Catch Reports and Gossip: Latest Reports

This page is the most popular of all the pages on the whole site (according to my Web Stats), and it will be as good as local anglers make it - so please send in your own reports and photos to share with us. No catch is too small or too boring, we know a PB doesn't arrive on every trip! Scroll down for the latest catch reports as usual.

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January 2012

Happy New Year to all. The cod are still around and despite the arrival of shoals of sprats, they are still taking bottom baits. Phil was out on 8th January. "I just wanted to report a great days fishing from my boat "Pasatiempo" out of Hayling Island fishing a mark east of the Nab Tower. We caught 4 cod as follows 7lb, 20lb, 22lb and 31lb The 31lb fish is my personal best (Phil Walford) and was weighed both at sea and back in the harbour entrance to verify the weight on calm water. The 22lb fish shown was caught by my cousin Leon Tanner and I also caught the 20lb fish. All four fish came in a 40 minute spell in the afternoon as the tide was starting to ease and we also released 3 congers to 20lb. All the fish caught on 2/3 whole squid baits."

The final report in January (and maybe the final cod report) came from Dave again:

"Well the break in the weather was just to good to pass up so we left Haslar at 9.30 Sunday morning, with an improving sea state and a smallish tide we decided it had to be worth trying Cuba Bank. We passed literally dozens of boats on the way out and soon found our spot. It was very uneventful for the majority of the day, but it was just nice to be out. The tide was strongish throughout and the moment we were able to dispense with the lb and a quarter leads in place of 10oz leads our thoughts turned to Cod.

Caroline dropped a good fish after just gaining a few yards on it, then I had a take. It was better than the Snoops (Doggy Dog) we had been pestered with all day and a 7 1/2 lb Cod was landed. The conditions were great, it was so comfortable it was worth the trip had we remained fishless.  Roll on February and hopefully some nice Plaice."

December 2011

Hugh sent in a tale of first drops!

"Went out today as there was a break in the weather. the sun even came out for a bit and it was flat calm. Went out on my friends boat "Dreamcatcher", but stayed local as they were predicting winds in the afternoon. We fished the Solent and got to our mark bang on slack water. First bait down, half a baby cuttle on a 2 hook wishbone rig and I get a nice bite, after a few minutes first cod in the boat and it went just over 17lb

My mate Tony not to be outdone, first drop 2 minutes later gets a similar bite and fish when he bags a cod just over 18lb. I honestly thought this was going to be a red letter day but that was it on the cod front, only whiting and dogs. the wind picked up so we came in earlier."

My last trip after cod and whiting started near the Nab dredged channel. It started with a few whiting then I hooked into something huge, which bit through the trace - conger. Then it happened again so i moved to another patch of rough ground where I filed the box with whiting without losing any more tackle. It is worth using a wire trace or 100lb mono if you are fishing for cod near conger haunts, they are commonly taking cod baits over open ground in daylight.

I had  a late entry for a November report from Lisa, with a superb catch by son Jay.

"My son jay and I were planning to take the boat out on the 13th November but it was a bit rough coming out of Langstone harbour so we went back to our mooring and fished from there. As we expected, we caught loads of whiting and were considering calling it a day when Jay reeled in a nice Bass of just over 6lbs on a mackerel fillet. Meanwhile I was still catching Whiting with every cast. Jay went on to catch a brilliant 14lb Bass, a personal best for him. One very happy lad.Talk about rubbing salt in the wound. Not a bad catch for an afternoons fishing from a mooring inside the harbour."