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The Team: John Short, Jon Short, Steve Cundy, Darren Kneeshaw and Paul Millman

With as near perfect planning as you can do, there is still one variable out of your control - the good old English weather! All the usual excitement the week before an annual Guernsey trip was somewhat dampened by the long range forecasts of windy weather for the trip. Then, the day before the trip, a sudden change of luck as the forecast improved - for the first two days at least. We were back on!

Friday morning dawned with sunshine and a gentle breeze; a stark contrast to the previous days of wind and rain. We stood on the jetty at Ditsum waiting for Lloyd, with the expectancy of a good day mid-channel. We soon boarded Saltwind and eased down the river with a nice cuppa and the reassuring engine purr in the background. A quick stop at Kingswear to fulfil the customs formalities allowed me time to have a quick couple of chucks with the feathers to get a bit of fresh bait as the mackerel were shoaling. 3 casts later and 6 mackerel to boot, we were off heading for some mid-channel rough ground. The gentle northwesterly stayed fairly light as we made our way on the 3 hour steam. The remaining swell was dying off, the sun was shining and it looked perfect. As the tides were small, and we were arriving near slack water, 'killer gear' was the order of the day, fished on 30lb class rods. I chose to fish with braid as did Steve. All ready to go we waited for Lloyd's call of 'way you go'. Who would be into the first fish? Well, within a few minutes we were all into a steady stream of mainly small Pollack and then the first of the Cod. As the tide eased the pirks began to work their magic and every drift Cod were coming over the gunwales. The regular cry of 'Cod on' could be heard, a shout not often heard with such frequency in this day and age! The Cod fishing really was superb on the flood. We fished with pirks most of the day, and especially with the braid the Cod kept coming, interspersed by some nice Pollack and the nice surprise of a few coalfish. Shads were tried with some success as the tide picked up, although most of the Cod came to the killer gear or pirks.

I had my first Coalfish which was pleasing and ended the day with 13 Cod to 18lb out of a total of 37 for the boat. Best Cod of the day went to Steve – a beauty of 26lb. Darren also had plenty of Cod with his best a cracking 23lb. Everyone had their fill of Cod and we also had 72 Pollack to 14lb to go with the Cod and Coalfish. A truly special day was had by all, and then we just had the small matter of gutting and filleting the catch as Saltwind headed to St.Peterport. Safely back in Guernsey and the fish all packed away in the excellent ice hold, we headed off to the digs. With just about enough energy to lift a pint or five of the local ale and eat some well earned grub we celebrated our best day yet for mid channel Cod on a Guernsey trip.

Sadly the news came through that the winds were set to freshen again by Saturday and so the trip would have to be cut down to a two dayer, so as not to get stuck in port. We decided with a good forecast for the Saturday that we would make the most of the slack tides and head for some wrecks in the famous Heard Deep in search of some more 'chuggers'.

After a quick stop in the tackle shop for some squid and mackerel so we could try for the ling, we were off - personally feeling somewhat jaded from an excursion to Folly's with Steve and Paul the night before (Well you have to if your only there one night don't you?) Again rigging up with Killer gear as we steamed out, the talk was all about 'caaaawd' and ling. Flat calm seas made for near perfect conditions. It was hard to believe the following day would be rough! Again the fishing was excellent and the fishbox was soon filling with quality , Ling and Pollack. Most fish again fell to the pirks or red gills, but some nice fish also came on the 'lighter' tackle and shads with the increasing tide. Only a quick break for a much needed cuppa or a bite to eat stopped us from hauling. It truely was exhausting hauling up double figure fish most drops through 350ft of water. I lost count of actual numbers but its fair to say we filled Saltwinds fish box to nearly full. We all had Cod again with the best one - a prime specimen on 23lb going to Darren!! Dad also got into some good Cod with the aid of braid to increase the catch rate. Paul managed a couple of lively eels to 45lb that didn't like the look of the boat - both these strangely taking a plain rather than baited pirk!!

Then with arms aching and the inability to 'winch' up any more fish we reluctantly had to head for home and it took us nearly the whole way back to sort out the fish. We headed up river as the forecasted breeze was beginning to freshen. It was job done though. A foreshortened but fantastic trip which saw us have the best Cod fishing yet on one of our annual trips, and probably the best ever for Steve and I anyway.

Thanks again Lloyd for your expertise and company along with the much appreciated refreshments and biscuits. Rest assured we will be back next year, hopefully for the full four days to try for some of the prized bass and flatties that the Channel Islands has to offer, as well as the mid channel arm aching action.

Jon Short, July 2007