Guildford City Sea Angling Club

Club Reports 2015

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2015 HALL of FAME
Boat Fishing (GB)

Bass
Jim Grant 7lb 8oz

November 1st 38.32 % of
British record 19lb 9oz 2drm

Bream Black
John Barnes 3lb 7oz
Jenifers Pride
June 7th 49.89 % of
British record 6lb 14oz 4drm

Bream Red
Les Barnes 1lb 7oz
Bite Adventure
July 24th 14.72 % of
British record 8lb 12oz 4drm

Brill
Dave Barnes 4lb
Bite Adventure
July 23d 25 % of
British record 16lb

Cod
Oliver Folarin 19lb 8oz
Deep Blue
33.4 % of
British record 58lb 6oz

Conger Eel
Mick Doody 59lb
Offshore Rebel
August 23rd 44.28 % of
British record 133lb 4oz

< Dab
Les Barnes 1lb 6oz Bite Adventures
August 15th 50 % of
British record 2lb 12oz

Haddock
Roy Hebburn 3lb 2oz
Bite Adventure
March 16th 22.81 % of
British record 13lb 110z 4drm

Ling
Brian Collett 14lb
Valkyrie
July 10th 23.53 % of
British record 59lb 8oz

Pollack
Peter Thatcher 15lb 8oz
Valkyrie
February 22nd 52.99% of
British record 29lb 4oz

Ray Blonde
Jim Grant 26lb
Valkyrie
March 22nd 65.6 % of
British record 39lb 10oz

Ray Thornback
Mick Doody 12lb
Valkyrie
March 22nd 38.17 % of
British record 31lb 7oz

Ray Undulate
Mick Doody 17lb 8oz
Wild Frontier
April 19th 82.23 % of
British record 21lb 4oz

Scad
Mick Doody 1lb 5.5oz
Bite Adventures
July 23rd 36.66 % of
British record 3lb 5oz 3drm

Smoothhound
Chris Goddard/Jim Grant/Gavin Thomson 12lb
Valkyrie/Lynander/Lynander
April 26th/June 4th 42.86 % of
British record 28lb

Shark Six-gilled
Dave Ball 950lb
Clare Dragoon
89.96 % of
British record 1056lb

Tope
Mick Doody 35lb
Wild Frontier
June 29th 41.92 % of
British record 83lb 8oz

Turbot
Phil Evans 11lb 8oz
True Blue
May 24th 34.07 % of
British record 33lb 12oz

Weever Greater
Peter Thatcher 1lb 2oz
Valkyrie
October 4th 52.27 % of
British record 2lb 2oz 7drm

Weever Lesser
Mike Patey 4oz
True Blue
June 1st 118.52 % of
British record 3oz 6drm

Whiting
Chris Goddard 2lb 3oz
Valkyrie
April 26th 29.66 % of
British record 7lb 6oz

Wrasse Ballan
Jim Grant 3lb 3oz
Jenifers Pride
July 23rd 33.77 % of
British record 9lb 7oz

2015 HALL of FAME
Beach (Shore) (GB)

Ray Small-eyed
Rob Abrey 3lb 10oz
Selsey
May 17th

2015 HALL of FAME
Overseas

Dorado
Phil Evans 9Kg
Hooker
July 16th

Dorado 9kg

Boat Species 2015

Mick Doody - 37
Jim Grant - 37
Dave Barnes - 33
Colin Barnes - 31
Roy Hebburn - 30
Gavin Thomson - 28
Phil Evans - 26
Peter Thatcher - 25
Chris Goddard - 24
Dick Barnes - 20
Peter Talbot - 20
Bertie Hebburn-Heath - 20
Les Barnes - 16
Bob Jenkins - 16
Mike Patey - 15
Matthew Gibbs - 14
Linda Talmadge - 14
Andrew Ackland - 13
John Barnes - 13
Farooq Shah - 13
Jason Weller - 13
Brian Collett - 12
John Wright - 12
Ernie Elgar - 10
Bob Nye 10
Dave Ball - 9
Nigel Cross - 8
Oliver Folarin - 8
Ron Bailey - 7
Jamie Robins - 7
Chris Anderson - 6
Chris Anthony - 6
Paul Harcus - 6
Rob Abrey - 5
Alan Hughes - 5
Alan Whittaker - 5
Ricky Nethersole - 4
Adam Weller - 4
Paul Davies - 1
Andrew Ward - 1
To see the base data chart of the boat species hunts click HERE

Boat Competitions 2015

First Leg

1 John Wright
250 Points 100.00 %

2 Gavin Thomson
209 Points 100.00 %

3 Mick Doody
208 Points 99.52 %

4 Phil Evans
195 Points 93.30 %

5 Roy Hebburn
209 Points 83.60 %

6 Linda Talmadge
180 Points 72.00 %

7 Bertie Hebburn-Heath
175 Points 70.00 %

8 Jim Grant
146 Points 58.40 %

9 Bob Jenkins
122 Points 58.37 %

11 Mike Patey
116 Points 55.50 %

12 Chris Anderson
132 Points 52.80 %

10 Paul Harcus
117 Points 46.80 %

13 Ernie Elgar
95 Points 38.00 %

14 Peter Talbot
65 Points 31.10 %

15 Bob Nye
63 Points 30.14 %

Second Leg

1 Mick Doody
234 Points 100.00 %

2 Gavin Thomson
200 Points 100.00 %

3 Peter Talbot
197 Points 98.50 %

4 Linda Talmadge
195 Points 97.50 %

5 Farooq Shah
192 Points 96.00 %

6 Phil Evans
211 Points 90.17 %

7 Andrew Ackland
204 Points 87.18 %

8 Jim Grant
202 Points 86.32 %

9 John Barnes
192 Points 82.05 %

10 Jason Weller
164 Points 82.00 %

11 Roy Hebburn
187 Points 79.91 %

12 Nigel Cross
133 Points 66.50 %

13 Matt Gibbs
112 Points 56.00 %

2015 Overall result

1 Gavin Thomson
200.00 %

2 Mick Doody
199.52 %

3 Phil Evans
183.47 %

4 Linda Talmadge
169.50 %

5 Roy Hebburn
167.51 %

6 Jim Grant
144.72 %

7 Peter Talbot
129.60 %

8 John Wright
100.00 %

9 Farooq Shah
96.00 %

10 Andrew Ackland
87.18 %

11 John Barnes
82.05 %

12 Jason Weller
82.00 %

13 Bertie Hebburn-Heath
70.00 %

14 Nigel Cross
66.50 %

15 Bob Jenkins
58.37 %

16 Matt Gibbs
56.00 %

17 Mike Patey
55.50 %

18 Chris Anderson
52.80 %

19 Paul Harcus
46.80 %

20 Ernie Elgar
38.00 %

21 Bob Nye
30.14 %

Boat Comp Species 2015

Peter Talbot - 12
Mick Doody - 10
Roy Hebburn - 10
John Wright - 10
Gavin Thomson - 9
Andrew Ackland - 8
John Barnes - 8
Phil Evans - 8
Jim Grant - 8
Bertie Hebburn-Heath - 8
Farooq Shah - 8
Linda Talmadge - 8
Matthew Gibbs - 7
Jason Weller - 7
Chris Anderson - 5
Nigel Cross - 5
Ernie Elgar - 5
Bob Jenkins - 5
Mike Patey - 5
Bob Nye 3
Paul Harcus - 2
Adam Weller - 2

Boat Angler of the Year 2015

Jim Grant - 102.66
Mick Doody - 102
Roy Hebburn - 92.5
Gavin Thomson - 69
Phil Evans - 63
Matthew Gibbs - 40.66
Mike Patey - 40
Peter Thatcher - 38.5
Linda Talmadge - 35
Farooq Shah - 31
Colin Barnes - 30
Dave Barnes - 28
John Wright - 24.5
Bertie Hebburn-Heath - 23.16
Chris Goddard - 23.5
Jason Weller - 23
Peter Talbot - 20
Bob Jenkins - 19.5
Les Barnes - 16
Brian Collett - 12
Andrew Ackland - 11
Bob Nye - 10
Dave Ball - 9
Farooq Shah - 9 John Barnes - 7
Chris Anderson - 6
Ernie Elgar - 4.66
Dick Barnes - 4
Paul Harcus - 4
Nigel Cross - 2
To see the base data chart of the boat angler of the year click HERE

How trophies are awarded

2 Boat Angler of the Year (BAOTY) points per club member present for angler catching the biggest fish
-
1 BOATY point per club member present for the angler(s) catching the most species
-
BAOTY points for Club Competitions depend solely on competition positions (overall and in boat) one BAOTY point for each competitor beaten in each case.
-
Only the BEST FIVE trips/comps for each member count towards Boat Angler of the Year.
-
One (1) species competition point is awarded for each species caught during the year
-
If members take charter boat spaces on an "individuals basis" or enter competitions, as long as at least two club members are present and a report is promptly submitted to the fish recorder, the trip will count towards the "Annual Species Hunt" and the "Boat Angler of the Year" competitions.
-
To make it easy to record trips we often use a prepared Trip Record Sheet which anybody is welcome to download and print for their own use. All and any fish caught during the year by a currently PAID-UP member are eligible for most of the other annual trophies (Cod Cup, Tope Tankard etc.). Please report any such to the fish recorder promptly. If the report is delayed too long it may become impossible to verify and therefore not be allowable.

