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Catch Reports Archive: 2008December 2008This report deserves pride of place, what a stunning fish! "The weather for Sunday looked good (7th December). On the long journey down from Swindon to Portsmouth the weather was cold and frosty and I was hoping for a fog free morning as yet we have not fitted a radar onto the new boat and I know from experience that it is so easy to be caught out. Crew for the day was my old mate Kevin whom has fished with me from my first dory 16 years ago and over the years have caught some nice fish together. On the journey out of Portsmouth harbour the sun was just rising and after fuelling up we headed to our first mark which on our last trip produced four cod up to 15lb an a couple of eels but the tide today was considerably smaller and I guessed that we would have a couple of hours before we lost the tide and be in with a chance of a cod.
The anchor was set and four rods were baited and cast awaiting the action. After an hour and two doggies later we upped the anchor and steamed out to another mark 3 miles and again the anchor was set. The tide was dropping right off and I fished with a smaller rod with baited feathers for the whiting but again only a couple of small ones caught. The boat slowly turned and the tide picked up and the my right hand rod nodded and an eel of about 20lb was released after a good fight. Kevin then caught an undulate ray of about 10lb plus a thornback. The tide was starting to flow nicely now and kev then had a steady nod on his left hand rod which resulted in a seven pound cod. Things were looking up. My right hand rod nodded but I lost the fish due to the braid breaking and immediately after I lost another good fish on my left hand rod due to hook pull. Not my day. Kev then had a bite on his 20lb class gear which developed and after setting the hook we knew it was better. The line stayed deep as the fish was being retrieved and through my mind thinking not an eel or a ray as they usually glide up through the tide and looking down in the water saw the fish appear. Seeing what it was I told kev to walk to the front of the boat while I wondered if it would fit into the net all 33lb 10oz of it. The fish was weighed on a set of electronic scales three times and we both agreed it was that weight. Kev then added another cod of six and a half pound before we called it a day. A very special day and the fish of a lifetime for Kev after years of trying and a special day for me as witnessing at what I am sure you will all agree is a truly magnificent fish. By the way my bigger landing net is now on order!" - Mark That Sunday was a great day for good fish. Tony was out again:
"The weather was looking just too good to be true on Sunday with a 5mph Westerly breeze and a neap tide of 3.9m so we headed out to Cuba bank. The sea was flat, the sun was out, zero degrees and no wind - it seemed the perfect day to catch some cod. I was amazed at how many boats we passed on the way out, there must have been a good 20 boats fishing Cuba bank alone. We did a couple of passes over the bank to see the lay of the land and set the hook in at the top of the bank so that we fished one drop-off on the Easterly run and when the tide turned we could fish the other drop-off on the Westerly run. We fished big baits and big hooks over the top of the bank to try and ambush anything that was working its way along the bank. We pulled in numerous dogs and Granddaddy pout. I then had the gentlest of knocks which I lifted into and first though that I had snagged the bottom until I managed to move whatever was on the end. I was using a 15lbs class Ugly Stick which fortunately for me are supposed to be unbreakable as the rod was literally bent in half. After about 15 minutes I landed a lovely Blonde Ray weighing in at just over 23lbs a new pb. My fishing partner then landed a small cod of about 5lbs followed by the biggest whiting I have ever seen. We also had several thornbacks to 10lbs. The three other boats I went out with caught similar sized cod, dogs, pout, thornbacks, whiting and numerous congers to 40lbs. A great day out was had by all. I was out that Sunday too, fishing the flat grounds north of the Nab. I started out at 7am and fished the ebb. It was non-stop whiting action (plus pout of course) and a bonus cod of 7lb, a ray and a few dogfish all on squid. I had forgotten to bring my frozen mackeral so I tried pouting strips, they were just as effective for whiting. They really like their fish dinner. As the tide turned, the fish turned off like a switch. Nothing doing, and even a move to the eastern banks only produced a couple more whiting. I headed back at around 3pm and had a bonus bassing session I wasn't expecting, read about it here.
The weekend of 13/14 December wasn't nearly as nice. Pete nipped out before the blow and sent in this report and a nice photo of a cod: "Went out early on Sunday with my mate Mitch to avoid the winds that were due in the afternoon. Fished SW of the Nab Tower and caught a 22lb cob within the first hour. Very little else of note, just a few dogfish and pout. At mid-day we had to move inshore due to the rough sea and tried Browndown in the Solent. Noting of note, just a few more dogfish and pout. Decided to call it a day early."
Tony was also out on Christmas Eve (lucky chap): "We launched from stokes bay at 0600 hrs when it was still dark and headed out to Culver on what seemed like a perfect winter's day. The sea was flat calm and a slight 3mph NNE breeze was blowing. We arrived at Culver before 0700 hrs and found a good bank so we set the hook in and dropped our lines, Not much action for the first hour or so just a single dog, pout and a whiting. At about 0800 hrs the tide gave in and our lines hung straight down over the side of the boat, As the tide started to move again the boat swung round and we were no longer fishing over the bank so we decided to pull in the hook and relocate over another bank. We found another nice drop off from 40 feet down to about 55 feet and set the hook so that we were fishing directly into the bottom of the bank. Very soon I had the classic double tap cod bite and gently lifted into it. Almost immediately the reel screamed and the fish was taking line. After about 10 minutes I landed a lovelly cod at 19lbs. This is a new pb for me. Andy and John were fishing next to me so I called him on the radio to gloat about my catch until about half an hour later Andy landed a slightly bigger cod of 20lbs. later John also landed a nice cod of 9.5lbs. a good day was had by all."
Culver Cod Cristmas 'Twas the day before Christmas, when all through the house, The squid were defrosted as I slept in my bed, When out on the Solent not a wave could be seen, No sun on the water and no sign of snow, The tide eased, a bit too quick, Now, Andy’s rod it started to nod, At last to the surface and into the net, Lightly lip hooked I must make no mistake, More pout and more dogfish, a bass and a cod,
Phil sent in this report from before Christmas: We started off South West of the Nab looking for the Cod. Unfortunately only a few whiting, about 10 to 2lb some pout and the inevitable dogs showed in the first three hours. No cod. So as slack started to appear we headed onto the edge of the spoils to a wreck. Following a few poor anchoring efforts we were ideally positioned and the bites started and very soon we had conger coming over the side. Stephen was first to succeed as his rod bent double. We both got excited as line started to go off the reel. The 30lb class tackle was under pressure and of course we wanted Cod. However the lack of the head shaking thumping you get from the cod was in fact some big pull backs and short runs - more typical of the conger swimming backwards. Soon we had a 25lb fish in the bottom of the boat. A swift unhooking and it was returned to the water. Stephen well happy with his 5-10 minutes of fight. Soon we had two on - one each. Now this was a challenge so the smaller fish, Stephens (!!!) was brought in unhooked and returned as we dealt with a 30 lb-er with a bit more time. Bites kept coming on the Squid and mackerel mixed baits although my rod seemed to go quiet for 15 minutes. I reeled in, to find not only no bait, but no hooks. Examination of the trace showed the 150lb trace had been chewed through! As per the usual we lost our fair share of tackle in the wreck. I don’t like to use wire traces but the 150lb nylon took a hit a couple of times. A couple came off half way up but in the end we had seven on board in about 2 ½ hours and they varied from 18lb to just over 30lb. As the light dimmed we went back East of the Nab looking for a final Cod. The weather had stayed bright all day and the wind, starting at light force 3 had died to nothing as the light gave way. We stayed out for a further hour and a half in the dark fishing with the large triple squid on a penal rig looking for the cod so the traces were reduced to 50lb!. It was a slow start with the odd dogger then a further two conger. Not what we were after but both 25lb plus they gave a good account for themselves on our 20lb class rods - lucky really they were both lip hooked as we might have struggled with the lighter traces. All Conger were returned with only a couple of the larger Whiting kept for the evening tea. A great day’s fishing, shame no Cod but the rods were kept well bent! A great finish to the rather poor season for me personally due to work and the appalling weather."
