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Catch Reports and Gossip: Archive
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. I have not been out at all apart from one aborted trip (see Blog) where the waves caught many of us out. However I do have one bit of 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.
November 2007The first trip out in November felt almost like summer again - water temperature 12Deg C; bright sun, warm winds and mackerel everywhere. In fact I don't recall seeing as many seabirds hovering over mackerel, bass and garfish outside Langstone entrance all year.
I fished to the east and met up with Steve who had arrived a short while earlier. He had found the top spot and showed me two of the four cod he caught. I only had one, plus a strap conger, ray, a large wrasse, loads of dogfish, three small bass, mackerel and garfish. The bass, mackerel and garfish were caught on small casting lures cast into the East Winner bank from a drifting boat.
Here is Steve's report of his day: "When I arrived at the harbour entrance the sea was flat and I couldn’t decide whether to head for the Utopia or go down to Selsey and opted for the latter, arriving at the mark at about 07.30 Although there were plenty of fish on the sounder I’m not sure if they were Mackerel, as after feathering for about 40 mins I never had a single take, but they could have been sprats which would account for why the Cod were there. There was very little tide when I first got to the mark, but after an hour or so it started to pick up and I had my first Cod just as Salar was setting her anchor, it was a good solid bite pulling the tip right over, my second Cod was caught about 20 mins later, my third and fourth Cod were landed in somewhat comical circumstances, as halfway through playing the fish my other rod tip was pulled hard over so I struck using one hand while I was still playing the fish on my other rod, yes it was a two-up, I then put the rod I had just struck back into the rod holder and continued to land a nice double figure Cod, unfortunately the hooks from the Pennell rig got caught in the landing net. I then took the other rod out of the rod holder and started winding until I could feel something heavy on the end that had now realised it was hooked and it certainly felt like the biggest fish of the day and realising I needed the net I held the rod with one hand while trying to free the hooks from the net so I could tip the cod out, but realising I couldn’t I cut the trace, I then bought the fish I was playing to the surface and put the landing net into the water complete with Cod and netted the Cod that was waiting on the surface, I then heaved both cod over the side which probably weighed about 25lb. After that the tide continued to pick up and it went very quiet with no more bites, so I headed for home, but it was a good days fishing with four double figure cod, four nice Rays and xxx Smut’s."
Mark was out the same day, same area but with slightly different results: "Gary Torbuck fresh from his holiday came and joined me at the Ferry slip, and we were soon underway. I decided to head for deeper first but on reaching my first mark found 4 boats already parked on it so we moved into an adjacent hole. No soon had I got some bait down one of Gary’s rods bent over and a fish started to take line! On striking everything went solid and then after some pressure from Gary the fish started to move and I wondered if I was going to get garys ray in my net ??. Gary did a good job on getting the fish up but when it saw the light it sounded back down again, finally we saw the fish and it was clearly a very good blonde ray. I tried my best with the net and after a while thankfully we got the fish to the side and I was able to lift it out of the water. The avons told us it was 27lbs and a very nice fish indeed. After that it was just doggies, so I decided on a move inshore. Pasty Pete had called from Tamar lady so we went over to see them and then moved on to Medmerry. Gary then repeated his previous trick and got stuck into a nice fish on the first drop down and after a spirited fight brought a 10lbs 5ozs smalleyed ray to the boat the first double-figured smalleyed on Lady C. Sport was slow but we managed 3 more good smalleye`s and a small blonde ray along with more dog`s. I had heard Chris was planning to return to Medmerry once the tide picked up so I did not anchor on what I thought was his mark BUT when he did arrive it appeared I was sitting right on it !!!!. I must have my numbers mixed in the plotter as I was sure I was off Chris’s favourite spot, SORRY CHRIS. As we had to be back early and still missing a cod I decided to move back towards Langstone for the last hour but this produced just more doggies and a small thornback for me! Great weather!!! Great company and some nice rays!
Mac was out on Sunday 25th on the charter boat Purdy out of Chichester. They fished the Nab Tower area and reported a good day with plenty of whiting coming aboard.
October 2007Salar is back in the water and goes like dream with her nice shiny bottom. The first true October trip was Sunday 7th with Steve, who joined me for the day as he was crewless for his own boat. We headed out from Langstone but were soon distracted by diving terns. "Bass" I thought, but it turned out to be loads of garfish. We carried on to Utopia and fished around the big hole. In fact the fishing was better on the bank while we were waiting for the tide to turn so we could drop into the hole. It was a delightful day - sunny and a F2, but it was hazy and a bit foggy on the run back at dusk. Total tally was garfish, a few mackerel, the usual horde of dogfish, a spider crab, 4 bream, a bull huss that gave me a painful bite and...a small codling.