For comservation reasons GCSAC Boat competitions are points based (see Competition Score Sheet with no minimum size limit.
Boats and positions are drawn on the morning of the competition before the boats set off.
All members - Please send in a report of your fishing trip (Boat or Shore) preferably by email.
Your webmaster doesn't mind doing a bit of reformatting but isn't much of a typits.

(Reports are filed in fishing date order - latest at the top)

Saturday November 22nd - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Steve Edwards)

Awaiting report

Sunday 13th December - Littlehampton - Lynander (Dick Legget)

Whiting and Cod on the last trip of the year
First of all my apologies for a scrappy report (only just got round to it today - Jan 2nd).

A good day out after the larger cod.
They did not turn up but we did have a couple of smaller ones and there were a LOT og decent whiting, a couple of congers a nice undulate ray and a very small one, lots of pesky dogs, a couple of poorcod and two congers.
Weatherwise - not too bad considering the windy weather for most of the autumn. In fact it turned out to be the last chance most of us had of getting out on a boat this year (I had 4 days fishing cancelled between Christmas and the end of the year.
Mick had the biggest fish (15lb conger) and he and I both managed 5 species.

[Jim]

Thursday November 26th - Weymouth Wild Frontier (Clem Carter)

Jim and Mick go for the big whiting and Mick has a "BRILL" day
We booked onto an individuals trip with Clem as this is the time off year the big whiting usually appear.
A little try for bass on artificials out on the edge of the race produced NOTHNG so on for another half hour or so to the whiting mark.
Whiting were there but not big ones with the maximum size being was about 1lb (Mick fished for ling! He needed one for his species count).
There were a few small mackerel about though.
As the tide got stronger we gave up on that and went off to a couple of small wrecks.
There was a limited success (four good pollack on the boat) but not for us two.
Then back to the edge of the race where the bass were again totally uncooperative, maybe because they could not see our lures and baits in the soupy water.
Final event was a couple of drifts on the Shambles for turbot. Only one small turbot came up but Mick got a nice BRILL of about 5 or 6lb which added another species to his score for the year.
We both caught dogfish, pout, mackerel and whiting and Mick also had the Brill and the smallest scad I have ever seen (hooked faily in the mouth and subsequently taken by a whiting).

[Jim]

Monday November 23rd - Hayling (Northney) - Valkyrie 6 (Glenn Cairns)

Jim and Peter go cod fishing
Cold but not as bad as the previous morning.
When we got on board we found that Farooq and his son had just arrived so there we three member aboard.
Straight out to the Nab Tower.
The target was cod and we concentrated on them all day.
Of course a lot of whiting were also caught even on the big baits
There were also half a dozen congers (up to 15lb). Peter had a conger and Farooq had a conger and the bigger (10lb) of the two cod caught. Farooq's son had a little spotty ray. I caught a THORNBACK RAY.
Of the three club members, Farooq had the best day withh the biggest conger and the most species (5).

[Jim]

Saturday November 22nd - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Steve Edwards)

First trip this WINTER

Proper winter start. It wwas down to -6 degrees when I left home although my car was telling me a balmy -2 at Littlehampton.
We did not venture far (2 or 3 miles offshore) and we never moved
There were fish all day although it was a bit slow ove the slack of the tide.
Everybody had whiting and dogfish and there were nine other species.
We had 3 out of season bream, one cod (8lb), a couple of smallish conger (up to 10lb), abut thirty dogfish, a tub gurnard, a poorcod, about a dozen pout, one pollack (4lb), an undulate ray (10lb 4oz), a smoothhound, and at least fifty whiting.

Mick got six species (mostly while trying to catch an out of season, out of place ling).
Chris' undulate was the biggest fish.
My excuse for only catching dogfish, pout and whiting was that I was trying for a thornback ray.

[Jim]

Sun/Mon November 15/16th - Weymouth Wild Frontier (Clem Carter)

Cancelled - Usual reason (Too Much Wind forecast)

Sunday November 1st - Hayling (Northney) - Valkyrie 6 (Glenn Cairns)

Bass
This time the target was bass.

We started out by running out to the banks.

The first bank only produced a plaice (hooked through the tail) but we found two bass on the second bank.
After that it was a bit slow and we headed further out, trying different marks until the tide dropped.
A session with baits at anchor was spectacularly unproductive with no fish and only 2 (suspected) bites being detected.
Then it was back to bassing on a large snaggy area alongside a few commercial boats. There we had a few more bass and a large wrasse which, initially, did a very good impression of a bass. We tried another bank on the way back home and had a couple more fish.
Although we did get a few bass, we had to work very hard for them and we returned all the smaller ones and the biggest one (as well as the plaice and the wrasse.

The biggest fish was my 7lb 8oz bass and Mick Doody got the wrasse to give him 2 species.

[Jim Grant]

Sunday 26th October - Littlehampton - Lynander (Dick Legget)

An extra hour or THREE
We got an extra hour in the morning because the clocks went back and Dickie, being of a generous nature and deciding that 8 o'clock was a very good time to start even though the tides dictated a 6 oclock return so we got an extra 2 hours fishing.
A lovely day for the end of October, not really warm, but only a little breeze and a nice flat sea.
We drifted a bit for plaice but only two were caught. Deciding that that was not working well we anchored on the edge of a reef for cod. Little bream pestered us, and a couple of larger ones were caught.
On the slack tide we had another (unsuccessful) attempt to catch plaice on the drift.
Then we went back to the other edge of the reef. Here Mr Legget showed us how to catch cod on broken artificials (big secret so I cannot give details here). Between the eight of us we actually managed to catch the same number (3) of cod as he did. He took fifteen minutes, it took us two hours

The actual catch (excluding Dickies cod) was as followes:
A few small bream and a couple of decent sized ones, three cod (biggest about 9lb, half a dozen dogfish, a tub gurnard. two nice plaice, one pout and one ballan wrasse.
Mick Doody had the biggest cod and I got four species.

Dickie made tea and warmed up sausage rolls (even after claiming he was nearly out of gas). Mick handed round chocolate cakes. Linda handed round aapple strudel (?). A very enjoyable day. Thanks to Dickie, Mick and Linda.

[Report by Jim]

Sun/Mon October 18/19th - Weymouth Wild Frontier (Clem Carter)

Bream and Huss (with added undulates)
Two days out with Clem out off the Bill and at the edge of the Portland race.

Sunday:
There were ten of us on the boat. It was a bit blowy but not too bad and the sun did come out in the afternoon.
We killed a bit of time on some rough ground until the tide dropped enough for us to be able to fish the edge of the race with less than 2lb of lead. Then it was out near the race where we stayed until the tide forced us to move closer in onto another roughish bit.
For most people the main quarry was brean with a secondary target of bullhuss, although personally I was concentrating my efforts on gurnards and thornback rays.
We had a pretty successful day with lots of good sized bream (for everone), lots of bullhuss (for nearly everone), a tiny conger, one cod, a few dogfish, some small mackerel, one pollack, lots of poorcod, pout and my TWO undulate rays.
Biggest fish was one of my undulates at about 14lb and I also got 7 species.

