Our report made the front page this month with Kevin Osman’s magnificent cod! You can access the on-line edition of SAN here.
We are now well into the winter season with plenty of whiting being caught, but not as many cod as we were hoping for. The cod season started with a flurry of catches a few weeks ago then we had a bit of a lull. As a result, a few of our local photographers had to share photos of sunsets instead of cod! Now a few more are being landed. Not in the numbers we caught many years ago, but better than some recent years. We have noticed some changes in fish migration – the scad have stayed around right into November this year. Trigger fish arrived, hung around for a few weeks and went again. There are plenty of bass being caught, although we have to observe the take-home limit of one fish over 42cm per angler per day, catch and release after that. There are large shoals of school bass moving around the Solent and approaches. They are easily spotted under flocks of very excited seabirds! Some larger bass have been caught further out – see photos.
On to catch news: catch highlight of the month was by Kevin Osman, a member of the Southsea Sea Angling Club, who fished an area around the Nab Tower. Using a mixture of dead and live baits, he managed to land this amazing 34lb 8oz Cod. A new club record for the Southsea Sea Angling Club, which was 33lbs and had stood since 1976. What a lunker!
Archie Crawford showed his dad how to fish by landing this very nice bass of exactly 8lb, caught with a whiting livebait. Archie is also in the lead for the SMAC Junior Species competition with 28 species this year so far.
Tim Andrews fished from his boat Double Trouble out of Southsea Marina, drifting offshore reefs and banks with artificial lures, catching 12 bass to 9lb and 6 pollack biggest 12lb. He also had cuttlefish and even a smoothhound on lures!
Southsea Mariana also has a Disabled Angling Club. Here are (left to right) Jon Leythorne, John Wearn and George Dominy, bass fishing from the private boat Lady Elsa skippered by Steve Kelly. Steve also brought in a cod of 17lb 1oz.
Other fish of note from the Southsea Marina Angling Club books are two bonus turbot caught while cod fishing. Jocky Park had one at 4lb 3oz, and Kris Scott followed up with one of 3lb 13oz. Martina Houghton caught a nice Undulate Ray of 14lb 6 oz (catch and release) and Bill Arnold landed a mullet of 5lb (also catch and release).
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