Next Sunday, and weather is again perfect: sunny, southerly F2-3, but rather a large tide. I started fishing off Brake Ledge, and between slack water and the worst of weed thundering through on the ebb, I managed one dogfish and a 10lb cod on a double squid. The weed and tide soon made the area unfishable so I moved to a mark west of Bullocks Patch, but nothing doing. I spent the next hour happily chasing terns with a light rod and a lure, and finished the day with a bucket of mackerel, a couple of garfish and two small bass. Great fun on light gear. Here's the cod.
Mark was out again: "Well with the high pressure over us it was an opportunity to get out again on a small tide! My problem was crew but I managed to pressgang Derek into coming, he turned up without waders but it was no problem to bundle him through the front hatch before he changed his mind. The sea seemed a little more settled from the reports on Saturday and with many boats heading for the spoils, I decided to head a little further north and fish on the drop-off. When we arrived there was a dredger working on the top of the ridge, I waited to see what area he was working before I anchored. I then moved a little south out of his way but he followed me and I did not want to spend the rest of the day playing chicken with the dredger. I up anchored and moved even further south and he got bored with shadowing me, it was dogfish city and I managed two mackerel. This carried on for about 2.5 hours until just when we were about to move Derek got stuck into a decent ray that turned out to be an 8lbs Thornback! I moved inshore to catch the start of the flood tide and as soon as I my scratching rod hit the bottom I had a very sharp pull and the fight felt like a very good bream, BUT to my surprise it was a trigger!!!! I went back down and another!! And another! Then they were gone!! I never expected to catch triggers in Mid October? The big baits were ignored but we caught jumbo mackerel, bream and garfish on my sleeper rod with baited muppets! It was quite incredible the sun was hot, we were catching fish of high summer and it was MID OCTOBER!"
Steve sent in a report with a very unusual catch: "I left my moorings at about 05.30 in the pitch black, but with the aid of a powerful 12v hand-held search light and the GPS plotter I managed to navigate my way out of the harbour and down to my mark, it’s amazing how different everything looks in the dark and several times we thought we saw something large in front of us, which turned out to be a flock of seagulls reflecting in the powerful beam. It was an Easterly force 3, which made it a bit choppier than I was expecting, but at least we would have a comfortable drive back and it did turn out to be a nice sunny day that at times got quite warm when the sun was shining into the back of the boat. I anchored on the mark and straight away the sounder was alive with large shoals of fish, which I thought were Mackerel, so I dropped a set of feathers over and was in to fish immediately pulling in a full string of decent sized Mackerel and within 30 mins we had filled the bucket which gave us enough bait for the day and some to freeze down, but even after we put the feathers away the Mackerel were beeping on the sounder all day. While I was feathering l hooked something that was not Mackerel which started taking some line of the reel and I thought it was either a Cod or a Bass as I hooked it just off the bottom, but it turned out to be the biggest Squid I had seen at about two feet long and weighed almost 6lbs.
Being a neap tide there wasn’t much current all day and we had to cast away from the boat as 2oz leads were going straight down and I’m sure that didn’t help, but we managed several nice Ray’s and over 40 Doggy’s, one of my rods with fresh Mackerel was pulled right over and on striking it just screamed line of the reel and felt like a good fish only for it to come off after a couple of minutes and I thought it was either a Tope or a good sized Bass, disappointed I cast out a fresh bit of Mackerel and within minutes the rod was pulled hard over again only this time I didn’t hook in to it and it didn’t happen again. I will have another go on a spring tide, as Cod do feed better in a good tide run, but fishing a spring tide will mean leaving in day light and returning in the dark, I hate these short days." Arron has finally sent me a report. Has he been catching fish and not telling me? I'd better not say. This is the result of his first cod quest with Aquaholic. "After getting thrown around on Saturday and listening to a similar forecast on Sunday I decided to leave it.... Until I received a phone call at 9am Sunday morning from a mate asking me why I was still in bed as it was calm with not a cloud in the sky. Two hours later and me and my bro were on a mark sending down 3 large squid in the hope of a cod. Slack water was approaching and my bro's rod started nodding and mins later this little fella came aboard.
Slack water came and everything went dead which I was surprised at already have one before slack. With that I noticed a small knock, picked up the rod and we were in.....