November 2008Here we are well into the month and every weekend has coincided with strong winds and heavy rain. Only the lucky ones who could fish mid-week have been out. There are still plenty of reports on codling caught all the way around the Hampshire coast, and well up into the Solent. The typical size is 4 to 8lb which is a good eating size. Arron called me after a trip to the Spoils on Thursday, and bizzarly he was catching mackerel, scad and bream. Unless of course it was a very late report! Let's hope the wind is kind for the next few weekends.
Peter was in the same area a day later and had the cod Arron was after, a 17lb 6oz beauty. He reports" Stokes bay, fishing about a mile out on the edge of the drop off. Plenty of fish once the tide picked up, the usual dogfish and pout and some very nice whiting on squid and a 17.6lb cod to a small mackerel strip on a size 4 hook. Cracking day!"
On Sunday yours truly was desperate to get out again but a freshening north westerly meant going far was unwise. I kept in close and filled a bucket with whiting, large pout and of course dogfish that didn't go in the bucket! Best bait for whiting by far was garfish strip, frozen from the summer. Tough, freezes well, and very glittery in the tide.
Soon after this the anchor tripped in the racing tide so we pulled in our lines and decided to head over to the green channel marker buoy at Browndown. There were four other boats fishing there but I realised that none of them were over the wreck. I quickly found the wreck and set my anchor so that we fished directly into it. The tide started to slacken off now and immediately we started to get bites. Very soon I landed a nice 8.5lbs cod and a little later Gary landed an even nicer 12.5lbs cod. The light started to fade now so we decided to call it a day having one nice cod each. Apart from the loss of my gear we had a cracking afternoon." Been there, Tony, done that too! At least you have the excuse to buy a new rod and reel now. Hopefully it was a giant fish but there is a chance it was a huge lump of sumfing whipping through on the tide. The tow-rope I keep in my car is in fact the mainsheet off a large yacht that ended up wrapped round my anchor rope one day. Very handy.
Arron has worked out that there are periods of calm weather between the windy weekends - at night! "With the Autumn weather and only 12 hour windows between fronts, last minute trips have been on the cards. We managed to get out twice during last week in the Solent for the cod/whiting. The first trip was productive with a good size whiting and 2 cod around the 7lb mark.
October 2008Salar is out of the water for antifouling and some work on the outdrive leg, so once again I am depending on other people's reports. One thing is certain, the cod are here in numbers. Something must have worked! Wayne sent me the first report of October: "There is something very satisfying about lifting a rod and feeling the thumping head shakes of a Cod on the other end. Its unfortunately not something I have experienced too often aboard my boat. I've managed the grand total of one per season for the past six or so years, so there is room for a little improvement. One area where I thought needed a start was in the bait department. All the info on Cod favourite tit bits lead along the lines of Black lug and with this in mind I helped slow the recession and purchased enough to last a good few trips. Of course using lug alone would mean the Dogs and Whiting would soon bankrupt the average angler, so rather than a stand alone bait, I'd be using it as an add on to my favourite boat bait, Squid. Now all that was required was a break in the weather and we could see if the Cod were going to play ball. I check every available wind forecast I can, and it never ceases to amaze, and disappoint, at just how diverse this forecast can be? Thursday was looking good on most sites, so the tough decision was taken, work would have to do without us. Myself and 'Crunch' found ourselves heading out across Langstone Harbour bar on a glorious morning, with the sea around us having the appearance of gently gliding oil, the last of the mist being removed by a warming Autumn sun, the day could not have been nicer.
We slowed a mile and a half before our destination and switched on the fish finder. We were in 80ft of water and the bottom showed a few small peaks, I've read the manual and still don't know exactly what they indicate, or what bottom type, but it looked more interesting than a flat line so we dropped anchor and baited up. As I'd bought the lug, and in the interests of fair play, I decided that 'Crunch' wasn't having any! The fact that it might draw in Cod near his lines was I thought, generous enough, and the competitive streak in me, coupled to his incredible 'spawny' fishing luck (there is little skill involved) meant he'd have to stick to plain old Squid. It was 8.45am as the first baits hit the seabed, and by 9.15am the first Cod of the season was on the boat! My Lug/Squid cocktail had done the trick, a lovely eating sized fish of 6lb. It didn't stay one nil to me for long though, as the tell tale nods on 'Crunch's' rod suggested another Cod. True to form the thumps on the way up were classic head shakes and a second fish a shade under the firsts size was brought aboard. By 10.30am it was three-two to 'Crunch'. Five Cod, all in the 5.5 to 6.5lb range. In between we both found a few Dogfish, although we were by no means plagued by them which made a pleasing change. By now the tide had slowed and the bites had eased off so i took the opportunity to clean the fish. Now I'm not certain but iv a good idea on what happened next. We had a spate of 'hits' on our baits, none of which resulted in hook ups, until 'Crunch' struck into one of them and bought in a Bass of around the 3lb mark. He had managed to foul hook it but no damage was done and the fish was released, swimming away strongly. The pattern continued for ten minutes with baits hit and removed, then 'Crunch' pulled into another Bass, again foul hooked and again around 3lb. This time we kept him as he'd been unfortunately hooked in the gill. The bites stopped as suddenly as they had started and for the next hour we pondered on what had occurred. I'm pretty sure that cleaning the Cod and throwing the innards over the side had drawn in a shoal of Bass. We couldn't be certain of course but id say it was a fair bet that was what had happened. We fished on with a few 'Doggies' the only takers until one of my rods bent over well, no Dogfish this time. Three all, with another 6lb Cod swept into the landing net. Lovely Jubbley i think is the expression! We both agreed that six nice Cod fillets apiece was plenty. We headed 'Taryn' back to shore well pleased with the days efforts. It was just the antidote to those days when the fishing is slow and things don't go your way." Steve M was after blondes, here is his report: "The forecast on the 9th was just too good to miss, and the small tide meant the rare opportunity to get right offshore and fish the banks for a blonde ray. Not having caught one, ever, it seemed like a good plan. I was a little late into Hayling Island after the M25 was closed, so my buddy boat Moray and my own crew were already there and waiting. Bait was shared out and we launched around the bulldozer crew who were sitting on the slip waiting for the tide to drop to let them clear it. At least I knew I'd be able to recover!
A quick update from Wayne, well a photo actually. Need he say more? Well done that man.
