Scotch_Egg2012

12 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

That’s strange, because I’ve not caught a cod in the solent for the last two seasons. 

Last few years has been dire for them everywhere but the Solent threw more up than outside.

Last year the Cod pool on Dointhedo charter boat was won by a 4lb Cod from Browndown he puts a fair amount of time in outside the Solent

Meant to add end of October onwards is when we'll start to fish it.  Stay in the Solent for them in Sept/Oct all the usual spots, Brambles, Lepe, Ryde middle, Gilkicker etc they tend to come into the Solent before heading out to the Nab areas end of October onwards. 

Last few years the Solent has out fished Needles and Nab almost like they came straight into the Solent and didn't head back out

5 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

Thanks Scott - I appreciate the guidance on conditions. It will be a learning curve for sure 👍

I use Nab area as a guide, if you head out and its lumpy at the Nab it will be much worse at the Spoils. 

4 hours ago, Andy135 said:

This winter I'm setting myself a target of catching a cod from my local patch. I've tried somewhat halfheartedly, and without success, over the last few seasons but this year will be the year of the cod!

I've been keeping my ear to to the ground and an area known as the Spoils seems to feature regularly in the few catches that are made in the east Wight area every year. It's an old dumping ground and I've heard it can be very snaggy, so I'll need to trip my anchor. At between 30-40m it's also relatively deep compared with the Solent and inshore Wight marks, so big weights and big baits will be the order of the day. Wish me luck!

A spot I've fished a lot,  don't go there in tides above a 4.3m measured at Southampton you'll need a car to hold bottom.  Also be careful with the weather because it does rough up there with not a lot of wind.  I'll not be heading there in anything above 10mph SW,  but you can fish a F4 NE bit lumpy but fish able. 

Ray is a master at catching Cod and its his No 1 spot,  he's had a lot out of there upto 30lb

PM if you want some numbers

I think a lot of issues with mullet come from misidentification.   It's very difficult to tell thick from thins when they are swimming around. It can be done but it ain't easy. 

The two species require very different tactics and aren't normally caught on the wrong tactics.  Thins like a mepps type spinner with a worm bait in close trail, whereas thicks will ignore that in favours of bread, fish flake, maggots etc.  Thins usually ignore those baits. 

I've seen lots of anglers throwing bread in front of thins and it get totally ignored much to their frustration. 

A few pointers to help anyone interested these aren't hard and fast but combined will usually result in a correct ID. 

If you are looking at a Shoal of 5 or more fish swimming round and flashing their sides I'd be starting to think thins. Thick are generally seen in smaller shoals. 

If you can get a good look 2 features on thins to look for, a black spot at the base of the pectoral fin and to me their heads look too long as they have shorter pectorals than thicks, so looks like they have dumpy fins. 

Behaviour is a key,  usually they are thins if you see lots of bow waves in the margins combined with swimming down to the bottom and coming up with mud streaming out of their gills, as previously they do this in shoals.  Not usual behaviour seen in thicks. 

Location, under pontoons, around boat hulls or structure usually thicks, thins tend to spend more time out in the open often in the margins

Just a few pointers that can help get a good ID. 

My favourite though, chuck out some surface flakes 9 out 10 a thick will hit it, thins will ignore it... But not always............ 😂😂😂

42 minutes ago, mike farrants said:

is there a particular season or tactics? or is it the same as other flatfish - eg bling and worms?

No bling for Sole, They can be quite finicky.

As Neil said the rig needs to be nailed on the seabed. 

Shortish hook length size 4 hooks

Season July/August/September 

They'll take Rag & Lug,  but also at times squid or mackerel strips.  

9 minutes ago, mike farrants said:

never caught a sole - are there many around my neck of the woods?

i'm mostly sand shingle and rock

If they are there look for the sand banks,  I know Chesil and Preston beaches produce them

Are we still able to order hoodies? 

5 hours ago, Saintly Fish said:

Lovely fish Scott, over what type of ground did you catch them? 

Mudbanks mate just off of Calshot if you want the numbers I'll send them to you

14 hours ago, jonnyswamp said:

Had a trip cancelled today that was targeting Bream at anchor over wrecks

Has anyone used slow jigs while anchored, my thinking was that the slow jigs fall haphazardly and not just straight back down vertically like a pirk

Is it worth trying a very quick retrieve for a couple of metres and let it "flutter" back down, working your way up through the water column ?

Obviously will be covering the same ground, unless you run around the boat 

 

I've been seriously looking at slow jigging and done a lot of reading up on it. 

From what I've seen the jig needs to be worked vertically so if you anchored with tide running the jig would be pulled away from the boat and not work effectively.  It'd be OK at slack water.  With tide running you'd need to drift and cast it ahead of your drift so when it's in the zone you want it's under you and working vertically. 

You described a lot of what I've watched when saying to retrieve and flutter up through the water column. You're covering all the ground doing it that way. 