After that I thought we maybe in for a good afternoon, I did manage a small hound about 4lb but after that it was a few dog's and a bream. Still not bad for 5 hrs fishing and a lay in. Locals would know that conditions were awful on Saturday and even the charter's didn't venture out as far as they'd hoped. The wind was blowing from the East on Saturday and SE on Sunday, it's amazing how what a few degrees in wind direction can do. Roll on the next set of Neaps. (Note to self When setting up camera, make sure you don't knock it onto video mode then set the timer......results in 10 seconds of you looking a t*!t!) " Click here to see the t*!t! September 2007Can you believe it? Boat Show month, cod just around the corner, and we are still wondering if summer is coming or going. It is time for my annual lift-out and antifoul, so I'm relying on other reports for a couple of weeks. Steve has come up trumps, he had a great day drifting for plaice: "Went down to Selsey yesterday to drift for Plaice and decided to wait until about 10.30 to leave the harbour, as I was then motoring down with the wind and tide behind me, unfortunately when we arrived there were already about a dozen boats on the mark around the Swashway and to makes matters worse most were at anchor, the others were small private boats drifting the outside of all the anchored boats, but I suspect they were well away from the actual fishing zone, so we motored slowly to a few of the anchored boats to see how they were getting on, but apart from a few small Wrasse and Bream they had not caught any Plaice, which didn't really surprise me. As I couldn't’t see any easy way to drift my marks, I opted to try a mark about a mile away that a Pompey skipper gave me last year which he said has always produced Plaice for him in the past, so I motored to the mark and was glad to see there were no boats on it and started to drift the mark using the plotter on my GPS and first few drifts yielded some nice Wrasse and few Bream, so wasn't sure if I was in the right place as it was supposed to be a sand bank, so went back up and tried further South and after a few minutes my rod kicked away and I could feel something giving a good thumping action and was certain it was a Plaice, which it duly turned out to be, but the tide was almost static and the boat was hardly moving. Once the tide started to flood I went back up for another drift and almost immediately my mate had a really good take which turned out to be a small Brill of about 2.5lbs, which told me I was on sand, a few minutes later I had another hard fighting Plaice and this continued for a couple of hours resulting in about 20 Plaice the biggest weighing 3lbs 6ozs along with numerous Wrasse and Bream and with the almost calm and hot conditions, it made for a really great days fishing. I was fishing two rods most of the day, one using a rig with a long string of Green & Black beads, the other with a short string of beads and a 3” sliver spoon and it was noticeable on the day that the rig with the spoon caught the larger Plaice and the string of Green & Black beads caught the most fish."
Another regular, Mark, sent me a report and photos from his recent trip with the FPO (brave man!) " Having finally booked some holiday I managed to get out and take advantage of the calm weather, only problem was the FPO had sign up for two days! We slipped late as madam did not arrive on the slip till 0930. The sea was very calm and we headed out to Dean Tail for bait, when we arrived there was no tide so I parked us right on the edge of the wreck, but the mackerel were not biting we struggled for 3 and one scad. I then headed inshore to see if I could get a trigger, it was pin bream city on the mark and me groundbaiting did not help. Our baits were shredded in seconds, I managed a wrasse and Chris got another couple of mackerel. I then headed out to Medmerry to try for Rays and Bass, the tide was roaring through to start with and then as it eased a little we had some decent bream upto 1 lbs. Chris then had a small-eyed ray on her downtider and I had a Bass and then an other small-eyed on my uptider. Chris was filling the coldbox with mackerel and really enjoying herself, unfortunately as the tide died so did the bites. At 4.00 I pulled the anchor and we headed back to the empty slip. Recovery was difficult because of the cross tide but my crew managed with no problems, nice weather lots of fish but nothing BIG!
Next day the FPO managed to make it to the slip at 0830 so that was a result! The weather looked good and Seamouse arrived a little later so we were soon in the water and off! The crew wanted to “go back to where we caught the rays and bass yesterday” but I stood firm and informed her we were going somewhere different!! As we headed east I was down to 14 knots as we battled wind against tide and comments in my ear about when will we stop and why do we need to go so far??? By the time we got to Pullar it was down to 10 knots and the sea was throwing us all over the place. Steve arrived and said he was heading on to the swashway, there was a brief and bitter committee meeting on Lady C and not wanting mutiny to spoil the day I waved Steve goodbye and headed west! We arrived back at Medmerry just as the tide was turning and we soon settled in the spot we were at yesterday. Down went the ground bait and on came the bream but no mackerel! I then missed a good bite on the uptider but next cast caught a nice spotted ray and the next a small blonde ray, Chris was catching bream and then nearly lost my rod over the side to a spotted ray.
