Hi all, you may be interested to know that the large eel Sophie caught the other week has won fish of the month on charterboat uk website, see http://www.charterboats-uk.co.uk/catches/

I have entered the fish for competitions in sea angler and total sea angling and am hopefully she will do well in those.

At last the weather has allowed me a few days fishing before taking the camper van for a couple of weeks touring the country.

Last Wednesday saw us fishing some offshore wrecks in rain with little success, though we managed a few small plaice on the way back in.

Thursday saw us attempting the same and finding a few bass on the drift with lures and again a few plaice on the way back. From 10.30 there was thick mist, so much so that returning to the harbour we couldn’t see both piers and I was extremely grateful for radar.

Colin

Friday we again looked to the offshore wrecks and managed some pollack, a bass and a cod of around 7lb and some more plaice. Weather was bright sun and flat calm, if only they were all like this.

Saturday I almost cancelled on a forecast of strong easterly winds. Glad I didn’t. We managed pollack, bream and a conger of 40lb from a wreck followed by some plaice, the best being around 3lb.

Unfortunatley Im having trouble uploading photos at the moment but copies of some of the photos can be found on charterboat uk at http://www.charterboats-uk.co.uk/sallyann-shoreham/ Hopefully I will sort out problems uploading to this website soon.

Fishing has been a little hit and miss with a few good fish to brighten up most trips. Unfortunately the weather has not been helpful and many dates have been cancelled, although weather for the next few days looks superb. I have individuals trips targeting deeper wrecks tomorrow, Thursday and Friday. There are currently two spaces available for Thursday if anyone is interested.

Saturday 21st July saw us attempting to catch bream on rough ground, we did have a few small ones along with small tope, undulate rays and many pout. We moved to a wreck where Sophie, who was on her first trip fishing opted to put a big bait down and within minutes had hoked a good eel. Clearly it was going to be some time before the eel would hit the surface and I cooked sausages for all whilst she played it. After an epic struggle and with the sausages cooked Sophie guided the 65lb eel into the net. Nice fish, she will have to work hard to beat that on her second trip.

Sunday 22nd July saw us attempt to find the bream on rough again. We found a few more, but not lots. Best fish was probably an undulate ray around 10-12lb, though I managed an eel of 40-45lb from the reef.

Sunday 5th August saw us struggle for much of the day, catching a hound, some small bream, red gurnard, the smallest conger Ive seen and a few other bits and pieces. We  then decided to spend a couple of hours drifting for plaice, which worked well with around 10 in the boat along with a couple of dabs and more red gurnard.

Colin