I've thought about them for wrecking when the tide goes slack. The shad catches seem to die off and I thought a slow jig might winkle something out

4 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

Yes there were loads of them splashing around in the morning at low tide. No wonder a colony of seals has made their home there! Next time I will go armed!

May even get one on a lure with my new spinning rod you recommended!

Some big thick lipped at the head of the creeks perfect to have a go at on the kayak. 

Newtown has a healthy stock of mullet,  I'd be tempted take a few loaves of bread 🥖 and have a dabble.  It is a beautiful spot. 

2 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

What casting weight did you go for and is it ok for say a 4-6oz lead when mackerel fishing?

I went for the 30-70 I have used 9 oz on it when drifting for Bass. I have gently lobbed an 8oz out on it and use a 5oz on my feathers which it copes with very well

And forgot to mention there is a sticker on it that's claims it is "Unbreakable" 

4 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

That's the one that Graeme Pullen uses IIRC?

Yep,  I'm really impressed. Not a lot of money for quite a bit of rod. 

I purchased Nomura Kanji early last month,  really like the rod and has good reviews.  You need to not be bothered by the rods colour though as its white.

On 7/30/2021 at 6:55 PM, Andy135 said:

Well, I haven't had an apologetic call from the dry stack team, so I can only assume she's still safe and sound...

 

 

....either that or they're still busy calling everyone else on the rack and they haven't got down to my name yet! 😱🤣

No movement on any boats that I could see,  yard were still moving boats on and off the racks,  they normally suspend that once wind limit is exceeded

8 hours ago, Andy135 said:

This is a good suggestion. @Scotch_Egg2012's boat is on the top row of the same rack as mine in our marina. Scott, do you know if the dry stack team move the top boats off? Guessing they probably don't have enough ground racks for all the boats on both top rows though.

As far as I am aware they don't bring the boats down,  mine stayed up on the top rack in the SW F10 we had earlier this year.   

55 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

Agree with Mike. 100lb mono leaders for conger, paired with 6/0 Aberdeens. For other fishing I tend to use 40lb mono leaders, with hooks sized appropriately for whatever the target species is.

For plaice specifically, I use 15lb fluoro leaders, usually around 1.5-2ft long, behind a watch lead - watch leads have been proven to puff up silt and sand on the sea floor more effectively than other lead shapes, and this puff of material draws in the plaice as they think that it's a prey fish feeding. The relatively short leader then presents your hookbait in the vicinity of the puff of sand, leading to a better hook-up rate (although I still seem to blank more than I catch when plaice fishing). I also use black and green beads on the leader. Others use different coloured beads depending on what fishes best on their local marks.

For bream there are some good threads on here regarding bream rigs. @Scotch_Egg2012 has done some side by side comparisons if I remember correctly and found that hook lengths with pop-up/floating beads were more effective at catching bream than those without. Usually a 2 or 3 hook flapper rig with small (size 4-6) hooks are used, along with pop-up beads, and thin, finger-length strips of squid.

I doubt that hook size or bait size will prevent marginally under-sized fish from being caught, so you may decide to go with smaller hooks and return those that are not in size, given that young anglers usually find catching something small is better than catching nothing.

I did indeed run side by side tests, the pop ups noticeably out fished the non pop up. 

I have converted Ray to use them, he was very sceptical but also ran a side by side and got the same results.  Yellow pop ups seemed to be the most effective

They also work for Whiting, Pout, Scad etc the list goes on,  I have had rays, small Tope and Hounds into double figures take the rig often at the cost of a heavier rig I'd set up for them. 

1 minute ago, Andy135 said:

More details in due course, but it's fair to say that @Saintly Fish deserves a medal for all of his organisation of the Metz and his skippering this afternoon. Some good fish were had by all.

@captin slows old outlaw and I had to work hard for ours but we avoided the blank eventually with a mackerel on a bream rig and this decent smoothound that took the bait like a steam train. Not huge but very sporting.

Good that the fish gods duly delivered.  

On 7/2/2021 at 8:59 PM, Andy135 said:

Made it to Mercury safely in the end, despite my best efforts at the fuel pontoon @Scotch_Egg2012 🤣

@JonC, @Geoff, @Maverick, @captin slows old outlaw and @Saintly Fish are all looking forward to tomorrow's dangling. The start time however is directly proportional to the number of pints sunk this evening!

I did slow in case you needed a hand.  Looked like you had it under control though. 

I never fuel up on the outside of that pontoon you get beat up by wash etc. 

Hope the fishing was good looked a little bumpy when I drove past Lee. 

4 hours ago, Saintly Fish said:

@Scotch_Egg2012thanks for the heads up Scott. Fingers crossed the father in law will be ok. 

Thanks Neil, fingers and toes crossed, he's quite a medical miracle but at 87 it gets harder to recover

Thought I'd best post,  things have been thrown up in the air the past week so or which may affect whether I can make it or not. 

Without too much detail my father in law was taken into hospital last week and he is not in a very good way. 

My plan stands to attend but may not be possible if things get worse. 

I'll know more towards the latter part of the week