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Catch Reports Archive: 2006

December 2006

Only one report in December but a great one, thanks to Stephen. "We launched two Warriors from Eastney at 8.30am. There was only a small amount of shingle showing on the tide line so things seemed fine. Despite fog on the way down, visibility was excellent due to a steady northerly force 2-3 that was pushing up a small chop in Langstone. Out at sea, the slipstream was bitterly cold and as we pushed offshore it soon became apparent that there was still a big residual swell. With a biggish tide running, we'd decided to stay in around Nab.

I used a mark to the NW that had given whiting in the past and with the anchor in, it was apparent that we were in for a rough ride. The swell was beam on and I spent an unpleasant half hour waiting for my stomach to adjust.The tide had just started to ebb but even at the height of the run I was only having to use leads of 1lb or so. As usual, I got down as many rods as I could manage. Sport was slow, the inevitable doggies at first, a pout that got sent back down for a while as live bait and slightly surprisingly, a very small poor cod. At least the presence of small bait fish offered the possibility of something decent turning up but it wasn't to be.

The tide picked up, making life more comfortable, then started to ease and my tally was just 8 dogs, 7 pout and the poor cod and no sign of the whiting we'd hoped for. The other boat had a strap conger and a pollack around 3lb so initially when their anchor slipped they resisted my broad hints about moving on. Re-anchoring was the kiss of death for them though, so after half an hour of motionless rod tips they caved in and followed me down to Culver Spit. I wanted to anchor the spit itself and since all my established numbers were for the nearby foul ground, I went in using the chartplotter. Didn't really need to, I could see the rip from half a mile away and as we crossed the spit the pinnacles came up 20 feet. My plan was to fish in the tide 'shadow' but I had a senior moment and forgot which way the tide was running! Down went the anchor a carefully selected distance from the rip and we settled round into the tide with our backs to it. Damn! I had get on the VHF and explain that I'd put us, err, on the wrong side. Think I'll stick to the day job.

Next attempt was a lot better, came up tight on the warp bang above the pinnacle at 35ft and letting out a few more yards saw the depth drop to 45ft, putting the baits right in the sheltered water. Good thing too, the tide was screaming past at twice the pace of the previous mark but I still only needed 12oz lead maximum. It was a bit un-nerving though when every now and then one of the small standing waves would fall over and break with a small roar. Bites came at once, a relief given that I'd made everyone up sticks and move.

Ragworm started to pick up the odd pout to 1lb 4oz. I'd got my new rig down, a cod special that uses a dropper on the main trace to line up two 8/0 pennels one above the other. That allowed me to present up to 4 large calamari effectively as a single bait under a festoon of muppets, lumi beads etc. What's more, it didn't tangle and it caught fish. The rod tip showed a slightly more positive knock than the usual doggie mumble and as I picked it up, the fish peeled off about ten yards in a series of long, slow pulls. Tightened in already thinking "eel" and sure enough it was. Only a strap of 10lb+, but it highlighted the downside of solo fishing by fouling lines on the way in. A quick flip with the T-bar and I was back fishing.

The sea had really settled now and we had that lovely winters evening sunset, with the rods highlighted against the sky. A VHF call decided we were on last drop of the day and I had just retired the uptider when a friend called in for a progress report. As I chatted to him, I was watching a very small bite developing on the cod rig. It was still twitching away when he rang off so I opted to get that rod in next. Lifted in and the rod went over hard! This was a more powerful fish, it made several hard runs in the tide and I was completely uncertain as to what it was. At one point I thought I'd lost it when the rod tip suddenly dropped back then tightened up again. Up came the lead then behind it, a nice cod barrel-rolled on the surface and crash dived. In that tide, all I could do was hang on and watch the line running off the reel. Fumbled around behind me for the net and as the fish came back up again I could see it was just hooked through the fin below the gill. I suspect that the original hookhold failing was the jerk I'd felt during the fight. Sheer luck! I was in agonies of suspense but the fish went cleanly into the net first time, where the hook promptly fell out. I also got the 8oz lead squarely in the temple swinging it in. That hurt!!

After a quick gloat, it was remaining rods in and a blistering pace home. SeaMouse still handles badly, with me having to move a battery to get the trim right running solo, but at least the new prop seems good. We got the hammer right down coming under the lee of the land and I topped out at 28.5 knots and 5000rpm. Perfect!

At the slip, it was dead low water and we were in trouble. The lower slip was not clear at all, the lower 10 yards was now just part of the beach. We picked the solidest looking section and after huge amounts of hassle roped one boat out using a Rav4 with my Subaru roped to its front for extra traction. Tried several times to get SeaMouse out the same way but it was clear that we were either going to bog down one of the cars or burn out a clutch. The only option was to wait, so for the best part of three hours we stood in the harbour in the dark holding the boat off the gravel waiting for the tide to come back. Eventually we'd got the trailer wheels up onto a solid enough section and after what was probably the fifth or sixth winching-on of the day, the two cars together got her rolling and up onto the concrete to a chorus of cheers. I got home VERY late, so I'll find out how much of a sandpapering the hull got over the next few days....

