After a very wet and windy Friday I was surprised to see Saturdays forecast was for light winds and sunny, so to keep our new years resolution in tacked to take the boat out at least once a month. We set off from Calshot to the edge of the brambles.

We set the anchor around 8am and set the rods, it wasn’t long before the bites started and Luke had the first of what seemed like countless bait robbing dogfish. However the sun was out, the water was like a millpond and I wasn’t at work so I could live with just catching dogfish. Luke counted me down till 12 o’clock so that we could try out our new cooker with a round of bacon rolls which went down very nicely. It was time to change the baits so I picked the rod up tighten the drag, pulled up and the rod and it bent over and started taking line, fish on! This fish was not going to play nice and she was going to use the tide to make a run for it but eventually we had this specimen thornback ray weighing in at 13.5lb not bad for a last minute February fishing trip. We put her back to fight another day and pulled anchor and that’s when Luke asked if he could drive the boat back to Calshot.

I have to say Luke is only 11 and he drove the boat back like he has been driving boats for years , a very proud dad, he now wants to be a charter skipper when he leaves school and not a dentist . That’s my boy.

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