Croydon Sea Angling Society News

Weather was worse than forecast so we ended up with at least a force 4 easterly. Despite that we had 22 Smoothounds, all were around 4 Lbs but gave a good account of themselves on light uptiders. Star fish of the day was a 13.5 Lb Undulate for Fred, very pretty

Calm but wet day with very few fish. Tried for some Bass on the Kingmere as they had had lots the week before, but there was not much tide and they did not feed. Went out to a wreck for Conger and did a couple of drifts first in the hope of picking up a few Bass but couple of pollock was only result. Eels did not seem to want to play either just two. One for Dave at 45 lb and the other for Steve at about 38 lb. Other than that the only thing to break the pouting and odd dogfish monotony was a small Smoothound for Fred.

Calm and sunny day with reasonable number of Bream best was about 3.25 Lb for Tony.

Graham decided to try for a Smoothound or Wrasse at slack tide and was rewarded with a Ballan of just under 3 Lb. A few Gars were caught.... only 1 Mackerel.

Weather was not as good as the Friday mostly overcast and with a 3 to 4 wind. Tried for Bream for an hour first with limited success and then moved further out to Utopia for Smoothounds which did not seem too keen to take hardbacks. New member Dick Barnes however had peeler and at one point seemed to have a fish on every couple of minutes which raised dark comments about vetoed membership applications and walking back to shore.

Warm, calm day when everyone had fish. Drifted a wreck first off for maybe an hour, using pirks etc. Picked up a few Cod and left a few pirks.

Then out to the Varne for Sandeels. It was a good job we had Jan Dalziel with us because she was the only one to pick up any significant quantity of Sandeels. I put this down to 50/50 skill and the tiny shrimps she was using (Wal-Mart specials).

Then went to fish the live Sandeels for Bass on another wreck, with at the busiest, about 6 other boats, until the Sandeels ran out. Everyone had at least one Bass.

Damp & windy in the morning, brightened up at mid-day which is more than can be said for the fishing. Mackeral were not easy, but we managed to get enough.

Shaun had a run about half way through the flood, but was bitten off so we guessed that was a small tope.

Lots of small bream bites so Mike Peel, Bernie & Mike Lewis tackled up for them and each managed to secure at least one, but they were all undersized.

Up until half an hour before we were due to steam back in, the only other showing being a doggie for Bernie, which is when I did my usual trick of managing a last minute fish. Bass 3-12.

An east wind straight into harbour mouth made leaving, the second most exciting event of the day. The most exciting bit was towing a boatwith a dead engine in from the harbour mouth on our return.

The time in betweenwas fishless other than the odd dog. Some of the crew did not even manage a dog; In Shaun's case the reason was easy to spot as he was following his normal cod fishing tactic of using a bait big enough to choke a donkey

Not a very productive day with only 2 cod caught, biggest 11.5 Lbs. Good view of the fireworks on the way in.

Owing to expected high winds, we had planned to fish the harbour for small bass and flounders, Ross said anything up to force 7 would be ok. Its forcast was 6-8 with occasional 9! So we all got to stay in bed.

The fishing was steady, although the fish never rushed to give themselves up. Total catch of 17 cod and 9 Pollock, Including a 16 pound Pollock by Tony Shields, equalling the club record. The prize of the day goes to Nick Kester who surprised everyone including Phil Batt with a 7.5 SALMON. Wow a record that will stand for years, that’s assuming anyone ever catches a salmon again.

Bright sunny day with winds ENE force 4-5. Fished a wreck which from the time it took to get there and the temperature of the wind, was some where off Trondheim. Fish came up with most drifts, in ones or twos for most of the flood tide, went dead at slack water apart from Pouting. Cod came on again just as we had to leave, apart from the Pouting and one small Pollock, Cod were all that was caught. Jim had the most and Mike Lewis the biggest at 19 lb.

Jim commented that it was a great day 11 times

Bright sunny day with force 5 + westerly winds which made for an uncomfortable days fishing.

The fishing however was quite good with fish coming up steadily for most of the day.

Fred had the most. Graham had the biggest cod at 26Lbs + and Shaun the biggest Pollock - 12Lbs +

Cancelled. After driving down, the majority of the crew decided to pay and not go as it was so windy and likely to be very uncomfortable.

Phil had already said that as the wind was NE it would not be anything like as rough as would normally be expected with F5 winds, but most did not want to risk it.

Being confronted with a crew of two Phil decided to call the trip off.

A shame for the two that wanted to go because if they were prepared to put up with it being rough then I feel they should have had the option.

Being one of the ones who had expected to pay not to go, I would have been happy to see the trip go ahead. The fact that I did not want to put up with the physical effort of dealing with a rough sea was up to me and I'm sorry that it influenced the cancellation.

Report by Bill

7/4/06 Langstone

Weather was better than forecast with the early morning cold breeze dying away to give a very warm sunny day with a flat sea.

Started off after Hounds which were a bit slow coming and then when the tide really got going went off completely.

Moved out late morning to try for Blonds which again were not throwing themselves on the boat, just 2 caught, the biggest to Peter Clifford at 26LB + the other to Dick at just under 17LB.

Moved back inside to try for hounds again when the tide died, again not easy, but one or 2 people managed to save a blank with fish around or approaching double figures.

Not a brilliant day but considering the time of year not bad at all.

Report by Bill

A bright sunny day with winds 2-3 from the ESE. Conditions were ideal for fishing, being located off Selsey Bill.

Black bream came aboard from the start but at no time did the fish really start feeding. All members of the crew caught fish around 2 to 2 ½ Lbs

Everyone caught bream... even Bernie. Biggest was 4lb 3oz. Most were over a pound. Also caught ballan wrasse and garfish. No bass when we drifted the mark with lures... only mackerel. Report by Vic

Cold NE wind all day, sharp chop on the way out which calmed down ans the day progressed. Cloudy until about 3/4 of a hour before getting back to Eastbourne.

