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Previous CATCH REPORT

Monday 23rd July 2018

Saturday's smooth seas enabled us to venture further and deeper. The fishing was good with fifteen tope all between 18lb and 31lb, Blonde Rays went up to 29.5lb and we had a nice Turbot making up the catch. There were some great fish lost, in particular one a very nice Turbot. There were plenty of Mackerel on Saturday too.

 Top left to right down : Rob with a nice Turbot, Clive with the biggest Tope weighed at 31lb and Kevin with a boat record equalling Blonde Ray of 29.5lb.

 Next Glynn and Rob with early Tope, that just kept getting a bit bigger all trip, and Paul with an Undulate Ray from an evening trip last week.

 Lastly, I'm holding Clive's 31lb Conger, Rob and Sean with a nice pair of Undulate Rays and Chris with a well marked Thornback Ray.

Tightlines,Les.

Tuesday 10th July 2018

 The fishing, the boat and the weather has been great. Here are some pictures. I have little spare time so the pictures will have to tell you most of it. However Mo with the 10lb Bass, was a day I will never forget. Every ten minutes the guys wanted to try something else. Most were ill, not sure what with and one tried to throw another off the side while in the English Channel! The other memorable trip was Terry Shergolds flatty rig day that caught a Brill or Turbot on each drift for the first three drifts and then another better Brill a couple of drifts later while the rest watched! And the huge numbers of Tope in the area at the moment.

I still have dates and times to suit everyone at the end of July and in August, so call me, or check my diary pages, Tightlines, Les

Tuesday 25th June 2018

Thirty species have been caught on White Maiden II over the last two weeks! Including Pollock, Pout, Poor Cod, Black Bream, Bass, Grey Gurnard, Tub Gurnard, Reticulated Dragonet, Rock Goby, Sand Goby, Tompot Blenny, Cuckoo Wrasse (1 male, 9 females), Ballan Wrasse, Baillons Wrasse, Goldsinney Wrasse, Corkwing Wrasse, Tope, Dogs, Huss, Hounds, Undulate Ray, Thornback Ray, Small Eyed Ray, Spotted Ray, Congers, Mackerel, Herring, Gar, Turbot and Plaice. No scad yet mind.

Pictures below - top left to right working down....Included in the list above was this best specimen 21lb Smoothound caught by James last week. I didn't include the Bruce caught Black Back Gull in the list above. I did include Dave Makervil's Pout! David's Small Eyed Ray was a tad over 8lb. Terry's Lobster came after two good Bass and a good Bream, an incredibly lucky angler :-). John caught the well marked and biggest Ballan Wrasse. It was suffering from barotrauma so I got it back down with my seaqualizer tool, it worked. Next is Alan at 89 years young who caught this small Turbot. Colin with his first Tope of the day. Jason with a specimen 16lb Undulate Ray. Colin with a Grey Gurnard. Adrian with a 16lb Tope and Paul with one the same size. Alan did get some help with his Undulate Ray.

  Tightlines, Les.

Sunday 10th June 2018

 The Bream chasing continues with Black Bream showing up in better numbers now. We caught the first Gurnard this week too. Also it was nice to see a summer Undulate Ray. Top to bottom, Left to Right, Alan from Wednesdays Bream trip, who starred with a personal haul of 17 good Bream, most released. Sean Marsh with a double figure Thornback caught just before we towed home the Power boat, on Tuesday evening, from off the shingles. The Calshot Lifeboat boys, Graham and Sean, did a great job while I just made decisions and helmed the boat.

Next are the Thursday lads during a purple patch with fish coming to the boat well, with some cracking Bream. On Friday I teamed up with Hermit for a lovely, relaxed day out, for a corporate fishing charter, SEan is showing his Tope. Yesterday, Simon won the biggest fish and Lee Marchant trophy, with this last cast 14lb Undulate Ray.

This week, I have spaces (£40pp) on a half day on Wednesday 1100 - 1600. There are three spaces (£50pp) on Friday and Saturdays inshore trips 0800 - 1630.

Tightlines, Les

Tuesday 5th June 2018

 I have been very busy chasing fish, very hard, all around the area. Three trips were shrouded by fog all day. There are more species about now and the Tope are moving in but bait fish have been hard to catch. Plenty of markings are showing on the sonar but they must be too small for our hooks. I suspect what we are trying to catch on our baits are gorging themselves on the very available white bait and ignoring the humble squid and frozen mackerel. Left to right is Glenn with a cracking Cuckoo Wrasse from the Thursday trip. Next is Matt with one of his Tope from Saturday. Then Callum and his Hound from their Friday evening. On Sunday John and I hosted the Army Boat v Shore teams. It was a good comp. on our boat we managed 12 species and about 70 fish. It was not easy but it was the same for both teams which made for a good comp. Matt the winner on my Boat won by a country mile or was it a nautical mile?

