Author: Neville Merritt (Page 33 of 44)

A catch report from Heber Crawford today (28th December).

I  decided to give the cod fishing a miss today and fished some offshore sandbanks instead and was rewarded with a few bass to around the 3lb to 5lb range, two small-eyed rays to around 7lb, a nice undulate ray well into double figures but to top it off had a lovely 6lb 4oz turbot weighed on the club scales back at the marina and a new club record. Absolutely chuffed to bits, a beautiful day and a great way to end the year I think. All fish returned apart from the turbot. All fish caught on frozen mackerel that I caught myself in the summer .

Heber.

I was out with Richard yesterday, 22nd Dec, on his boat “Wicked Tuna” from Southsea Marina.  We fished a mark North East of the northern end of the Nab Dredged Channel.  After the rough weather of recent weeks, it was great to get out in light winds and a smooth sea.

We fished a mix of rigs, some with large squid baits for Cod, and others lighter outfits to target Whiting.  Fishing was slow over the end of the flood, with a few Whiting and Pout.  We hoped the fishing would pick up with the ebb, but apart from dogs being added to the species caught, fishing remained slow. Just as we were considering a move, Richard had a very heavy take, but failed to hook-up with the fish, which we assumed was either a Cod, or a Conger, so we decided to stay.

I then had a strong take on my light rod rigged with a two hook paternoster baited with small strips of mackerel for Whiting.  On picking up the rod, the fish took off on a very strong run that was difficult to stop.  I slowly gained control of the fish even though it continued to make several strong runs, but eventually I guided a cracking Pollack into the landing net. It weighed 13.11lbs on my digital scales.

We stayed on the mark for another couple of hours before returning to the marina, and a beer in the marina bar.  Whilst our main target was Cod, that Pollack made my day.

Keith

Connor sent me this report which has been a typical experience recently. Some cod have been caught this week, but not very many. Most trips were like this one:

It was a very cold, icy morning and the night had been very calm so we expected fog, also because it was on the forecasts. Luckily when we came out past West Pole it was a lovely – the sea was flat and although it wasn’t perfect there was a few miles of visibility. We started off south of the Nab on the flood where I failed to connect the best bite of the day, most likely a conger or ray but could of been that elusive cod which is sad to think about. A few other bites resulted in dogs. At slack we moved to Culver with a few other boats already there, for the ebb flow. A few small rattles, most likely whiting, early on in the ebb were also missed and we headed in earlier than we had planned as we were getting cold. Unfortunately the dogs we did have came to my dad’s rods so that’s a blank for me! Oh well, was a lovely day to be out on the water, next time we’ll be after rays as it seems like this is one of those years on the cod fishing.

Our report made the front page this month with  Kevin Osman’s magnificent cod! You can access the on-line edition of SAN here.

We are now well into the winter season with plenty of whiting being caught, but not as many cod as we were hoping for. The cod season started with a flurry of catches a few weeks ago then we had a bit of a lull. As a result, a few of our local photographers had to share photos of sunsets instead of cod! Now a few more are being landed. Not in the numbers we caught many years ago, but better than some recent years. We have noticed some changes in fish migration – the scad have stayed around right into November this year. Trigger fish arrived, hung around for a few weeks and went again. There are plenty of bass being caught, although we have to observe the take-home limit of one fish over 42cm per angler per day, catch and release after that. There are large shoals of school bass moving around the Solent and approaches. They are easily spotted under flocks of very excited seabirds! Some larger bass have been caught further out – see photos.

On to catch news: catch highlight of the month was by Kevin Osman, a member of the Southsea Sea Angling Club, who fished an area around the Nab Tower.  Using a mixture of dead and live baits, he managed to land this amazing 34lb 8oz Cod.  A new club record for the Southsea Sea Angling Club, which was 33lbs and had stood since 1976.  What a lunker!

Archie Crawford showed his dad how to fish by landing this very nice bass of exactly 8lb, caught with a whiting livebait. Archie is also in the lead for the SMAC Junior Species competition with 28 species this year so far.

Tim Andrews fished from his boat Double Trouble out of Southsea Marina, drifting offshore reefs and banks with artificial lures, catching 12 bass to 9lb and 6 pollack biggest 12lb. He also had cuttlefish and even a smoothhound on lures!

Southsea Mariana also has a Disabled Angling Club. Here are (left to right) Jon Leythorne, John Wearn and George Dominy, bass fishing from the private boat Lady Elsa skippered by Steve Kelly. Steve also brought in a cod of 17lb 1oz.

Other fish of note from the Southsea Marina Angling Club books are two bonus turbot caught while cod fishing. Jocky Park had one at 4lb 3oz, and Kris Scott followed up with one of 3lb 13oz. Martina Houghton caught a nice Undulate Ray of 14lb 6 oz (catch and release) and Bill Arnold landed a mullet of 5lb (also catch and release).