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After record temperatures in May and June, we had an inconvenient Jet Stream up in the air somewhere that blocked the warm air from the Continent and channelled a string of depressions across the UK. Net result: wind, rain and very little fishing. A lucky few picked their moments carefully and made some trips out, often very early before the wind picked up. They gave us a taste of what we should all have been enjoying in a “normal” summer month in the Eastern Solent: bass, rays, the occasional wandering conger and bream. It’s very encouraging to see that there are larger bream staying on again this year giving good sport on light tackle. In previous years the fish worth catching swam off after breeding, leaving their little brothers to spend the summer nibbling away at baits too big for them. You may also be as skilled (or lucky) as Luke Scott and boat a decent brill – see the photo gallery below.

This year has also been good for mackerel so far, with plenty being caught by the boats that managed to get out. They don’t seem to be holding on the usually reliable marks so my advice is to just follow the gulls! They have been everywhere from the 100 foot deep main channel to 10 feet of water inshore.

One catch oddity was an Angel Shark reported just up the coast from us. Not really in our area but near enough to get the Species Hunters excited! And on that subject, don’t forget the SMAC Open Species Competition scheduled for Sunday 13th August, from Southsea Marina. Details here.

Have a look at our photos, thanks to Stuart Newell, Steve Kelly, Tim Andrews, Tony Dickson, Jim Atkins and John Dennis for contributing.

Rather a short report this month mainly because there isn’t anything particularly remarkable among local catches to report unfortunately. Although the occasional small codling has been boated, the flood of whiting we would have expected to arrive simply haven’t materialised. The weather and water temperatures remain warmer than usual for the season so that probably has a lot to do with it.

In the meantime anglers have been occupying themselves with catching the usual rays and bass which are always a feature of catches in the area. I have added an extract from the Shark Trust ray Identification Guide here.

Squid arrive here in larger numbers in Autumn, although you can catch them all year round. Most squid anglers fish from the shore but squid can be caught over rocky marks and wreckage if conditions are right. Judging by the reports from the shore boys, there seems to be a good run of squid this year.

In other news…not strictly from the Eastern Solent but as it features one of our club boats and some of our club members it deserves mention: SMAC member Stuart Newell of British Big Game Fishing has been very successful catching the amazing blue fin tuna off the Cornish coast under an official tag and release scheme. Kev Johnson and Lol Summers (both SMAC members) joined Stuart and their fish of a lifetime catches are featured in the photos below.

The SMAC Open Cod Competition has been rolled forward to allow more cod and whiting time to arrive. Watch out for updates on revised competition dates.

July can be a bit of an in-between month in the eastern Solent area, and as a result catches can be unpredictable. Not that fishing is ever predictable! One day can be very productive, the next day can be very quiet. This year the fishing seems to be following a similar pattern. The spring and early summer run of species including plaice, bream and tope have been slowly moving away. Mackerel, once the reliable summer visitor providing fresh bait, food for the BBQ and fun for casual angers have been very patchy. One day can produce a boxful, another day just a few. Maybe they will arrive in greater numbers later on.

The huge variety of fish and fishing in this area means that there will always be something to catch, although you may have to adapt your tactics and locations accordingly. The Portsmouth, Langstone and Chichester harbours hold a good stock of large mullet. Heber Crawford and Luke Scott show the size of fish available, and they fight very hard on light tackle. The deeper harbour marks around wrecks and obstructions are worth trying for wrasse and you can find hard-fighting fish there as big as you will find on the reefs further out. Heber Crawford tempted this 5lb 2oz wrasse on a soft lure. If you know where to look, there are also seatrout entering brackish water and Heber Crawford tempted this impressive specimen with the traditional Mepps spoon.

The plaice have moved to the summer marks and John Evans shows what is out there. You need bright colours to attract plaice, and John has taken this literally. There are still some good tope around although not in the numbers we were catching earlier.  Richard Shirazian shows a 48lb fish which is good for this time of year. We will probably be catching a lot of small pack tope through the summer.

The reliable local species are smoothhound and rays. Team Crawford were out again, Archie shows a junior specimen of 14lbs and brother Heber Junior holds a very pretty undulate ray. Dad Heber Senior really needs to take up photography as a career, his photographs are superb. There are plenty of bass around but not so many turbot, and they managed to bag both.

Further out on the mid Channel wrecks and reefs boats are finding bass and pollack. Kev Johnson, Mark Banks, Tim Andrews and John Jones show pollack to 14lb and bass to 8lb. Every summer, thresher shark are sighted and with much perseverance, some are caught. This one caught by Vince Rogers was estimated at 65lb and quickly released.

As regular readers of this report will know, we celebrate the angling achievements of the entire age range. Levin Bellinger, aged only 5, caught this 2lb 14oz bream which I am embarrassed to report is bigger than any I have caught this year.

Meanwhile, the Southsea Marina Disabled Angling Club continue to show that experience counts. They fish from their boat Lady Elsa, and to accommodate the less able-bodied they also fish from piers and in lakes. As this is a sea angling paper we will draw a discrete veil over their freshwater activities and show you John Leythorne’s nice undulate ray.

Next month I’ll let you know whether we managed to catch enough mackerel for the Southsea Marina Angling Club BBQ!

Roland and I went out early on the previous Sunday with a range of baits. Initial thoughts to see if there was any Bream about. First stop was in Bracklesham Bay – a couple of marks providing very little so off we went to  Boulder Bank.

Over the space of the following 3 hours of the Ebb Tide we had 5 Smoothies on crab to 12lb, the ubiquitous Dogfish, and a few Bream bites giving just the one around a pound.

We went back to Bracklesham to see if there were any change – but no, nothing and the cold wind had increased, so went in. Note to self- don’t go out in T shirt and shorts and leave the warmer clothes in the car! Still, the smoothies gave some good sport and we’ll go back again soon to see if the Bream are easier.  Above is Roland with one of the Smoothounds.

Next Sunday Roland and I went out again (with appropriate clothing as it took half the day for the cloud/mist to burn off) . As last week we headed west from Hayling towards Selsey

With a range of fresh baits – bit costly as freezer broke in the week and I lost a load of bait – so had to buy new we headed out reasonably early. Early for us but with a  dozen boats over at Selsey before us, we were not alone and not really early either. Luckily found one of my marks still free amongst the raft of charter boats.

Fishing the Ebb all day on the Boulder we had about 15 bream to 2lb and 9 Smoothies to just under 15lb. The bream were active all the time during the tide and the reason we only caught 15 is more due to ineptitude than the fish not biting.

The smoothies were a range of sizes the smaller ones taking squid, the 5 larger ones, all double figure fish, taking crab. Add in a couple of dogs each, not too many luckily and in general a reasonable day. All spawning bream returned to provide future years sport hopefully and the smoothies tricked in all day but had 3 in 10 minutes as the tide dropped off and we managed to lose a couple as well, bit over eager on the striking.

So good day and got back in time to cut the lawn and keep the FPO happy (well relatively).

Regards….Philip