Category: Catch Reports 2017 (Page 4 of 4)

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.

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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 🙂 )

Picking up the chat from around the forums and berths, it seems that people are mostly catching small whiting with the odd ray here and there. If you want pollack from the wrecks, you need to push out a very long way.  Clients on Kelly’s Hero III had a good day on Friday, with over 100 fish they reckon, but that was a lot nearer France than England! I did hear a story of a 20lb cod but that came out on Friday but I don’t know the details. One or two plaice have been caught but they have spawned so are thin and in poor condition. They will  fatten up later!

I went out on Saturday, and although it was a glorious day the whiting kept rattling the whiting rod and everything else totally ignored the other rods with baits intended fort bigger things. No, not even a pout or a dogfish. To cap it all, the seagulls had fared so badly they even thought it was worth hanging around me and that is saying something. Roll on plaice, bream, tope, smoothies….

After a very wet and windy Friday I was surprised to see Saturdays forecast was for light winds and sunny, so to keep our new years resolution in tacked to take the boat out at least once a month. We set off from Calshot to the edge of the brambles.

We set the anchor around 8am and set the rods, it wasn’t long before the bites started and Luke had the first of what seemed like countless bait robbing dogfish. However the sun was out, the water was like a millpond and I wasn’t at work so I could live with just catching dogfish. Luke counted me down till 12 o’clock so that we could try out our new cooker with a round of bacon rolls which went down very nicely. It was time to change the baits so I picked the rod up tighten the drag, pulled up and the rod and it bent over and started taking line, fish on! This fish was not going to play nice and she was going to use the tide to make a run for it but eventually we had this specimen thornback ray weighing in at 13.5lb not bad for a last minute February fishing trip. We put her back to fight another day and pulled anchor and that’s when Luke asked if he could drive the boat back to Calshot.

I have to say Luke is only 11 and he drove the boat back like he has been driving boats for years , a very proud dad, he now wants to be a charter skipper when he leaves school and not a dentist . That’s my boy.

Another flat calm day on Sunday saw us head out with Radar in full use. There was a very wet fog though so everything got damp, very annoying and visibility down to less than 100yds. We headed out deep to look for the end of the fog bank but couldn’t find it, ending up on a wreck south of the Nab. The first bite of the day saw Roland with a 15lb conger and then the pouting hit. All in the 1-3lb bracket but their ability, at whatever size, to spin means you need to have your swivels in good working order. We might not have!!! More and more pout then the tide calmed right down and we both lost good sized fish in the wreck. Probably as a result of last week’s efforts when we didn’t set the hooks well. This time break offs. I removed all smaller hooks just fishing big baits to void the dreaded “smellies”.

Just before slack I had a nice 20lb conger on board. About this time the fog started to clear, and we could see a large number of boats out around the spoils and even further south east that us.

So with the slack arriving we re-anchored. All went quiet for an hour, then a further 3 more congers, the largest just over 25lb. Then one rarity, well it was for us, a Three-bearded Rockling, about a pound, came in. What beautiful colours.

The tide picked up so we went inshore to East nab. We had heard report of whiting coming in inshore, and they were right. Just too small really with the largest topping out at a 1lb. That was the end to a good day.

5 congers, loads of pout and NO doggies and a lot of small whiting later on. Bookies would have given good odds on NO DOGS. Listening to the radio a few Cod were reported out deep, mainly mid-teens it seemed and a few inshore boats just having loads of small whiting with doggers thrown in – so that’s where they were!!.

Saturday 7/1/17, I was out with Richard to see what was about without steaming to the horizon.  Left Southsea Marina around 9.00am, and after refuelling, steamed out to a mark less than 2 miles from Langstone Fairway Post and anchored up by 9.30am.  The day was overcast but mild for the time of year, with a light NW wind and neap tide resulting in very comfortable fishing conditions.  First to the baits were the dogs, followed by whiting, and then I hooked into a 16lb Undulate Ray that went well on the 15lb gear I was using. It was photographed, weighed and released.  Fishing remained steady throughout the day, with a run of rays in the last hour, before we up-anchor and headed back to the marina, just as the light was fading.  In total, we had 36 dogs, 64 whiting, 2 undulate rays, 5 thornback rays, a spotted ray, 5 pout and a small smoothhound.  With the exception of the large undulate, none of the fish were notable for their size, and all were released, but we had a pleasant and comfortable run out.  Given the reports we heard on the radio, we did as well as the boats that did head to the horizon.