Monday:
Only nine of us aboard at Dave Barnes went home the previous night (but not before kindly donating a bucket of leads to be sold for the club funds - Thanks Dave). A little less wind (also less sun).
The fishing was much the same as the Sunday but with fewer bream caught.

We had bream, bullhuss, two little conger, a few more dogfish, a little ling, maackerel, one nice plaice, poorcod, pout, one pollack, one smoothhound, two tope and two undulate rays.
Biggest fish was my undulate which weighed 15lb and Roy Hebburn got 7 species.

All in all a great 2 days fishing.
Thanks to Clem.

[Jim Grant]

GCSAC recommend fishing with "Wild Frontier", staying at "The Marden" and eating at "The Marquis of Granby" or "The Gurka".

Sunday October 11th - Hayling (Northney) - Valkyrie 6 (Glenn Cairns)

Not many cod
A cod trip with 11 members aboard.

With the amount of wind and we were limited to the inshore areas. Basically our the choice was between the Solent (Cod and whiting) and the area around the Nab Tower (Cod and rays and possibly whiting and other species.

The Nab was decided upon and that was where we stayed all day.
Quite early on Glenn himself pulled in a nice double figure cod.
The rest of us were not so good at the cod fishing so only 2 others were boated.
We did, however, get a few other species. There were lots of dogfish, just the two cod, only one whiting!, a couple of tiny smoothhounds, a spotted ray, three thornbacks a small blonde ray and a 10lb undulate ray.

The biggest fish was the 10lb undulate (Matt Gibbs) and Matt, Roy Hebburn and Bertie Hebburn-Heath all had three species.

[Jim Grant]

Friday October 9th - Weymouth Wild Frontier (Clem Carter)

Jim sneaks a day in.
Determined to get a day at Weymouth I booked a day as an individual.

The weather let us anchor the edge of the shambles and also do aa bit of (unsuccessful) drifting for turbot fishing. Mackerel were very hard to come by but it was actually a very productive day.

There were lots of bullhuss (up to 8lb) and I had 6 myself. Lots of other species as well, Dogfish and pout off course and also gurnards, rays, a lttle conger, whiting etc. My best fish was a cod (13lb).

Great bunch of lads and all in all an excellent day.

[Jim Grant]

Mon/Tue October 5/6th - Weymouth Wild Frontier (Clem Carter)

CANCELLED due to weather

Sunday October 4th - Hayling (Northney) - Valkyrie 6 (Zach Cairns)

Out from Brighton Marina, drifting for turbot and brill
Taking advantage of a good forecast before the bad weather arrived, four of us took up the last places available on this individuals trip.

Mackerel were only just outside the Marina but were sparse and scattered so as soon as we had enough for bait we headed out to the banks (about an hour).

Drifting alongside Valkyrie 7, fishing was steady and most drifts produced one or two fish.
Most people on the boat got at least one flatfish to take home although quite a few went back because even though they were over the size limit, they were still a bit small. As well as the mackerel, turbot and brill there were a few blonde rays, several large tub gurnards, a couple of red gurnards, bream, pout and three greater weevers.

How did we four do?
We all had a couple of flatties to take home.
I was best at catching cuttlefish (2) and getting our biggest fish (12lb blonde ray).
Peter Thatcher had the most species (6) which included the biggest turbot (8lb) and all three weevers (biggest 1lb 2oz - new club record).

[Jim Grant]

Saturday September 26th - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Steve Edwards) and Lynander (Dick Legget)

Club competition - Second Leg

A great day even though John Wright and young Bertie had to drop out.

An early (6:30) start but the sun soon came up and chased away the damp misty stuf so by lunchtime everybody had abandoned their big jackets.
As usual we drifted a bit anchored a bit drifter a bit more and then anchored again.
13 different species were caught.

On Jenifers Pride Mick Doody was a clear winner with 234 points (9 species) 23 points ahead of Phil Evans (211)
On Lynander it was much closer - After several recounts Gavin Thomson was adjudged winner with 200 points just 3 points in front of Peter Talbot (197), Linda Talmadge (195) and Farooq Shah (192).

Therefore, as the placings are decided on a "Boat percentage" basis, The final result was
First - Mick Doody
Second - Gavin Thomson
Third - Peter Talbot

The prize for the biggest fish went to Jason Weller for a 20lb conger.

[Report by Jim]

Saturday/Sunday 19/20 September - Weymouth Top Cat III (Ivan Wellington)

The Annual Barnes Competition
Great weekend - even the weather was kind.
Now that most of the (fishing) Barnes have joined the club it is no longer them against us, more Barnes members versus non-Barnes members.
This year it was decided to try a new scoring system with only the first fish per person of each species counting (1 point).
On the Saturday it was Colin, Dave, Dick and Dave (junior) Barnes on the Starboard side of the boat versus Mick Doody, Chris Goddard, Jim Grant, Roy Hebburn and Peter Thatcher.
There were 18 species caught: in order of appearance- poorcod, mackerel, pout, corkwing wrasse, ballan wrasse, pollack, tompot blenny, goldsinny wrasse, dogfish, bullhuss, black brream, conger eel, launce, lesser weever, scad, red gurnard, and whiting.
The largest fish was a 15lb conger for Peter Thatcher.
After adjustment for the difference in team numbers Guildford won by the narrow margin of 51 points to 47.

On the Sunday (due to tiredness and some confusion over times) Dick Barnes missed the trip so lots were drawn and I temporarily changed my name to Barnes.
So Colin, Dave, Dave (junior) Barnes and Jim Grant-Barnes on the Starboard side of the boat versus Mick Doody, Chris Goddard, Roy Hebburn and Peter Thatcher.
There were 19 species caught: pout, black bream, poorcod, dogfish, red gurnard, conger eel, tope, mackerel (first 5 each to count), bullhuss, ballan wrasse, corkwing rasse, bailions wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, tompot blenny, goldsinny wrasse, smoothhound, red band fish, and common goby.
The largest fish was a 16lb tope for Colin Barnes.
As the team numbers were even no adjustment was needed and the Barnes side won the day by 58 points to 56. for the difference in team numbers Guildford won by the narrow margin of 51 points to 47.
So overall the club retained the Tony Barnes Memorial troph by the narrowest margin ever 107 points to 105.

Big thanks to Ivan who gave us such a good trip and also to Aaron who made an excellent job of keeping track of the scores.

[Report by Jim}

Friday 18th September - Weymouth Top Cat III (Ivan Wellington)

ANOTHER practice day!
Private species hunt three members David. Colin and Dick Barnes plus David jnr non member
The weather is getting better and better it's looking for our comp this weekend Ivan worked hard looking for species it was calm and sunny

David had bull Huss. Dogfish. Garfish. Mackeral pouting. Scad. Corkwing wrasse. Launce ( greater sand eels) red band fish.

Dick. Dogfish. Mackeral. Pouting. Poor cod. Scad. Ballan wrasse. Corkwing wrasse. Tompot blenny. Undulate Ray. Redband fish.

Colin. Bullhuss. Dogfish. Mackeral. Pouting. Poor cod. Scad. Redband fish. Whiting. Corkwing wrasse. Launce

Fishing is fun with good company.

[David Barnes}

Thursday 17th September - Weymouth Flamer IV (Colin Penny)

Practice day for the annual competition?
Private species hunting trip three members David .Dick .Colin Barnes After a few days of bad weather we was lucky to get out as it was species we did not go far it was reasonable weather and we had

David - starry smooth hound. Dogfish. Mackeral. Tope. Ballan wrasse. Corkwing wrasse. Tompot blenny. Pouting. Black bream. Goldsinny wrasse. Rad band fish. Jeffrey's goby common goby.

Colin -. Common goby. Black goby. Dog fish. Dragonettes red gurnard. Butterfly blenny. Goldsinny wrasse. Ballan wrasse. Pouting. Mackeral. Redband fish. Black bream

Dick - Common goby. Dogfish. Starry smooth hound. Red gurnard. Butterfly blenny. Tompot blenny. Pouting. Mackeral. Redband fish. Black bream

As usual Colin penny did his best to give us a good day the master species hunter..

