its simple lines...

and clear blue water.

Newlyn Fish Festival 2016 in pictures!

Judging by all the reports this was a great Newlyn fish festival, lots of positive comments about the number of local individuals, businesses and organisations that were involved - great produce produces great food!

As ever, Passionate About Fish's husband and wife team of Sue and Duncan Lucas drew in the crowds to see their mammoth fish display while a rolling programme of top local chefs supported by cooking compere, Annie Siebert - with all the fish - just like that of the huge main display donated by the fisherman who land to the market in Newlyn.

Kids form Newlyn school with Sanjay Kumar, Dan the Fishman, Annie Siebert and CWT's Matt Slater at the kitchen stage.

A big shout out must go to Mark and Emma Rowse from The Real Cornish Crab Company and two of their staff, Rimantė and Dovilė who worked none-stop all day to show how it's done - even better, all the crab picked was given away in return for donations to the mission buckets on hand!

In the Fish Films in the Fridge, chefs Nathan Outlaw and Paul Ainsworth flanked a huge seascape of the lugger, Ebeneezer and watched a series of films which included 8mm cine film of longlining on the Scarlet Thread and crayfish netting on the Heather Armorel lent by Robert George.

This year the annual Mount's Bay Gig Club races were held as sprints in the harbour - this gave all hands ample opportunity to see the gigs race flat out the length of the harbour - a great sight and a big thank you to Tracy for organising that!

If you were lucky you would have spotted the RedArrows flying overhead on their way to the Scillys - but equally spectacular ar sea level was the trawler race - the first one to be held in modern times in Newlyn! Two boats the Raven and the Tori Gwynt tied for first place in the punt's race and walked off with a lobster pot each kindly donated by pot maker Chris Martin and oilskins from Mike Cornish. The newly created trophy for the race is the Cod Cup, in honour and recognition of the hard life that single-handed fishermen lead - none more so than Stephen 'Cod" Astley whom the trophy is to be named after.

Following the punt race (and we are sure next year there will be many more entrants) 10 bigger boats battled it out in the trawler race - with a trophy promised for the first sardine boat home. To say competition between some of the boats was fierce would be something of an understatement - hundreds of eggs and the deck hoses were used during the parade of boats before the start - and during the race. With the afternoon sun streaming across the bay the ten boats made a spectacular sight as they steamed towards the first mark, the Low Lee Buoy.

All 10 trawlers steaming flat out for Low Lee buoy.

Race results can be seen on the Fish Festival website.

Suffice to say, the first boat home was a sardine boat so they cleaned up on the prizes donated by Survitec, Dunlop, Gael Force and J Reid. The Cornish Ice Company also promised to provide a trip of ice to the winning boat!

Paul and Mike Corin's Sapphire II looked superb in the sun.

All in all it was a great day for all concerned - especially as this year saw fishermen become more directly involved - skippers Alan Nudd, Richard Carrol and Paul Corin and their crews going to the trouble of decorating and mooring their boats so festival visitors could get a close-up look were especially appreciated!

Last, but not least, a big thank you to Newlyn Harbourmaster Rob Parsons and crew for letting it all happen on his patch!

Calling all fishermen of Newlyn - get your Fish Festival passes now!

Don't forget guys - if you land your fish in Newlyn you get two free admission passes - see/email Andy Wheeler at the CFPO office.

Couldn't have picked a better #FishyFriday morning to show a portrait artist round the market!

Scallops beware...

late landing for the Cornish sardine boats...

as the first of the mackerel boats heads in...

for #FishyFriday's mega busy market...

which was perfect given that portrait painter, Henrietta Graham, Newlyn's latest artist to take up a studio residence in the harbour had surfaced for 6am to check out the opportunities for suitable subjects...

and promptly met one of Newlyn's living legends, Barry Ede, now known by many more as it was he who is the face of, Salt of the Earth, the book that has raised over £30,000 for the Fishermen's Mission in Cornwall...

also looking good were the fish, like these line caught bass...

eyed up by a resident gull...

there were plenty of sardines being landed in a superbly warm dawn of a morning...

9 kilo hake...

whiter than white whiting...

more than enough to keep the buyers busy...

as the sardines were stacked higher and longer...

looking very dapper this morning was young Roger atop his trusty forklift...

looks like breakfast has just been spotted...

as Barry makes his way back to a berth...

another mackerel boat arrives...

the catch caught on camera for future reference...

name that man...

Barry was back on the market to sort his fish...

an in amongst was this slightly different mackerel?