Very long steam, trying a couple of wrecks on route, 1st delivered a few very small codling. (Target was Bass) 2nd nothing.

On finally arriving at the target wreck some 2.5 hours after leaving Eastbourne the fishing was very slow to start with, but as the tide picked up the cod started to come aboard. On one drift everyone had a fish on once which called for some nifty footwork from the skipper.

A good haul of fish which was nearly all cod the only exceptions appart from one or two Pout & Whiting was an undersize coal fish for Jim and a 4.5 lbs Pollock for Steve.

Biggest Cod 11.25 lbs.

Tony had the most with a white Shad.

Most amusing one liner of the day was from Jim.

As we were standing on the pontoon waiting to board, Jim said:-

"Oh theres Phil I did not recognise him without his Hannibal Lecter outfit". (Phil was not wearing his usual blue overalls).

As 1st December Folkestone trip was so heavily booked (Everyone assumed it would be the cod cup) we will try for a second boat.

Wind was stronger and more easterly than forecast, which made for a wet ride out to the Varne where the mackeral were numerous and large but the sandeels were scarce.

On trying the wrecks for Bass, the combination of wind and tide meant 3 Knot drifts which was too fast to fish effectively .

Gave it best and tried drifting rough ground for codling, which resulted in a few very small undersize codling and one which just scraped in at 2 LB for Jan.

All in all, athough we got out, this was another trip which was effectively lost to the weather

7/707 Langstone

“W 4 to 5 decreasing 6” summed up the forecast, but it was dry and sunny even if a little rough. A visit to theNab Tower found mackerel up close and on the surface. Steve Stone’s feathers trapped a bonus bass of 1lb 8oz!

At anchor at the first mark fresh mackerel strips and frozen sandeels accounted for a good variety of different rays. The biggest were a spotted ray, 3lb 8oz, for Steve Stone; a small eyed ray, 5lb 8oz, for Shaun Penford and a blonde ray, 10lb, for Vic Rice.

At the second mark, more comfortably in the lee of the I of W, Dick Barnes added a 7lb 4oz thornback ray to the species count and Vic located a 2lb 8oz bass. A few starry smoothounds also turned up for those using frozen hermit crabs. The biggest was 3lb 4oz for Don Morrison.

None of the fish were huge but the variety made for an enjoyable day…… despite the skipper’s endless monologue about his Harley-Davidson. How at times we “ear-bash-fodder” envied the guys in the stern!

14/707 Eastbourne

7/707 Littlehampton

Wind was 3-4 NE all day, which did not help the catch rate, but on the plus side it was warm and dry all day.

Target was Bass, but to do that, we needed Mackeral and these were not easy to find. Skipper had some from the previous day which he had kept chilled and were in reasonable condition. Shaun and one or two others of the crew kept feathers out for Mackeral whilst Bass fishing, which ensured that just enough fresh was available.

Only 6 keepable Bass were caught during the day with the biggest of 6Lbs-11 oz to Jan. Vic, although Bassless, did manage a small Tope, a Conger of 12.5 Lbs and an Undulate Ray of 11 Lbs.

Graham wished he had not got up that morning as when he arrived in Littlehampton whilst negotiating a roundabout, someone who had not woken up, drove into the side of his car. As might be predicted with that level of bad luck, he remained fishless all day

Early start of 6 am on the boat caused a few grumbles about no breakfast and having to get upu before going to bed. The mood was not improved by the 90 minute steam to fish the mussel beds for Plaice which because of the strong westerly was a very wet ride. However the mood improved as soon as we started to drift fish coming almost as soon as baits hit the bottom.

Fish then continued to be caught fairly regularly with everyone having at least one.

Bernie only just got his with minutes to spare before the skipper called line up for the last time, but it was the biggest of the day at 4lb 10 oz.

Remained windy and rough all day so quite tiring as the sleepy looking crew testify

Sunny and warm calm sea allday, but almost no fish. Plan was to go for Rays and we tried several spots dodging the biggest runs of tide by moving onto shallow ground at the peaks.

Bait fish proved hard to get, but we had suffiecent due to the sterling efforts of Shaun & Don

Little to show for our efforts except an undersized Tope and a Smalleye Ray of just over 4 lbs.

Warm still morning and a flat sea made for a comfortable ride out to fish for Plaice.

Very small tide meant that we did not drift very fast so did not really cover enough ground. As the day progressed the wind got up and that slowed us down even further.

Nevertheless we managed to get a fair number of fish on board with the biggest at 3lbs 9 oz going to Martin, who incidentally had amongst the most. So he nearly had to walk home.

Peter had a decent sized Ballan Wrasse (Just over 2 lbs I think) which will not do his points tally for the year any harm.

The risk of a force 6 upsetting the calm meant that we went to the mussel beds for Plaice instead of a distant wreck for Bream, Cod and Conger. 24 good quality Plaice came aboard with fish of 4lb 5oz, 4lb 1oz and 3lb 12oz falling to Steve Stone, George Downham and Dave Markwell respectively. George had to resort to his “old faithful” rod (30 quid in 1972) after the tip ring broke on his first, but he still landed the most plaice (5). A couple of small Codling, Black Bream and a Gurnard provided some variety… not to mention the Pouting.

The drifts were often fast and rather snaggy but the tackle shop stayed open so the sport was steady.

Lugworm tipped with squiddid the trick with or without the skipper’s combination of spoons and beads

“Still a bargain and guaranteed to catch”, however Tony Shield’s claim for arefund was declined.