One more report from that weekend and what a cracker. Arran beat his PB with a beauty: "We dropped the anchor in about 120' of water and fished into the bottom of a 30' bank with huge squid baits. Just before the end of the ebb I moved onto another bit of ground which I saw on the plotter and within minutes my bro hooked into a 30lb conger, managed to get it to the boat but then it spun up and snapped off. Neither of us were prepared for the next hour's fishing.... hit after hit every time the baits hit the bottom we had bites. I lost a huge fish, guessing it was a conger with the state of the pout that was on the end after a 10 minute fight, the pout was easy over the pound mark which gave you an idea of the size of it. My bro has another 2 both around the 6lb mark but had 2 more cracking fish, the next fish beat my pb and was bouncing the scales just over the 16lb mark and the next fish was bouncing the scales between 20 and 21lb. I was over the moon and couldn't believe it. There must of been a shoal right under the boat.
That was it for the day we'd had enough and were knackered.
My bro put one of his 7lb'ers back and i tried to put the 20lb back as i'd had more than enough for the freezer plus i had ran out of room in the fish box but he didn't want to swim off so he's now in the freezer.
I'll probably never have another cod session like it."
September 2008What a summer. Need I say more. Consequently, when the weekend on 13-14 September was forecast calm and sunny, most of us boat-owning anglers abandoned any sense of family responsibility and headed for the coast. It was certainly busy on the marks I saw - I am usually the only boat on one of my favourite marks, this time there were four others and at least another ten within sight. The more popular marks must have been very crowded. We were fishing the Selsey area, Arron I know did very well with blond ray and bass, he might even send me a report later. Tony was behind me and hit the dogfish pound, I had more of a mixed bag as I hung baited mackerel feathers over the side as well as bottom fishing. Result: a dozen mackerel, a scad, starry smoothound, blonde ray, two bass and two whiting, most on squid. The whiting were coughing up baby squid which explains it. Nothing of any size, but it was a fabulous day and some supper too. Who could ask for more? Here is a photo of a calm sea, just to remind you what it is in case you missed it.
Off in the distance is Chris, who sent this report and some cracking pictures:
First a quick stop in the Harbour entrance for mackerel and they were there in good numbers, so a good start, we also picked up scad, a decent garfish and a few mini bass. Biggish tides dictated that we stayed inshore so it wasn't too long before
we had the anchor down. It was action from the start with small eyed rays,
both uptide and down tide on both frozen sand eel and the fresh mackerel, Then John hooked into an obviously bigger fish, a blonde ray hung deep and it took him a while to get it to the boat, eventually I netted it and weighed in at 28lb a PB for John. 30 minutes later and Bill got stuck into one as well, the tide was a bit stronger and he had great difficulty getting it back through the tide, 3 times he nearly got it netted before it crash dived but on the 4th time I managed to scoop the net deep and prevent another dive; this fish went heavier at 29lb. Soon after this I had a bass of 4lb, we managed a few more small eyed rays, a couple of spotted rays and a tub gurnard. During the peak of the ebb things went quiet, but as it eased Karl hooked into a blonde, again a terrific scrap and this one weighed just over 19lb. We had a couple more rays before slack water and it was time to move. I honestly don't know how many rays we had but it must have 15 or 16 small eyeds, 3 blondes (plus one about 5lb) plus the 2 spotted rays.
Steve sent in this account of his day out last weekend, some useful tips too: Kennel Club Outing Friday 19th SeptemberMy crewman,Ray, presented himself at the house ten minutes early to get the boat hitched up as I was nursing my damn back (again). As a result, we were down the A3 well ahead of schedule and I was looking like actually arriving at the slip at the time I'd promised, for once. However, while we were filling up with fuel in Eastney the mobile rang. It was John, the other skipper, telling me to divert to Hayling as the Eastney slip was swamped in loose gravel. We turned out of the garage for the 20 minute run round to Hayling with Moby outbound from the slip just a few cars behind us. Probably a good move, since at least one other trailing skipper got stuck there at the weekend. Unless something changes, Eastney has got to the point where it can just about be written off completely for much of the year. At Hayling, we were ready in no time as Ray trails his own 165 and knew exactly what to do. Slip conditions were marginal for the Subaru due to a bank of gravel on the high tide mark, but my spoiler only just touched down (ouch) and I left Ray holding SeaMouse and went off to park. I need to get a more sensible car. John warned me as I passed that he'd just been ripped £9 for his ticket but happily the little café was open and they let me park in their space for £5 - a good tip for anyone else trailing to Hayling Island although they don't open all that early and I'm not convinced the ticket wardens won't slap a ticket on you regardless. We had about a f3 north-east breeze under grey skies but a massive tide, so the plan was to head east in search of rays through the main push of tide then onwards to Selsey to drift for plaice. First call though was for some fresh bait. Dean Tail wreck was empty - no fish signal and no takes, with the water very cloudy everywhere we went. There were fish showing on the German Tug, but again we failed to get a take and in the end gave up and headed for the ray grounds. With the anchor in on the SE slope of the bank, we had less tide than expected and 12oz of lead was holding. We put out everything - frozen sandeels, rag, frozen mackerel and squid. All that happened was that the sun came out and the doggies homed in on our baits. Five for me, two for Ray and most of the morning gone. We were on hardish ground, so thought maybe we should be up on the sand. Moved as far to the east as we could and settled in again. The move shook off our sandpapery friends but didn't find anything else, so we were now biteless other than a single mackerel on the lazy rod. At least that gave us fresh bait! The tide was also dying, well before predicted, so it was agreed we'd all up stumps and head for the plaice grounds. The Looe gate from a distance was a mass of white horses so we took the indirect route through the Pullar hole, where it was no worse than a bit lumpy. I stopped there and dropped the anchor to see how the tide was faring. We were still on the last of the flood, so I opted to stay put and try the deep water while Moby went on east in search of plaice. I parked bang on top of the spit in 90ft and it was a major kennel down there. While the tide died and the ebb got going, Ray and I patiently set and reset all six rods to avoid tangles as the boat swung around and in the process hauled up 15 dogfish. A storming bite on his rod and a good scrap was adequate compensation for our hard work - a 5lb 13oz bass that put a huge smile on both our faces. With the ebb starting to push hard and the news that Moby had a monster plaice aboard, we decided to go across and join them. As ever, it was a lot smoother over the mussel beds than sitting in the Pullar Hole. We got there too late though, drift speeds had climbed over 2 knots and John said the bites had dried up. Dragging the anchor chain got the drift down to 1.7 knots and we picked up a ballan on Ray's rod but we had to give it best. Even that far east the water was still milky, so I wasn't that confident anyway. Tried drifting sandeels through the rips on the way back west but all we did was lose rigs in the rough ground before joining Moby on the very western edge of Medmery for the last 30 minutes. There we blanked completely, although Moby hauled in a bass and set away home. We followed about ten minutes behind but inbound, John radio'd to say there were birds working the Run at Langstone. Found them without trouble, parked up in the middle of the disturbance and suddenly we were having a mackerel-bashing competition. They were right under the boat in only 17ft of water, at times I was seeing fish following the hooked ones up. We were aware that Moby was already recovering, so the target was 20 fish each and I just squeaked there before Ray by a single drop. Finished with 21 and a scad for me, 20 for Ray and the boat looking like a busy day at the abbatoir. Headed in through a huge ebb tide coming out of Langstone to find Moby ashore and waiting for us. They held back until they were sure we'd recovered OK then got away. At least I had some fish for the freezer - after I'd rigged up a rack and hot smoked them in Thai spices.