[David Barnes}

Saturday 12th September - Poole - True Blue(Steve Porter)

Best of a bad (weatherise) day
To start with it was quite windy and overcast with a bit of rain but it improved throughout the day.
The trip was planned to target the bass offshore but due to the conditions (strong wind) and the poor showing of bass this year it was decided to fish inshore (in and around and the harbour).
Steve organised a species competition (first prize being free entry to his annual species comp final).
We spent the morning drifting back and forth in the harbour avoiding the "traffic" and the boats at anchor with limited success.
As the wind had dropped (a bit) we then went and "had a little look round the corner", to see if it was feasible to anchor for some rays, but with the wind over tide it was decided that ray fishing was not really advisable.
SO we ended up anchored in Swanage bay where we found a few more species to add to our list.

As Steve kept a VERY close count and recorded each fish I can tell you that we caught 109 fish of 15 different species: 1 bass, 2 common blennies, 9 black bream, 1 dogfish, 2 tub gurnards, 1 mackerel, 2 red mullet, 1 plaice, 1 pollack, 1 pout, 1 smoothound, 35 ballan wrasse, 35 corkwing wrasse, 1 cuckoo wrasse and 2 goldsinny wrasse ).
No notably large fish were caught and none were weighed weighed but Neil (Bob Nye's guest) won the competition with 68 points (8 species) and I also managed 8 species.

[Jim Grant]

Saturday August 29th - Hayling - Malaki( Barry Handley)

David and Colin this time
A private trip Two members David and Colin Barnes
It was a dull overcast day with a light breeze
I (David) had pollock. Thorn back Ray. Blonde Ray. Ballan wrasse. Corkwing wrasse. Pouting. And a tub gurnard.
Colin had. Blonde Ray 16 I/2 lb. pouting. Dogfish. Black bream. Corkwing wrasse and pollock
We had a very good day Barry a very amenable skipper

[David Barnes]

Sunday August 16th - Penzance - Bite Adventures( Robin ‘Chippy’ Chapman )

David and Les fishing again
Two members David and Les barnes
Weather chilly South breeze I (David) had mackeral . Turbot . Grey gurnard . Plaice . Cod . Launce . Dab . Cuckoo wrasse . Whiting and poor cod
Les had mackeral . Red gurnard . Ling . Pollock . Poor cod . Whiting and grey gurnard

We had a brilliant weekend good boat excellent skipper ( chippy ) highly recommend

[David Barnes]

Thursday 20th August - Poole - True Blue(Steve Porter)

A "No air show"
Further to Roy’s report below ,Gavin & I then stayed at The Thistle Hotel where a noisy air conditioning condenser kicked in & out all night outside our room.
The plan the next day was for 18 of us to watch the Bournemouth air show whilst fishing, drinking wine & eating cheese.
It started to rain as soon as we got on the boat at 10 am. Below is a picture of us off Bournemouth Beach taken by one of the wives [Rain at Poole]
We anchored a few hundred yards off Bournemouth pier & immediately started catching the first of many mackerel.
Gavin & I competed against each other in the True Blue Krypton Factor as we climbed over an assault course of chairs & cool boxes to take fish off people’s hooks & answer lots of questions.
Apart from the mackerel & scad ,Gavin & I caught lots of small bream , some tubs , sizeable garfish on the float & a small smoothhound for Gavin.
The air show ended up being cancelled at the last minute due to low cloud but we fished on, drank all the wine & barbequed the mackerel on the boat.
On the way home I had a blow out on the M27 to top a very exciting day indeed.

[Report by Phil]

Wednesday 19th August - Poole - True Blue(Steve Porter)

Mostly nice big Rays
[Ray] [Ray] [Ray] [Ray] [Ray]
5 Club members, Phil Evans, Gavin Thomson, Jamie Robbins, Roy Hebburn and Bertie Hebburn-Heath plus 4 others had a great day aboard True Blue skippered by Steve Porter out of Poole. Run on the basis of a species hunt.
the morning was dedicated to getting Mackerel (which initially proved very scarce) and going after Rays with a favourable tide and whilst the weather held.
29 Undulate Rays plus 1 Blonde Ray, were caught and released, the majority being double figure fish, in a fantastic 2 hour session. The action was frenetic with two landing nets in constant use.
With the wind building we moved on to an inshore rock mark for smaller species where action was non-stop with Wrasse, Pout, Poor Cod, Blennies and Goby’s.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent drifting for Plaice, Bream, Scad and a lone Bass. Bertie also managed to lure a Smoothound. 17 different species and 246 fish were caught.
The Competition was won by Roy with 86 points but only 6 points covered the first 4 places with Phil, Gavin and Bertie only one fish away from winning - it was that tight! Phil had the biggest fish, a 13lb 8oz Undulate and Roy had most species with 11. A memorable day with thanks to Steve and Gary for their hard work and tea. [Report by Roy]

Saturday August 15th - Penzance - Bite Adventure( Robin ‘Chippy’ Chapman )

David and Les go West
Two members David and Les Barnes
Weather warm sunny North west breeze we went Ray and species fishing I ( David) had seven small-eyed Rays ( 10 lb 2 oz ) mackeral . Dab . Turbot . Plaice and dogfish
Les had dab ( 1lb 6 oz ) mackeral . Turbot . Small eyed Rays . Grey gurnard . Plaice . Cuckoo wrasse and dogfish.

[David Barnes]

Saturday August 15th - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Steve Edwards)

A brave experiment

Seven of us set off at 3:30pm to try inshore during the evening for a couple of new species .
Nobody in the club has recorded a gilthead bream and it has been many years since a stinray has been caught
Because the wind as over tide we could not venture into the shallow water (danger of getting the anchor rope round the prop) ao we first attempted to get a few mackerel and use then for rays a little further out. That did not work out very well (we got the mackerel but there was only one small spotty ray). Our first stop produced nothing of note apart from a load of pout and a couple of wrasse and when we
When the tide changed we headed inshore for further disappointments.
We perservered ontil after 11:00 pm but there were bo giltheads and no stingrays.
We did manage a few fish. There were BLACK bream, dogfish, a tub gurnard, mackerel, pout, scad, a plaice, tope one SPOTTY ray, and a smoothhound.
Still a lovely evening to be out there and perhaps we need to do a bit of research before we try night fishing for giltheads and stingrays again

Mick cleaned up with the biggest tope (4lb) and seven species.

[Jim]

Sunday August 2nd - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Steve Edwards)

Rays save the day

Eight club members aboard.
Mackerel were difficult (none one the drift and we were disappointed a few tmes when the feathers produced scad instead.
Our first stop produced nothing of note apart from a load of pout and a couple of wrasse and when we moved to get out of the tide a bit it took a long time before we saw much improvement.
The last couple of hours were by far the most productive. We had a flurry of mackerel and a pair of large undulates appeared (Roy's 12lb 5oz just faile to beat Phil's 12lb 14oz).
Between us we had a dozen or so small bream, four dogfish, about two dozen mackerel, around thirty pout, half a dozen scad, a little spotted ray, one tope, thrree ballan wrasse, one corkwing wrasse and the two undulate rays.

Biggest fish was Phll's undulate ray and I managed to get eight species.

[Jim]

Thursday July 30th - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Steve Edwards)

Quality catches

Another individual's day just going for rays etc.
Mackerel were not fothcoming on the drift but, once we were anchored, we "dangled" a couple of sets of feathers to alert us when a shoal cane though and so throughout the day we caught plenty of them.
Everybody seemed to have at least one good catch. There were big undulate and small=eyed rays as well as a thornback and a couple of spotted rays. A few small bream turned up and there were lots of pout and a couole of dogfish.
Best fish of the day went to a guy called John who had a mzgnigicent bass of 9lb 14 oz.
I think I was the only one who failed to get any large fish but waas consoled when what I originally thought was a rock and a bit of seaweed broke the surface and turned out to be a lobster of 4lb. Steve must have broken some sort of marine record getting the net to it.

Another good day.

