This is the month when the autumn codling used to appear, but sadly they don’t appear much at all now although a few very small fish have been reported from the beaches. Young Aubree Evans (heading photo) showed they aren’t extinct or mythical by catching one from a boat to remind us what they look like.
Times change, and although we aren’t seeing the codling like we used to, I’m convinced that we are seeing far more bream and definitely more larger bream hanging around well into autumn. Where we used to have tiny bait-robbing bream making a nuisance of themselves, we now have enough larger bream to be worth targeting. They don’t seem to be as restricted to rocks and features in the autumn as they do when breeding, and I have been catching a lot on open ground particularly as the tide just starts to move after slack water. Mark Banks shows a cracker of 3lb 9oz although I think that came from further offshore.
An autumn fish that it still staying true to habit is the trigger fish which appear for just a few weeks then head off again. Little is known about the reasons for their visits and the National Aquarium at Plymouth is conducting research on catches, so if you catch a tagged fish you can report it here. Ray Plomer’s trigger fish below weighed 2lb 2oz and Dave Newnham’s slightly smaller.
There are plenty of good fish on the Channel wrecks and reefs as Kev Johnson shows below. As you can see from the photo gallery, there is a great variety of fishing available in our area (and some interesting vessels passing too): wrasse, mackerel, bass, turbot, some nice rays and even a squid.
Next month we’ll have the Inter-Club competition and the Cod Open competition so check those pages out for more information.
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