Author: Neville Merritt (Page 32 of 44)

I thought writing the February catch report was a struggle, but March has been even more of a challenge! Wind and weather have been very much against boat anglers venturing out, except for the fortunate few who have more flexible arrangements and can take advantage of a weather window midweek. Those that did make it out headed for the Channel wrecks where some good pollack were caught. Tim Andrews and Kev Johnson provided photographic evidence.

Inshore, whiting have all but gone away now and many boats have struggled to catch anything worthwhile (that is, other than pout and dogfish). Plaice should be putting in an appearance and a few have been caught on the usual marks by The Blocks and in Hayling Bay. It is likely that the storms have disturbed the shellfish beds that attract plaice, so we may have to search out new marks that hold them. If we have a few days of settled weather maybe we can go and find out.

This is the time of year for boat maintenance while the fishing is quiet, and a number of the charter boats have been ashore for their annual overhaul and antifoul. This is also the time of year for the local clubs to celebrate successes over the past year and award prizes.

Here are some highlights from the Southsea Marina Angling Club awards night. Club Champion Cup was won by Mark Banks, Runner Up Kris Scott, who also won Best Specimen with a bass of 11lb 3oz. Mark also won the Bream Cup with a 3lb 5oz fish caught while wreck fishing. Cod Cup was won by Steve Kelly 17lb 1oz and son Jake took the Junior Cup with and Undulate Ray of 14lb. Tim Andrews bagged both the Plaice Cup and Pollack Cup. For the ladies, Martina Haughton took both the Ladies Cup with an Undulate Ray of 14lb 6oz and the Ladies Species cup with 10. On the subject of Species, the Crawford family nailed it with Heber smoking out a staggering 54 species to win the Species Cup and son Archie with 28 for the Junior Species Cup.

Southsea Marina Disabled Angling Club prizes were dominated by George Dominy who won the Champion, Combination (boat and lake) and Specimen Cups (the latter with a smoothhound of 16lb), and Jon Leythorne who won the Champion Runner-Up, Three Oaks and Hambrook Cups. John Wearn won the Best Cod award with 11lb 15oz.

The Eastney Cruising Association overall Champion this year was again Colin Kidd, who also won Specimen, Cod and the Pairs Cup with M. Davis. Other cups went to S. Emery – Flounder; T. Baker – Plaice; M. Argyle – Bream; D. Pine – Bass; W. Comben – Ray; K. Bowden – Whiting; D. Sissons – Wrasse; T. Ward – Variety and M. Davis – Tiers Cup. The Ladies Cup was won by K. Wheatcroft and Junior Cup went to J. Kelly.

Most of us catch the occasional herring when feathering for mackerel, but herring are around in good numbers at other times of the year – including now. They are not exactly a sporting fish but like mackerel, they are very good to eat and make excellent bait. I am still learning their migratory movements – last year I was catching them in late April and this year in mid-March, so there’s a start. After spending several hours at anchor catching nothing but a small whiting, I decided to fish seriously for herring. Result – 36 in half an hour. I was drifting, and either one small shoal stayed underneath my boat or the shoal was a quarter of a mile wide. The water was thick with fish, I could feel them pinging off the line before they took the feathers. Check here for herring fishing tips.

I tried smoking some this time. I used my standard brine and smoking method (see here) – the result was quite a mild taste, I think you could brine whole fish for up to an hour, and I will probably increase the smoke dust by 50% next time. Still tastes good though.

I have a successful catch report from today for you. Inshore plaice – small tides, murky water and cold temperatures are not ideal conditions but we managed to find a nice little feature on an otherwise flat area. we fished it with fresh black lugworms, raw tiger prawns and ragworm and landed 12 plaice with a couple of good ones,  one nice little dab and two small bass I even managed to winkle out a nice plaice on the isome worm.

Well February has turned out pretty much as predicted, made worse by the constant procession of low pressure systems from the Atlantic that have brought strong winds and rain. February is also often a fairly barren month, with the cod having moved off and the Spring species yet to appear in any numbers. Many charter skippers use February for annual overhauls on the basis that they are not missing much, and this year they were dead right. Good pollack will be on the mid-Channel wrecks, if only we have the right weather to let us reach them.