A warm welcome to Peter, a new Catch Reporter and the first cod reported: It was 2.30 am in the morning with a slight sea and a cold crisp chill in the air as I left the marina hoping to find my first cod of the season. 60 minuts later and I was anchored on the first mark which turnd out to be the only mark I needed to visit. As I dropped the first rod down and picked up the second to bait, the first rod indicated a bite - a few minuets later one dog fish. This continued for over an hour dog fish after dog fish and then bang something heavy to my suprise it's a cod and it put up a good struggle . With the cod landed next it was the other rod's turn with a bass at around three pound then a smouth hound and then a thorn back. The fish just kept coming - best mornings fishing this year. Total caught 35 fish home, by 9.30am. A all fish took squid baits hard on bottom.
My own last trip of September produced a real mixed bag. My engine management system is not doing exactly what it should so I stayed inshore rather than venturing beyond the Nab, which was where I wanted to be on such a superb day for fishing. In addition to the usual garfish and mackerel that gave good sport on the East Winner, it felt like I had one of everything from an inshore mark. One pollack, one bream, one....trigger fish. My first ever.
August 2008Most of us have been held back by the weather this month, with only a few gaps and even those were pretty poor. I had probably my worst trip of 2008 last week, with only a solitary bream, four mackerel and a dogfish to show for it, but that's August for you. Roll on cod season! However, I was pleased to see a new name turn up in the Catch Reports In-Box. Thank you Paul, he shares his news and also some tips on bream fishing. "I have been fishing the Solent for the last 50 years and have noticed how species and venues have changed for better or worse. I have a home made 14 ft fishing boat with a 20HP outboard and have been restricted by the foul weather this summer, I have only managed to get to the eastern Solent about four times this year; with just a few bass and a few mackerel around No Mans Land fort.
However we had some good sport off Ryde Middle and Bramble, and especially Hill Head with smooth hounds. We kept one for the pot as Alan is a bit of a gourmet chef (he thinks) - see photo. It has been the best season I can remember for bream, and here are our bream tactics: Size 6 hooks short shank, sliding rig, one 6" above the weight on a boom with a 4" snood, and one on the slider below the weight with a 6" snood. Bait size about one cubic centimetre pieces. Ground bait with mushed-up bits of mackerel, worms, squid and any bait leftovers. When ready to use, fill tins another third full and bend the sides in like fish tail. Gently throw the tins in just in front of the bow of the boat. The current slowly washes out the pulp and the bream soon pick up the scent. They seem to last from 10 to 30 minutes depending on current strength. You will notice the bites start dropping off as the tins empty; so lob in another tin! One tin each side gives a better spread as does a short line sea anchor/drogue to keep the boat in a straight line if you have a beam wind. The tins rust away quickly in salt water so I suppose it is an eco-friendly method. If you don’t fancy the tin idea, use a carrot sack filled with mush, preferably frozen in old ice cream containers or 12" size freezer bags. Pick up half a plastic bag of stones (3 - 4 pounds in weight) as sack ballast. Make up an Alderney type ring, (Like the anchor lifter). a piece of 3/8th steel bar, bend into a 6" circle and bend the ends in to hook shapes with about a half inch gap at 90 degrees to each other. You can then tie on the carrot sack and clip it onto the anchor line. (Below the real Alderney rig if you use one). Let it slide down the anchor line. It should pass over the chain as you lift the anchor. One draw back seems to be it attracts all comers especially if you are trying to target certain species. I was off Hill Head earlier this year after smoothies using this ground bating method and I did catch 5 on this session, (well pleased) but the peeler baits were chewed up by smaller fish etc. I caught two spiders that got caught up in the bait elastic: recycled and caught a nice 13 lbs smoothy!. I set up lighter rod and played with smaller fish on their way to Mc Donald’s carrot sack drive-through. Dogs, gurnard, mackerel, bream, sole, a few small bass and half a ton of welks - they are going in the sack next time. We had 50+ bream in the keep net yesterday between the two of us, only kept four for the pot, the rest were all returned apart from two floaters. The two of us had a great day out, a good haul concidering these two old pharts add up to 139 years between us! "
July 2008Here is Arron's report from the last weekend in July: "What a cracking weekend. We beached the boat on the sandbanks in Langstone Harbour on Saturday, gave her a clean up, polished out some scratches from the dingy and fuelled up ready for Sunday. Picked up my mate Ali at 07:30, by 07:40 shorts were on and top's off, it was already scorching hot. We stopped off at two of the most popular places 4 miles out of Langstone for some mackies but nothing. I took a gamble and headed straight to the mark hoping to pick some up there. The gamble paid off, first drift we had a dozen, so I stuck the hook in and we fished slab's of fresh mackie hard into the bottom of a bank. On the first few runs we got bitten off so we upped the hook length and started to land some small tope. Five in total for the day but the biggest was just a double. I noticed a doggie-like rattle, picked the rod up and it screamed off about 40 yards of line. Straight away I thought a good tope. A good 15 minutes later i was amazed to see this huge fish surface. A pb for me of 22-8-0
Things went quiet and the tide turned. I re-anchored about four or five times to get the boat exactly where Ii wanted it...... All the effort of pulling the anchor in was definitely worth it. Ali had a 20 minute fight with this fish which went 23-14-0 and pb for him too.
Whilst he was loosing this fight with his fish mine went too and I landed another blonde of about 15lb.
Ali landed another fish of about 16lb and fortunately that was it for the day as we were both knackered. I've caught many a hard fighting fish but these fish gave an amazing fight. All fish were returned to fight again. It was one the best days fishing I've had in a while and won't forget it for a while. Thanks for reading and good day - Arron"
Steve's final report in July was well up to standard with some good fish hooked near Selsey. "Before dropping the anchor I feathered for Mackerel and had a dozen in no time, I dropped the anchor and put out a crab bait and was into a Smoothy within minutes and had four more in quick succession. They were quite a good size averaging about 14lbs. I had fresh Mackerel on the other rod and the events of the morning on this rod were pretty spectacular with the first fish being a Tope of about 20lbs, this was followed by a small Conger of about 15lbs which was T-barred off at the side of the boat, then I had a clonking Undulate Ray that weighed in at 16lbs and took half a Mackerel. About 30 minutes later I had a run from what was probably the best fish of the day as a very large Tope just screamed line out and I managed to hold on for about 5 minutes before the same thing happened as it did the other week, it bit through my 100lb wire trace. I have come to the conclusion that all the Tope around that area are very substantial fish probably weighing 50lbs plus and next time I’m going to use a Shark Trace. So with all this and another three Smoothies to my other rod making eight, all in just 3 hours fishing, I think I did pretty well.