[Jim]

Thursday/Friday July 23/24th - Penzance - Bite Adventure( Robin ‘Chippy’ Chapman )

Mick joins the Barnes (and the Barnes join us!)
[Colin Barnes Red Bream] 23 rd July

Lovely day light winds heading along the coast to Porthcurno bay where the theatre is in the cliff. It took us 19 minutes to get there and straight away into mackerel.
Fish came onboard at a steady pace. Dave Barnes started well and got better and better catching nearly every drop. I (Mick ) had a large coal fish but did not weigh it . I did have a new club record Scad of 1Ib 51/2oz.
We had Dogfish Pollack Coalfish Grey Gurnard Red Gurnard Launce Scad Ballantine wrasse Dab Plaice Brill Turbot Mackerel and Lesser weaver. Dave had the biggest fish. Brill of 4 Ib and he had. 11 species.

24th July

From the sublime to the ridiculous.

Rain and wind. But the wind was due to go northerly about 10 am. So we set off at 9 am and after 5 minutes we all said shall we go back in !

The skipper said we could try for Red Bream (None of us had caught a Red Bream ). It's only 1/2 a mile away
At anchor the boat was fine but we had to reposition twice to be in the right spot
Then the Red Bream started to bite. We had about 20 in all

Great day with a great skipper thanks chippy
We had Haddock Pout Poor Cod Mackerel Cuckoo wrasse Red Bream Whiting and Gold sinny wrasse
Les Barnes had the biggest fish 1 Ib 7 oz. Red Bream Colin Barnes had the most species 7.

[Mick Doody] [Dave Barnes Brill] [Mick Doody Red Bream]

Thursday July 23rd - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Steve Edwards)

You should have been there

Individual's day just going for rays and whatever else.
We tried for mackerel on the way and then we anchored just the once.
Everybody had fish and quality fish coming steadily all day even the pout were mostly big.
Most people had three or four rays and there was a total of eleven different species.
There were bream, a bass (3lb), a conger eel (about 30lb), just one dogfish, a tub guurnard, enough mackerel for bait and plenty left over to take home for tea, small-eyed rays (to about 6lb), spotted rays (to 3lb), thornback rays (to 10lb), Undulate rays (to over 15lb) and a ballan wrasse (3lb 3oz).

A good time was had by all. Lets hope the next club trip from Littlehampton is as good.

[Report by Jim]

Thursday 16th July 2015 - Black River Mauritius - Hooker (Sebastian Lagane)

No marlin
It was not really the fishing season in July but there were reports of the odd marlin so off I went to the south west side of the island to see if I could catch something.

I was not too optimistic so I was pleased to catch 4 dorado, the biggest being around 9kg , some bonito and lost a wahoo.
Nice day & loads of space with just the Mrs & I taking the charter
Saw loads of sperm whales, dolphins & flying fish whilst trolling about.
Must go back in the winter to catch that marlin that has still eluded me.

[Phil Evans]

July 10th - Hayling (Northney) - Valkyrie 7 (Glenn Cairns)

Wreck fishing for Cod, Pollack and Ling.
This was another day of fine fishing weather, sunny but with a reasonable breeze to keep us cool. Brian Colett and I were again the only GCSAC members on this non club trip.

We started fishing on a Bass mark about an hour out but only one Bass of about 3,5lb was caught (not by us).

We then moved further out and fished a wreck for Cod which came up like no tomorrow mainly in the 3lb-8lb range.
We then moved off to the East of Cherbourg to fish for larger specimens and other species in general with good success. A number of decent fish were caught with the largest Ling going to Brian (14-15lb not weighed) and a number of nice Pollack also being caught including one of about 9lb and one of 10.5lb (weighed) to myself. Most of the Cod caught on this wreck were of good size, and plenty of them, with the best specimen of the day going to myself which weighed in at 19lb, my best ever.

[Report by Bob Jenkins]

Sunday 4th July - Littlehampton - Lynander (Dick Legget)

Fishing favours the brave
Apparently we were on the only boat out from Littlehampton. We had the option of cancelling but in the event we made the right call to go anyway. There was a bit of westerly breeze but not nearly as bad as expected.
We went out and anchored one of Dickies inshore marks and had a great day. The anchor held first time. No rain. Sun pretty well all day. We never moved at all, apart from a few unsuccessful drifts for mackerel at the end of the day, so there was no fishing time wasted at all and we had fish all through the day.
The bag consisted of bream, dogfish, a tub gurnard, a few mackerel, three undulate rays (to 14lb), lots of smoothhounds (to 12lb), lots of small tope, and one lonely scad.

Biggest fish was my undulate ray and Mick, Ernie and myself each got six species.

Great day.

[Report by Jim]

Monday June 29th - Weymouth Wild Frontier (Clem Carter)

Some of us "should have been here yesterday!"
Five club members fishing plus another four guests. Not as busy a day as Sunday but still plenty of fish.
The bag waas made up of dogfish, tope, a number of big bream (to 3lb),Poorcod several bullhuss (to 10lb) a couple of undulates, enough mackerel for bait and a few to take home, launce, cuckoo wrasse, red gurnard, several nice eating size cod and a small conger eel.

Biggest fish was Mick's 35lb tope and Chris and Peter both had seven species

[Report by Jim}

Sunday June 28th - Weymouth Wild Frontier (Clem Carter)

More guests than members
Due to the BCC changing the date of their annual competition there were only 3 club members among the nine fishing but I am told that it was a fantastic day "the tope went nuts".
Plenty of mackerel lots of tope to 25lb lots of bullhuss and dogfish, a cod, pout, poorcod and undulate ray, a few bream, a conger eel, some whiting and a corkwing wrasse
Phil Evans had both the biggest fish (a tope of 25lb) and the most species (8).

[Verbal report from Gavin}

Sat/Sun 27/28th June - Plymouth - Tamesis 3 (Roy Strevens) and Secret Star (Frank Lee)

BCC Members Championship .


This is an individuals event but there are also prizes for 4-man Teams as well as loads of chances to get your name on the silverware.
Three club members (Peter Thatcher, Chris Goddard and myself) and Nigel McCloughlin made up the "Guildford" team who through some oversight were all drawn on to be together on same boat each day. This apparently is against a BCC competition byelaw but as no-one had any objections, the draw result was allowed to stand.

Saturday dawned fine with light winds so there was no problems with the boats getting to the wrecks (although small tide made it more difficult to stay on them).
Roy (our skipper) and James, his son, who was acting as crewman) looked after us excellently despite Roy being somewhat incapacitated by an shoulder injury. Lots of tea and coffee.
Mackerel for bait were difficult but we did manage a few as well as a number of whiting and pout.
Two conger over 50lb (the biggest and third biggest of the competition) were taken ashore but neither unfortunately was ours. They were both caught by Alec Clough (see BCC report The biggest of ours was about 40-50lb range.

In the evening we attended the BCC AGM (which included presentations to Nigel and Chris).

Sunday the weather was overcast and windy becoming very wet for a time. Mackerel were extremely rare and we had to do with a few small scad and pout so it was a good job we had some cuttle and octopus with us.
As Secret Star is quite a small boat, Frank decided that we would fish the reef rather than a wreck; This turned out to be a very good decision, as the boat we ended up taking 40 eels making it top boat of the day.

No huge eels for us but Nigel put back a couple that might have been worth weighing as fish of the day as we estimated them at around the 50lb mark. We did however take the "team" prize (good job we recruited Nigel onto our team).

Peter, Chris and I could not stay for the presentation in the evening but had to leave Nigel there to represent the team as we headed to Weymouth for our next day's fishing.

[Report by Jim]

Saturday June 27th - Weymouth - Offshore Rebel (Paul Whittall)

Jason and Adam go wrecking for cod
A lovely summers day was had but cod did not want to play in any great numbers, Jason managed 1 cod 7lb, 5 pouting and a load of mackerel.
Adam managed 1 pout and a load of mackerel .
Biggest fish Jason's cod and most species Jason with 3.

A hard days fishing but most enjoyable.

[Report by Jason]

Friday 26th June - Plymouth - Aces High ( Iain Holman)

A practice day for the BCC CONGER CHAMPIONSHIP
The seven aboard included three club members (Peter Thatcher, Chris Goddard and myself) as well a Nigel McCloughlin who stepped in as a lst minute replacement for Mick Doody. Our old mate Paul Maris and two of his fishing buddies ("Cash" and "Andy")made up the rest of the complement.

A bit blowy but as we got further out the sea became a lot flatter and it was very fishable.

Skipper Ian was still suffering a bit from a back problem which meant that he was restricted to "light duties" but was expertly assisted by James Strevens (another fully qualified skipper) acting as crewman for the day.

