mike farrants

turbot is the best tasting fish in my book. Squid i enjoy in moderation - 90% of the squid i catch goes in the bait freezer

this time of year you should leave the squid jigs just off the bottom the whole time you are fishing - let the boat do the work - plenty of them about and cuttle!

awesome - they look like powerful fish - great stuff!

Sunday was forecast for light winds off the the land, so had to get out - took the other half out on pugwash in search of some squid. She really doesn't like fish or fishing, but was willing to spend a few hours afloat as long as she didn't have to do anything! 11am start and we were off out the harbour in glorious sunshine, as we approached Portland's north entrance i chucked the Squid jigs down feeling hopeful, being restless the mackerel feathers soon went over the side too - i had an old set that were busted up and now only 2 hooks remained, but i thought with the Mrs on board that would mean less 'flapping' - wasnt long before i was into a 'full string' of 2. happy blank saved. I switched to a slow jig while we drifted near the wall hoping for a bass/pollock/wrasse but nothing. moving slightly inside portland harbour i suddenly saw movement on the squid rod - bang first squid landed - only a small one - but target achieved Almost immediately the feathers went - Tub Gurnard - happy days! then i had another larger squid, the next drift we had company - the guy that runs Chesil bait and tackle was out in his boat - saw him land a few cuttle and i saw him get an inky shot right in the kisser (haha) I soon was into another squid which was followed right up to the surface by a cuttle - i couldn't get him with the net though. I sent the jigs straight back down and was immediately into another - I thought it might be the cuttle taking them on the drop - but it was a 4th squid. wasn't long before 2.30pm came around and we headed in as i wanted to watch the rugby at 4pm. a great few hours afloat bait freezer topped up (and an excellent game of rugby!)

Nice one Ian - your the 3rd person i know to take a hit to the face this week! I've avoided it luckily - but its only a matter of time!

Awesome days fishing and some fantastic memories made there! (I also once lost the anchor bouy while anchored - had to leave the anchor rope attached to a load of fenders, go rescue the bouy, return to my anchor rope, then fashion a new alderney ring out of a bucket handle. I learned a lot that day!)

Given the weather was so calm all weekend and into Monday i decided to give the squid a go off weymouth Stone pier after work as i arrived, people were landing and losing squid so it filled me with confidence - the piers in Weymouth get rammed in squid season - people travel from all over bringing underwater, lights, tents, banter, BBQs and beers, and its a bit crazy to be fair! I found a spot half way down the pier, and was soon crowded out with people right next to me - one of them had an underwater light which made for some good viewing of the underwater world after dark. amazing how many small pollock, wrasse, pouting etc are drawn in. I was armed with 2 rods, one set up with a jig below a float that i could leave out and then i worked the other jig on a cast and retrieve method. more squid came from the end of the pier, but it wasn't long before they moved down the pier and on our side a shoal appeared and we all hooked up at the same time! I had one squid in in hour at dusk, and missed a few takes. but then it went quiet. the guy next to me was using live prawns and he heard of a bass chasing someone elses squid jig, so he moved across the pier and within 2 mins (after nearly losing his rod) he hooked into a decent keeper bass - seems live prawn is like crack to a hungry bass. a lovely sunset, more bait for the freezer and my squid account open for the season!!

sounds like an awesome couple of days - and all targets acquired! nice - we get more squid than cuttle here - but will keep trying for some this autumn!

