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.