Author: Neville Merritt (Page 37 of 43)

With Orca now back in the water at Sparkes Marina, Ian and I have now completed three Friday trips out in the eastern Solent – with mixed results.

Our first trip was a bit of a loosener on 7th April – for the boat and us (boat handling a bit rusty!), out into Hayling Bay for Plaice. This resulted in two fish hooked and one small Plaice in the boat. We tried natural and artificial rag with one fish hooked on each while drifting. Not a great return – but a start.

Our second trip on 13th April over to Selsey was a disaster in that we had no bites or fish despite drifting a large area for Plaice. This was a bit of an ordeal with stronger winds than forecast and a tide/wind combination drifting us side on to the swell – rock and roll. Many folks seem to be struggling to find Plaice at the moment and complaining about water clarity. Maybe that’s true – who knows?

Our latest trip out on the 21st was much better. This time we were after Bream and headed over to the Isle of Wight to find some rough ground and ledges. We fished light gear and small squid strips (one on the bottom and one just off). We were kept busy with Dogfish and Pouting but also landed 4 nice Bream. The biggest was a female of 3lb 2oz for Ian – which went back. We took one male as a tasty supper that night. Had we not lost another 3 Bream it would have been a better day. The tide was very benign so fishing the Isle of Wight was easier than it can be in a faster tide. That probably explains why all our fish were taken on the bottom droppers.

Great to be back out on the water. Roll on those warm summer days – and more fish!

By the way, Ian bought some artificial worms (Isome) through your site and hooked a Plaice on one – so they seem to work.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Southsea Angling Show next week.

Saved from blanking! I spent a lot of time trying to repeat my past success with herring, but they were nowhere to be found on Saturday. I dropped in by The Blocks and had one bite, and one nice fat plaice that fed both of us for tea tonight. Although the Solent area is crowded, it has the benefit of providing an endless show of interesting ships passing. This one was the Rolldock Sky, on her way into Southampton with some very big things on board – whatever they are.

Saturday’s report from Dave:

“Its been a while. As is known, Caroline has been diagnosed with cancer and has a long period of treatment ahead of her. Chemo, Herceptin, and Radiotherapy. However Friday saw the end of her Chemo treatment and when asked what she wanted to do to mark the completion of one course of treatment, forget the “Go out for a meal” her answer was “Go Fishing”.

So thats exactly what we did. We headed out to our favourite Cod mark and I was a little worried she may not be up to it fully and may find it exhausting. I need not have worried, by the 3rd drift we had 2 Cod and a Pollock on board. We took it a lot easier than we normally would and we extended the drifts. We ended with a mixed bag of Cod and Pollock with majority of the 15 fish haul being Cod.

Most of the fish were double figures. We gave it a few hours and headed back in so as to be back at the berth by mid afternoon. Caroline has a new vigour for getting the charter boat we had planned before the diagnosis of her illness.

All I keep thinking now is, “Watch out Cod”  🙂

Cheers

Dave and Caroline”

With less than two weeks to go, further exhibitors have been added to the line-up at the Fishing Show at Southsea Marina.

Taking place on Saturday 6th May from 10am – 4pm, Portsmouth family fishmongers, Johnsons Enterprises will be demonstrating the art of filleting fish in the dedicated Q&A tent and offering visitors the chance to take home some fresh produce for supper. Local sea anglers, Wayne Comben, Pete Kilshaw and James Roberts will also be talking about LRF and shark fishing and discussing the new way to fish on a sea kayak. A series of free talks from 10.15am it will be the perfect time for visitors to ask questions and pick up the latest fishing tips.

On the day there will be a main exhibitor marquee with a fantastic local presence from Andy’s Baits, angling centre, Allan’s Marine and Solent Tackle who will be selling a selection of tackle, bait, rods and lures. Portsmouth Marine Training RYA Training Centre will be in attendance and LGS Marine will be on hand with the newest safety equipment. FRIB (Foldable RIB) will showcase an innovative designed foldout RIB for sea anglers plus new exhibitor, Wade Marine will be unveiling a rope handling device that makes mooring up a simple, stress free task.

