Crystal Sea Trawling Blog

I went on the internet monday evening to see what the weather was doing and it was looking poor for the next day, then I woke up early on tuesday morning and it seemed quiet, so I went on the net again and the weather was not coming as first forecast. So I called the crew and we set sail early tuesday morning, I have to say the swell was huge as we got out to open sea and we were glad to get the

Were still in the harbour along with the rest of the fleet waiting for the stormy weather to pass, I have to admit it's quite frustrating knowing that we could be out on good fishing, but a least it's so poor that you are not Iming and aming. The weather is still forecast to be sou west gales all of next week as well, but we have plenty to do, on monday Janis and I are going to start

We landed our catch last night and it was sold at Pta this morning, we got lucky and carried on fishing well, mainly catching Haddocks,gurnards and smooth hounds, we had 170boxes for 36hrs at sea which for us is good fishing. I am glad the fish was handy this trip as we didn,t really have enough time to travel very far. Unfortunately the weather is looking awful for the next week ahead! so

We landed our last trip on Sunday morning and had 145 boxes of Cuttles and Haddocks and a bit of prime, for our 3 days to the SW of the Lizzard.

It blew a Southerly 9 Sunday night into Monday but the wind droppped away quickly through the day so we prepared the boat and headed off  on Monday evening. As we approached Tater-Du lighthouse (Lamorna) we encountered a huge swell so thought

We landed our first catch of the New Year after 4 days at sea, the prices were good and we had a nice bit of fish for our time - so we're off to a good start - lets hope it continues for the rest of the year!

We are off to the SW of the Lizard again but have moved further west today the fishing has been good with a few more Haddocks this trip. However what is unusual is that we are catching

We have been working to the SW of the Lizard point still catching Cuttles, they've hung on a bit down this way this year, we haven't seen much of the Haddocks as the tide's too slack, but we have been seeing a nice bit of Monk, Brills and Red Mullets along with the Cuttles.

We had the Royal Navy on board today for a routine inspection it was only our third day back this year

Just like it we have been in since the 16th of December, then yesterday we were running the engine ready to get ice and we found that the 110v generator had packed it in. So we phoned downies in Scotland and luckily they have one on the shelf, so Alec And Dad left for Fraserbrough in Scotland this morning, they are hoping to pick the new generator up tomorrow and make there way back down , so we are

Most of the boats are in now all finished for Xmas, but today the whole industry right across the UK and Europe have waited anxiously for the news from Brussels. This is something we have to go through every December and I have to say I think there is a better way to do this. The scientists from CEFAS (the british fishery scientists) do great work with limited rescorses and we in the industry

After a job well done we headed back down the slip this morning and headed back to Newlyn, this time we got the tide right and made good time back down the coast, we also are burning less fuel after our bottom scrubbed and paint up, as we now have less resistance due to the smooth hull.

We spoke to the Defiant on the way back down he said that as the prices had dropped back so much he

We got up early today, Alec and I got the jet sprayer out and cleaned off the hull, it was quite weedy especially around the waterline. The welders and chipys came aboard and started the maintence work that was needing doing, we finished jet spraying in the afternoon and we helped get the clump off the boat using the crane so it could be welded up.