I have attached a picture of the Undulate Ray as it lay in the net and to give you some idea of the size, my net is 3ft long by 2.5ft wide."
Steve was out on Sunday 13th and did a lot better than me. All I had were a few small smoothounds and a bass of 3lb near the Forts, so my own report is nothing much. Here is Steve's full report and picture: "We didn’t have too bad a day and after collecting the two crab pots which had well over 100 crabs, we left the mooring at about 06.30 and in a flat calm sea we stopped at the harbour entrance and quickly picked up a dozen Mackerel before heading down to my mark off Selsey, but even as I checked to see where the boat was drifting prior to anchoring up, the sounder was alive with fish, so we both went down with our feathers and were both immediately in to full strings and we continued this for about 10 mins in which time we almost filled the tub, what a brilliant start. We anchored up and each put out two rods, one with Crab the other with fresh Mackerel and waited, but we didn’t have to wait long before my mates reel burst in to life as a Smoothy screamed off with the crab and after a few minutes up came a nice mid-double fish, shortly after that my reel screamed off and I hooked in to another mid double Smoothy and this continued for about 45 minutes as we boated about a dozen nice sized Smoothy’s, then my mate hooked something on the Mackerel bait that put up a fair scrap but didn’t feel that big, Bass I said as I had hooked several good sized Bass on this mark and I was spot on as I netted a nice Bass that weighed almost 6lbs.
Then it was my turn again as my half a Mackerel bait was disappearing fast down tide, I picked up my rod but didn’t need to strike as my rod was being pulled hard over, whatever it was jus didn’t know it was hooked and just kept going and going and I was nothing more than a spectator, I guessed it was a Tope and a pretty big one, eventually it slowed down and started to swim towards me faster than I could wind, but it did help me to recover a lot of line until it changed direction again and took back most of what I had just recovered, then came that horrible sick feeling when it all goes slack and you realise that you have parted company with a possible PB fish and after winding back the gear I could see that my 100lb wire trace had been bitten clean through, I then realised just how big this fish probably was and I felt gutted. Then it went quiet as the tide started to ease, the rod tips remained dormant for about an hour when my crab bait suddenly screamed off and I hooked in to something fairly hefty that also didn’t know it was hooked. To make matters worse it had also swam around all the other lines as every rod on the boat was nodding away. My mate managed to wind up and untangle his two rods, but my other line was firmly entangled so I just opened the lever drag, after 5 minutes I think I had lost more line than I had retrieved as the fish just hung deep down until I eventually started to bully it to the surface.
After another five minutes we could see a big Smoothy coming up through the fairly clear water along with my other set of terminal tackle, my mate put the net in the water and scooped it straight into our extra large net, I quickly unhooked it and got it in to the weight sling where it was confirmed as a twenty pounder as the needle hovered just below 21lbs. After that the boat just swung all over the place as we went through slack water, but when the tide turned so the wind increased until it was a good Westerly five making it quite lively and when a wave crashed over the front of the boat it was time to leave. "
Welcome back Steve and Seamouse after a long time on dry land. Here is his long report - well worth a read: "Funny how just a small thing like changing your target species can turn a quiet day into something special. Grabbing a hole in the weather, we arranged to launch with Moby (Warrior 150) and Waimairu (Warrior Pro Angler) on Friday. We were last to arrive, as ever, and the others were already launching as we pulled up. We lobbed the boat in at double-quick speed as my novice crewman, John, is now actually getting quite experienced and knows the ropes. We grabbed some bait from the others and got ourselves away to Dean Tail for some mackerel. The water was pretty turbid and all we found was four scattered joeys out on the German Tug. When a container ship started the run in from the Nab I vacated the area and checked on the other back at the concrete wreck to find they'd done even worse than we had. It was agreed that this was a waste of time, so we all headed east. A quick stop north of Utopia showed we still had 2 knots of drift. The decision was to go for Boulder or to push on to the Swashway for a bash at the plaice. The promised swing in the wind to the SE was already showing but the sea state remained calm and we went for the plaice. Drift speeds here were down to 1.4 knots, the sea state was very placid and the sun was out. It was very pleasant drifting along a few yards apart but where were the plaice? Three small pout in the best part of a mile and we headed back up tide for another drift but this time the tide had eased and the wind picked up. Result - no drift. This was starting to look grim, it was mid-day and we'd nothing to show for it. I stuck that for fifteeen minutes then we headed for Pullar and a crack at the hounds across the slack. The wind was still rising from the SE, as forecast, and Pullar was showing the start of a good swell developing. We went for the top of the spit in 90ft with Waimairu, while Moby opted for the deeps. Out went the peeler baits, followed by mackerel flappers on the heavy rods, and we settled back to wait. The lines were running back towards the bows as wind fought the last of the flood, then we started to wander around when the tide died so when the bite finally came to John's rod it was inevitable there'd be tangles. Up came a well knotted up 11lb starry hound, which was carefully unwrapped and tagged before release. The ebb then got going and life got easier, although wind on the quarter still meant the boat movement was a bit on the lively side. I got the next bite, a slow run on a mackerel flapper. Pick up the rod, count 6 with the stomach starting to knot up, engage reel and hit it. Fish on, but right from the start clearly not huge. That was a 7lb tope, and even as we were unhooking it the others announced their anchor holds had failed and they were moving in to find shelter. I wasn't unhappy about that, we were getting chucked around all over the place. Moby went for Medmery, but we opted to go inshore as the tide was a big one and I wanted some shelter. Skirted round the edge of Boulder Bank rather than subject ourselves to the potential washing-machine scenario around the Looe Gate and went down the channel and turned east up the slope. The anchor went down uptide of a big shoal of 'something' and we banged out hound baits on the heavier rods then settled down with the light rods to play with the small fish. I'd no groundbait with me and the bream simply never showed. Not so much as a sharp rattle all day. We did get a slow stream of mini pout though plus a goldsinny and a tompot blenny to boost my species tally. Oddly Waimairu, just 40 yards or so away, was swamped with small bream. One good bite on the bream rod towards the end of the day saw me connected briefly to a heavy fish that by the fight and by previous experience here had to be a conger. The 12lb line never stood a chance against those teeth but it did prompt me to change my uptider over to a mackerel strip. The rod registered a solid bite and I hit a very heavy weight that thumped hard three times then locked up. The lead was snagged. Eventually it freed off and the 50lb trace had been bitten clean through! We had already agreed with