We had a great day, successfully finding mackerel and a few pout for bait and catching lots of eels several in the 50lb region (biggest was estimated as 58lb) and several ling up to 18lb.



[Report by Jim]

25th June - Dungeness - Fair Chance (Gerry Oiler)

Flatfish.
This was as ever an interesting and productive BADSAC trip with good weather and a variety of fish, though it did not fish as well as it has done in the past.
Brian Collett and I were the only GCSAC members on board and we had a good variety of fish. Mine were the inevitable Dog, Dabs, Plaice, Pout, Whiting and a Lesser Weaver and a Red Gurnard, nothing of and notable size.
Brian Collett on the other hand managed to miss out on the Dogs but did have Dabs, Pout, Whiting, Plaice (including a nice 3lb 10oz specimen) and a Turbot (not weighed) of about 3.5lb.

[Report by Bob Jenkins]

Sunday June 21st - Hayling (Northney) - Valkyrie 7 (Glenn Cairns)

Inshore for bream and smoothhounds
It was nice and warm with quite a lot of sun but not the day to be out in a small boat or with a delicate stomach.
Everybody still managed to keep their breakfasts even when the tide turned and we rocking about side on to the waves.
We had a little dabble with feathers in the channel entrance hoping for few mackerel but there were only immature bass there so we had to rely on our frozen bait.
Fish came pretty steadily throughout.
As well as the tiny bass, we had a few bream on squid, a number of smoothhounds on crab (and some on squid), undulate rays on mackerel (and squid) though at least two were lost due to the strong tide, four mackerel (on squid), one ballan wrasse on frozen mackerel and a couple of dogfish.
Biggest Fish was Roy’s undulate and both he and I had five species.

[Report by Jim]

Mon - Thur June 15-18th - Minehead - Aly Kat Too (Dave Roberts)

Dave Roberts' annual species competition

Mick and I had a great four days even though the weather was not ideal (more briskish westerly than anything else but at least no rain.
We had over a dozen different species between us over the four days, including bullhuss, conger eel, dogfish, poorcod, pollock, poorcod, small-eyed ray, Three-bearded rockling, spotted ray, smoothhound, ballan wrasse, corkwing wrasse and there were a few more on the boat (gobies 2 sorts of gurnard etc).
Mike Arrowsmith (the "other Mick" aboard) demonstrated his mastery of the area by winning every day (more points, more species and also species no one else could catch).
We still managed to get into thee prize list.
Fortunately (for us) Dave's rules say that you can only win one prize, so Mick and I managed to get the second (most points in one day) and third (best specimen) prizes between us.

Definitely fishing it again next year

[Report by Jim]

June 14th - Weymouth - Offshore Rebel (Paul Whittall)

Cod for BADSAC
Again a BADSAC trip with a number of people who are also GCSAC members on board.
It was another Cod or nothing day with a total of 134 caught the largest weighing in at 11 lb. A junior BADSAC member Hayden Spencer landed a Ling of about 10lb and Mike Patey landed a Red Gurnard, the rest of us could only manage Cod.

It was however an enjoyable day out with good weather and as usual Paul Whittle and crew looked after us exceptionally well gutting and filleting all our fish as soon as on board.

[Report by Bob]

Friday June 5th - Whitby

A report from Yorkshire
Had a fantastic day on the 12th of June at Whitby in the Police Sport UK regional competition with thirty two anglers fishing from four charter boats.
This year it was organised by South Yorkshire Police and run as a species competition which is unusual for the area as it is normally cod or nothing. Yours truly had a hand in the organisation.
Lovely weather and lots of fish, I came third overall with cod, ling, dabs, pout, poor cod, mackerel and herring in my tally.
I needed one more cod to take first but it wasn't to be, other anglers had cuckoo wrasse and scorpion fish.
A raffle was held for the RNLI which raised over two hundred pounds.

You guys should come and try it.

Tight lines

Wrighty

[Report by John]

I may just do that next year [Jim]

Sunday June 7th - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Clive)

Real summer day's fishing

Brilliant day, mostly sunny once we woke up (early start - 6am.). Hotdogs laid on thanks to Mick
It was a typical day out from littlehampton. We tried a couple of marks on the flat bit and a couple closer to the rocks and we had a couple of (unsuccessful) drifts over the rock for bass. Smoothhounds and bream made up the majority catch.
A lot of the bream were around the 3lb mark and the hounds were also good fun on light tackle.
The bag comprised of 1 small bullhuss, lots of bream (to 3lb 7oz) and dogfish, one gar, one mackerel, over half a dozen smoothhounds (to 11b 10oz), a small tope, an undulate ray (also 1lb 10oz) and just one cuckoo wrasse.

Biggest fishes of the day were Micks smoothhound and Linda's undulate and Mick also got 6 species

[Report by Jim]

Friday June 5th - Poole

Poole Species Competition

By calling in an extra couple of the Barnes Bros we were represented in two teams.
Guildford Barnes were drawn on "Our Gemma" with Skipper Mervyn Minns and Esher Rugby were with Andy Adams aboard "Random Harvest".
The fishing was not easy and the winning scores were noticably lower than last year.
Guildford Barnes came in 7th and Esher Rugby were about half way down the field.

[Report by Jim]

Sat - Mon 30th May - 1st June - Poole to Alderney and back - True Blue(Steve Porter)

4 day Channel Island trip (truncated to 3 Days)
[Alderney Crew]
Still no full report available but the score sheets tell the story.


Saturday - A brill, Lots of cod (to 13lb 12oz) and some turbot.
Mick and Gavin had biggest fish (cod).
Spent the night on Alderney.


Sunday - Mostly Turbot, a cod, a pollock and a 4oz weever.
Phil's 11lb 8oz Turbot was the biggest fish and Mike patey had 3 species.
Again overnight on Alderney.


Monday - Lots of cod again, a pollock and a tub gurnard.
Mike Patey had the biggest cod of 12lb and was also the only one to catch any other species.
And back to Poole.

Tuesday was cancelled due to the weather.

The word is they all want to do it again next year.

Now a report from the skipper (Steve Porter) [Thanks Steve}

2nd June 2015

It's certainly windy outside today and the conditions have kept all of Poole's charter fleet on their moorings. We arrived back from Alderney yesterday afternoon a day early from a fantastic trip. Fantastic because when we went on Saturday we all knew that we had three very weather challenging days ahead of us. Indeed I did wonder at one point whether I should take my anglers across with such a bad forecast for days two, three and four. In the end, it was clear that going was the right decision as although we lost the last day, we were lucky enough to enjoy some good fishing and socialising on the other days. Overall the trip turned out to be much better than expected. Here is what happened.....

Day one and a great forecast for our journey over. The cod were their usual obliging selves and it wasn't long before we had caught enough. We then pushed on to Alderney and decided to spend the late afternoon trying for a turbot. We landed 9 before heading into Braye Harbour for dinner in The Harbour Lights Hotel.

Day two and we were greeted with a force 6 NW wind and rain. We delayed the start of the trip by an hour as we knew the rain would quickly clear. The fishing was very challenging and the combination of wind and tide together made the drift far from ideal. A very big confused sea meant that dragging a 56lb weight from the boat to slow down the drift was not an option. Drift speeds of between 3.0 knots and 3.7 knots were the norm for the day. Even so the lads stuck at it and landed another 9 turbot including an 11.5lber for Phil Evans. At one point my heart sank as I heard the starboard engine revs die and the boat take on some vibration. We were not well placed to be operating on just one engine. On investigation I discovered that we had picked up some carpet round the propellor. Now who in their right mind would throw carpet into the sea? Anyway, luckily enough with a few pulls on the boat hook it came free. No one on board was doing their place up so it ended up in the skip on Alderney.