Still, I got my cod, and on a rig designed for the job as well. Happy days!! :-)

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Here are two photos that missed an earlier report - two great fish from Phil: a bass of 7lb and a ray of 22lb. Both were returned.

October and November 2006

Poor old Salar was waiting for a new windscreen to arrive from the US of A, which meant trips out were limited. One arrived after two months of waiting - broken. We have rigged a temporary one and on Sunday 19th November Arron and I fished a mark near the Nab. No cod to report, and with scad and a smoothie in the boat it felt like Summer, but a lone whiting did turn up. Star of the day was a fine fat healthy bass for Arron. The remainder of the catch was a large quantity of dogfish, often two at a time on our Pennel rigs. Greedy so and sos.

During October, fishing was limited to my daughter Aedy catching an eel off the stern, and the only reports have come from my neighbour who regularly returns with a bucket of nice bass but it would be unfair to say where they came from. Suffice to say, big baits and flowing traces fished hard on the bottom seemed to work.

Ray and Steve were out on the Spoils area at the end of October. With the usual pouting and dogfish, Ray was slightly more fortunate in getting a small thornback of about 6 or 7lbs, a tope of about 10lbs and finally his first Cod of the season at 8lbs. Not brilliant fishing but seemed to be as good as most of the other boats out at the time. Squid was the bait. Another boat brought in a cod of 15lbs and when Ray recovered the boat at Camber dock there was an Orkney who also had a one of 8lbs too.

September 2006

The Southampton Boat Show  15-24 September is a good September milestone, and probably the best show to see angling boats. There were also some excellent bargain chandlery stalls as well.

Karl managed to get out on Sunday and sent in a report. With other boats he left Eastney at 8am heading towards the group of 5 wrecks (23 miles out), the weather report forecast 5mph westerly wind, well it not exactly right. Two boats anchored, and they caught 2 congers of 51 lbs and 28 lbs. Karl carried on drifting some other wrecks and ended up with one pollack 12lb. By lunch time the wind speed must have been about 10mph at least so they headed back in.

August  2006

August is usually quieter so I take the opportunity to do the annual antifoul and other service jobs.  I have also been on holiday, although I did manage to fit in a bit of surf fishing in South Carolina. That doesn't really count as an Eastern Solent Boat Report though!

While I was away the weekends were a bit blowy keeping many boats inshore. However, Roy found a gap in the weather and headed 20 miles out to find a superb spot for large ray, just look at this one. Roy is not usually shy, it really was this big - 26lbs I am assured.

July 2006

Karl and mates were on their way to the Needles but because of the wind they fished the Solent and harbour. There were plenty of school bass, which is always good to see because they will grow up eventually. Best fish of the trip was Karl's mullet, estimated at 2.5lbs.

Wind kept many boats inshore or onshore for the first two weekends but suddenly the wind dropped to nothing last Sunday afternoon. I wish I could report the fishing was great, but it wasn't! At least I could test my mackerel feathers (see Hints and Tips) and they were excellent, however the 12lb line proved too light and two traces were ripped. I did catch a bonus though - a small gurnard! I'm not sure what it thought it was doing going for feathers way off the bottom, but after taking a photo and hearing his little grunts, he went back.

Bass and ray were reported caught around the banks east of Pullar, drift fishing is productive and the use of deep-water float fishing has accounted for some very good fish. This helps avoid the summer weed problem which can make life very difficult inshore.

June 2006

June started very well with two days of glorious weather in the first weekend - what a change from May!  The weather held up nicely allowing us to get out to some of the better marks. There are still plenty of spring tope around and bream are more easy to find now, although the larger fish will move offshore soon leaving the smaller fish to stay for the summer.

Karl managed to get to the mid channel wrecks and had cod to 8lb, pollack to 14lb and bass to 5lb, the sea was like a millpond all day. (Karl says he's now trying to cool the sunburn - have a look at the Odds and Ends page for emergency sunburn treatment!) He sent some great photos - see below.

Arron and I fished Boulder Bank for bream, then moved to a tope mark near The Spoils and had a great day with pack tope to 15lb giving constant sport. Arron had a bonus bass of 3lb 4oz. We also noticed a shoal of good sized bass following a hooked tope to the suface, which means we'll be going back there targetting them next time! Popular theory is that the bass follow tope hoping to feed on discarded scraps of fish as they attack the shoals.

Smoothound seem to be taking squid baits quite freely, this is good news for the smut fans if you can't get a good supply of crabs.

Mackeral can be choosy. One day they will take tinsel and flectolite feathers, another day these will be ignored and they will only take hokkai or shrimp lures. If you are failing to find mackeral in the usual places, try switching traces until you find something that works. There are loads of mackeral around at the moment, the sea was boiling all around us while we were at anchor. Arron decided to fish live joeys - we never bothered with the live well, he just dropped a trace of feathers down when he wanted to rebait and had more than enough every time.