So, February news is on the light side. The Southsea Marina Angling Club Nelson Mandela Cup for best cod was fished very late in the season this year due to the run of bad weather. This meant a number of boats were unavailable, however seven members braved the elements to make sure we completed the calendar of events. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the timing, not a single cod was caught so the winner-takes-all prize went to Ray Plomer with a 2lb 2oz whiting. This was a great compensation for Ray, who missed out on last month’s Cod Open rankings by losing valuable fishing time returning for a forgotten flask and sandwiches.

Other SMAC club news was the cod pool being won by Steve Kelly (correctly spelled this month, sorry) with a cod of 17lb 1oz, and John Wearn in second place with a cod of 11lb 15oz. The RNLI will be invited to give a small boat safety talk to members at the May meeting, and to support the Ocean Clean-up there will be a beach litter picking event later in the year.

Eastney Cruising Association (ECA) are Southsea Marina’s near neighbours, based right on the entrance to Langstone Harbour. Congratulations to Colin Kidd who was awarded ECA Club Champion 2017, pictured here with cod and bull huss which helped him to achieve that.

Next month we should sea the arrival of early plaice. There have been reports of some in nets already, but I have noticed over the years that fish ending up in nets don’t seem to be fish interested in baits. Maybe they are less interested in feeding when they are in early for spawning (which is why they are on the inshore marks) but just as susceptible to nets. After that we can look forward to bream, smooth-hound and the summer species. Bass will be catch and release only for 2018 unless the restriction is relaxed later in the year. I am certainly looking forward to some warmer, more settled weather too.

While some boats were heading for mid-Channel wrecks after the pollack, Simon Masters proved that you don’t have to go that far, catching this beauty only a mile off Bracklesham Bay while trying for a late Whiting. Simon reminded me that it is Mrs Masters who is holding the fish!

Read SAN online here

The last month has once again been very frustrating, with few days calm enough for comfortable fishing. Even more frustrating – none of the days over the extended Christmas break gave us suitable boat-fishing weather. Nevertheless some boats were out grabbing those rare midweek opportunities. Mark Banks, Tim Adams and Mark Weakarm were out drifting wrecks mid-Channel, and in a mad hour caught a dozen very good pollack with a 15lb, 17lb and a superb 21lb fish coming in a single drift.

On another wrecking trip, Mark Banks “accidentally” caught a 3.5lb bream – we don’t know what the bream was doing to the lure but it probably wasn’t trying to eat it. This has disrupted the SMAC points standing in an entirely unexpected manner! That has got us thinking though – are big bream down on those wrecks? Is it worth targeting them? It must be worth an experimental trip at least.

The highlight of the month was the Southsea Marina Angling Club (SMAC) Open Cod Competition. After months of planning, and weeks of successive postponements due to the weather, the competition finally went ahead on Sunday 14th January. The prize table totalled £1,170 plus generous donations from local angling businesses. A total of 88 keen anglers including ladies and juniors turned out aboard 38 boats. We even had a visit of a boatload of anglers from the Isle of Wight aboard “Ocean Star” – or should I call it a raid, because they carried off one of the prizes!

After signing in at the marina as dawn broke, the armada of boats headed south, keen to get among the cod. Despite a forecast of settled weather between two fronts, it was actually running quite a swell. I started fishing north of the Nab Tower and it was rather disconcerting to see the neighbouring boats disappearing from view in the troughs between waves.

We had anticipated a scarcity of cod, being late on in a poor season. The rules were adjusted so prizes could be awarded to whiting if insufficient cod were landed. This proved a wise move because only two cod were weighed in, the remainder of the prizes being taken by whiting. There are not many days when we actually welcome whiting but this was one of them, given the size of the prize table!

Top prize of £500 was well-deserved by Dick Prosser with a cod of 18lb 12oz – exactly what we were aiming for.

