Author: Neville Merritt (Page 35 of 43)

After a wet and windy few weeks we all enjoyed an amazing sequence of calm sunny days over the August bank Holiday. I was out soon after 6am on Sunday, and quickly stocked up with mackerel for bait on the the way out. Mackerel and bass always seem to feed best at dawn and dusk within a couple of miles from shore. First stop was New Grounds – small bass, a selection of rays and countless dogfish.  I noticed one of the Thornbacks was host to a number of  pontobdella muricata leeches (I looked it up!)

Next stop at Sandown Bay produced small conger and a lot of lost tackle as I must have positioned myself over a net. Another mark produced little so I headed back to a bank on the way back in, to drift for bass. The first (and last) drift produced a 5lb beauty – above.

“Thinking we was off to a bad start sitting in loads of traffic things rapidly changed when we got on the water and hit the mackerel straight away. Dropped anchor and put 3 fresh baits down.
Within 5 minutes the first one went off – it took literally over half the spool before deciding to stop. And that went 32lb to Charlie a first for him !! During that my rod starting ****ing line out back towards the shore resulting in a 30lb tope. Beaming we were by this point, the boat being trashed by tope. We managed to weigh photo and return safely . Then just to make matters even more joyful,  the 3rd rod goes screaming off resulting in a 42lb tope, a pb for me – absolutely buzzing. Then a small hound and a nice ballan wrasse for Charlie. Also we saw a pack of either dolphins or porpoises…which was good to see! Another 30odd lbr that got away up the side although a hand was on the hooklength!” – Josh and Charlie

After a month of breezy weekends we finally had a day where the weather and a weekend coincided. Sunday 13th August dawned clear and calm, and after over-nighting on board I was in a great position for an early start. At 06:30 I was heading south from Langstone Harbour, and first stop was a bank a couple of miles out which usually has a good stock of mackerel hanging about. This morning the sea was alive with splashing baitfish, mackerel and seabirds. Within a few minutes I had plenty of mackerel and some scad for good measure. I find smaller fish skin feathers size 6 tied to 20lb mono to be consistently effective, especially if used with a 25 gm or heavier lure as a weight to give a flash and a flutter.

I spent the morning at New Grounds, and although I caught a couple of very nice ray, I was plagued by dogfish and small tope. Tope are annoying because you either accept the many bite-offs or scale up to wire or very heavy mono and cut down your chances of catching anything more finicky. I decided to move instead, and headed to Sandown Bay.

I ended up slightly off the mark I was aiming for, but nevertheless still had plenty of action with strap conger, small bream, more ray and scad. No tope or dogfish thank goodness.

Home via the bank again, in the hope that bass may show but I was too early, the bass tend to feed on the banks either at dawn or dusk. Never mind, I have plenty of winter bait in the freezer now the mackerel are plentiful.

With a great forecast for a change I decided to head down east to try drifting for plaice. I went via Pullar to pick up a few mackerel so I would have some for bait, as I had heard of a few turbot being landed there. Unfortunately I only found two mackerel despite plenty appearing on the fish-finder. On to Swashway where I drifted with a plaice rig on one side and mackerel feathers on the other. This time the mackerel were more obliging and I soon had a bucketful. Although I did pick up one plaice, the ground was claiming too much tackle and anyway I was feeling like a lazy afternoon at anchor. I headed back through Looe Gate this time, to anchor in the Medmery channel. This was once a mark I had to myself but word must have got out, there were 12 boats already there! Nevertheless I found a spot away from the crowd and anchored up.

Action was steady for the next few hours – small conger, dogfish, bream and scad. There was almost no tide and a bit of a breeze which made the boat swing annoyingly. As the mackerel seemed to have arrived in numbers I decided to head towards a bank off the main shipping channel which has been producing fish. This time it was full house almost every drop and I soon had 60 mackerel in the cooler, plenty to freeze for winter bait. I then drifted a bit more for bass using a Fiish minnow on the bottom, but only caught two guarnard. Back to the marina for fuel up, clean down and a date with the food supplies officer who arrived down with some goodies. We headed back out into the harbour for a supper at sundown, watching the terns and the bass hammer shoals of small fish between them. The water was alive with bass which is good for future stocks.