Ian and I headed out for a day on Orca yesterday with high hopes that there may be Cod in numbers in the Eastern Solent. However, we arrived to see another angler coming back into the Marina have given up due to the swell and wind over tide conditions. He was constantly broad side on to the swell and couldn’t even pour a cup of coffee, poor chap! We ventured out anyway and by the time we were out there the wind had come round a little to the NW and had dropped – so conditions were OK.

We anchored up at a mark in mid Eastern Solent fishing into 60ft+ of water. With the tide flooding the bottom five feet were a kennel full of Doggers – very frustrating when you know that there are other species around not getting a look in. At about half tide the Dogfish just disappeared and I said to Ian that might mean something better – and hey presto, we started to get a bit more serious action. A Cod of 8lb 9oz hit the deck to my rod followed by some decent Whiting for both of us. Another Cod was lost close to the net but Ian had a small Conger soon after plus a few pouting (bait for when our squid runs out!). Then came what I thought was another Cod but turned out to be a beautiful Bass of a smidge under 6lb. Now call me an old fashioned coarse angler but I couldn’t bang it on the head for my one fish limit – so back it went to fight another day, and boy did it fight!

Bait for the day was whole squid marinaded in Krill Oil. We use a bait dropper made out of an old cat food tin to get loads of smelly stuff down to the bottom and create a scent trail – it seemed to do the trick. An enjoyable day out with 6 species caught in the end and some tasty Cod and Whiting for supper for the next few days

Bass