Second prize was taken by Kev Franks with a cod of 2lb 14oz worth £200, surely the most valuable cod per pound you will ever find. Third prize was rather bizarrely taken by a heavier fish than the second prize winner – a 3lb whiting caught by Alan Woodage. The remaining prizes were awarded to Alan Isaacs, Thomas Foster, Noddy aka Mark (he said “don’t ask” – he was the raider on Starfish), Lee Swire, Kim Bowden, George Dominy, Jon Leythorne and Martina Houghton. Martina also won the Ladies prize and young Archie Crawford took the Junior prize.

This was a very successful and hugely enjoyable event, due to the excellent organisation by Steve Kelley, support from Southsea Marina and crew and help from the SMAC members including Steve Andrews for the great photographs.

The month ahead is likely to see the departure of the cod, hoards of small whiting attacking any and all baits, the arrival of some good pollack on the wrecks and most of us planning for better weather and the arrival of spring and summer species. Many charter boats come out of the water for their annual overhaul in February but there can still be some surprises out there for anyone who tries.

Neville Merritt

January 2018

Well what a dismal few weeks we have had!  The wind has kept most boats off the water for a number of weekends since the last report. Those that did get out in gaps in the weather found mainly dogfish, whiting and conger. After a promising appearance in late October and early November, the cod have gone into hiding. The conger that are roaming the usual marks can be quite a nuisance, or exciting, depending on your point of view. Their behaviour changes significantly in the autumn, and instead of hiding in wrecks and rocks as they do in summer, they are now roaming in daylight, attacking large baits with gusto. They are even biting hooked fish on the way to the surface. If you want action they will give you that – picking up a bait and running with it like a tope. If you want cod, then an expensive cuttlefish bait being snaffled by a conger within minutes is beyond annoying.

So instead of recent catch reports, we thought we would look back at some of the activity in the area this year. The Southsea Marina Angling Club (SMAC) runs monthly and seasonal competitions, and raises money and donations for local rescue charities. We support the independent Gosport and Fareham Inshore Rescue Services (GAFIRS) and the RNLI which has a base on our doorstep. We had a visit from the local crew at a club meeting to receive their donation – see photo. We would certainly feel safe in their hands!

Specimen fish recorded through the year by SMAC were Kevin Johnson, Bass 10lb 1oz; Steve Andrews, Bass 11lb 4oz; Tony Harris, Bass 11lb; Kris Scott, Bass 11lb 3oz; Tim Andrews, Pollack 16lb 3oz. In the Catch and Release Specimen Fish category for 2017 were Neil Glazier, Undulate Ray 15lb; Jocky Park, Thornback Ray 15lb; Heber Crawford, Undulate Ray 22lb 4oz; Bill Arnold, Thick Lipped Mullet, 5lb; Jake Kelly (Junior), Undulate Ray 14lb and Martina Houghton, Undulate Ray, 14lb 6oz. Pat Dorking recorded a John Dory of 3lb – not huge but certainly unusual for this area.

We had the very welcome news from Dave Stenson that his wife and fishing partner Caroline has been given the all-clear after a long battle with cancer, and will be back featuring in our catch reports again very soon. She usually out-fishes everyone on the boat. She even went fishing during a gap in her treatment – such resilience. An amazing lady, great to have you back on the water Caroline.

If time is short or the weather is uncertain, LRF tactics can be used from boats and structures around the harbours with great success. Admittedly, catches won’t feed a family but if you fancy some sport on much scaled-down tackle, you will find inshore waters teeming with fish and a wrasse of a only a couple of pounds can give you some serious trouble on very light gear.

Due to the weather it is likely that the SMAC Open Cod Competition will be carried over into January, either 7th,14th,21st or 28th, with a 1st prize of £500, 2nd prize of £200, plus a good prize table. There is always the chance that cod will reappear, and then we have next year to look forward to with the spring run of plaice followed by bream, smoothhound and tope. Looking forward to the warmer weather already.

Neville Merritt
December 2017

Read the full report with photos here