By the main tent a line-up of fishing boats will be on display courtesy of Sea Ventures, Sussex Boat Shop, JBT Marine, RBS Marine and boat builder Garry Bull, including a 695 Marlin, a Beneteau Barracuda 7, Parker and Rodman boat models and a brand of Ocean kayaks that come fully rigged.

As well as the opportunity to buy top fishing finding navigation equipment from Landau UK and a comprehensive range of outboards from Golden Arrow, visitors can drop in from 9am to pick up some bargains at the marina boat jumble and have their life-jacket checked for free by the RNLI.

Admission to the show is free with first-come, first-served parking available and the onsite café will be serving refreshments and hot and cold food throughout the day.

A few stalls are still available at the marina boat jumble. Only £10.00 a pitch, if you’re interested in selling some kit before the new season, contact Southsea Marina Reception on 023 9282 2719.

In the first week or so of April we wanted to try for a few different species. On the 2nd we went to a fairly inshore rocky mark we found by accident in the winter to try for bream. The bream didn’t show but we had a couple of hounds including my new PB of 12lb. Before going in for the night, we had a few drifts for plaice and my dad had nice one of around 2lb but that was the only one we had even after multiple drifts over the same spot.

After speaking to a netter and having that plaice we spent the 3rd drifting the same inshore spots only giving whiting and a smut pup, a slow day fishing.
Later in the week, on the 7th, we went to an offshore bank on a fairly small tide to try for big blonde rays unsuccessfully. The bank only gave us tiny congers, dogs and pout.

Wanting some better fishing we went back to the mark where we had the smooth hounds on the 8th. However, the tide conditions were opposite to how they were the weekend before and we only managed to have a wrasse and a three bearded rockling which was a new species for me. When we finally adjusted the anchor so we were on sand for smuts the fishing went strangely quiet. As the tide began to die off we moved to a reliable mark about a mile south for a few hours and had 16 or 17 hounds between us on rag and peelers! Not very big but great fun to catch so many, even got the spinning rod out! A nice start to the summer season.

I have always wanted to catch more herring, mainly because I prefer them to mackerel for eating. Trouble is I usually only catch one or two a year by accident while feathering for mackerel. I did some research and it turns out there are distinct “populations” in the North Sea and the English Channel. I had heard reports of our local crowd appearing off Poole so there was a good chance they might be around Southsea as well.

I was delayed by the fog this morning so I lost a couple of hours fishing time. This meant my planned trip east could not be fitted in so I started off at The Blocks. Two completely bite-less hours later I decided to start drifting over a bank I know that often holds fish. The screen was full of fish at mid-water so I dropped the feathers, but no result. I scaled down to tiny hokkai meant for launce, and I felt some knocks but nothing connected. I tried a Fiish lure, in case these were bass. Nothing doing. I finally broke out a new string of relatively expensive hokkais made of fish skin and glitter on size 6 hooks, so somewhere in between the feather sizes I had been using. I started connecting but the fish dropped off. Then I started winding smoothly as soon as I felt a knock and fish-on!…only to have it drop off as soon as it reached the surface.  They looked like herring. Totally frustrating. Then I tried lifting the rod gently as the fish came to the surface so it was swung up and over the side of the boat in a swift but smooth movement. They fell off but into the boat at least. That was the technique that landed 17, mainly in ones but sometimes twos. The reason I was losing so many is because their mouths are very soft and the hook will tear out or quickly make a hole the the hook will slip out of.

Here’s the feather that did the damage. All the fish were caught in  20-30 feet of water. The link to buy a similar one is below, although I paid a lot more than that in the tackle shop. The line is quite strong, I think the reviewer is mixing them up with the tiny sabikis.

[amazon_link asins=’B00FWRBYGU’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’boatangling-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’9d3cb1ef-1c88-11e7-9e8c-afe8652c32b3′]

Well as there haven’t been any catch reports sent in recently I’ll share what I have heard. I was out on Sunday in Hayling Bay in slightly stronger winds than forecast. You can usually tell if people are catching because their boats stay put. On  Sunday there were a lot of boats moving about! Things were a bit better around The Blocks: there was a club plaice comp and one boat had 10 plaice, another had 7 and largest was 4lb 10oz which is a decent size for a spawned fish. The water was a lot more coloured that is was previously which affects plaice and bream fishing. Those that were out during the week did better.

