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Part 1

No this is not a review on the film, this is a more in-depth account into my own fishing experiences as mentioned in PMRadio. It started on Sunday the sixth after coming home from a training weekend with the ATC andcame back home to hear my uncle (Budgie) ask what I was up to the following morning. Now me, being the lazy sod that you all know and love, said that I wasn’t actually doing anything. “You are now!” came the reply and thus began my epic journey into fishing. “I’ll get you up at 5:30, we’re off fishing.” Stunned, all I could do was look at him with amazement and say “Okay, that sounds great.”

Monday 05:30

“C’mon let’s go fishing!” A head peered around my bedroom door just as my alarm started to go off next to my head. I blinked at the light pouring into my room and realised what an unnatural time this was to wake up. I nodded and he walked off leaving the door open so I couldn’t go back to sleep. I trudged out of bed and stumbled into my work jeans and a scraggly t-shirt. I walked down stairs and was presented with a jumper and a strange looking top with waterproof arms; “You’ll need these, it’s gonna be cold outside” he said it with a smile promising frozen limbs and getting soaked. I put them on and then got my boots on as uncle made the tea for the flask. Tea is vital to fishing, it’s very important that you get enough tea in you. All kitted out we pucked up two buffs (orange marker bouys) and walked down to the harbour. My journey has begun.

06:00 – 7:00

On the boat now and he was right, it was cold; my nipples agreed. I’d warm up in a bit though. We ran through all the checks; electrics – check, radio – check, oil – check, diesel – needs filling. So we fill her up and then I run up and my uncle gives me a brief on using the crane as we needed to but two bins of nets on the boat. So he positions the boat and I lower the bins down with the crane, not too taxing for a first task. then I climb onto the boat and set off out of the harbour. Nice and calm, flat sea for a first trip. However visibility is poor due to fog; does that matter? Not at all, we have GPS and he has 22 years experience, I’m in safe hands. Tea is priority as we get to the outer harbour so I get told to steer the boat in a straight line as he makes the tea. This is a new thing for me and takes a few moments to work out how the tiller works and in relation to the gauges, compass and readouts on various screens around the ‘cockpit’. I thought that I would be doing stuff like being the tea boy and all the crappy little jobs but here I am skippering the boat. It turns out that skippering a boat with no experience in the fog is about as easy as trying to pilot a Harrier without eyes. It turns out that if you want to turn left you pull/push (depending where you sit) the tiller to the right and vice versa.

08:00 – 10:00(ish)

After a bit of chugging along we decide where to shoot the nets and visibility is still poor. He gets set up and ties on the end-weights as I possition the boat and keep it on a bearing cos I can’t see bugger all. He comes back aft and shows me how the GPS system works and how to read it. “You’ll need those numbers in a bit. When I shout ‘Numbers’, you remember what’s on the GPS screen.” I can do that; remember 4 numbers, that can’t be hard. Turns out it’s not hard at all. Keeping it on the heading and then we shoot the nets. Over the side they go! “Numbers” he shouts as he throws the last end-weights in the drink and I look at the GPS and memorise the numbers. “What were they?” Budgie comes back and I recite them back to him and he writes them in his black book which contains tallys and GPS readouts. This just lets us know where the nets are to come pick them back up. We then chug off and shoot the other load of nets. It’s amazing to watch as Budgie sorts it all out, I just wander when I will get the chance to do more, but I’m happy steering for the moment. We point back to the harbour and I take it in as far as the entrance to the harbour and Budgie does the rest. Tricky business getting into the harbour and I have much to learn yet.

10:30 to 12:00

Moored up now and we have a few odd jobs to do before we can go home. Tidying up the boat being one of them and then sorting out a punt that was recently re-fibreglassed. Not really much I could do so I was able to go home! Roll on tomorrow, I get to learn more tomorrow I hope.

That was the first day of fishing, I liked it, it was new and interesting. I need to write quite a bit for the next few days while it’s still fresh in my mind.

Write more soon.
Martin