Waimairu that we would head back west and try for a bream on Bullocks but I offered John the chance to stay put and try for his first conger and he jumped at the chance. Waimairu agreed to hang on as well so out went some mackerel fillets on 'proper' traces, more in hope than expectation. Five minutes later, the uptider showed a gentle twitch and this time the fish was not getting away. Defintely a conger and not immense, while I was playing it John was struggling to unhook a small ballan he'd got on his bream rod when his own conger rod keeled over. I stood on the butt while playing my own fish, to stop the rod going over the side. The ballan went back double quick and John grabbed the rod but the bait was dropped and he'd missed his chance. My fish was a strap conger of 14lb which was despatched and stuffed safely in a sack. The best way to deal with a conger if you want to keep them, otherwise they'll lever themselves out of a fishbox (assuming they'll fit in it in the first place) and turn the entire deck into a lethal skating rink. The last of the mackerel went back out on the conger rods and, probably foolishly, we also put the bream rods back out. Next thing I knew, John was hanging grimly onto his 12/20 'conger' rod which was bent over like a hoop. It took me a few seconds to get across to him and ease the drag, during which time my knots got a severe testing. His fish then got its head down and ran steadily uptide. When it stopped, I gave him a bit of advice on pumping it as he was hell-bent on winding even when the line was going out against the drag. With calm restored, I started to clear the decks and get the net out. From the corner of my eye, I saw movement on my side of the boat. My uptider was heading for the stern at speed. Grabbed it and something out there took off like a rocket. It went uptide then in towards us with me reeling like a mad thing to stay in touch. As it went under and uptide of the boat I gave it as much stick as I dared but it just powered off. I'd got the rod as far up towards the bows as I could and buried in the water to keep the line off the hull. The uptider was completely locked up and the reel just kept right on emptying. The fish stopped twice and each time as soon as I tried for some line, it took off again. There must have been over 40 yards out when the mono finally went ping. I didn't have time to sit and cry. Wound my line in quickly and went to help John. He'd worked his fish up to the boat and it had kited around the stern, collecting the light rods as it went. John had followed it and was stood on my side in a tangle of tackle. I leant over with the net expecting a snake and up ghosted a tope! Not big, I thought at first, but the water was clearer than I thought and the fish was still quite deep. As it came up closer, I knew I was looking at our best fish to date on SeaMouse. Grabbed the leader to get the fish's head up and we use leader and net to lift the beast out and straight into the weigh sling. It was too rough to get a decent weight with the scales bouncing between 29 and 32 lb, but 29lb 8oz seemed to come up most often, so that's what we settled for. It was well played out so we had little trouble handling it, but I got the tagging done as fast as I could as i wanted it back in the water. Tried for a photo and my digital camera was dead. Happily, there was a film in the old 35mm SLR, although the telephoto lense meant retreating to the front of the cuddy and settling for a head and shoulders shot. Just hope it comes out! The fish was slipped gently back and roared off like a good 'un. That was our first chance to draw breath and we were both suddenly grinning like idiots. About the most exciting ten minutes I've had in 8 years of boat fishing. All the rods were now totalled, the mackerel had run out and it was getting lumpy. Time to go home. We dropped in by Moby on the way back and drifted briefly, picking up a couple of mackerel for supper, then headed in. It was blowing hard now and in the entrance of Langstone the ebb through the run had put up some HUGE seas. Proper surfing stuff and we took two seas right up the windows and over the cuddy, without the canopy up we'd have got a soaking. Not a problem with a stern sea but I'd not have wanted to attempt to turn and go into it. Recovery went smoothly - no need to beg favours from the more capable 4x4's - and we were homebound by 6pm for a coffee and a mammoth cutlet-cutting session with the conger."
June 2008Salar is back in action, thanks to Scott Doble at 1 Degree West Marine so hopefully there will be some of my own reports soon. So far this month I have heard reports of some superb tope from Utopia marks; some great bass catches on live sandeels over the banks, and further offshore good bags of cod on shads. There are plenty of mackerel and garfish around for fresh bait supplies. Here is Steve's report and a superb photo: "We took the boat out yesterday leaving the moorings at about 06.45, I didn’t bother to put the pots out the night before as using crabs on my last trip was a waste of time and was just going to concentrate on the Tope, so we motored to the harbour entrance and although there were plenty of fish marking could we catch one and after 20 mins we decided to head out to the Utopia, the sea state was good and we managed a steady 18 knots stopping briefly at a mark about 3 miles out for Mackerel, but again after 20 mins we had a grand total of none, so pushed on out to our mark. Once we got to our mark on the Utopia we decided to drift for a while for Mackerel and managed to catch half a dozen fairly quickly, then it went dead, so we put down the anchor for what turned out to be just about the worse trip we have had for ages and after a couple of hours we hadn’t had one bite, my mate even fished for smuts and couldn’t get a sniff and the only positive thing that happened was that my Mackerel rod that was left over the side caught another dozen fish, not that any bait was being required, but as the tide eased I had the first run of the day which turned out to be a Tope of about 20lbs and for the next 40 mins we managed to catch about a dozen smallish male Tope, then it went dead again and to make matters worse the wind was increasing and the boats around us were starting to disappear and with one or two waves now starting to break over the front of the boat we decided to move inshore, but the wind continued to increase to a steady SW5 and the waves got bigger, so we decided to wisely head for the harbour even though it would be over an hour before we could get on our moorings and in doing so I got soaked from all the spray that was now everywhere and the sea state was now quite evil and I was so glad when we reached the safety of the harbour.
I have attached a picture of a Tope of about 20lbs, which on the day turned out to be a good effort, but I have never known the Mackerel to be so hard to catch in June or the fishing so poor and after the very late start to the season maybe this will just be a bad year, just have to hope the Cod play ball in the Autumn."
May 2008I have been somewhat limited this month because Salar has a severe engine problem and it out of action, however thanks to the kindness of friends I have had offers and trips so I have not been fishless. There have been some excellent bream catches both is size and volume - 5lb fish from Brackelsham Bay and 100+ catches on Boulder Bank. Shoals can be very localised so finding the right spot is essential. Smoothhound and tope are also being caught and we expect good sport from these species all summer. Arron (faithful contributor-thank you!) sent in his story: "After looking at every weather report available, I decided to go ahead with the trip, despite the Met giving 5-7's We started off with the feathers and within 20 minutes we had enough mackerel for the day.
