Minters

My mate Gordon and I went out for the first time in over a month. We fished just north of Nab Tower in lovely calm conditions with a fairly strong tide. It was just great to be out again after so long

 We fished the last three hours of the flood - fishing mackerel and squid.  I know you guys like pictures of doggies so I dutifully  caught a few and Gordon caught a pw smoothound.

 

Gordon then helpfully kept the strap conger occupied on his side of the boat which allowed me to catch some nice whiting plus a couple of thornback rays and a small blonde ray ( all on mackerel).
 


We had lunch whilst the tide turned and then I had a pb blonde ray of 24.5 lb on whole squid.  We had hoped for a cod but its three years now since we had one in the boat - but we live in hope. We called it a day around 3pm and headed back to Hayling Island for a beer.
 

Hi Jon
 
We used frozen mackerel.

Yep - Monday 8th. It was completely calm all morning with only a slight breeze in the afternoon. The sun shone as well for much of the time - which was not forecast. Great to have perfect fishing conditions for once. 

My mate Gordon and I went out for the first time in over a month. We fished just north of Nab Tower in lovely calm conditions with a fairly strong tide. It was just great to be out again after so long

 We fished the last three hours of the flood - fishing mackerel and squid.  I know you guys like pictures of doggies so I dutifully  caught a few and Gordon caught a pw smoothound.

 

Gordon then helpfully kept the strap conger occupied on his side of the boat which allowed me to catch some nice whiting plus a couple of thornback rays and a small blonde ray ( all on mackerel).
 


We had lunch whilst the tide turned and then I had a pb blonde ray of 24.5 lb on whole squid.  We had hoped for a cod but its three years now since we had one in the boat - but we live in hope. We called it a day around 3pm and headed back to Hayling Island for a beer.
 

My mate Gordon and I went out for the first time in over a month. We fished just north of Nab Tower in lovely calm conditions with a fairly strong tide. It was just great to be out again after so long

 We fished the last three hours of the flood - fishing mackerel and squid.  I know you guys like pictures of doggies so I dutifully  caught a few and Gordon caught a pw smoothound.

 

Gordon then helpfully kept the strap conger occupied on his side of the boat which allowed me to catch some nice whiting plus a couple of thornback rays and a small blonde ray ( all on mackerel).
 


We had lunch whilst the tide turned and then I had a pb blonde ray of 24.5 lb on whole squid.  We had hoped for a cod but its three years now since we had one in the boat - but we live in hope. We called it a day around 3pm and headed back to Hayling Island for a beer.
 

My mate Gordon and I went out for the first time in over a month. We fished just north of Nab Tower in lovely calm conditions with a fairly strong tide. It was just great to be out again after so long

 We fished the last three hours of the flood - fishing mackerel and squid.  I know you guys like pictures of doggies so I dutifully  caught a few and Gordon caught a pw smoothound.

 

Gordon then helpfully kept the strap conger occupied on his side of the boat which allowed me to catch some nice whiting plus a couple of thornback rays and a small blonde ray ( all on mackerel).
 


We had lunch whilst the tide turned and then I had a pb blonde ray of 24.5 lb on whole squid.  We had hoped for a cod but its three years now since we had one in the boat - but we live in hope. We called it a day around 3pm and headed back to Hayling Island for a beer.
 

Due to Lockdowns, boat servicing and a very windy May I haven't been out since before Christmas so I was delighted to get out on Saturday the 29th.
It was a spring tide so we kept fairly close inshore , apart from a brief , ill advised attempt to fish at Boulder where the tide was hammering through.  
We left  Chichester Harbour just before midday in order to fish the tide down. We caught a solitary mackerel on the dropoff outside  the harbour and then headed off to the east end of Bracklesham bay. I was hoping for bream so was armed with various pop up rigs and plenty of groundbait of rice, fish oil. Halibut pellets and mashed squid - how  could they resist?  Well resist they did - we caught plenty of dogfish and I lost what I think was a bream - but overall not a great deal to show for our efforts. In the distance we did see a steady stream of smoothounds being caught on a Charter boat.
 
Just to complete proceedings we nearly lost our anchor , and I seem to have completely forgotten how to berth my boat - causing some amusement amongst the punters at the bar at Sparkes Marina.
 
Still it was great to be out on such a lovely day and hopefully I will have something more interesting to report on my next  trip

Due to Lockdowns, boat servicing and a very windy May I haven't been out since before Christmas so I was delighted to get out on Saturday the 29th.
It was a spring tide so we kept fairly close inshore , apart from a brief , ill advised attempt to fish at Boulder where the tide was hammering through.  
We left  Chichester Harbour just before midday in order to fish the tide down. We caught a solitary mackerel on the dropoff outside  the harbour and then headed off to the east end of Bracklesham bay. I was hoping for bream so was armed with various pop up rigs and plenty of groundbait of rice, fish oil. Halibut pellets and mashed squid - how  could they resist?  Well resist they did - we caught plenty of dogfish and I lost what I think was a bream - but overall not a great deal to show for our efforts. In the distance we did see a steady stream of smoothounds being caught on a Charter boat.
 
