Guildford City Sea Angling Club

Trip Reports 2008

28 December 2008 - Hayling Island - Great White (Sean Heath)

Cancelled due to unsuitable weather forecast (Awful Cold East Wind)

14 December 2008 - Hayling Island - Great White (Sean Heath)

[Photo Alan Whitaker with 29.3lb Blonde]

Another cold day with a fair breeze from the north, nine club members on the boat.

This was supposed to be a Cod and Whiting trip, but plans seldom work out as expected when confronted by reality, especially when fishing is involved. Tackling up was a slow business with cold fingers making knot tying difficult and most of the lads went for simple rigs with single large hooks.

First stop was a sandy area on top of a rocky ridge. Down went the large squid baits for the cod. Bites almost straight away but not from the hoped for cod. A Dogfish and a Pout and then a Blonde Ray of 7lb, followed by one of 17lb, next one of 23lb, then 21lb and 24lb, topped off with a magnificent 29.3 lb fish.

Then when the tide stopped running the rays stopped biting and the boat swung round in the wind so it was off to the Nab in search of the elusive Cod. Big cod baits for some while others tried multi-hook traces for Whiting, and others hedged their bets with a big bait and a flyer.

It was not to be, the best of the day was done and after a fairly unproductive couple of hours there we went back toward port trying another inshore mark on the way which was also provided little in the way of fish.

At the end of the day the bag totalled six Blonde Rays, a little Thornback, a few Dogfish, some Pout, (all returned) and several Whiting. The only fish taken home were a couple of sizeable Whiting.
[Photo Mick Coppinger and Peter Talbot with Blondes 17 and 23 lb [Photo Mick Doody with Blonde 7lb] [Photo Jim Grant with Blonde 21lb]

[Report by Jim]

6 December 2008 - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Steve Hipgrave)

Only six club members on the boat, two coudn't make it and the possible substitutes were also otherwise engaged (or didn't fancy it).
What a day though - the offshore breeze meant that the sea was not too rough but it was absolutely ffffreezing, especially at the start. with the stormy weather over the previous week we had been warned that the Bass were probably not around but Steve decided that we should have a little go at them (just in case).
He probably wanted us to move around a bit and stop moaning about the cold anyway. A good decision, they were not exactly suicidal but there were still quite a few about and after a bit of advice and a couple of demonstration catches by by Steve, most of us seemed to get the hang of it.
When the tide stopped running, the Bass stopped taking, so down went the anchor near a rough bit. The fish didn't seem that keen on our squid and frozen mackerel baits so we just had a few Dogfish and Pout and I got a Cod of 9lb.
After slack water we just had time for a few more drifts. A couple of Bass and then Simon called for the net, "just swing it in" we all told him. "I can't" he kept saying. In the end we let Steve get at it with the landing net (it weighed 12lb). Shortly afterward Steve (our expert Bass fishing skipper) netted one for himself of 11.5lb which he gently released to rejoin its mates and grow even larger.
[Photo Bass 12lb]

Then there were a few more Bass and two largish Ballan Wrasse (3lb 2oz and 3lb 6oz) caught on the Bass lures.
So in the end everyone had a couple of nice Bass to take home. Another excellent day.
[Report by Jim]

15 November 2008 - Hayling Island - Great White (Sean Heath)

Originally this trip was booked with Valkyrie, but as the boat had just been sold Glenn set us up with Sean as a substitute. Glenn is now fitting out the new Valkyrie which is expected be operational in a three months or so. A big tide so we started out on an shallow inshore mark. After a very unproductive start with nothing but one dogfish and a whiting and the boat blowing about in the wind it was decided that a move into a bit more tide would pay dividends. Heading out to the deeper water proved a good move and so we ended the day with a couple of cod (4lb and 7lb), a Bass of 4.5lb, a few Whiting, a number of Dogfish and two late Mackerel.
[Report by Jim]

9 November 2008 - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Steve Hipgrave)

Another windy weekend so another cancelled trip.

1 November 2008 - Hayling - Hayling Island - Valkyrie (Glen Cairns)

Another windy day forecast (correctly) so cancelled.

