Friday, 12 January 2018

Brill - October 2017

The Brill is one species that has fascinated me for some time. Like all the flat fish native to our seas, I find them rather interesting creatures. I have made a few trips out to the offshore banks off of Sussex in the last couple of years but never managed to catch one! I had been lucky with turbot and rays but a nice brill had always managed to avoid my hooks...........Until now!


I got a call from Steve at Brigand Charters in late October saying there was a weather window approaching and that he was doing his last run out to the banks for the year. I shifted my work schedule around and made the time available. It had to be done, the conditions were looking good. A perfect little slice of high pressure wedged between some big lows. Last chance saloon on the banks….could I find my Brill?

The weather on the day was more like August than late October, it was perfect. Flat seas, clear skies and warm sunshine. It was a pleasure to be out and we had a great crew on board. We made many drifts that day and the fishing was steady enough with some nice turbot coming up, some greater weever, gurnard and small rays. It was more than enough to keep everyone interested.

It’s a real lottery out there, you never know what’s going to get caught. I got a typical flattie bite and gave a little line to allow the fish to get a good hold of the mackerel bait before steadily winding down and lifting into the fish. It felt like a nice one and we were all debating what it might be as I gingerly wound it up through the depths. I explained to Steve the skipper that I’d never caught a Brill before and was hopeful that this may be my chance.

It was my lucky day. A fine, bin lid of a Brill came into sight and made a couple of final, heart stopping lunges for freedom before sliding into the net. It’s nice when a plan comes together and to achieve my target on the final ‘banks’ trip of the year was the icing on the cake. Another one ticked off the list.

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