Report, Alderney - May '08

Day 1

The long awaited Alderney 'turbot challenge' trip on Silver Spray finally came round, and so did some severe weather, with gale force winds - typical! Our departure on Monday was delayed from 7am to 2.30pm because of the strong Easterly winds, and heavy rain, which also meant no wrecking on the outward trip. We did however stock up on some Mackerel on the other side of the Channel on the way over.

Picture of Braye Harbour.

Day 2

With a lull in the weather, we made our first trip out to the turbot banks, and soon Ellis was reeling in the first fish of the trip.......a doggie, which was quickly followed by many more! To get us away from the dogs, Andy repositioned Silver Spray for another drift and Chan boated the first flattie of the trip - a nice brill of around 4lb.

Andy Herman with the biggest flattie on Silver Spray - 9lb 14oz turbot

With the end of the days fishing looming, we moved up to the South Bank, and on the first drift, Ellis lost a big fish to live launce (probably a big bass). I managed to boat bass and pollack, but no flatties turned up.

Terry and his 2 brill - biggest 7lb 14oz

Day 3

We woke to a gentle wind, but heavy rain, and again made our way out to the banks, the first two drifts of the day resulted in two turbot to the boat, to fresh mackerel bait. We then had a quiet spell, where the wind dropped, and the sea was like glass, but within 20 minutes the wind had kicked up to a force 6, which conbined with the rain, made fishing difficult. The conditions became unfishable so we decided that we'd have one more drift with the weight out to slow us down. That final drift produced my 1st turbot of the trip, to a long thin strip of mackerel, and at only around 4lb or so - I released to grow bigger. We winched in the weight and steamed on in to Braye Harbour.

Day 4

Our final day on the banks, and the best. First 3 drifts produced 3 flatties, and we finished the day with 10. Ellis boated his 1st ever Brill, which turned out to be a specimen at 5lb 8oz.

A couple of drifts later, I managed my 1st turbot of the day to a strip of manky mackerel, as the fresh mackerel were proving elusive (to say the least!). Plenty of launce around the banks, but only the rogue mackerel or two, which caused a problem as the flats were showing a clear preference to fresh bait.

Turbot

Down came the rain again, but the wind didn't increase too much, and as the mackerel bait was coming to an end, I baited up with a strip of old garfish, and immediately had a bite, but had the bait stripped off the hook. Next drop, I bound another garfish strip on with bait elastic, and within minutes of starting the drift, I hooked and landed my 1st ever brill.

Brill - 4lb 13oz

In an attempt to hook one really big fish, we moved onto the South Banks, but failed to latch onto one. I did however manage to catch a bass on live launce, which completed my 'grand slam' of turbot, brill, and bass for the day. The fish was released.

Day 5

As forecasted, the weather was glorious. Hardly any wind, and not a cloud in sight - there couldn't be much more of a difference in weather between Monday and Friday. Our plan was to hit some of the wrecks on the way back to Poole, and after about an hour or so steaming we stopped off on our first wreck of the day. Andy had not fished this one before, so out tackle headed to the bottom not knowing what fish were underneath - if any.

After a few blank drifts, at the same time, Chan and I hit into fish. He brought up a 12lb 8oz pollack, and I winched up my 1st ling of 2008.

14lb 8oz ling

The 'experimental' wreck did not produce any more fish, so we steamed off another couple of miles to the next one. Again we arrived and drift fished the wreck. The wreck produced a mixture of ling, pollack, cod, pout, and coalfish, to various tactics.

Ellis with a pollack

Coalfish on Silver Spray

With the tide having justed turned, Andy decided that we would anchor over another wreck for an hour or so on the conger. With plenty of fresh pout to use, within 30 minutes of putting the flappers down, everyone on the boat had connected with an eel. The biggest went over 50lb.

40 - 50lb conger

The conger finished off an unique 'grand slam' of wreck fish for one day - cod, pollack, ling, conger, coalfish, pout.

'Team' photo on return leg

We were just pipped out by the other charter boat in the competition (biggest flattie), but we had the better fishing, after boating 20 or so flats during the time that we were there, and everyone on board catching at least 1 fish each.

Species caught - Mackerel, Launce, Cod, Pollack, Ling, Tub Gurnard, Turbot, Brill, Conger, Pout, Dogfish, Bass.

Report, Aldebaran, Aberystwyth - Tope/Bream

Date 18/05/08

My second 'Danglers' trip in 7 days, and a change of venue - Aberystwyth, after tope and bream.

With an early start, we boarded Aldebaran with a bitterly cold Easterly blowing. Within minutes of leaving the harbour, Dave the skipper put us over some mackerel, and we feathered up, just enough for the tope fishing. While feathering, up came herring, pollack, whiting, and a greater weaver.

With a few dozen mackerel in the boat, we steamed West, and after an hour or so we anchored up on the tope ground. Within minutes, up came the 1st of many doggies, followed by some cracking bull huss (well into double figures).

It was over 2 hours before we had the 1st tope run, and Del reeled in a lassoed tope of 23lb. We had a further 6 tope runs, but only a further 3 were landed.

Del's 23lb'er

Clive with the biggest tope of the day - 31lb.

After a few more hours on the mark, and numerous big huss, and nuisance doggies, we headed towards a bream mark Dave had lined up for us. A 30 minute steam East and the anchor was sent down. With only one or two small bites after 15 minutes, Dave decided a move was needed, and guided us about half a mile North (on the same reef), and down went the anchor for the second time.