As the tide picked up I moved inshore for another go at the triggers. It was still pin bream city but we did after a while get into some decent size ones and Chris managed a rock goby on baited hokeyes and a couple of jumbo mackerel. In fact she was pulling up the pin bream 2-3 at a time on the baited hokeyes and having a great time and informing me that we don’t need to go so far and burn so much fuel!! (Come back Wilson all is forgiven!!!) I managed a good size Garfish 1lbs 2 ozs also we had poor cod and 2 wrasse. Just as Seamouse came to join us we were nearly out of bait and the tide had gone I hooked into something that hooped over my road and as I brought it up I looked down and saw no flash of silver then just a that moment everything went slack !!. My 8ibs fluorocarbon trace had been bitten off; I was so cross that you could have heard my Anglo-Saxon rant from Chichester harbour!! That was a Trigger no question and I had ploughed through all those bream and it had bitten me off!! Triggers 1 Luffman 0!!! So a nice two days, great to be out with Seamouse (hope we did not hold you back) avoided a mutiny and filled the freezer with some winter bait and get my boat bills paid for the next year!!
August 2007Sunday 5th August promised to be too good to miss, even though it meant leaving the marina before 7am. A cloudless sky, and a forecast of southerly F2-3. Mackerel have been very hard to find in the usual "stocking-up" places, which results in a lot of fishing time wasted. I suspect that is because they have moved offshore, as they are very plentiful over the fishing marks. I have been dropping a set of feathers to fish by itself while I am setting up the rods and each time I have filled a bucket within about ten minutes. My mini-feathers are working well. Total tally for the day, fishing on a couple of marks over banks south of the Nab was four very large pout, the usual dogfish, two spider crabs, a small tope, a spotted ray, three blonde rays and two bass, best 4.5lb. Hard work, with some very quiet moments over the slack, but it's great to get out in the sun.
Mark was out again in "Lady C" - here is his report: "So finally after 2 months of unsettled weather I finally got Lady C back in the water again! I have never known a Summer like it and now we have lost the best two months of the season! My faithful crew Wilson was waiting at the ferry slip for me so I dispatched him off to get some hardback crabs which were not going to be easy with the tide steaming out of the harbour! I soon had Lady C in the water and ready and Wilson returned with enough crabs for a days fishing now all we had to do was find some mackerel?? We steamed out to Dean Tail into a stiff southerly breeze and drifted the wreck with two charters and a host of other small boats. It was hard work and we secured only one mackerel, I moved out further to another wreck and we managed only a large fat pout! I wanted a Tope so I headed out to Utopia with just a small window to fish on this biggish tide, once there the tide was pushing through and I got the anchor in only for it to trip after 5 minutes. While I rigged a bigger anchor setup Wilson got 10 mackerel in the boat and I steamed back up to anchor again! Anchor went in and we just got all the rods in and it tripped again. So I got it back and retripped it again and went back for a third go, this time it held for 10 minutes and then we started a classic controlled drift! That was it! I decided to move half a mile to another spot; we anchored here for 15 minutes and then started drifting again! So 3 hours in and all we had to show was 1 pout and a dozen mackerel. I decided to head for Medmerry were we found most of the Hayling charter fleet, I put the anchor in and we held fine and with groundbait sent down within 10 minutes I was into the first hound of the day a small starry of 6 lbs. I then had a bream and then Wilson and I had more smoothounds up to 7-8 lbs all on crab baits, not a sniff on squid! As the tide disappeared I moved again to a new mark I have not tried before and I had no sooner got some groundbait down than Wilson was fighting another smoothie on my rod and we had more smoothies and dogs! So great to get out! Wind was stronger than predicted and with it being southerly it pushed us around when the tide eased off but we managed to scratch a few hounds at least!! Let’s hope the weather settles down for a while." Now this is odd. Six days after my very productive trip on the 5th I went out for a 12 hour jaunt with Arron, to the Overfalls, Utopia and Banks. Net result: a box of mackeral and one bass (his). How can fish switch off like that? It was a similar story elsewhere along the coast. There were some good catches but mostly it was very hard work. August is often an unpredictable month and this one is no exception. I went out for another 9 hour trip, tried all my usual marks and ended up with just one bass. On the way in, at dusk on a flat calm sea, I saw huge flocks of terns diving close to shore. I eased up to them, turned off the engine and pulled out the spinning gear, hoping for some sport with mackeral at least. Better than that - bass! Although most were small, I caught six, the biggest a couple of pounds, plus a number of large mackeral in a hectic forty minutes as the light faded. Moral of the story, don't give up even after 9 hours! On the way in I was passed by the huge Queen Mary 2 - at least when the fishing is poor we always have something to look at in the eastern Solent.