Day three and we knew we had to run for home a day early. The wind was due to be gusting over 30 knots by late afternoon but even more wind was forecast for today. In the end we made a 7 hour 20 minute crossing with the weather behind us and the journey included some time fishing for cod on a mid channel wreck. Despite yet more challenging conditions the lads landed 99 cod, 2 pollack and a tub gurnard. As I waited to net one of the cod, I could see something white following it up from the depths. At first I thought it was another cod but it was in fact a gannet. It was amazing to see how deep those birds can go. It must have been very deep before it first came into view. [Phil Brill] [Phil Turbot]

A Snippet

I went over to the Scillies for a few days and stayed in Penzance overnight (twice) at the Duporth. This was the first time I have risked taking my wife to a "fishing" B&B and she was very favourably impressed - RESULT!. [Jim]

Sunday May 24th - Hayling (Northney) - Valkyrie 6 (Zach Cairns)

Heavenly Smoothhounds (Utopia!)
A pleasant general trip aboard Valkyrie 6 skippered by Zach. Main targets were Tope and Smoothound and we started at Utopia in pursuit of them.
Whilst the hounds played ball the Tope didn’t turn up for the party. They were good quality fish with at least half a dozen being double figures, the best weighing 12lb 2oz for Gavin Thomson.
After several moves the anchor snagged and was lost.
The replacement proved not to be man enough for the tide so we moved in to Boulder where the fishing was slower but some Rays were caught to supplement the dogfish.
The bag consisted of Hounds, Dogfish, Poor Cod, Ballan Wrasse, Bream, Herring, Thornback and Spotted Rays. Biggest Fish was Gavin’s and Roy Hebburn had most species with five.

[Report by Roy]

Wednesday May 21th - Hayling (Northney) - Valkyrie 7 (Glenn Cairns)

Bob and Jim go for bream

Bob Nye invited me to join a few of his friends for a bream fishing trip. The the weather forecast the night before waas not only good but also accurate so we had a very pleasant day. There were a lot of bream caught with the majority being close to or slightly over 3lb and a number of smoothhounds also mad an appearance.
Of the two of us, Bob had the biggest fish by far with a hound of about 8lb although I did better on the species by finding a couple of small pout and a three-bearded rockling (as well a bream) to give me a total of 3.

[Report by Jim]

Sunday May 14th - Dover Portia (Matthew Coker)

Washing Day
Six members (Mick, Matt, Bob, Bob, Linda and myself) braved the wet forecast for this first club trip on Portia.
The forecast was correct. The day started off overcast, then it drizzled, then it rained, then it poured. By the time we disembarked all our fishing tackle, our wet weather gear, the boat and most of ourselves were extremely wet and clean.
We spent most of the time drifting the Varne Bank for codling with a couple of (pretty unproductive) drifts over a wreck.
Matthew (the skipper) seemed a bit disappointed with the catch but between us we did have a couple of dozen codling, red gurnards, a tub gurnard, a few large mackerel a small pollack, a few pout, one smoothhound (about 6lb) and a load of small whiting.

Biggest fish was Matt's smoothhound and he and Mick both managed to catch six species.

[Report by Jim}

Sunday May 10th - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Steve Edwards) and Lynander (Dick Legget)

Club competition - First Leg

Brilliant competition.

The day started out dull but the promised wind never materialised and the sea remained calm all day.
There was a bit of drifting, a lot time at anchor, very little time wasted between marks and 16 different species were caught.

On Jenifers Pride John Wright was a worthy winner - his 10 species gave him 250 points (100%) with Roy Hebburn (also 10 species) coming second with 219 points (87.6%).
On Lynander it was very close - Gavin Thomson had 8 species and 209 points (100%) only one point ahead of Mick Doody's 208 points (99.52%).

Therefore, as the placings are decided on a "Boat percentage" basis, The final result was
First - John Wright
Second - Gavin Thomson
Third - Mick Doody

The prize for the biggest fish went to Peter Talbot for his 12lb 8oz Undulate Ray.

Bertie Hebburn-Heath also gets a special mention as our only active junior member. This was the first time he had taken part in one of our competitions. He came in 7th with a very creditable score of 175 points (70%), just 2 places behind his grandfather.

[Report by Jim]

Sunday March 22nd - Hayling (Northney) - Valkyrie 7 (Glenn Cairns)

Chris' day (see below)
Nine members aboard
A neap tide so we had no problem with the tide but the fish were a liittle uncooperative.
We tried an inshore bank for smoothhounds and bream to begin with. As that was a bit slow, when the tide "died" we moved further out looking for rays (and anything else).
There was limited success out there too but Mr Goddard (Chris) showed how effective uptiding can be by catching the majority of the sizable fish boated.
We had plenty dogfish, two or three little school bass, half a dozen smoothhounds (biggest 12lb - Chris G), two undulate rays (both to Chris G), and a few whiting of which only Chris G's waas sizeable (2lb 3oz).

Biggest fish was one of Chris Goddard's undulates (16lb) and he shared the honours of most species with Miike Patey (4 each).

[Report by Jim]

Sunday April 19th - Weymouth Wild Frontier (Clem Carter)

Varying fortunes
The same nine members as the day before with the addition of Bertie and Roy makin eleven in all.
A pretty windy start but the swell was a bit less than the Saturday and it turned out a bit warmer too. This time we off round the Bill (Had an unsuccessful try off the Bill for mackerel on the way.
We spent most of the day anchoring various inshore marks and a small wreck which we also had a few drifts over for pollack.
The final tally was - ahost of dogfish, one sand goby, two small ling, half a dozen pollack, a poorcod, lots of pout, half a dozen small smoothhounds, a ballan wrasse, two goldsinny wrasse, a thornback ray and just one whiting.

Biggest fish was Roy's thornback Mick got the most species with six.

[Report by Jim}

Saturday April 18th - Weymouth Wild Frontier (Clem Carter)

Varying fortunes
[Mick Undulate] Nine members aboard (Brian, Mick, Phil, Oliver, Bob, Peter, Linda, Gavin and myself.

A pretty windy (Easterly) day with a good swell running so options were limited. We went off down the coast to the east, looking for the early bream, stopping at Lulworth and Worborrow and Kimmeridge. Our final stop was just for half an hour species hunting in Portland Harbour.

Fortunes varied greatly with some catching rays and and some just being pestered by dogfish.

Between us we had only one bream, two small conger, a host of dogfish, a few sand gobies, a couple of little pollack, four or five spotted rays, one thornback, a club record undulate ray (17lb 8oz), half a dozen ballan wrasse and a cuckoo wrasse.

Biggest fish was Mick's undulate and he also managed to catch seven species.

[Report by Jim}

Sunday April 14h - Eastbourne - Deep Blue (Steve Bradshaw)

No report but Oliver sent in a photo of the 19.5lb cod he caught.
[Mick Undulate]

Sunday April 14h - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Clive)

Hooray! The bream are back.

Having been disappointed on Sunday, five of us John, Miick, Jim, Bob and Linda went down to to Littlehampton on Tuesday. Another Clive (from Horsham) also joined us.
The day did not start out too well. There was thick fog on the way down, a car breakdown on arrival, a delay while Clive unblocked the water intake on the boat and more fog at sea.
Once we got fishing though we had a great time.
The sea was flat all day long. The kettle was on the boil pretty well all day and the sun came out after a while and Clive gave us a very long afternoon so we did not get back in until after 7pm.
As for the fishing, everybody caught bream, not in huge numbers but they were all of a very respectable size (no tiny ones at all) and when we tried drifting for plaice everybody got at least one.

Biggest fish of the day was a bream (3lb 1oz) for Mick and Mick and Bob both got 3 species

[Report by Jim]

Sunday April 12th - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Clive)

CANCELLED - Horrible weather

Sunday March 22nd - Hayling (Northney) - Valkyrie 6 (Glenn Cairns)

Big Blondes (see below)
[Chris Blonde]This was originally booked as an offshore wreck fishing trip but looking at the forecast the day before decided us that it would be better to stay nearer the shore so we ordered bait.
Nine members went out and we had a very successful session with big blonde rays until the tide finally pushed us off (If you need over a pound of lead in shallow water how are you going to drag a 20lb blonde in against the tide.

Inshore on the East Nab we were less successful so the number of fish for the day was quite low BUT the quality was there.

We had a few dogfish, five blonde rays (26lb, 25.5lb, 24lb, 24lb and 15lb), two thornback rays (biggest 12lb), the first smoothhound of the year and several whiting.

Biggest fish was my blonde and Mick managed to catch four species.