Tightlines Les.

Tuesday 30th May 2018

Pollock and Hounds are trending now along with Black Bream and a few Mackerel. The May bloom (suspended plankton / organic material) looks to be clearing and settling now so I am expecting some great fishing over the next two months.

Below is Chris and Bob with two of Saturdays Pollock caught well away from the backdrop. Chris caught the best Pollock at 11.5lb. Stuart is next with a Hound from Wednesday nights Dogfish trip! On Thursday we were close to home for some excellent Smoothound and Black Bream sport. Some took them on very light tackle. Left to right below is Jaz (I think), Sean Marsh and then Simon with a few of the Eighteen Hounds caught in just 20' of water with all but one returned to fight again. The Bream were not so lucky. 

Tightlines, Les

Wednesday 23rd May 2018

 
Sorry for late report but I am very busy and find this site the trickiest to update. Now I tend to save this one until last but note my Facebook website is always edited on a weekend and much easier to manage.

It has been a tricky week last week where we chased fish for all four days. We did find some good specimens on some days amongst lots of Dogfish. This is a short and sweet report as the pictures paint a thousand words. Hopefully I will fill out the report when time permits.

Top left to right, Chris and Bob with a Pollock a Cod. Then Chris with the best Bream so far at 3lb 12oz and Bob with a good one too from Mondays individuals trip. Next is Dave with a 3lb Bream, caught Friday, Phil with an oddly marked Lesser Spotted Dogfish and a couple of nice edible brown crab. Lastly is Chill with a nice Small Eyed Ray caught in the thick fog on Saturday which persisted all day!

Tightlines, Les

Sunday 13th May 2018

 On Saturday (yesterday) a local crew of occasional boat anglers and first timers caught the first Mackerel, Herring and Tope of the summer along with a 12lb 8oz Pollock on feathers! They also accounted for Conger, a Spotted Ray, Pout and Dogfish. This was all in a short five hour trip.

The guys fished patiently while we sought our prey and the search paid off eventually.

The Wednesday Bream team below led by Liam and Peter caught the best two at around 2lb 12oz on a quietish day. We managed twenty plus Bream along with Gars, Pollock, Pout, Dogs and Wrasse.

The sea is now crystal clear except for a bit of may bloom. Jelly fish are everywhere. This feels a bit more like the proper start to the summer season now. It is now only 5 weeks to the longest day of the year.

See diary for spaces tomorrow, Wednesday and next Monday.

Tightlines, Les

Tuesday 7th May 2018

Limited time for web updates.

But here's a taste, after some poor weather with just one trip two weeks ago, the lads top right, did well on the Saturday before last, with Rays and Plaice and since then, the weather has improved.

With the sun and clearer seas along came the Bream. We had three trips chasing them on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Rick Oats caught the three best Black Bream of all three trips that went 3lb2oz, 3lb and 2lb 10oz. Thursday was a search mission and we certainly did that. On Friday we did find lot of Bream but moved to find the bigger ones. Saturdays trip ended a bit early after a 'wasp swat' onto mackerel feathers, meant one of the guys had to go to Lymington A&E to have the hook removed.

Tightlines, Les

I still have some summer midweek dates available but thosw dates are now filling up very quickly. There are no weekends dates available now until the winter, so be warned.

Monday 23rd April 2018

      
Great weather and smooth seas but slow looking for the better fish still. The best of the last few trips was this 14lb Undulate Ray for Paul Crane. Well deserved and returned to fight again. Other fish caught while Breaming and Plaicing this week were Hounds, Congers, Dogs, Pout and Pollock. The Bream are there nesting but don't feed easily but they can be distracted from their nesting duty. The water was cardboard brown for two of the trips and not ideal. The best trusted reports are Black Bream of 5lb+ but just the very odd fish showing. So we will keep looking for them!
John Aslett is pulling the birds again :-). I reckon this is a Wood Warbler that stowed away with us while fishing off St Catherines Point, last week.  Tightlines Les.

Wednesday 18th April 2018

  On Saturday the fog was thick but we made our way to a deeper bank where we found a couple of Brill, Hounds, a Blonde Ray and a nice Pollock. Chris, Chris and Steve from left to right, show their catch. When the tide ebbed hard we moved inshore for lots of Pout and a Pollock. On Wednesday we tested a different bank for Rays and found a few Hounds with the Blondes. Ian caught the best Blonde at 14lb, flanked either side by Graham and Ken with their Hounds. A lovely day.

On Thursday a small crew caught some cracking plaice but as I was fishing too, I forgot the photos. On Friday a family crew hammered the dogfish and no doubt you know what they look like :-)...     Tightlines Les.

Monday 9th April 2018

On Wednesday I only had a small crew but we tricked thirteen Plaice between two of us with Gav catching the target species eventually for a reasonable fourteen. Graeme above caught the most and the biggest, both weighed 2lb. They looked bigger. There was a also a Conger, Spotted Ray, Pout, Dogs and a Hound.