Steve sent me this final report for August: "Got out from Hayling slip with Mark Luffman as crew and just a light northerly wind and clear skies, at last a sun-block day. I'd got some mackerel still from Friday but we dropped by Dean Tail in passing and hauled up a selection of mackerel, scad and pout, including a string of perfect little joeys. On to Bullocks Patch to drop the crab pots thenwe set the GPS for Pullar and settled down to the long haul. Mark hadbrought his auxiliary along as mine is currently U/S and we had a few lateral trim problems through the day, a nuisance that the soon-to-be-added trim tabs might reduce. We were talking to Dreamcatcher as well, who had headed for Utopia. Our route brought us through the general area but we couldn't see them. Arriving on Pullar just after slack, we went straight onto a bank jutting out into the deep hole and set out our stall for tope andhounds. It was very quiet, with me hauling in a few doggies through the morning. The tide started to pick up and Mark finally had a run and a hook-up. The fish fought well above its weight, a small pack tope of 4-5lb hooked through a pectoral. That was our target sorted though, in the last few minutes of the tide. Around this time poor Gary had radio-ed in to say that his crew were ruining his paintwork and he was heading in. Apart from offering sympathy and keeping an ear open, there wasn't much we could do to help. After that we went off to drift lures through the rips. That tactic blanked, although I got a follow from a pollack that liked a dead joey mackerel then hooked up something on my ultralight spinning rod that just took me straight into the reef. There were several boats anchored uptide of the various banks and we tried settling in beside a Raider. We couldn't buy a bite for several hours, even after dropping back on the warp. The Raider meanwhile hauled in 4 bass and two nice brill, though they were kind enough to come alongside on departure and give us some tips on their tactics. Somewhat discouraged, we set off east for the Swashway and a plaice bash. Passed a whole fleet of boats and trundled on. I was off my plotter coverage at this point and arrived to find 90ft+ under us. Very wrong! Mark pointed out we were way east of where we should be so I've obviously messed up my plotter entry. Went back to the fleet we'd passed and joined them drifting in a more sensible 30-40ft. We had a few knocks and Mark picked up a stray mackerel. Finally we hauled in to leave and to my delight there was a mini-species on my lower hook. I suspected female dragonet and confirmed it this morning, though I'll send Dave the picture anyway. It was a long haul back to the pots at Bullocks Patch. Mark had been doing all the anchor-monkey work all day and obligingly hauled the pots as well. They had a velvet swimmer each, plus a single poor cod. They also appeared to smell rather odd. We both spent some time sniffing round the back of the boat, it was a very strange smell. I got to the bottom of it next day when I cleaned up the boat. A small tuft of weed had washed into the pots and it smelt really strongly. Very odd. The day was well on now but a late recovery just meant more water on the slip, so we treated ourselves to an extra half hour in a mark I found on an old chart. A deep hole, well inshore, Mark had already looked at it before and reported a good array of species. We settled into 60ft depth and the bites were instant. Both of us landed a couple of dogs and pin bream each, plus a stray mackerel, before finally admitting we really ought to go home. A nice end to an otherwise difficult day and as Mark pointed out, the location of the hole makes it a great spot to take novices and a good bad-weather prospect in winter. Back at the slip, the jetskis were competing with the speedboats for who could be most antisocial. I joined the queue of waiting vehicles while Mark held Seamouse at the waters edge, so he probably had the worst of it. Recovery was easy once the speedboat next to us had been assisted onto the trailer. A quick wrap up and onto the road to do battle with the holiday traffic and I was home at dusk, just enough time to flush the motor. Not the best plan, by the time I got up next day the sun had baked the blood, slime and rag juice on solid. Nice :-( "
July 2007Cruel weather, plus a family holiday taking up half the month, means I am totally reliant on reports from other Solent anglers. Luckily for this site, Colin sent me a report that made me very envious as you will read... " On Saturday July 14th, Nigel, myself and my son Ashley set out for some bass fishing. Coming out of Chichester Bar the swell was too great for our intended area of Hounds / Bullocks Patch and so we headed to the calmer Solent waters. Large shoals of mackerel were caught easily on feathers which provided the bait we were after. Fishing around the Forts we were delighted to pull in 4 good sized bass from dusk onwards - 3 of around 3 pound and one of 6lb plus (scales were broken) - see photo - and four or five dogfish. We also had an hour's spell where Bream were continually tugging at our mackerel but with our large bass hooks we only managed to land two of them.
