Author: Neville Merritt (Page 33 of 43)

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).

Friday 3 Nov was a beautiful day, the sea was flat the fog had cleared and we skimmed from Stokes Bay to the Fingers in “High Hopes” in search of something large; cod, conger, bass?

Fishing before 9.30 we were straight into whiting with the occasional dog, by 10.30 the bites had virtually stopped but the sun was shining.  The tide turned and we fished on slowly for another hour and then re-anchored about half a mile to the South on another bank.  Again fishing was very slow, a few whiting and several dogs, then a thornback and a gurnard.  The radio was indicating it was the same all over, surely on what was a perfect day there would be something to write home about.  It was turning out to be a lovely day with some very disappointing fishing.

Then about 3 pm as the tide was grinding to a halt, a knock followed by the rod surging down (and out) and battle commenced.  Well behind the boat the fish surfaced, dived and then surfaced again to the side of the boat.  It was shy of the net but once in the boat came in a shade under 12lb, my first double figure bass.  We fished for a while longer but that was it, what a difference a bite can make.

John Ellis

Gordon and I went out on the 30th . The weather was fantastic although there was not much of a tide. We headed out to the Nab area , and had a couple of thornbacks up to  11lbs, a bass of 3lb, and the first cod in the boat this season which weighed 7lb 12 ozs. Plenty of doggies as well , but only one whiting.

We were also really lucky to see the new aircraft carrier at close quarters as it came out of Portsmouth for the day – together with a circling helicopter and police ribs!

Ian Mintram

So armed with a box of squid and some frozen mackerel we headed out to a hole a couple of miles south-east of the Nab. With a lot of the charter skippers seeming to be East Nab we questioned our thoughts. Did they know something we didn’t ? Well, obviously yes – they are the professionals after all. But hey ho – out we went to the deeper water, 100ft in the hole, was hopefully our saviour.

The first hour produced a few dogs, a couple of whiting and a 10lb smoothie caught uptide at the top of the hole, not in it. Then a strap conger – and it was small – couple of pounds at most and a 5lb Thornie. Still nothing to write home about. As the flood tide picked up the fishing got better. A couple of bigger Thornies getting close to double figures and a few bigger straps. Also up towards the 10lb mark.

In between the odd pouting, I suddenly had the feel of the Nod. Having had a few conger, which although not large gave great sport on 12-20lb rods, I did get a shock when it hit the surface. Up came a codling – yes – first of the season for us. Not double figures, but enough for a fresh fish tea and some to freeze.

Unfortunately for me Roland took the largest fish prize with a 20lb+ conger, released at the boat side so only an estimate. Still way bigger than my cod or thornie so he won the pint for the largest fish and wiped out my first fish pint. I now owe him 7 pints for the year – not a good year.

All in all, we had about a dozen conger, 3 thornies, 10 whiting, a smoothhound, and quite a few dogs and pout – oh and the cod. The bigger fish all took whole squid (not convinced on the boilies as I read earlier) and a lot of the whiting on mackerel strip on a flyer. If we tried mackerel on the bottom – we got dogs. Something to note. Still all in all, not bad for two of us.