Author: Neville Merritt (Page 28 of 45)

“It was an early start from Kent this morning which put us at Itchenor slip at about 5am. We went out to our mark trying some new ground hoping for tope.
We were pleasantly surprised with some BIG FAT ANGRY HUSS!
Ed McCarthy landed on at 15lb

Then a 16lb and 11lb for me
Then a 17lb for Ashley Brown. Unbelievable! We didn’t know they were that common down this neck but it was very welcome…Anyway in amongst that we had two tope to 22lb.

We then upped anchor and drifted for what was about and ended up with some good Ballan wrasse to 4.5lb plus bass and pollack.

Fantastic day out with stunning weather “

Josh Carter

Mark Argyle sent in this report – ” Had a bit of luck on the Hounds today Black Bream fishing, launching from the ECA. I had 15plus Bream, and all good size fish, though predominantly females. I had 4 four Bream over 3lbs, with the best two weighing 3lb 6oz and 4lb 3oz.

Spring has definitely sprung. We have had daffodils in the garden, lambs in the fields and plaice in Bracklesham Bay. The winter-stored boats are going back in the water, fishing days are longer and mullet are back in the marina. The early spring doldrums are behind us and we are looking forward to the arrival of the summer species.

Boats pushing out to the Channel wrecks and reefs have had some good quality pollack. Heber Crawford shows off a brace from a recent trip. Offshore marks have produced spurdog and bullhuss of good size. Jocky Park shows a spurdog of 11lb and Neil Glazier a Bullhuss of 13lb 4oz on the same trip.

The banks usually hold resident stocks of good-sized blonde ray. Jason Gillespie shows the best blonde of the day weighing 27lb caught on launce flapper. There is always a chance of turbot and brill on the same banks, and Jason also caught a beautifully marked turbot while Peter Dudgeon caught a brill of 4lb.

The highlight of the last month has been the arrival of plaice in very good numbers compared to recent years.  The most productive methods have been drifting with a spoon and beads baited with lugworm or ragworm. As the boat moves over the mark, tapping the bottom with the weight then lifting the bait will induce a take if the fish are there. They can be drawn in by the flash of the spoon from quite a distance, particularly if the water is clear as it has been once the winds died down.  Stephen Fordred shows a typical plaice of 1lb 8oz, although fish of up to 5lb have been reported.

Boats fishing static baits have been plagued by starfish with is rather worrying. Starfish eat the same young shellfish as the plaice, and concentrations of starfish can decimate shellfish beds. One or two starfish is a good sign that you are in the right place on a shellfish bed. Too many starfish means you might not have that shellfish bed for much longer.

Southsea Marina Disabled Angling Club has the use of the boat Lady Elsa. On a recent trip skipper Steve Kelly added to his species list with a Bull Huss while his veteran crew reminded us all how to catch plaice – George Dominy is still on form aged 85.

Southsea Marina Angling Club Fish of the Month was a 21lb Spurdog caught by Jon Leythorne, which also leads the Catch and Release competition at 131% of the specimen size.

We are still awaiting the arrival of the main run of bream, and that should happen any day now. A few garfish have been caught and they tend to arrive in these waters with the bream and slightly ahead of the mackerel. We have already seen a few small smoothhound and the breeding adults should be appearing soon. Next month we hope to be reporting some tope too.

If February is the doldrums between the winter and spring fishing seasons, March should in theory see the start of the spring species being caught. Unfortunately a number of factors get in the way of that theory. Many owners of private and charter angling boats take them out of the water for their annual antifoul and service, instead of fishing. I have noticed that the cleanest they will be all year is in the hours before relaunch – they’ll never look as good after a few fish have come aboard. Other friends have taken the opportunity to travel to fish in warmer climes instead of on a bleak Solent. The luckier ones have sent back some amazing photos of catches, but as this is not a Florida Fishing Report I can’t include them. The third reason is the number of storms: we have had a procession of them tailgating each other for three weeks as they roll up the Channel from the west. Those factors haven’t left much time for fishing or people to fish.

Nevertheless some of us have grabbed a day or two here and there and we have a few fish to indicate what is out there. First up is Mark Banks, showing that quality pollack can be caught from the Channel wrecks although some days can be tough. Marks offshore produce the usual range of rays. Conger are now moving back to their holes in rocks and wrecks and are less of a pest on open ground. Wayne Comben shows off a nice spurdog of 16lb and a bull huss of 7lb. Inshore we are having a run of plaice. Some days they can be fairly plentiful (by today’s standards) and other days they are hard to find. But if fishing was predictable I would have nothing to write about. Here are some photographs from recent plaice trips including a very late codling for Dick Stubbs and a surprise early bream for Dennis Hayden on the same trip, which neatly bridges the two seasons. Steve Kelly is waving both a plaice and a species competition card so it looks like he is going for it this year.

April is drawing near so we should soon be reporting smoothhound and bream in numbers. The bass restrictions change on 1^st April for the summer and the opportunity to keep one fish per day may tempt more anglers to target them. The first garfish tend to arrive with the spawning bream and mackerel appear soon after. The tope will follow them in. The seasonal pattern certainly gives us plenty of variety in this area, if only we have enough weather windows to fish. Roll on summer, preferably one like last year.

Finally…the Southsea Marina Angling Club (SMAC) Open Cod Competition was held on 30th December after seven postponements due to the weather. We even had a few settled days beforehand to get into the swing of things after two months of being stuck ashore. Although overcast, visibility was good, it wasn’t too cold and a slight westerly breeze gave us plenty of options.