June 2007The first weekend was great - sunshine and a gentle South Westerly. I went out for a short trip with Martyn who came over from Cowes for the day. After trying for mackerel without much success we settled in the middle of Bullocks Patch. Between us we had about a dozen bream, plus a small pollack, wrasse and pout. I hooked something very impressive on live prawns, but my little bream hook straightened and that was that. We will never know.... Bream responded to a stream of chopped squid, I am convinced ground bait works regardless of tide or depth. That is, until a selfish charter skipper from Portsmouth anchored directly astern, which killed the fishing completely. And I bet he would be the first to moan if anyone had done that to him. The weather has not been very kind at weekends, and I managed only one other trip out. I drifted for mackerel around The Forts, but although they were teeming at the surface they were difficult to catch. I eventually had enough bait and headed for the New Grounds which can provide a sheltered mark when the wind is from the West. However, all I caught was a steady stream of dogfish, but strangely enough mackerel were almost throwing themselves in the boat after I slung out some feathers to fish for themselves. The second half of June has been appalling, and I have been scratching around for news. There have been good bass and pollack caught on the wrecks about 15 miles out, but you have to move from wreck to wreck to locate them. Tope will be around the Utopia marks, and there have been plenty of smoothound on inshore marks as well as offshore. Let's hope the weather eases up for July.
May 2007The April weather was too good to last - May has been very changeable but there were one or two windows in the weather. Bream have been caught in good numbers from Bullocks Patch and rocky marks in Bracklesham Bay. I happened to pass Karl as he was trying to boat a very energetic fish - it turned out to be a bass of 6lb 11oz.
Smoothound are showing off Selsey, I caught a smoothound of 12lb and a starry smoothound of 8lb on squid - maybe if I was targeting them with crab I would have done a lot better. There are plenty of garfish around, which make good baits and are worth trying if you can't find the mackerel By the end of May mackerel were plentiful, and on the Bank Holiday weekend the water was exploding with them in and around Langstone Harbour. Unfortunately the weather then turned vile so no more fishing for a few days. Hopefully it will take a turn for the better in June, and we should see a good run of tope. Utopia area will produce well, and you can also pick them up in the deeper gullies much closer to shore. The Bank Holiday weekend saw the annual IAC-SFI (Internet Angling Club Southern Fish-In) when some hardy crews camped in less than ideal conditions, but fished on regardless. Friday was bait catching day, Saturday saw a reasonable run of fish but Sunday was too inclement. There is a full report here and regular reporter Mark sent me this photo of this smoothound caught on Saturday.
April 2007What an amazing difference in the weather - too many good days to chose from. I managed a couple of trips, one to the place grounds off Selsey which was nothing to shout about, then a good day later in the month when we found bream, pollack and gars on a rock mark in Bracklesham Bay. The highlight was definitely these porpoises that paid a visit, and stayed around for half an hour.
Thanks to Mark, a regular contributor, for the following report from "Lady C": "I arrived at the slip at 0700 to try and get some crabs which was hard going. With only half a dozen crabs Wilson and I set off for my first mark. When we got out of the harbour things looked very different from what was forecast. After another 2 miles I got fed-up with traveling at 9 knots and decided to detour to Bullocks Patch. There were already four big charters there and I guess because of the weather the rest of the fleet was down on Boulder . I pitched in south of them at the end of the reef and as soon as the baits hit the bottom we were into bream, I put down some feed and for about 45 minutes action was steady with bream to 2lbs 2oz, a garfish on the float sleeper rod and Wilson had a jumbo mackerel of 1lbs 2 oz. Steve arrived in his boat but now the action had died away! We decided as the weather had calmed a little to proceed to my first intended mark and after a while here I had my first hound of the year a starry of 5 lbs on a crab along with a few dogs…. As the tide died we decided to head inshore to Brake Ledge and within 5 minutes of the anchor going in I had a good bite on my up-tider with crab and got into a hard fighting hound which turned out to be a 12lbs starry !. We fished here for half an hour but no more hounds just wrasse and pout so I decided to move further inshore and try a small reef for bream or Pollack . Right from the first drift we were into Pollack some a good size for this reef. I called Steve up who was still at Brake and he came over to get in on the action and in 6-7 drifts we had about 20 pollack!"
