You may have noticed that our monthly reports are no longer published in the Sea Angling News monthly paper. Sadly as a result of COVID restrictions over the last year the paper is no longer circulated in either print or online form.  Sea Angling News continued as a website for a short while.

We will continue to publish a monthly catch report for the Eastern Solent and approaches based on news, gossip and personal experience, so if you want your catches to be included just message us here.

May and early June in the Solent approaches means bream on rocky marks, smoothhound wherever there are crabs for them to forage and the arrival of mackerel and tope. No surprises this year: all those events have happened and fish are there to be caught! The only deviation from the usual pattern was the plaice. Although some were caught as they moved onto the spawning grounds, not as many as in previous years. Hopefully they will be fattening up on the summer marks now.

There were some fine tope caught from the end of May through into late June, including several Personal Best fish. The larger breeding females will be moving away soon, leaving smaller pack tope.  If you find them or they find you they can either be a nuisance or hectic sport, depending on what you are really after!

Here’s a slideshow below of some great fish caught locally in the past month. Many thanks for the pictures and congratulations on some excellent catches.