A total of 102 anglers signed in, with 45 boats mostly heading out from Southsea Marina, the Eastney ramp or Eastney Cruising Association (ECA). More fish were being caught inshore of the Nab than further out. Although the winning cod wasn’t as big as last year we were pleased that five cod weighed in (only two in the 2017 competition) and we had the main prizes awarded to cod with a number of good whiting as runners-up.

The winner was Tim Andrews, SMAC Commodore with a cod of 9lb 2oz. Other winners were

2nd: Ken Barton cod 8lb 14oz; 3rd: Tom Baker cod 4lb 9oz; 4th: Bradley Tomkinson cod 4lb 7oz;

5th: Dean Kilford cod 3lb 10oz. Runners up with good whiting included Pete Bowden,  Darren Price, Kim Bowden, Germit Ladaher, Bernie Kwil, Steve Manning, Dick Stubbs and Tim Ward. There were also prizes for Ladies, won by Hayley Ellis and a Junior prize won by Michael Houghton. The entire event would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication from Steve Kelly, SMAC Chairman who made sure all the anglers had a great day.

Although the cod season this year has been disappointing there have been some notable fish caught, topped by Lee Frampton with an amazing 31lb fish caught out of Bembridge. Mark Argyle from the ECA also caught a cod of 16lb 9oz on squid bait.

Further out the banks and wrecks have been producing some good pollack and bass. Mark Banks and Tim Andrews demonstrate a typical catch. Heber Crawford had an amazing day on the bass which was topped by this monster of over 14lb. There are some very big bass around – Robert Foster’s 13lb 9oz fish reported last issue was awarded SMAC Fish of the Month.

Rays feature in many boat trips but Ash Dowdswell’s 18lb Undulate Ray is a very good fish. We had a run of congers on many marks, not only taking cod baits but also attacking fish that were being reeled in as Phil Stride shows.

Southsea Marina Disabled Angling Club prove that age is no barrier to fishing. George Dominy shows how it’s done at 85 and John Wearn has no trouble wrestling this conger. At the other end of the age spectrum we always encourage young anglers and Mikey Primmett is delighted with this fine dab.

After Christmas we usually find the remaining cod and larger whiting are hunting sprats further up in the water making them less interested in conventional bait fishing. As a result inshore fishing tends to quieten down in January and February before the plaice arrive. However we are already hearing reports of plaice being caught along the shore so the unseasonably warm water might be encouraging them in early. We will let you know next month!

The last few weekends have been spent in accessible places in Rebel Runner, installing the wiring for my new capstan and other things. Now that’s pretty much done I decided to go fishing again. I had heard rumours of the occasional plaice being caught so this weekend I headed out to find some for myself. I have found that frozen black lug tipped with a strip of squid is the best bait for early plaice but the shops were out of stock. Luckily, right at the bottom of my freezer was a very old and sorry-looking packet. The plaice don’t mind what it looks like as long as it is smelly, so I was in business!

First stop was The Blocks, which looked very busy. I anchored just north of the crowd and set out some lines with plenty of bling. Within half an hour I had my first plaice of the year. The next couple of hours were bite-less but the weather was lovely so I didn’t mind too much. As the tide increased the anchor decided to trip so a move was an easy choice to make. I headed over to Hayling Bay and with half an hour another two plaice were on board. They were all small so I filled a bucket of water and put them in it while unhooking, to reduce stress and aid recovery. I made an interesting discovery, they all sicked up lugworm in the bucket so it is pretty obvious why lugworm scores.

I soon ran out of bait so I practised a SAR mission on an abandoned life-ring I had seen float by half an hour earlier. It is surprising how difficult a bright orange life-ring is to spot on a clear fairly calm day. Eventually I spotted it and won myself a new life-ring and about 15 metres of floating rope.

The sudden improvement in weather and my availability allowed us to go out for the first time since the end of September. So a week before Xmas went out on the neap tide and decided to go deep to see if anything was happening out south of the Nab.

Well dogs, some biggish pouting and small whiting, with only one about 1.5lbs that was worth keeping.

With nothing much happening we went back inshore, where at least we got some real action, which was with a few Congers, on open ground. We had four, not exceptionally large although the biggest went 25lbs and gave a good scrap on the up-tider for Roland.

With the fait hint of success we went out a day or so after Xmas, although the larger tides meant we went out between Selsey and the Nab. The tide and a lot of weed (lots of it drifting around) caused us to move after only 45 mins with nothing more than the odd Dog, Pout and one Whiting.

So we went back towards the Nab to a hole to the East of the Nab. Better tide here and we were able to get down amongst the Whiting and Pouting. A couple of Dogs then a big bite nearly taking the rod over the side. A nice 5½lb Bass. Then a big fish, felt like a Conger, got off half way up. On bringing in the tackle there was a Whiting hooked on a flyer, with a big cut across its back, so the Conger had obviously taken a liking to my catch !

A couple of straps came on board and then another good bite resulted in a double – a 2lb Bass on the flyer and a 7½lb Cod on the lower pennel rig. So all in all a good day for me – Roland came out as well and had some Whiting, Pouting and the odd Dog. Took advantage of the ability to be smug as we all know it will probably be different next time. Took home a Bass, Cod and 2 Whiting (2lb apiece) and the Bass and Cod fillets will allow us to forget the Turkey.

Phil and Roland, December 2018