As soon as our bream gear hit the bottom we were in and it was like that all morning. The tide started to slacken off and I headed east to find some ground to have a go at the tope. I knew tope came in and around the Pullar banks so I scouted the charts looking for some banks, gulleys etc. Welcome Wayne, a new contributor with his excellent report: The forecast for the day varied, as always seems the case depending on the source you check, but it was generally edging on the not too lumpy side so the decision was made and 8.15am saw us leave the slipway at the E.C.A. Fishing aboard 'Taryn' would be myself 'Wayne', and regular angling bud 'Crunch', so named for his contribution to tackling in Pompey's Dockyard League. Neither of us can claim to be experts on the many techniques involved in positioning the boat over specific marks, the use of a particular trace type, or in fact any real knowledge other than that we have gleaned ourselves from trial, and many errors! Usually our mode for finding a spot is to head to a general area such as Selsey or the Nab for example, slow down to a snails (or should that be jellyfishes?) pace and switch on the fishfinder. If the screen shows anything interesting featurewise on the bottom we drop anchor. Its not exactly what you would term as skilled, we have had a few positions where we have snagged lines and had poor sessions, but through luck and perseverance we have found one or two spots which fish well, and just occasionally very well. Today we anchored up at a spot which my dubious chart reading knowledge suggested was about a mile and a half NW of Bullocks. From the moment our squid baits touched bottom the sharp tugs on our rods let us know the Bream were about. First fish up though was a pretty Spotted Ray of around 3lb. This was soon followed by a few Bream all of the 1 to 2lb mark before one of the rods in a holder really started to bend and bounce. Fortunately it was my rod because on the end was a lovely male Bream, coloured in stunning bright blue hues, and weighing in at over 4lb. Between the shoal Bream, a few Dogfish and Pout our 5lb box of squid didn't look up to it so we broke out the lures and tried for a few Mackerel. Half an hours constant casting, dropping and reeling saw 3 Mackerel in the bucket and, had the net been to hand a fat Cuttlefish would have joined them! I managed to bring in a big (well it was big to me? 18") squid the previous trip which was well hooked on one of its tentacles but other than that all previous 'Cephalopods' have dropped off either as soon as they reached the surface or were lifted out of the drink. Either we get the landing net prepped or invest in a squid jig or two. As the day progressed a steady stream of fish came aboard including a Thornback of just under double figures and a nice Bass of around 3 and a half pounds, both to 'Crunch's' rods. A few tiny Smoothounds took our baits too although tiny might not be a small enough word to describe them! We fished two boat rods with multipliers apiece plus i had a fixed spool for lures etc. I tried a small sliver of Mackerel under a float for a while as a few Gars followed the Hokkais in but a Kittiwake that joined us for the best part of the day kept making a concerted effort to rob it so that put paid to that idea. Between him and a pair of Fulmars they finished off the Mackerel skeletons and the last of the squid. We upped anchor around 2.30pm after what was an extremely enjoyable day, and made the short journey back only slowing to admire a pair of yellow headed Gannets perched on the waves. All the fish were returned alive other than the Mackerel and a couple of Pout which although were gently unhooked decided to relax as soon as they were returned! The next fishable day can't come round quick enough! Bring it on. Finally Tony sent in this report from his trip in the eastern Solent area: "We went out on Friday from- 3.30-7.30pm. We did not want to go too far so we went to the Forts to try for more mackerel. First - lots mackerel and birds on surface aroundHorse Sand but close in on the uptide side and difficult to get close in so we went over to No Mans Land - not many about but got a few as the tide was still flowing east. We decided to try drifting the banks - quiet but had a nice starry smoothhound. As soon as the tide slackened we anchored at my favourite spot and bingo lots of small bream and dogfish plus one hound but the highlight was two thornbacks - one 9lb and one ugly beast at 11lb and that with no tail - see the photo! We seem to have found thornback city. Wind was light, sea calm, and warm and sunny - the best day for a while. I just hope thats the start of summer."
April 2008By the end of the month I managed to get out a total of twice, thanks to the weather. However, I did catch my first bream of the year and reports from boats on Boulder and Princessa indicates that they are around and if you can keep a shoal interested you will get good sport. Either move about to find them, or groundbait to keep them in the area, these fellas don't stay around for long. Oddly enough I also heard of two double figure cod caught in late April, both south east of the Island. Arron sent in this report of two tiring(!) days fishing the last weekend in April:
"I went out on Mick's charter boat out of Langstone on Saturday, Buccaneer, his first trip this year after the referb' and what a cracking job Mick's done. The bream weren't playing that day, not one landed. However we did have a mixed bag of large pout, dogs, blonde's, thorny's, small huss and a large rockling. A mate did have a 10lb cod on his first drop, on bream gear, very lucky to land the fish. The weather definitely made up for the lack of bream. On Sunday I planned on having a clean up on the boat but after Saturday I had to find some bream.
In the morning we headed straight for Boulder along with Buccaneer. Someone on Buccaneer was into a bream almost straight away. I had to re-anchor a few time's to find some fish but when Ii did it was 5-10 minutes of madness every 45 mins or so as a shoal came past. We had 19 on the boat there and things slowed down. We went to another mark for some hounds but as soon as we got there a rib turned up and threw 2 diver's over, so no fishing for us! We the sat in Bracklesham Bay for the last hour of the day and I pulled out the last bream of the day too which went 2-8-0. After two 16 hour days I'm very tired today but it was worth it."
Those lucky enough to go on the many calm mid-week days have reported good bream catches. The usual marks of Boulder, Bullocks Patch and Hounds should start producing quality fish from now on. Try float-fishing when the tide is not running hard - a sliding float with the hook a foot or two clear of the bottom means you can fish ultra-light, and cover more ground. It is a great way of fishing as the tide is turning when slack water makes float fishing easier and you get fewer fish on static baits. Steve set me the first smoothound report of 2008, sounds like a day of g "Here is my first report for 2008. After a couple of weeks delay we eventually got the boat back on her moorings on Saturday, but it was too late to go fishing so we put the crab pots out overnight and went fishing on Sunday, which turned out to be a bonus, as although it wasn't as warm and sunny as the Saturday, the wind was lighter and when we left the harbour at 05.45 it was almost calm. I had read your blog about Smoothhounds being caught out on the Utopia, so that's where we headed for, well almost, in fact we were going to a mark just East of the Utopia that we found last year that produced a lot of Tope and Hounds, unfortunately wind against tide prevented a rapid journey out there because of a short sea, but after 45 mins we eventually chucked out the anchor and settled nicely over the mark some 70ft below. Having collected about 35 crabs in the pots, these were mounted on our 4/0 hooks by simply pushing the hook through the leg socket and out through the shell and after only 10 minutes the ratchet on my lever drag indicated the first run, which fairly screamed away and when I took the rod out of its holder it felt like a good fish, although at this time of the year we were expecting a lot of big females in pup, and after a good five minute scrap the first hound of the season was tailed into the boat and was estimated at about 14lbs and quickly returned to the sea, as we don't like to distress the pupped up females any more than necessary.
The day progressed nicely with hounds screaming away the crab baits at regular intervals, most of which were Females weighing an average 12lbs with the biggest going about 16lbs, which was not as big as last year, when several went over 20lbs, but it was only our first trip, although it was noticeable that there were very few fish marking on the sounder all day and this time last year there were quite a few when we caught several Mackerel, but despite feathering for some time nothing was caught, but hopefully it won't be too long and then we will see the Tope move in. Eventually the bites stopped and the tide was pushing through to fast for our leads to hold, so we moved inshore to the Medmery and caught several small Bream and lots of Smuts with the final tally for the day being 21 Smoothhounds, 5 Bream a large pouting and lots of Smuts and I have attached some pics of the better Hounds." - Cheerz Steve
March 2008I tried to stretch March as far as possible hoping for some more fishing reports, but the weather just wasn't playing ball. Weekend after weekend was blowy, but when we did manage to get out most of us only ventured as far as The Blocks. The plaice were there as usual, some days and some tides producing more than others. It is a good mark if you don't want to travel too far from Langstone, but you do get better and more consistent catches from the banks east of Selsey later in the spring and early summer. I have one actual fishing report (mine) which is on the blog and hardly worth repeating here as I caught only a pin whiting and something spiky!
February 2008I have a funny feeling that 2008 is going to be even more topsy turvey than last year. Already, smoothound and bream have been reported, and Arron was first in with a plaice report:
"The alarm went off and I woke to clear a blue sky and a light easterly wind. Got my gear together and made my way to the marina, the gate didn't open 10:30 so had a bit of lay in too. On the way out me and Darren couldn't believe how lovely it was, the sun was shining and surprisingly warm for February.
