mike farrants

Apologies for the recent winds, I took a week off work to fish - so of course it blew up. Saturday 17th August - Me, Tim and my father in law Phil out on Tim's boat - with fresh baits sorted we picked a new spot south of the shambles in 100ft of water, reportedly good for big rays, the hour long steam out was made better by the arrival of a pod of dolphins who played with us for about 5 mins. on arrival at the mark we were comforted by the fact 3 charters were there too - hopes were high! down went the fresh mackerel baits - pretty soon phil was into a run of pout - some of them pretty big, I had a big tope, which put up a good fight - it was t-barred at the side so no pics. we also had eels and dogs. pretty soon the charters moved off and we soon found out why - the tide was ripping and half pound of lead wasn't holding - so we moved too. The new mark showed up some rays, more conger and dogs, plus bream with the wind blowing 15-20mph the rest of the week we didn't have many more options other than to take my boat Pugwash out and stay close in fishing the inshore reefs wrecks and sand. we managed a few afternoon trips and had mackerel & Gurnard. plus we got papped going out under the bridge!

love finding free tackle = I was spinning the other day knee deep from the shore and spotted a free weighted sandeel type lure lying there, picked it up banged it on and gave it a go! no fish though!

Wow - what an excellent trip! amazing fish!

Welcome Matt - I too have been out with Les on White maiden, he's a great skipper - been out a few times a few years back. he took great delight in showing me how to hold a conger properly - i mean he kept on showing me...... 🤣 and it had to be those 2 fingers......

we get them here on the sand banks - like the Shambles, adamant etc - i've never caught one yet but seen them landed!!

Deffo a Grey top and Tub below! As Andy says dark spot on back of dorsal fin is the giveaway on a Grey, TUb has blue edges to pec fins, and A Red is very Red with bright orange eyes well done! I need a grey for my species hunt - have the other 2x I bloody love a gurnard - one of my fav fish!

nice one - speed trial accomplished!

Boat comp time again - i'm a serious match angler so no time for photos lol 🤣 (read: not many photo worthy fish) Max 106 points for 10 fish of each species (30, 15, 15, 40 then 1 point each for the next 6), there's also prizes for the most fish, most species and the nominated fish of the day measured on length - todays fish was Red gurnard - and as no one had won the nominated species last 2x times it was a double roll over - £180!!! Comp started at 9am and we hit the small stuff first to bag a few early points - Wrasse, pout, pollock and unclassified (other small species), Tims son drove the Boat as his target was the nominated species. I had 4 pout, 2 wrasse, Tim had his 10 pout, 10 wrasse, 4 unclassified and 4 Pollock i was on 145, Tim was off to a flyer on 412 after 2 hours. we moved off to the mixed ground mark - leaving us about 4 hours for other fish - Tim's son dropped down first and would you believe it - must have put his bait right on the nose of a red gurnard - measuring 30cm - at least he had a chance of a prize. Tim then bagged up = bream, congers, Dogs, thornies, more pout. His son also had dogs, eels and lost a 20lb tope at the boat! i had a slow day - well out of contention with just 3x bream, 2x dogs and 4x congers, we got to the club house to be me with someone with a large red gurnard - so our only hope was Tims count or the raffle! Tim didn't win most points but did win most species! A lovely day out - flat calm and sunny all day!

nice one - a successful trip!

caught my first and only plaice out of bembridge

excellent fish and sticker placement!

haha very true Daio 🤣 We both know where the fish are - but his boat gets us there and back in one day lol I don't take mine far offshore!

genuinely not - yes the turbot pic was tweaked - but not these 2 - just a good camera and a loverly day for it!

no filters on these pics

Had a free afternoon before the Euros finals and it was lovely so i took pugwash out solo to see what was about. Just a simple potter about with some feathers. not much action - just 1 Small tub gurnard - lovely afternoon to be out though!

Out on Tims boat with his son Jamie, aim was for fresh mackerel at the entrances and then onto the Shambles to fish for flatties, then try for bass in the building race off of Portland Bill. Mackerel were hard to come by - but we managed 4 decent ones and a scad. we were soon off to drift the shambles - first couple of drifts nothing - but we were getting pushed more by the wind than tide so we repositioned and i hook a lovely turbot. not long before Tim lands a lovely Brill. fishing was slow so we moved closer to the Bill and tried with Lures - i thought Tim had snagged the bottom until he said get the net...... and up comes a monster 6.2lb Wrasse! his PB and well over specimen size. His son then bags a lovely PB bass at last knockings! Not many fish, but all special fish, and fresh turbot for me for tea!!

huge fish! that barra has scales the size of coasters!

nice one luke!

nice mixed bag that!

All over the bay. We had 2 in the entrances then 2 at 5 miles out in 80ft water! It’s just they tend to concentrate in the tidal flow of the entrances!

another good forecast saw us head out again - usual mark this time and 4 of us. Mackerel were hard to find across all 3 of portlands entrances - with only 2 in the bucket after an hour we went to the mark. were were either fishing big baits for rays/huss/eels or small baits for Bream etc. I had a couple of lovely bull huss, and a small but lively tope. plenty of dogs and eels too. big baits were getting stripped by the bream so you knew when you had no bait left as the rattles stopped - on one occasion I was reeling in an empty hook and a mackerel took it on the way up - an empty hook perfectly set in its mouth! Tim also caught some mackerel pout and scad to top up the fresh bait he was on the bream and must have had 20+ of varying sizes. he got in amongst the big fish too.... his sons had thornies, eels, bream and dogs fish for the day included Bull huss, Thornbacks, bream, Tope, Mackerel, Scad, Pout, Conger, and dogs

nice one!

could you please talk me through the smoking process - i was gifted a smoker (stainless steel box with parafin(?) holders) - but have no idea what to use or how to do it.

I get your point Neil, and i did consider my decision before keeping it - but i've only caught 2x bass in the last 5 years fishing (only 3 keepers in my entire life), and i certainly wont be taking the next few bass - even if i'm lucky enough to catch one. given its likely 20yrs old, it pretty much past breeding age - i'd argue its the small younger ones that should go back. I'm not up for a debate on the rights and wrongs of keeping fish - I only take what I'm going to eat - I put more fish back than I take home.

i know- they were rueben heatons - but on a moving boat..... it was 72cm on a milwaukee tape measure if you wish to do the calcs..... but i thinks that's still under 10lb