Category: Catch Reports 2024 (Page 1 of 2)

This month’s report is rather restricted because firstly, the weather was mostly foul and secondly, when we could fish we had the SMAC Mandela Cup and Open Cod Competition which have already been written up separately.

However, I did receive a very interesting catch report from David Cox which is worth featuring here in full:

” I’ve not posted a report for a while but thought you would like to know that my last fish of the season was a Blue Skate. It was a Juvenile of around 10lbs. It was thin with little in it’s belly but looked in good health.  Caught not far from the Nab and went back safely. A great end to the season.

I hear the odd one has been caught along south Coast e.g Chesil. They are pretty rare and can live up to 100 years growing up to 300lb. They catch them up in Northern Ireland and Scotland. I remember as a little school boy on the Isle of Wight, some 60 years ago, of the odd one being caught off the end of Ryde Pier.

I would be interested to know if anyone else has come across them in the Solent area. This juvenile’s parents must be lurking in the Solent somewhere!”

That’s one that I haven’t seen yet on our SMAC Species Hunt list! Thank you for the report David. If anyone wants to contribute a catch report you are always very welcome. Just message or email me news@boat-angling.co.uk

Feature fish of the month seems to be bass, and plenty of good fish were caught. We have very healthy stocks in the Eastern Solent, and the catch restrictions on commercial and recreational fishing plus the protected nursery areas seems to be working. The Closed Season for bass fishing in the harbour nursery areas is now over until the end of April 2025 when it comes into force again.

We seem to be seeing more large Bull Huss this year. The Inter-Club Competition was won by Ray Plomer for LHFA with a Bull Huss of 12lb 10oz.

Most marks were plagued with dogfish and small conger, which seem to be as prolific as ever. A few whiting and even fewer codling showed up, and we are hoping there will be a lot more by the middle of November for the SMAC Open Cod Competition.

Finally, squid fishing is becoming more and more popular. Both squid and cuttlefish can be caught on squid lures from boats over broken or rocky ground, from harbour walls and even steeper beaches in calm weather. Some large specimens have been caught along the coast including Portsmouth and Solent approaches.

September was a very wet month although that shouldn’t matter on the sea which is already wet. However, wet weather is usually accompanied by windy weather which does matter because that’s what stops us going out fishing. You can tell when a lot of boat anglers are frustrated by the weather by the number of political memes circulating on our chat forums instead of fish pictures.

That sounds gloomy but there were fishable days and fish were caught. September is a strange month because the warm days feel like an extension of summer: plaice, mackerel and bream are still around whereas the colder days warn of the switch to winter species with the arrival of squid and a few early codling.

As a result, catch reports were a real mixed bag with the regulars of rays, bass and bull huss plus some plaice, gilthead bream, brill and even red mullet. Stray codling were reported as early as late August.

By October the mackerel will be heading off although some are usually still around until November. Towards the end of the month we should see some whiting although in recent years they have been arriving well into November. We have a good stock of bass which will still be active and shoaling around the baitfish over banks and harbour entrances. We usually have a visit from trigger fish which are always good for the species count. In fact, for the next month or two almost anything can turn up so have a go, and do share your catch reports here!

Holidays got in the way of a July Catch Report so here’s a combined edition for the last two months. We were blessed with some great days for boat fishing with relatively calm weather and warm sunshine. Calmer seas and smaller tides meant that some boats could push well out into the Channel, while others still enjoyed great sport but closer to home.

Every summer we hear the same comments: “Where are the mackerel?” and then “There’s loads of mackerel!” It’s true that they can be fickle and locations unpredictable. Where we used to find huge shoals and anything shiny would catch, now the fish are more scattered and feed more selectively but there are still plenty to be caught. You may need to use better quality feathers than the crude strings that were once reliable and also search around to find feeding fish but you should still be able to stock up when needed.

Summer catch reports usually include bass, tope, smoothhound, rays, bream, mullet and huss, with 2024 being no exception. All have been caught and made anglers very happy. Gilthead Bream have featured in more catches recently and they grow to a larger size than Black Bream. There are some impressive fish in the gallery below caught by Peter Churchill (3-6), Wayne Comben (4-7) and Ken Barton (5-9).

Sole need to be deliberately targeted and a calm summer night is the ideal time – if you can find the right mark. Baits need to be hard on the bottom and a lead at each end of the trace helps to keep them the baits in the right place.

You never really know when a codling might appear towards Autumn and one has just scraped into this month’s Report – from the Langstone Run of all places.

Mullet appear in late Spring but are difficult to catch at that time because they are feeding on micro-organisms. Later in Summer they start eating other things including our discarded scraps and this is when you can catch them on baits like bread flake and sweetcorn. I wouldn’t want to eat a mullet that knows what sweetcorn is though.

The Solent area has an amazing variety of species and this makes Species Hunt competitions great fun. We have visits from shoals of herring, and these can even be caught right in the harbours. Tuna have been sighted right by The Forts, and I won’t be surprised if sooner or later one is hooked. That would be a great one for a Species Hunt! I know a spider crab doesn’t count in a Species Hunt but I thought you would like to see an impressive one caught by Mark Banks.

We had a busy May in Southsea Marina. The SMAC Bream Competition was actually fished on the first planned day, which is unusual because the weather is usually against us. We had a great turnout, and you can read the full report here. The following Saturday, Premier Southsea Marina hosted the SAC Meet & Fish event which attracted boats from further afield. Despite this, SMAC members carried off two of the top five prizes. You can read the report here.

As you will see from the Bream Competition report, there are plenty of bream around. Most fish west of Selsey Bill are up to the pound and a half mark, for larger fish you will need to head further east or south.

The SAC Meet & Fish event targeted tope, smoothhound, bass, bream and rays. We were very pleased to see plenty of tope around from early May and some of them very large indeed. Harry Chandler boated a tope of 62lbs fishing from Harvest Moon (British Big Game Charters – heading photo) which is a record for them, and Peter Churchill’s tope in the SAC event was the largest they have ever recorded in their competitions which they score by length, at 160cm.

There are plenty of large smoothhound around now as well. Bass are shoaling up to chase baitfish and good sport can be had with lures. In the past, these shoaling bass were just small schoolies but now there are some good fish among them which adds to the anticipation.

Sadly the plaice that were once worth a few trips from March to May have been very thin on the ground, and if they were found at all were of a very small size. Some mackerel have been caught but we are still waiting for the arrival of mackerel, garfish and scad in their usual seasonal numbers.

I expect June to be a great month, particularly if we have a good supply of mackerel for bait, BBQ and sport on light tackle.