Phil sent me this report from his day out with Max crewing. " Off to Selsey rather than join the boat park off the blocks. Well this was meant to be a plaice trip but we just knew when we typed the numbers into the GPS that calling the mark "Plaice" was the kiss of death for that species. Nevertheless a very enjoyable day with a variety of fish. My tally was a blonde ray (17lb), a bream (about 1lb), a pollack (about 2 lb), a dab (can't go to decimal places on weight), several (for this read lots!) of doggers and an edible crab while my mate Max's was a thornie (7lb-est), a blonde (2-3lb est), several doggers (lots more) and three spider crabs. We also nabbed a lobster in the pot so in all quite a mixture. Baits used included rag, mackerel and squid. Most pleasant thing for the day was the weather and at last the ability to wet the line again oh..... and no "smellies" (pout).
Despite no plaice we did ponder the fact that we would rarely fish in 40-45ft of water unless after something very specific, often going further and deeper, but in fact the mark produced quite a variety. Tried the feathers but no mackerel yet, not eating our lures anyway. Not too many boats out this way - 5 or 6 well spread out in the general area, some anchored some drifting and several did not stay more than a few hours. Didn't hear anything on the radio so don't know what they caught. We gave up at slack at Selsey went back through the gate and did a long drift along Bracklesham Bay - nothing showed." Mark sent me this report from his trip on "Lady C". He was fishing right next to me, and we have a very similar experience except they caught plaice and I didn't...: "Finally the weather gods played ball and I was able to get out on a perfect forecast! I arrived at the ferry slip just before John and Simon arrived with Moby and we were very soon in the water and steaming out under cloudless blue skies. As things are still a bit slow with hounds showing but not in big numbers yet John and I had decided to head east to the Selsey banks in search of Plaice. It was glorious conditions and we were skipping along at 24 knots to the first mark, we had to slow a little around the bill but when we arrived it was flat calm and the sun was starting to burn through. Two boats were already there and we both started our first drift and I was close to see Moby take the first fish! It took two drifts before I had the first fish of the day a ballen of 10ozs. Wilson then had a nice ballen of 2lbs 9 ozs. It was hard work and we were loosing plenty of gear. I tried different lines up on the bank and down in the main channel eventually I got what we came for a plaice of about 10ozs. As the tide was now shifting we decided to anchor and I elected to put the pick down on the Northern edge of the bank. Fishing was still slow, Wilson was still being pestered with dogs but I could not buy a bite, after about 40 minutes I finally had a bite and it was a nice plaice of 2lbs exactly!
As the tide slackened we went back on the drift it produces nothing so I decided to head back around the Bill to Medmerry and see if we could not find some rays or smoothies. Bites were hard to get - just the odd doggie, until I caught a nice male spotted ray of 3lbs on my uptider. I called John on the radio as he was now 50 meters from me and we decided to run done to Bullocks for the last hour. When we arrived I could see Koko1 was anchored up so we got the pick in but we fished for 30 minutes for no fish! A great day out with Moby and the very best of weather!!!"
March 2007The weather gods were still feeling grumpy and many weekends in March were less than ideal for boat fishing. Nevertheless the plaice have arrived off The Blocks and there have been some good catches reported. Arron finally got his boat in the water and on the maiden voyage managed to boat a plaice despite rather bumpy seas. His second trip was better, more plaice, great photos and he's definitely been bitten by the boat bug. By the way, the scenic backdrop was where he had lunch, not where he was fishing, which was along the east side of The Blocks (along with about 40 other boats so it's no secret)
Karl sent me another report from an early wrecking trip into the mid-Channel wrecks. "We managed to get to the 30 mile wrecks and caught pollack to 13lb 13oz and cod to just under 9lb,it was flat calm when we left at 6am but cut up a bit rough by 1pm so we came home. All fish were caught on storm shads."