26 October 2008 - Weymouth - Tiger Lily (Chris Caines)

A horrible forecast - so the club and Chris agreed to cancel.

12 October 2008 - Hayling Island - Valkyrie (Glen Cairns)

A quite beautiful day. Once we explained to Mick C that you had to keep the bait in touch with the bottom, fish kept on bumping into it, much to his surprise!! His Cod weighed 5lb 4oz and Alan's 4lb 12oz. Several bigger fish were lost by Peter and Simon. My Ballan weighed in at 2lb 4oz. Thre were Dog Fish, Mackerel, Whiting, Pout, Thornback, Starry Smoothound, Cod, Ballan Wrasse and Bass caught. Best fish - Starry Smoothhound 5.5 lb
[Report by Roy]

9 October 2008 - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Steve Hipgrave)

Again a beautiful day. We went deep for Spur Dogs - there being no Plaice about L'hampton! - and caught some Bull Huss! Steve's weighed in at 10lb 8oz and Simon's at 8lb 8oz. So I took all the money!! There were Dog Fish, Mackerel, Scad, Bream, Whiting, Bull Huss, and Tope caught. Best fish Bull Huss 11lb [Report by Roy]

28 Sep 2008 - Hayling Island - Valkyrie (Glen Cairns)

A quite beautiful day with 9 species caught (Dog Fish, Mackerel,Tub Gurnard, Bream, Spotted Ray, Painted(small-eyed) Ray, Brill, Ballan Wrasse, and Blonde Ray. Biggest fish was a 10lb 120z Painted Ray.

21 Sep 2008 - Weymouth - Tiger Lily (Chris Caines)

Another brilliant day with the weather again on our side. Six members and one guest. Straight out to a bream mark which we first drifted to pick up a few mackerel then we anchored for the bream. The Bream were there, but some of us found that they kept getting beaten to it by the Pout. When the tide became too strong we moved off to a mark where we Chris said we could expect a bit more variety. We were not dissappointed, A few more Bream 2 Conger and several double figure Pollack, which would have been counted good off of a wreck and we were only a couple of miles offshore. We finished up back were we had had the large Bream the previous day but although there were plenty of nice Bream, none matched the size of the ones from the previous day.

20 Sep 2008 - Weymouth - Tiger Lily (Chris Caines)

An Excellent day's fishing. Seven o'clock saw 8 Club Members plus a guest (prospective member we hope)on the boat and heading out. The sea was calm and the sun was out.The first target was Mackerel for use as bait later on. When we had a sufficient we moved into the race drifting with artificials for the Bass, but with several relative novices unpractised at this type of fishing and success eluding us, we quickly decided to try for some Plaice. Dragging worm baits over the mussel beds for an hour produced some nice Bream but only one small Plaice. The tide now being right we moved onto a Bream mark which produced some nice eating sized fish. Chris moved the boat off to a mark where there was mixed fishing. More Bream and a couple of Congers, Then it happened, our guest, Tom, had his Mackerel bait snaffled by the fish of the day, a 4lb 5oz Bream. There were also a couple of Congers and more quality Bream up to the 4 lb mark.

13/14 Sep 2008 - Plymouth - British Conger Club Affiliated Clubs Championship

Two teams from Guildford fished the competition and the "A" team (Chris and Mick) took the first prize, catching and releasing 28 eels over the 2 days. The "B" team (Jim and Dai) having failed to catch any eels at all on the first day, finished up in the middle of the field with a total of 13 eels. It was pleasing to note that the only one eel was brought ashore to the scales although there were many eels over 40lb (and quite a few over 50lb) caught. It should be explained that in this competition, all eels score 40 points but eels brought ashore to the scales score 1 point per pound only if over 40lb. No points at all for eels under 40lb if brought ashore. Plymouth is a long way from Guildford so everyone stayed 3 nights at the Mountbatten Hotel which can be recommended. Guildford indtends to send teams next year when the competition is being held in Torbay (Brixham).

END OF REPORTS

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