There are some good pollack being caught out in the Channel. The Southsea Marina Angling Club Fish of the Month in March was a pollack of 15lb 1oz. The first garfish have been caught and they usually arrive with the bream, and the mackerel come a few weeks after. There have been herring reported around Poole, hopefully they will come east a bit – I quite like herring in oatmeal!

As for my Sunday catch – pout, dogfish and some small early smoothhound. And a very pink nose. Rather than have no picture – here’s a plaice from a couple of years’ back – what the BBC would call a “library shot” when they’ve not actually got any pictures for a current news story. If they can do it so can I.

P.S. Southsea Marina Fishing Show on 6th May – still some Boat Jumble stalls available for a tenner. If you want to donate items for the SMAC jumble stall, see Steve Kelly in the Marina office. All proceeds to the RNLI.

Southsea Marina is to host its third Fishing Show on Saturday 6th May for berth holders and visitors.

The show will be a chance to browse a selection of new and used boats, meet with exhibitors offering products and services to the fishing enthusiast and exchange fishing tips with like-minded people.

The one day event will also be a great opportunity to find out more about what’s on offer at Southsea Marina and to meet on-site tenants and members of the friendly Southsea Marina Angling Club. A full line up of exhibitors and the Q&A programme will be revealed in next month’s newsletter.

Rupert Bremer, Marina Manager comments: “Back by popular demand, there will also be a boat jumble on the day. So if you have some spare marine parts, old fishing rods, tackle, or second hand chandlery you want to sell on – or are looking to pick up some new things, the boat jumble is an excellent opportunity to have a clear out. Only £10.00 to have a stall and set up shop. Spaces are limited so we’re advising to book in advance by calling us on 023 9282 2719.”

Southsea Marina Angling Club will have a boat jumble stand where all the items are donated, and all the proceeds will go to the RNLI. If you have items to donate please contact Steve at the marina office the week before.

There will also be BBQ food available and admission is free, so save the date in your diary and join us for a bit of a social too.

Top picture: RBS Marine will be displaying a range of rigged angling kayaks.

Second-hand because after all the planning, permissions, bait-buying etc. I didn’t go out!  I arrived at the marina ready for an early start but the fog was so thick we couldn’t even see the end of the marina from the middle of it, let alone see the entry and exit lights. Last time I was out in fog that thick I decided it was a bad idea, so along with a few others I decided that while still in the marina this time. However others did venture out over the weekend and a good number of plaice have been caught. One specimen went over 4lbs, another boat claimed 17 so they are about if you can find the hot-spots. Both drifting and anchoring are producing results, and I was pleased to see that artificials are catching some good fish when the water is clear enough for worm lures to work. I like these Isome worms below, they have built-in attractant.

[amazon_link asins=’B008J7P67I’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’boatangling-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’40c4b967-07ec-11e7-82fe-ab4f975e8b53′]

Usually in my birthday month I don’t even look at the forecast and dream of the summer month later in the year. However, the blonde ray isn’t on my list below and there’s usually good reports of them this time of year, whether it’s a great catch of 40+ rays or a 40lb+ specimen! A while ago I was looking at the tide tables and noticed that the weekend of 18th and 19th of February had good small tides to get offshore and kept my fingers crossed for good weather to match. I was surprised to see such a good forecast and it lived up to it well!

Friday morning (i was on half term week) we were at the Overfalls just as the slack began to turn into the flood. We let out plenty of anchor rope to make sure we didn’t drag. Thought we were in for a good day when my dad, holding my new rod, said i had a fish on. A thornback of about 5lb was unhooked, photographed and put back so as i could get a bait back down.

After this we had a few doggies and then the tide really went through fast and not many bites came, one or two more dogfish, I think maybe in letting out extra anchor line we had gone too far back from bank for the best fishing? Are the fish all right up against the side of the bank or further back from it? As the tide slackened we had a few pout and a tiny conger.

At high water I pulled the anchor in (would of had no chance if the tide was flowing there!) and we headed in to our travel lodge for the night.

(report for the first day as that was when we did the most fishing 🙂 )