Like most others the bank holiday gave a good chance to get out for some fishing as the weather calmed. A few stops for mackerel, and some Scad, and we went out to some banks off Selsea to drift.

Each drift brought  bass. Nothing large – biggest 4 pounds but before long we had caught 8, kept the requisite 1 each and were putting them back. We ran out of bait but were catching the Bass on Mackerel and Scad. So we carried on drifting with the feathers over to try to get some more bait and Roland had three bass on the feathers. Well he was using some fancy ones (see pic).

Pretty lures

No more bait though, so off we went to catch some more bait and anchor up at slack tide in a hole south of the nab. A range of fish came on board including a 10lb Bull Huss and a couple of Thornies to 8lb and finished the day with a few Smoothhounds on hardback crab at our third location, just between East Nab and Selsea. What was annoying was the smaller bream here, constantly attacking the fish and squid baits.  We eventually got a couple on board on very light tackle and small hooks but none worth keeping. On the upside – no doggers.

PS Roland

On the bank holiday Monday we went off in the boat for lunch with friends. On the way back we stopped off for some Mackerel. My Godson Tom, aged 7 was on his first fishing trip. I had a  4ft rod and small multiplier for him and attached a string of feathers. Looking around we found a mass of feeding gulls and in the middle we found the mackerel easily. It’s great to see the enthusiasm of youngsters catching fish. So a few drifts and a bucket full of mackerel for the BBQ and then suddenly, Tom caught a Bass, on the same feathers Roland had used a few days before. Something about them! Only about 1½ pounds but he was so excited. That went back and off we went to eat the spoils. Nothing to beat fresh mackerel from the sea, BBQ’d an hour or two later.

Had a couple of hours free on Saturday so nipped out in the afternoon with some hardbacks crabs. Just went out to the east of Bullocks. Caught a couple of  Mackerel as bait. Roland was quickly into smoothies, to 10lb. 3 and a lost one, great sport on light uptide tackle. I, on the other hand couldn’t get them but did manage a 6lb small eyed ray and a couple of dogs. But for 2 hours it was a bit of fun and fitted in between doing some chores and taking the FPO out.