The Best Fish of the Month or the best days fishing, with pictures and stories

December 2009

Cod is what we wanted, and that's exactly what we got a week before Christmas. Not one annoying Conger, and every double figure fish, coming to the boat, was a decent Cod. The first went 15lb and is held by Steve left, and the last Cod was a tad under 15lb caught by yours truly. We had eight Cod in all, with most between 14lb and 15lb, all good conditioned quality fish. It was definitely, an above 'average day'.

The extreme weather put my booked crew from travelling down from Oxford way. The travel warnings were to stay at home, this was fair enough, as common sense must prevail. The conditions were truly on the edge of 'severe', in fact it was so cold, the sea spray was freezing onto the deck on our way through Hurst race and that was gone 9am! The squid was even re-freezing in the bucket
 

November 2009

The fist day of November was a cracker with a nicely marked 14lb Cod falling to Steve of the Tony Lavington Crew. This was the only Charter trip that we could fish in November as this year saw the worst November storms that I can remember!

One test trip the following week with a mate down the Solent, caught lots of weed but we also caught three Cod, so it is definitely worth fishing the Solent this time of year, as a fall back option.

October 2009

This cracking 10lb Bass for Keith Newton of the Church Crookham SAC was caught at slack water near a small wreck.

The big Bass was tagged by CEFAS and we learned from them that the fish had been released in April 2001 in Totland Bay about 4 miles from where it was caught! The Bass was pretty tired and damaged the gills on the retrieve.

This just goes to show that we can look after our 'own fisheries' if we want to.

I have a feeling that we will all come under a new EU period of fisheries protection that will test some of my older crews but will please some of the younger ones!

September 2009

Here is James with a cracking Blonde Ray. This was the best specimen in September, a cracking 27lb Blonde Ray caught over the slack water period, which was just as well, as James used a very light weight rod and reel.

This is the best Blonde Ray to hit the deck on one of my boats. The big beauty was weighed on two sets of scales and photographed before being put back over the side, where she glided away graciously.

As Dave's Red Mullet below shows just what a good month September can be. Weather permitting there is often a mix of species and specimens and opportunity, from one week, to the next.

August 2009

August was blighted inshore by the horrendous weed this year but we still found fish and this Thornback Ray caught by Pat Warne on an evening trip, jwas ust under 13lb. The Ray was caught close to an inshore wreck and was one of the best August specimens. I guess the fish like the weed as it has to protect them to a certain extent from out baits and hooks.

July 2009

Nearly already a distant memory this nice summer weather! Here is the Trident SAC crew and a couple of extras catching mainly Pollock and Small Eyed Rays, but also Tope, lots of Mackerel, a few launce plus a Bass, a Turbot and a Tub Gurnard. Not one dogfish in sight! We never had a really big fish but the variety was interesting and the Pollock and Mackerel made for a feed for everyone. Here is a picture of the lads with Due South in the back ground. Note that Steve and his Turbot are missed off the picture, to the left, and I never noticed at the time, sorry Steve.

June 2009

In June the Tony Lavington crew were able to get to where we wanted to, 8 miles from the light, on the forecast given. The tide was a little on the bigger side abd the 'Round the Island' yacht race was also going to be another factor. Anyway we kicked off in good conditions and anchored just before the start of the Ebb tide. Within 15 minutes they had a 5lb Turbot and a 12lb Blonde Ray in the boat! But 30 minutes after that the tide picked up and was a little too strong for most of the crew. So we up anchored and drifted the bank a couple of times and caught more Mackerel than we could shake a stick at! With plenty of fresh bait, we ventured inshore, where most of the sail boats were!

May 2009

This was a cracking Month for the Black Bream again, here are two good Bream taken in May by Rick but more to the point the pictures show up the differences nicely between Cock and Hen Black Bream. The Hen Bream (right) are generally pink and bigger but should be returned alive to let go of their row. The Cock Bream (left) has that beautiful blue colouring along the back and on the head and black band over the nose. If you don't eat them then they don't mind going back either :-).

April 2009

This is some of the Geoff Wheeler crew and their early season Black Bream. Geoff is in the centre with John to the left and Peter to the right. Tom Ennion had the best fish on the day just under 4lb.

March 2009

This is a hard month inshore but the fish can still feed and we can still get some very nice weather, so up to now I have kept the boat in and working, for such days. Here are two fine days from March 2009 with Darren left, Jon centre and yours truly right, on flat blue seas!

February 2009

Not the British Record but this Spurr Dog taken on the 9 mile banks proved we were in the right area. There were some good catches out deep in February, as previous years, with Blondes, Cod, Bass and Congers all showing too. For these 9 mile bank sorties I like fine weather in the winter, and neap tides so that we can fish in comfort. Even I get excited when we get a chance to fish out there in February and early March.

The Tony Lavington caught some cracking Conger on a 5 mile mark in February that were guestimated up to 55lb maybe bigger. Two such fish coming to the boat at the same time. Both were safely T-barred off, to fight another day. I am preparing myself again for netting and weighing these bigger fish so that I can also record, better details and get some pictures. Anyway in this instance you will have to trust my story and the crew when you get a chance.

January 2009

We really need the weather but here you can see that the fish are around with Mike showing a reasonable Whiting. The Cod were not as big this year but they were still around through to mid-February, with Congers also mixed in with the Cod again on open ground.

Following the excellent Cod mid channel this summer we are expecting even better for this coming inshore Cod season.