On Sunday we fished a deep bank for Blonde Rays. We had some well marked fish with Ash on the right, catching the biggest fish and best specimen of the day with a nice 19lb'er.  The local builder crew also found a few other species. Kev and Mark, above, showing their Smoothound and Bull Huss. The sea is slowly warming up towards the summer fishing. It was nice to see other species now finding their way closer inshore.

I'm expecting Mackerel, Herring and Pollock to show up very soon so that will make for some good eating. I cant explain how nice Plaice is if you cook the ones that do not survive the catch and release.

I fill my fish box with a couple of inches of water and put all the dodgy looking ones and the keepers in there, all alive. At the end of play we keep a couple each for dinner and release all the healthy ones. After a day or two (not too fresh) cook the small ones as you would a sole, fried in butter with salt and pepper they are really nice.

There is a big fish trip this week with spaces on Wednesday and a Plaice trip with spaces on Thursday so just let me know if you fancy that.

Tightlines, Les

Tuesday 3rd April 2018

  A week getting ready for Easter trips only to be washed out. Still all up and ready to go. FYI for all those that didn't find my 2018 reports, until now, I have fixed a fault on the side bar. I stopped using that button so I didn't see the mistake but a few people had told me so (Chris, Bob, Tony!!)... FYI (2) I have trips on Wednesday and Saturday with spaces. We will be mainly targeting the Plaice with a chance for Turbot on Saturday.      Tightlines, Les

Wednesday 28th March 2018

Three charters were fished on White Maiden II last week of which the Sunday trip with the Dave Extance crew fished very well and caught all the fish that the other trips should have caught, that's fishing.

On Sunday we had a cracking day, with no wind, no swell and even a glimpse of the sun. This was exactly why I fish through the winter into spring. The Blonde Rays were consistently feeding through the small ebb and flood tides and a reasonable size too up to 17lb, so not a bad March catch by the end of the day.

As well as twelve Blonde Rays the Dave Extance crew caught two Small Eyed Rays and a Thornback Ray plus dogfish. We lost a Tope or Spur that bit through. Simon certainly did well with his 12' trace and single 6/0 hook as he accounted for nearly half the Rays caught including the best at 17lb.

On Saturday we nearly blanked. As did others around us. At the end of the day I found too much good bait that was left unused eg black lug, razor fish and rag worm. The Plaice are definitely there. On Sunday most boats there accounted for 18 - 22 Plaice exactly where we had fished. All found Black lug important to add to their cocktail baits.

Simon is showing three of his seven Ray catch, Dave is below left and Darren is below right.

Tightlines, Les

 Friday 16th March

Mexico, last day, with a 7am start giving us just enough time to get some proper fishing in. Over the last two weeks I have done the family thing, times twenty!! A tad excessive for a selfish fisherman in my opinion :-)... My Sister-In-Laws Mexican family are lovely people but generally it is not the most 'safest feeling' place to be. There are too many Police and Soldiers with machine guns. You see security all over the country, everywhere you go. We are so lucky in Britain. We visited Mexico City (3 nights), Delicias (Chiwauwau), Barrancus Copper Canyon (2 nights), Chiwauwau City, Guadalajara (2 nights), Pueto Vallarta (6 nights) and Yuillita. Five flights, two seven hour train journeys and a six hour coach trip! Anyway back to the fishing at the start of our last day.
   

At 7am we headed out to where, just 15 hours before, we were snorkelling before getting hammered on cheap beer and Tequila, in fact booze was free on our party boat.

Our fishing day was, as usual in this area on the West Coast, calm and warm. It is a good place to visit in our February and March for a recharge.

After spotting the birds working we trolled through and hit two hard fighting Jacks (Caravelle) both around 25lb. I coaxed one in easily on a broom stick and wanted more until the skipper gaffed it through the gut. The plan was to release them.

We trolled some more and cast live baits at another bait ball but that was it. Two was enough as we had to eat them, which we did, or give them away. The fried fish steaks and crevice was the best meal I ate in Mexico. Please. no more goat!
 

On the left, is a picture of our return to port. It's not easy to see but behind the boat in our wash was 'Red Tide'. This is where the winter cold water gets below the warm water and kills the krill turning the sea red.                             Tightlines Amigos, Les.

Tuesday 27th February 2018

 Just starting to get a bit too cold! On the last trip a small crew braved the elements and a lazy force 5 blowing from the East, against the tide, for most of the day. It was bloody cold. The dogs from a week ago had all gone. The Congers from two weeks ago have all gone too! So just Rays and only four of them. Ian Hewett caught the best Blonde Ray at 16lb 4oz and the best Small Eyed Ray at 6lb 4oz. Funny old game. Well that's it for a few weeks now but if you are looking to book with me I suggest that you do that as soon as possible as bookings are coming in steadily and the warmer months will fill up as we get closer to them.