[Report by Jim]

Mon/Tue March 16/17th - Penzance - Bite Adventure( Robin ‘Chippy’ Chapman )

Four go West with the Brothers Barnes
Mick, Phil, Roy and yours truly (Jim) had a great couple of days even though the Easterly wind kept us pretty much inshore.
There was no competitive team element. Just an early season trip for us to suss out the port and boat.
The Barnes regularly go out from Penzance but it was a new experience for the four of us.

MONDAY
Eight of us on the boat Colin, Dave and Les Barnes, "The Guildford four" and Steve Gibson from the "Duporth".
A very brisk easterly kept us close to the shore but we still managed a few fish
Just as well there was no team competition because I think we would have lost as they had "the local knowledge" (my excuse because I could not seem to catch much at all).
Between the eight of us us we caught twelve species - lots of dabs, a couple of dogfish, a few grey gurnards, a red gurnard, several haddock, mackerel, some poorcod, a couple of plaice, three lesser weevers, some whiting, two or three ballan wrasse and a few cuckoo wrasse
Of us four, Mick had the most species (8) and Roy was judged to have the largest fish (cuckoo wrasse) although it was not weighed.

TUESDAY
Just the seven of us (4 from GCSAC and the three Barnes).
There was a bit less wind (and not quite as cold) so we did get a bit further out hoping for larger haddock and maybe a few pollack and coalfish.
We managed a few fish offshore but it was not "fast and furious" so later on we came back in where we had been successful the day before.
Inshore there were less fish feeding the day before but most of us (except me) picked up a few.
We ended up with eleven species - a few small cod, a couple of small coalfish, dogfish, a 10 oz flounder, several haddock (to about 5lb), enough mackerel for bait (in about 10 minutes), some small pollack, a few poorcod, one pout, a couple of whiting and a couple of largish ballan wrasse.
Of our club members Roy wiped the board with 8 species and the biggest fish (3lb 2oz haddock).

We all agreed that Penzance (and "Bite Adventure") should be addded to our regular destinations and we also recommend the Duporth Guest House.

[Report by Jim]

Sunday March 8th - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Steve Edwards)

Another day of fishing rather than catching

A full boat (8)
A sensible start time (09:00)
Reasonable weather (Overcast, cold breeze)
Lots of tea
Lousy fishing
The cunning plan was to go out a bit to try for rays then come in onto the rock for wrasse and pollack and finish up drifting for a few plaice inshore.
We gave the rays a good try but they had obviuosly decided to be very solitary. Jason hooked something large (Ray? Conger?) but it got caught up on the bottom and when steve "broke it out" there was no fish.
Farooq then wound into something good and after a bit of a struggle hauled aboard the only ray of the day, a ten pound thornback.
We sat around for another hour or so getting the occasional whiting, dogfish, or pout but got rather bored.
The boats that had opted to go for the plaice were not reporting any great success, so seeking further amusement we went over to the rock and drifted unsuccessfully for wrasse and pollack (not one).
Then we anchored again so that we could fish static baits into the rocky bit and when that also failed we just went home.

Biggest fish (by about eight and a half pounds) - Farooq's 10lb Thornback. Four of us got 3 species each.

[Report by Jim]

Sunday February 22nd - Hayling (Northney) - Valkyrie 6 (Glenn Cairns)

Cancelled in advance due to Weather Forecast - Instead Some members did go on the Wednsday before (see below)

Wed February 18th - Hayling (Northney) - Valkyrie 6 (Glenn Cairns)

A lot of Pollocks
Peter Thatcher helpfully arranged for 5 club members to join a wrecking trip aboard Valkyrie because the forecast was ideal and our weekend trip looked very doubtful.
The five, Peter, Mick Doody, Dave Ball, Roy Hebburn and Bertie Hebburn Heath had an excellent day on mid-channel wrecks some 40 miles offshore.
The first drift brought sizeable Pollack for everyone which of course included a first for Bertie. Fishing was steady on each of the 3 wrecks and there was more than enough for everyone to take home. We only weighed the one fish which was one of Peters and went 15.5lbs but Mick, Dave and Bertie all had fish of similar size.
Most fish caught were double figures, but in addition Mick and Bertie had Pout. A great opportunist day out.

[Report by Roy]

Sunday 8th February - Littlehampton - Lynander (Dick Legget)

Fishing more than catching
A great day to be out there fishing. Could not get much better weather at this time of year.
Unfortunately the cod seem to have left the area, taking the larger whiting and most other fish with them.
We did persevere for some time on the sand but it was like fishing a big wet deesert, so eventually we moved off to a small wreck.
We fished up to the wreck and at last got a bit of interest. Still no cod but there were a few conger and pout.
Young Bertie waas the first to find a decent eel. Despite being given plenty of unneccessary advice, Bertie competently played itto the boat where it was weighed in at 35lb. It was not Bertie's first eel but it was a personal best and also the biggest fish he has caught SO FAR.
A little while later Dickie Legget found another one of around 30lb and then Jason also joined in with his own personal best eel of 50lb.
When the tide turned we fished into (and right on top of) the wreck but nothing of any note was caught.
The other boats inshore did find (small) whiting but we did not heere of any cod at all.
So wwe ended up with two handfuls of conger (personal bests fot Jason and Bertie), a few pout (a couple of which were over 2lb) and two dogfish.
I was the only one who managed to get all three species and obviously Jason Weller's eel was the biggest fish of the day.

[Report by Jim]

Saturday January 24th - and Sunday January 30th - Dungeness

A quick update on Bertie and Roy's beach fishing forays

We fished the tide right the way up on Saturday January 25th at Shoreham arm and for once I got the better of Bertie in terms of species but not the number of fish caught! We both had Shore Rockling and Whiting, but in addition I had a lone Pout.

Sunday Feb 1st - I took him on a family visit to my sister-in-law at Lydd and we were able to grab an hour and a half on a very windy beach at Dungeness.
We were all wrong for the tides and had to make do with a falling tide 3 hours after high. I have to say the fishing was superb and we both caught numerous fish including Shore Rockling, Dab and Whiting but in addition Bertie caught several Pout and an unidentified Flatfish. It was Black and without spots with a very narrow body quite unlike a Dab, the mouth looked very much like a Dab however and that is what I told him it probably was although the body shape was much more akin to a Sole although I could not convince myself that is what it was.
[The mystery flattfish has subsequently been identified, by one of the beach species experts in the club, as a Dover Sole].

[Report by Roy]

Sunday January 25th - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Steve Edwards)

The early boat catches the cod (cold)?

Seven members aboard at the crack of 5:45
This time of year we were obviously after the cod.
The cod however were not plentiful and at our first mark all we found was a host of whiting interspersed with dogfish.
As we were doing no good there we then went another mile or so out and tried again.
Still not exactly plentiful but we did get three between us. John Wright had the biggest cod at about 4 (maybe 5) pounds and roy had the biggest fish with a conger of around 8lb.
The rest of the catch was made up of the dogfish, pout, poorcod and whiting. Most of the whiting were a bit small but half a dozen of so decent ones went into the box.
Biggest fish was Roy's eel and he and John both managed 5 species.

[Report by Jim]

Sunday January 18th - Littlehampton - Jenifers Pride (Steve Edwards)

Not bad for January

Just Mick and I from GCSAC on this trip sneaked in within a gap in the weather.
We were after the cod but the cod were few and far between.
We did have quite a few whiting as well as the usual pout and dogfish. I also managed a small cod and a tub gurnard while Mick got a thornback ray which, although not huge, was quite a bit heavier than anything else.

[Report by Jim]

Wednesday January 7th - Dungeness - Fair Chance (Gerry Oiler)

BADSAC trip on Fair Chance with Gerry Oiler, aiming for Cod.
Brian Collett and I were the only GCSAC members on board for what proved to be a fairly cold day.

The weather started with virtually no wind but ended with us all being glad to get back on 'terra firma'. We did however catch some fish. Species caught were Dabs, Pout, Whiting and the inevitable Dogfish (lots of them) and yes some Codling actually 33 in total but only to about 3lb, they must have been hungry they were swallowing the hooks right down their throats which did not help when it came to releasing them.
I had Cod, Dog, Pout and Whiting whilst Brian proved to be the overall man of the day, despite only catching Dogfish and Cod, he managed a fine total of 10 of them!

[Report by Bob Jenkins]

2014 reports HERE

2014 reports HERE

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