Me and my dad were out again last weekend, the 13th and 14th. We drove down on Friday afternoon. After we launched, we were motoring around the our berth when we saw the man on the boat that had launched before us paddling at the marina entrance. We went to have a look and he had engine trouble so we gave him a tow back to the slip pontoon. His daughter didn’t look impressed. I doubt he’ll be persuading her to come out fishing any time soon.

Afterwards we went and watched the fireworks at Cowes on a friends boat, interesting watching fireworks from a boat it was great. After a late start, Saturday afternoon we planned to go out to some Nab marks however the wind was as forecast, quite strong, so we used our Plan B, New Grounds after hearing good reports on this site and because of the shelter it offers from the SW winds. My dad managed a nice 14lb undulate and a bit later as the tide slackened I had a small smut. Strangely we had no dogfish so it felt a bit slow but nice to have a few fish for a couple of hours fishing.

On the way back in we had a few drifts for mackerel and managed a few however there were so many tiny scad which we didn’t want to keep. Sunday had a great forecast which was accurate. We went straight to the Overfalls and stopped at Utopia for some mackerel where we soon had plenty. The tide was ebbing so we started at the eastern end and did a long drift over lots of banks and undulating ground, I did have one take but it didn’t hook up. We used joey mackerel, lures and shads. We tried more smaller drifts where there were small overfalls on the surface but this didn’t produce either.

I later found out the bigger tides are for the bass and these smaller tides are better for anchoring targeting blondes on these banks, Now I know for next time. However, we got a good opportunity to use our new rod rests (picture attached). Instead of go back in defeated we anchored on our favorite Nab mark and I had 2 undulates at 10lb and 11lb (pictured). Even though we were fishing 5 rods we didn’t have a dogfish at all, very strange especially as we had a chum of mackerel out. The drive back in was beautiful with the orange sunset on the flat calm water. A good weekend and not a dog at all, not complaining. Hope to get back out to the Overfalls soon on a bigger tide to get some bass.

rod rests