Photo Gallery 2010

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Fish of the Month, with pictures and stories

July 2010

On the Trident SAC trip in July, we had a good start, after anchoring near a small wreck, with a Bass, a Skate, Dogs, Mackerel, a Red Gurnard, Pout and a few Tope. We then tried a couple of banks and a 'long drift' for more Bass but with no luck. We then drifted another wreck but failed there too! So for the last couple of hours we went back ‘onto the hook’ down at Brook. After a flurry of Dogs and a couple of Tope, while the breeze freshened to 20 Knots, I was considering a move.

As I made my thoughts known, Chris latched into a cracking 14lb 12oz Thornback Ray, while John landed a nice 4lb Spotted Ray and Bob caught the Bream he was after, as they came on the feed, at the end of the tide. So it was a good finish to the day, although it was a bit bouncy on the way back.

Chris, a relative beginner, shows one of the best specimens caught in July. This cracker was slipped back over the side to lay her purses and was the second Thornback of the day, with the smaller male, kept for the pot.

The specimen size for a Thornback Ray is 13lb, in these parts. It is a good fish and they punch above their weight, I like them!

June 2010

June this year had the best weather for an entire month that I can remember, apart from May that is! The fishing was good too and varied with a wide variety of species. Here is Richard with a nice Bass, of the Don Tucker crew, from Lee On Solent. They respectfully and kindly compromised on a 0600 start, to take in the footy, England v Germany. We made the last 16 of the world cup. The fishing was far better than the footy! They started with 3 Bass, the best at 6lb, after a few short drifts, and before we headed out deep for some bigger fish.

May 2010

Not a great picture but still definitely the White Maiden Fish of The Month.

This was caught on a Pat Warne crew eveing trip in May. After the sun set onto a dark and crimson, mirror like sea, Kevin got into something very decent. After a struggle to the surface a large Blonde literally hit the net but flapped and dived away, nearly all the way down to the bottom again! Meanwhile, I had plenty of time to get the bigger net. To be fair Kevin took his time and coaxed her back up to the surface well, where I still had trouble getting it in the big net. It was only when I went to lift her up over the side that I realised that this ray was huge. The scales with the net went down to 30lb and a bit and so, less 4lb for the net, she was around the 26lb mark and obviously lost, as I would never have expected a Blonde Ray to show up where we were, let alone a Blonde of this size! The beautiful Blonde, swam off slowly no worse for the experience, I am sure.

April 2010

In early April a great forecast meant we had plenty of scope and so we comfortably fished the banks well South of the Needles Light, all day. The tide range was kind at just 2.2 meters but this still required 1.5lb of lead in the hardest run of the Ebb.

Trident SAC crew caught six good double figure Spur Dogs with two of them at specimen size, just over 13lb. All these fish were weighed and released. All but one angler had a double figure fish, so they were reasonably well shared around too. The 'one that got away' was assumed to be a massive Blonde Ray. We took turns on the rod as the fish was massive, but in the end the trace wore through!

What a great start to the summer of 2010, that incidentally followed a particularly cold winter.
 

March 2010

This March was holiday time in Mexico, celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary. I had decided not to run any trips out in White Maiden in March this year and to have a break at a sensible time when the going is traditionally difficult round the edges of the English Channel.

So here's our boat champion out from Huatulco, Mexico. Alison jumped in the chair, or rather I jumped out, when this skip jack tuna decided to grab the one and only small lure we were trolling. The big lures never attracted anything, so Alison gloated for a good 10 minutes afterwards. It was a treat to be relaxing in the sunshine in March, while others did all the work. Having said that I would like to have tested my back on one of the big fish they get out there.

February 2010

After some difficult trips we eventually found a few fish with six species making themselves available to well presented baits on Saturday 20th February. But the fishing was still quiet and possibly described as hard depending on how it is approached. All the lads fishing on White Maiden through February had some great weather and in the end found a few fish. Again Tony Lavington landed the best fish, Congers apart.

Here is Tony with a nice 5lb Bass caught on 5 miles.

January 2010

What a good start to the year, here is Tony Lavington with a very 'New Year Cod' of 16lb. This turned out to be the last trip for a few weeks while snow caused chaos up until the end of January.

When we did get out again we had missed out, on arguably one of the best times of  the year, after the water temp went right down to 4 degrees C.