Practically before the anchor had taken hold, I was reeling in a double shot of bream (1.5lb) and pout. Next drop, a double shot of bream, which more than justified Dave's move. There seemed to be plenty of bream on the mark, despite it being early in the season, but the problem was getting through the pout & poor cod!

A couple of hours non stop action, and a drift or two over the reef later, it was tim to head home. On the way in, Celtic Wildcat cruised past us on her way back in. We had been very lucky with the weather, as the wind had died down and the sun had come out to cap off another excellent danglers trip - with 16 species to boot!

Species Caught - Mackerel, Whiting, Pout, Poor Cod, Black Bream, LSD, Bull Huss, Scorpionfish

Other species caught on the boat - Tope, Greater Weever, Herring, Grey Gurnard, Red Gurnard, Codling, Pollack.

Next Dangler trip for me will be Aber again, but on Celtic Wildcat.

Report, Volsung, Milford Haven - Bank/General

Date - 11/05/08

My 1st Danglers trip. The trip nearly didn't go ahead as the skipper had steamed over a net (just sub surface), the day before and had to be towed back to Dale, and had to send a diver down to assess the situation. Luckily though, there was no damage to Volsung and the trip was on!

Another stunning day and flat calm sea. We started off just off St Annes feathering for mackerel. In over 45 minutes of 9 of us feathering, I had caught the only one! We did however pick up a mixed bag of coalfish, pollack and wrasse to keep us busy.

But one down side was that I managed to snap my Grauvell Panama while snagged!

Next up, we anchored up on 'turbot bank', and soon the first dabs were coming aboard, 2 at a time, quickly followed by double shots of grey gurnard's and dogs. After a while I picked up my 1st plaice of the year on a tiny sliver of mackerel.

Soon it was time to up anchor and head over to a reef off Skokolm, and more feathering. Soon, pollack and coalies were on board, along with a couple of wrasse. The ground was very heavy, and the next diver to come along will have a field day picking up the rigs we lost!!

All too quickly the day was over and we headed back to Milford.

Species Caught - Coalfish, Pollack, Mackerel, Dab, Plaice, Grey Gurnard, Dogfish.

Volsung website

Danglers Website

Next Danglers trip - Aberystwyth

Report, Silver Spray - Bream

Date - 10/05/08

Glorious weather and a day out with Andy on Silver Spray. First off we headed West and anchored up close in for a bream session. It was not long until I landed the first fish of the day, a lovely male bream of around 2lb. I managed another 20 or so bream and some ballan wrasse, before we up anchored and moved a little further out to try for something bigger!

A short session 'feathering' produced enough fresh bait for the rest of the day. 1st drop down with a side of mackerel on a 6/0 hook, and up comes and eel in the 30lb bracket. Next up there were the usual dogs, pout, poor cod etc, and then a nice thornie, and undulate were hooked within minutes.

Terry with his Undulate.

With the tide easing off, so did the action. It was time to up anchor and make our way home.

Species Caught - Black Bream, Ballan Wrasse, Conger Eel, Dogfish, Mackerel.

Caught by others on trip - Undulate Ray, Thornback Ray, Pollack, Poor Cod, Pouting.

Silver Spray website

Next trip on Silver Spray will be Alderney at the end of May.

Report, Garnffrwd

Date - 08/05/08

An evening session after work, that turned out to be very frustrating!

Saw only 2 fish rise between 17.30 - 20.30, but afterwards they went mad! There were fish everywhere, but proved to be very fussy on what they were eating! Managed to get 2 out on a buzzer fished just under and indicator, and also lost a brownie of arount 3lb.

Water was very coloured for some reason which may have affected the fishing.

Cei Bach Beach, Ceredigion

VENUE - Cei Bach Beach, Ceredigion

Found just to the North of new Quay, Cei Bach can be fished at practically an stage of the tide. A reef is located at the Northern end of the beach which tends to produce best results. Some big huss can turn up at the beach.


Known Species - Bull Huss, Dogfish, Bass, Small Eyed Ray, Turbot, Whiting, Coalfish etc

Report, Llandegfedd Reservoir, Gwent

Date - 01/05/08

Today was the RCSL Wales region flyfishing competition, and along with a few 'guests' (Steve, Eifion & Bill), we headed East towards Llandegfedd. With a 10am scheduled start, the heavens opened just after 9am and poured for about an hour.

Once on the water, and fishing, the rain stopped and the sun made the odd intermittent appearance. Steve guided us over to Bill Smiths Bay, where we had been informed was fishing well, but in fact the fishing proved to be a bit slow to start with. A stiff breeze caused a few tangles for Steve and engine problems did not help the situation!

We did however manage to find a few fish about an hour and a half into the day, very close to the shore later on that morning, to bibio's and goldhead damsels, fished on an intermediate line, being stripped at a medium pace. Most of the fish came off the hang or very close to the boat.

Steve calmly playing a fish.

The sunny spells were getting longer as the afternoon wore on, and with the constant stiff onshore breeze, the drifts were only short ones, with minimal time in the catching zone. More fish followed to cormorants and damsels, again fished the same way.

Our return showed that we finished the day with 11 fish on the boat, but many more were lost at the side of the boat, and dozens more pulls missed. I managed to come joint 3rd in the competition with 6 fish for 10lb 8oz, losing out by 9 oz to the winner. Heaviest fish of the day (and the pool of £20) went to Bill with a fish of 2lb 6oz.

The productive spot!