with a forecast of 20 degrees and zero wind we had to take full advantage! Small tides was the only downside of the day. Met at Tims boat at 7am - plan was bait first then head the 7 miles offshore to the adamant bank. Was a glorious morning and there were plenty of mackerel found early on - with bait taken care of before the sunny was full up - (12 good sized mackerel) we switched to squid lures - only finding one cuttle which escaped at the surface! we soon pushed on to the adamant, anchored up in the slight tide, Tim fished 3 rods with big baits, I fished one big bait, one small squid baits and dangled the sabikis over the side hoping for some fresh launce. Tim was soon into a decent fish which gave a spirited fight on his 6-12lb class rod - 3 or 4 runs uptide we guessed Tope - and sure enough a decent tope of probably 20Lb - by the time he decided he wanted a pic - we didn't have time to get the net before it bit off the trace. Wasn't long before my feathers went slack - odd - turned out to be a Smoothound caught up in one of Tim's traces - I though he had hooked it and it got tanged but no - the smoothound had taken my sabikis and swam round his line - probably lucky as it didnt snap me off and we landed it! amazing to see a sabiki hook in a decent smoothie - we estimate 5lb. I thought id try a new weight from "C weights" where you attach the hook directly to the lead - apparantley pins the bait to the bottom - all it found were dogfish through........ nevermind. Tim had a few smaller tope to keep him busy the tide dropped right off and it all went quiet - the new tide took forever to turn us, and many tangles were had - at one point a Gurnard came to the boat in such a tangle we never found out who actually hooked it! once the new tide settled in the fishing picked up again - i had a nice spotty ray, and a few more dogs, tim had a few more small tope. nothing remarkable except for the weather - a stunning day to be out - we pulled anchor at 4pm!

awesome - nice one!

in fishermans terms of course.......

i bloody love squid fishing - great fun isnt it! I havent had a chance from shore yet this season - out on the boat sunday and might try the pier on monday evening

not very far then? im only 6ft. looks like a cracking day and a good mixed bag too - that tope must have put up a decent scrap!

nice one luke!

it was around 6inches in body length - so only a little one -= we've had 4 pounders before

I tried Thursday evening from the pier here - gave up after 30mins

heard reports of squid showing up so thought we would do a dawn raid..... 5am alarm and down on Tims boat for 5.30 - His new spot lights were great for lighting up his foredeck and rails - not so good for spotting pot bouys (😜) - so we used the plotter to take a wide berth out of the harbour - no issues and we were on the mark before first light - glowing squid jigs went down and after an hour we only managed the one - still target acquired - guessing the water is still very dirty from the storms earlier in the week. off out to anchor up and due to the massive tides and strong SSW wind we opted for an inshore mark - 3Nm off on mixed ground known to show up allsorts. we weren't disappointed! between us we had a steady stream of fish all day.... Mackerel, Loads of red gurnards, loads of black bream, conger, dogfish, smoothounds, Scad, Tope, I do love a red gurnard! Feisty tope was a surprise! brought home one squid and 2x black bream for the table, plus a couple of mackerel for the bait freezer. a long but cracking day - and still in shorts in Oct!

nice one malc - good to be out nonetheless!

I do hope its not the anchoring experience that's put you off - as it does get easier with practice and experience!

i must add i've never attempted it solo - not sure i would in my boat

I can usually see the buoy easy enough to chug past, if i cant then i try a touch of reverse before moving off to tighten the warp - this usually allows me to see the bouy one side or the other, then start my manoeuvre, but exactly as Ian says i tie off to a Samson post on the stern and pull from there - easy to see the warp. but the choppier the conditions the harder the manoeuvre is. some people put a small piece of broomstick or an alderny triangle thing between tbe bouy and boat to hold the bouy off a few meters

had some left over rag worm so headed out to chesil for an hour so after work on a lovely evening. Light offshore winds and a calm sea - was just a scratching session to use up some worm. One big rig out - pulley pennel with a whole king prawn - got me nothing, but the scratching rod with a 2 hook flapper baited with rag tipped with squid was getting me constant knocks but no hook ups - i switched to smaller hooks and a delicate approach and was rewarded with a couple of small bream (and a lovely sunset)

looks stunning! lovely!

We had constant bream all day Saturday - seemed they were ravenous despite the heat and lack of tide

With a 30+deg day and no wind we just had to get out. Haven't been out on Tims boat seadog for a couple of months - we hit the bay for mackerel early, found around 7 or so (kept 4 big ones for tims BBQ) Soon we headed out to the mixed ground mark and it didn't disappoint. Bream all day (apart from slack) provided great sport on the light rod - and some big ones too - i got my new PB of 2.0lb - which cam e home for dinner. I had a lovely grunty gurnard. I also had Scad, pout, conger and dogfish. Tim had the same plus 2x thornbacks. we also heard a PanPan turn into a mayday - a local charter skipper had a customer collapse on his board - lifeboat and Heli both called - but heli was going to be some time - so the skipper managed to get his boat back into Weymouth and a waiting ambulance with an escort from the AWL. Not sure on the patients outcome - hope all was ok.