We were out again on 24th in our respective boats. My report is on the Blog as it doesn't justify being here. Judging from other web reports, the plaice fishing can be patchy but if you hit the right spot, good bags are still possible.
January 2008Just to prove it is the New Year, here is a report from my first trip of 2008. Saturday, the alarm goes at 5.30am and it is -3degC but hey it's a chance to fish. As I headed east out of Langstone Harbour the sun was rising over a gentle swell but that was about the best part of the day. The further east I went the less protection I had, and by the time I reached Bracklesham it was very lumpy. Nevertheless I fished on, and fed the Selsey dogfish population with expensive squid. My good deed of the day over, I headed back to top up with fuel and have a nice hot cuppa back in the marina. I should have gone to Culver!
December 2007You might have thought I have lost interest in catch reports - not so, but the weather has been rubbish, and Christmas shopping has probably got in the way too. However I do have news from Steve: "I got out about 2 hours before high water and it was just about calm, so only took about 20 mins to get to my normal mark. I used two squid on a 6/0 pennel rig and put out three rods and was into fish almost immediately with the first of only a few Smut’s caught today, this was quickly followed by the first Cod of the day weighing in at 5.5lbs, but I hadn’t even got the net under it before the tip on one of my other rods was being violently bent over, so I quickly netted the Cod which was just about on the surface and then picked up the other rod and lent in to the fish, which had obviously hooked itself and was now realising it was hooked started to take line of the reel, I thought it could be the elusive 20 pounder I was looking for, but it wasn’t nodding and felt very strong and after playing it for about 10 mins I eventually slid the net under a big Bass which went 11.5lbs on the scales. It was noticeable that the fish were coming just before high water and in a busy 45 minute period I caught another three Cod all around the 5-7lb mark, I also dropped two more Cod and I missed another two very good bites that just slammed the rod over, but failed to hook themselves, so for a short trip I can’t complain." (Photo below from a phone, sorry for the poor quality)
My last trip of the year was on 30th December, with almost no wind, a gentle swell and bright sunshine. An amazing change from the gale the day before! I fished the flat grounds north of the Nab Tower which is a reliable whiting haunt, and I wasn't disappointed. The three hours around high water are very gentle tide runs and the whiting were feeding voraciously. Nothing of any size but a good contribution to the family freezer. Arron was out after the cod. He reports: "After the weather we'd had and having the last 5 weekends blown off I was dying to get out. Sunday 23rd brought us some really calm weather so i traveled east to a favourable mark. I stuck to big squid baits and 6/0's ignoring the little rattle's but my brother downsized his hooks and pulled out a few small whiting, pout and a doggie. I was on the phone and noticed the perfect doggie bite but when I hit into it it hit back........ a lot harder than a doggie would. A few minute's later it surfaced and I was over the moon as it was my biggest cod of 2007 14lb dead and I think my biggest ever. The rest of the day was slow and I missed another 'doggie' bite.
Steve sent his final report of 2007: "I managed to get out on Sunday and went down to my usual mark, although it was a bit scary leaving at 04.30 in the pitch Black not knowing how much the sea had calmed down after the previous few days storms, but with what wind there was and the tide behind us it was quite a smooth ride, although there was still quite a swell, but we were on the mark in about 25 minutes. The first hour was busy with lots of Smut’s and one solitary Pout, then my mates rod gave a better nod and he pulled in the first Cod of about 4lbs, then one of my rods nodded and I pulled in a Cod of about 9lbs, then 20 minutes later my other rod was being violently pulled over and after a 10 min fight I landed my second double figure Bass in successive trips only this one was slightly heavier at 12lbs for which I was very thankful as a lot of sea anglers may never see a double figure Bass let alone catch one."
"After a couple of hours the tide really started to push through and I needed 12ozs of lead to hold bottom with my uptider’s and shortly after changing to the heavier leads one of my uptider’s kicked hard over and when I struck it felt very heavy and it immediately started to rip my 30lb braid off the reel aided by the strong tide, I thought it was another big Bass and I kept as much drag on it as I dared and it eventually started to come towards the boat before kicking again and taking some of my hard fought line back again, I was pulling as hard as I could and after a few more kicks it started to come more easily towards the boat and eventually we saw the predator that had taken my double squid bait and was very surprised to see a very large Conger about 5ft long and very broad spinning in the tide, by this stage my arms were really aching and I was struggling to pull it close enough to the boat to be netted and pulling as hard as I could I just about got it to the front of the net when there was a loud bang as my rod tip snapped breaking the braid on the jagged edge of the remaining rod, but we both estimated the Conger to be about 45-50lbs and I felt exhausted and gutted, although I wasn’t surprised my tip broke as it wasn’t meant for handling such large fish in a strong tide and it would have even given my wrecking rod a good work out. The sea remained slight for the rest of the day and it was pleasantly warm in the sunshine and the final count was too many Smut’s, 1 Pout, 4 Cod, 1 large Conger, 1 double figure Bass."
Previous reports have been moved to the Archive pages
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Arron phoned me after a night fishing session off Stokes Bay: result - two cod to 8lb and plenty of whiting, pout and dogfish. He commented on something that rang a bell from last year - both cod were taken on baits off the bottom meant for whiting. If cod are hunting rather than scavenging, they are more likely to take a bait that is off the bottom, so it is worth fishing "one up one down" to see which method finds the fish.
Tony was out too: " We finally managed to get out over the weekend on Sunday afternoon. I launched the boat off the slipway at stokes bay into a 12 knot WSW breeze. We tried Sturbridge first but with a 4.9 metre tide we struggled to hold the bottom with 1.5lb of lead. We fished squid, cuttle tentacles and black lug on a Pennell rig with 6/0 hooks. The combination of wind, tide, and swell made it difficult to detect any bites. I then had all boat anglers worst nightmare, something hit my rod hard and although I had set the clutch the rod holder snapped clean off and my gear disappeared over the side. The one that got away! Lesson to be learnt, always use a lanyard with plastic rod holders! Luckily I had three rods with me so the day was not spoilt too much. 
the thing. Caught up with Moray on the banks as they were dropping anchor and beetled off uptide to eye up the terrain. Dropped anchor right on the middle one of three sharp ridges and settled down to fish. We had launce, squid, cuttle and fresh mackerel on offer but it was the launce that the blondes wanted. My crewman Martin hooked the first fish and lost it just as fast when his braid failed. I got him rigged with a proper rubbing leader but his chance was gone for now and I nailed the first of the day, a 12lb 6oz lump of a fish and my first ever blonde ray. I got the next at 10lb 3oz before Martin was off the blocks with one of 17lb. It was incredible sport. The fish fed steadily right through the tide and into the slack, with us frequently both hooked up at once. They fought well too, with my best of the day coming on the scratching rod. I had a great tussle with that one, just 20lb mono and a size 1 hook, 12/20 rod bent double for what seemed ages until I got the beast unstuck from the bottom and moving. Final score was 11 blondes, mine were 12,10,16,1,15,17 and 10lb, Martin got 17, 21,6 and 7lb. He picked up a doggie and a spotted ray as well, while over on Moray they had 6 fish to 24lb.
reat sport:
