Not a catch report exactly, more like spreading marina gossip. Chap I met today has been catching cod to 12lb off Gilkicker and within a mile or two of the shore which makes me wonder if they come inshore first and then sort of back-fill into the deeper marks later on. They certainly seem to catch them off the beach before we catch them further offshore. Another conversation earlier was about Culver Spit. Apparently cod turn up there to feed on squat lobster and move closer to the shore along the spit as the season progresses. Having said that I have yet to catch a cod on Culver Spit but that says more about my fishing than where the cod are. I don’t have any photos of cod to post but I do have a photo of Gilkicker.
Month: September 2016
On Sunday we went round to St Catherin’s to take advantage of the weather and small tides. We anchored in a hole to try for Bass. Ray caught one of about 7lb (pictured above) and I had one of 5lb. I also caught this Bull Huss.
Lovely weather and a great day !
We didn’t have a booking today despite it being perfect conditions and a perfect tide, so myself and Caroline went out alone. We arrived at our chosen mark and delayed fishing for 20 minutes whilst we watched the dolphins we had stumbled upon. As soon as we started fishing we were hitting cod. Because of the slow drift speed we were managing 3 cod per single drift each.
Catch, unhook, release, back down and repeat. We only keep the gut hooked fish and return the rest. We had a few Pollock mixed in but primarily it was cod after cod. Interestingly they were all sub 20lb. Whereas we normally get some larger ones, these were all sub 15lb fish. Could it be the larger ones are heading inshore to spawn??
Caroline was yet again the one to catch the out of the ordinary species and landed a lovely condition 7.5lb John Dory. We did our best to return it, but it wouldn’t go back. It wont go to waste, we will find a recipe somewhere which will hopefully do it justice. (look on the White Fish recipe pages, any recipe calling for fillets would be great.)
OK, this is not the Solent but I thought you might like to see this. We have just spent 10 days in Cuba and I deliberately didn’t go fishing, this was family time. However, I couldn’t resist sticking my nose in….On the 30 minute ferry ride from one of the islands I noticed a bunch of the crew trolling off the back of the ferry with some large and very battered Rapala-type lures. They were hand-lining with what looked like 400lb mono, trolling the lures about 50 metres behind the ferry. Half-way across there was great excitement as they landed this very nasty looking barracuda.