Tight lines, Les.

Saturday 10th February 2018

 we have just had some superb weather that made the quieter fishing this week more palatable for the anglers. on Friday a full crew had a few Congers, along with Steve's 5lb Bass, Pete's 12lb Spur and Johns Blonde Ray but they all caught far too many Dogfish. Not their fault, they were the ones taking the smaller baits. The tide was a bit big but just manageable out on the banks.

On Saturday we chased the horizon, covering a total of 95 miles, up to 36 miles to the South East of the Needles Light house. It was a good chase with a small crew that worked hard but all to no avail. It was one of those days. More wrecking trips or Plaice fishing on the big tides and fishing the offshore banks on the small tides will be our plans for the next month, so check out the diary for options and dates. 

Tight lines, Les

Saturday 10th February 2018

 'Cracking February Fishing'

  If you like a lot of weight on your rod then this was the trip to be on. On Thursday I rounded a crew of hopefuls that were on standby. We were fishing in a small tide which meant the lead weights never went over a pound but the fish were feeding extremely well. And they were all big and weighty. Nearly all of them went back to do their spring thing. Peter Hellyar caught a superb 29lb specimen Blonde Ray, a feisty 38lb Conger, a specimen 10lb 2oz Bass and a 10lb Thornback plus Whiting and more Congers. All these fish were returned except for the small Whiting which made very good live baits. Ian Hewett caught this lovely 17lb Undulate Ray plus a 12lb Blonde Ray and Congers. Mike Callus caught the cracking 23lb Blonde Ray and a 30lb Conger plus another Blonde Ray and smaller Congers. Devon caught the first and best Small Eyed Ray at around 7lb. There were also more Whiting, Eels and Rays caught by the rest of the crew. I was pretty knackered at the end of it because of all the weight lifting plus the sea state continued to build gradually throughout the day, before we made a run for the Solent to finish off in comfort.

Fingers crossed for some better weather now so we can test the mark again.

Tightlines, Les

 Monday 28th January 2018

 
 Ye ha! Two days of fishing and all is well again with the world! After last weeks poor weather, I managed to pull two guys forward to Friday and get a few more for a six hour trip, after Saturday's forecast turned from good to wet and windy. It was very nice, due south of the Needles, with an 11lb Cod, a dozen Congers to 25lb, a few Whiting and Pout, plus a couple of Spotted Rays and a Smoothound.

On Sunday the Dave Extance party, having missed a couple due to weather, fished in a F5/6 Westerly, comfortably down the Solent. I moved marks to avoid a swinging stern as it was F4/5 Westerly against a small ebbing tide early on. We a few fish mostly Pout, some Whiting and Dogs but it was Glynn who won the 'Lee Marchant biggest fish trophy' with a Spotted Ray just under 4lb.

The rest stuck to the task but the cloudy water and the sprats marking in the top 15' probably did not help us much.

My emergency food supply came in useful after a couple of the guys forgot their lunch. So out came the Sainsbury's Chilli Con Carne and instant mash. It went down a treat!

Tightlines, Les.

Monday 15th January 2018

What a great start to the New Year with two good days at anchor, South of the Needles, on Thursday last week and yesterday (Sunday).Iif we can get out and South of the Island, the fishing is good. You have to wear plenty of layers and barrier gloves like I do, when fishing, if it gets very cold but the cabin is warm and the kettle is red hot!

Top left below is Jack Sillence with the best fish over the last two trips, a cracking 14lb Pollock from Sundays trip. Steve Miller caught another double figure Pollock on Thursday from the same position on the boat, also falling to fish bait. Peter Hellyar weighed in with a nice 12lb male Undulate Ray and Fred caught the best Whiting at 3lb 12ozs. The picture of the three of us show's some nice fish all caught at the same time. Both trips saw Rays, Congers, lots of Whiting, a few Smoothounds and a Pollock plus Pout and Dogs. A friend of mine close by boated a 40lb Tope, which proves the water is still 'November temperatures'.

 I kept my Conger and we had it for lunch and dinner and froze some down. It is very good to eat, if you; take the best, bone free 'sadle fillets' from behind the head down to the vent. I cut the head and tail off, clean the gut and do the precision stuff at home. At home, I cut the large fillets off and skin, then cut into thin fillets and par boil (5 mins in water with added salt), then fry in butter, salt and pepper. You will be amazed at how good Conger Eel is to eat, so don't return mortally injured Eels. There can be quite a lot of waste, as I am fussy over the fillets, so I would only do this to those Congers that wont go back or for someone else who specifically wants to eat it.     Tightlines and Happy New Year!     Les

 Merry Christmas, Tightlines, and Happy New Year, Les

     Tightlines, Les

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