Arron and brother Lee were out again on 23rd, fishing south of Pullar. They caught the usual pout and doggies, a couple of bream but good ones to 3 1/2 lb, plus some very nice smoothies on hardback crabs. If smoothound grew as big as tope, most people would fish for smoothound - they go like rockets. Here's a photo of Lee and his best one of the day at 13 1/2lb

May 2006

The second half of May was beset by some appalling weather keeping most boats inshore. By mid-May mackerel were showing in the usual places, providing a welcome supply of fresh bait, and some very large specimens among them. Some good tope were caught around the Utopia marks, along with smoothound. Bream arrived later than usual and were rather a dissapointment - few large ones, and not in the usual numbers either. Some boats have reported better catches than others. A good groundbait trail was essential to attract fish, particularly if they are few in number and scattered.

Ross went out on his own on Sunday on a Utopia mark and had a great session with smoothound and four tope, best 27lb.  Ross was out again later in May and sent me this photo of a fine spring tope.  Roy tells me he was out on Sunday 7th and was finding a few tope, big smoothound, mackeral (large) and bream around Utopia. Others have reported tope to 20lb+ and plenty of smoothound in the same area.  Paul came over from the Poole Bay SBAC and had some nice fish including a tope of around 30lb. The charter boats cluster around the current hotspots so if you go to the general area you can soon spot them. In fact the Utopia marks are well spread out so you can easily find your own. The best approach is to find a bank with a down-tide drop-off, anchor on the bank and let the tide take baits into the gulley. Tope seem to cruise along the edge of banks so if you are on one of their highways you will do OK.  Mackeral flapper is my favourite tope bait and you can catch plenty on feathers around the tope marks.

Arron and I fished Boulder, Selsey and Bullocks Patch in early May - we had a dozen plaice plus odds and ends but failed to find any bream. However, we were told that one boat did find bream, and others were taking good smoothound offshore. Arron's best plaice was nearly 3lb in weight and had the brightest orange spots I have ever seen. Arron's special hand-tied wishbone rigs loaded with beads and sequins did the job.

Karl sent me a report of a more adventurous trip to the 30 mile mark searching for pollack among the wrecks. The tide was running at 3 knots which meant each wreck was only in the target zone for a short while. The first few wrecks produced nothing but when the tide turned the fish went into hunting mode and hit the shads hard. Karl finished the day with 14 pollack to 11lb in the boat, plus a pout that went head to head with a shad and lost.

Roy fished south of the Nab and found where the bigger smoothound were hiding. These were caught not on crab but on squid and sandeels, maybe a bucket of hermits would have brought in some more. He had a great day anyway, with some lovely fish like this one.

April 2006

April finally got under way, and the plaice were out there, but to the east of the area rather than the west. The plaice competition run out of Langstone over the weekend 8-9 April had some good catches, some returning with over 20lb of fish. By far the majority were fishing marks east of Langstone harbour entrance, although some fished the usual Blocks area. The beaches around The Blocks have been fishing very poorly so I suspect the boat fishing there has been poor too. Maybe someone can confirm?

Thanks go to Arron, who gave me this inspiring report of a superb day's fishing aboard Glen Cairn's huge cat, Valkyrie. Arron and the crew were drifting for plaice, and between them they landed over 30, using ragworm tipped with squid. Having the correct beads and sequins was important, because if you didn't use them, or had the wrong colours on, you caught less or even none. Apparently plaice have an excellent fashion sense and you need to use the right sequence of colours to catch. Plaice down on the mussel beds - "Did you see the beads on that line darling? It was SO last season". And I nearly forgot, where were they fishing? East of Pullar is all I know.

And here is some gossip: drifting seems to be the way to find the fish, but be prepared to lose tackle on sharp mussel shells and rocks. Also, remember what beads were on that were working, it is not random! (my son keeps saying Random, I think it must mean something else these days). Marks seem to change from year to year as the storms wash the shellfish beds around, so a bit of exploring may be needed to find the fish.

We were very pleased to welcome visiting anglers Ian and Jim who travelled over for the Easter weekend. Friday was blowy but fishable, they managed to locate plaice, the usual dogfish and early smoothound. Saturday and Sunday were very windy with some exceptionally short seas - even the hardier boats were drifting close to the beach, although without much success. I hope you can pay another visit guys, next time we'll order some better weather.

Toward the end of April, smoothound were arriving in good numbers with plenty caught well into double figures. Roy told me the better fish were located on marks around the Nab area, and strangely they were being taken on squid and sandeel baits as well as the usual crab. I expect we will see them moving further inshore in the next few weeks.

Mackeral appeared over offshore wrecks, but when they will move inshore in any numbers is anybody's guess because many summer species have delayed their appearance. Bream have yet to show, Philip told me he was only catching wrasse on the rocky marks where you would hope to see a few bream by now. If the garfish show up, the mackeral will be close behind.

That's all so far, I'll post more as soon as I hear more. One final comment - I will not publish any specific marks in these reports so don't worry about giving away secrets. If you are worried, then don't tell me where - just let others know you have been successful then we can all fish with a bit more confidence. The Eastern Solent covers dozens of square miles, and each mark will fish differently at different times and different tides. Part of the fun is learning how an area fishes - there are no short cuts, even if you are given a mark on a plate.