Just to complete proceedings we nearly lost our anchor , and I seem to have completely forgotten how to berth my boat - causing some amusement amongst the punters at the bar at Sparkes Marina.
 
Still it was great to be out on such a lovely day and hopefully I will have something more interesting to report on my next  trip

Due to Lockdowns, boat servicing and a very windy May I haven't been out since before Christmas so I was delighted to get out on Saturday the 29th.
It was a spring tide so we kept fairly close inshore , apart from a brief , ill advised attempt to fish at Boulder where the tide was hammering through.  
We left  Chichester Harbour just before midday in order to fish the tide down. We caught a solitary mackerel on the dropoff outside  the harbour and then headed off to the east end of Bracklesham bay. I was hoping for bream so was armed with various pop up rigs and plenty of groundbait of rice, fish oil. Halibut pellets and mashed squid - how  could they resist?  Well resist they did - we caught plenty of dogfish and I lost what I think was a bream - but overall not a great deal to show for our efforts. In the distance we did see a steady stream of smoothounds being caught on a Charter boat.
 
Just to complete proceedings we nearly lost our anchor , and I seem to have completely forgotten how to berth my boat - causing some amusement amongst the punters at the bar at Sparkes Marina.
 
Still it was great to be out on such a lovely day and hopefully I will have something more interesting to report on my next  trip

Due to Lockdowns, boat servicing and a very windy May I haven't been out since before Christmas so I was delighted to get out on Saturday the 29th.
It was a spring tide so we kept fairly close inshore , apart from a brief , ill advised attempt to fish at Boulder where the tide was hammering through.  
We left  Chichester Harbour just before midday in order to fish the tide down. We caught a solitary mackerel on the dropoff outside  the harbour and then headed off to the east end of Bracklesham bay. I was hoping for bream so was armed with various pop up rigs and plenty of groundbait of rice, fish oil. Halibut pellets and mashed squid - how  could they resist?  Well resist they did - we caught plenty of dogfish and I lost what I think was a bream - but overall not a great deal to show for our efforts. In the distance we did see a steady stream of smoothounds being caught on a Charter boat.
 
Just to complete proceedings we nearly lost our anchor , and I seem to have completely forgotten how to berth my boat - causing some amusement amongst the punters at the bar at Sparkes Marina.
 
Still it was great to be out on such a lovely day and hopefully I will have something more interesting to report on my next  trip

This is my boat - a Merry Fisher MF755 Marlin. I share it with my buddy Gordon .
We really like the boat - the only downsize is that it can be tricky to berth n the wind( although that is probably as much me as the boat!)
 
 

This is my boat - a Merry Fisher MF755 Marlin. I share it with my buddy Gordon .
We really like the boat - the only downsize is that it can be tricky to berth n the wind( although that is probably as much me as the boat!)
 
 

This is my boat - a Merry Fisher MF755 Marlin. I share it with my buddy Gordon .
We really like the boat - the only downsize is that it can be tricky to berth n the wind( although that is probably as much me as the boat!)
 
 

This is my boat - a Merry Fisher MF755 Marlin. I share it with my buddy Gordon .
We really like the boat - the only downsize is that it can be tricky to berth n the wind( although that is probably as much me as the boat!)
 
 

We have had the boat for 6 years and have a Yamaha 150hp  which is perfect for us. 

This is my boat - a Merry Fisher MF755 Marlin. I share it with my buddy Gordon .
We really like the boat - the only downsize is that it can be tricky to berth n the wind( although that is probably as much me as the boat!)
 
 

Hi my name is Ian and I have been fishing all my life - mainly coarse and game fishing.
5 years ago I bought a Merry Fisher MF755 Marlin with my mate Gordon and we started boat fishing out of Sparkes Marina Hayling Island.It is a tremendous fishing boat although it can be entertaining trying to berth it in any wind!
I rapidly discovered Im a much more successful coarse and game angler than sea fisherman - but I love being out on the boat. We don't generally venture that far - the overfalls is about as far as we will go , but mostly we tend to fish over towards Selsey , over Isle of Wight way or out in the Nab region
 
Ironically the better we have got at sea fishing the worse the results have been - maybe reflecting the continued pressure on fish in our region.
Anyway Im always happy to share my experiences and what little knowledge I have acquired.