February 2007Just as horrible in February, with few boats getting out. Salar was now repaired and back to full operational fishing readiness so I managed to find a gap in the weather and head for The Street. A couple of hours later with a ray and a number of dogfish in the boat my stomach cried "enough" and I headed back. It was good to be out again though, more practice needed I think. I had only one report sent in this month, and it is a great story from Mark about an exceptional fish from relatively close inshore. Here it is: - My first trip of the year with John Smithson was aborted a couple of weeks ago when just as John was developing the first bite of the day I had a call from home and I had to pull the anchor and steam home! As it turned out my oldest son had been admitted as an emergency to Queen Alexander hospital in Portsmouth. So I had to wait for the next weather window and sure enough late on Friday I decided to go. I arrived early on the slip in case there was too much of a gravel bank and I did not have John’s “tank” for back up, and I may have had to slip from Eastleigh. However it was no worst than last time and the Mitsubishi had coped no problem then! The first hitch of the day happened when my plotter would not fire up and I had to remove my switch panel to locate the problem, but with that fixed Lady C was soon in the water and we were heading out to kick-off my ABR! My usual crew was along and I headed out to a new spot. Having arrived it was clear there was a good swell and as we had come out of the land shadow the wind had increased a little from the force 3-4 forecasts. Ground bait was sent down and two hours and six dogfish later I decided on the first move of the day. I moved inshore to get out of the swell and we headed for Bullocks Patch, as soon as the baits went down we started to get bites and after 10 minutes I had a 7lb strap conger. More dogfish, pout and a poor cod arrived before we swung in the tide and now we were losing gear so I decided rather than let out more anchor warp or re-anchor I went for another move further in-shore. The weather by this time had improved and with the sun out and us being in the land shadow it was turning into nice day weather-wise. Arriving on the mark more ground bait was sent down with the dropper and we sat back and awaited events. After a while the rattles started and more dogfish, it seemed they just followed us around. I was giving my excuses to Wilson about why the day had been so poor when I saw my up-tider spring back! I reeled in the slack thinking that the gripper had moved when everything went solid and I thought s**t I am stuck on the bottom. Then the bottom moved a little and I started to very slowly move a very heavy fish. It felt so heavy, on this mark I had never had conger and it was defiantly not one of those as the fight was all wrong, also it was not a bass so that left a cod or a ray! If it was a cod it was either foul hooked or was a monster as I could just not lift it! After a long while and thinking that my amnesia trace would part at any moment the fish swam up to the boat and I was able to lift it easier. The shock leader came out and then a huge blonde ray followed, Wilson had the net ready but one look at that and the ray just sounded straight back down . We tried twice more to get it into my net but it was just too big! So I told Wilson to take the rod and the next time it broke surface I grabbed the trace and the ray with both hands by the cheek and heaved it into the boat! My biggest Blonde ray up till today was 18lb but this was much bigger and after Wilson had unhooked the fish we tried to weight it but my 32lbs Avon scales just bottomed out! So we tried some other scale I have which are a bit dodgy and it was just over 31lbs. Having learnt from Davy Holt that when ray become stressed they go purple at the edges I was keen to get some pictures and get her back rather than try for a more accurate weight as the fish was now showing signs of stress, so was Wilson! In the unhooking his finger had found its way into the ray’s mouth and it had made a right mess of it and he was in pain and bleeding over my boat! I slid her back in the water and she swam off up tide.
(There was only one more piece of drama - when we returned to the slip I told Wilson to hold Lady C off the sand as the tide was falling fast BUT not to far out ! As I backed the trailer down the slip I could see Lady C was caught in the tide and was dragging Wilson along and he was in trouble! I only just got to him as he got out of his depth. I just got a hold on the back rail and pulled him and Lady C back to the beach!)
January 2007It has been windy and depressing, with few boats out and even fewer reports. Luckily at the end of the month there was a window in the weather and Oliver and friends went kayaking. Here is his report from Ryde Middle. "I met up with Paintfly and launched at Browndown at 1pm: sunny sky, flat sea, hardly any wind .
We would like to thank all the weather forecasts for getting the wind speed completely wrong--we didn't want to go to the Needles anyway ??? I had the mark all programmed into the GPS but broke off one of the terminals to connect to the battery. Doh! We still had chart printouts and we decided to try and navigate to Ryde Middle from them. Success! That is Paintfly passing SE Ryde Middle Buoy.
We anchored up next to a small fishing boat and proceeded to catch fish-Dogfish to be precise!--I had 14 in all! also caught a starry smoothound, my first of the year and the obligatory pouting of which I caught 5.
We returned to Browndown just after 8pm, 20 fish caught, at least 5 miles covered and a new mark fished."
December 2006Only 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.
*************************** 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 2006Poor 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 2006The 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 2006August 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 2006Karl 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 2006June 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 2006The 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, 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. 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
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. |
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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 
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. 