The Trophy Room

Although I am not a match angler I have entered or been entered into a range of competitions. 

As a youngster I used to send in details of my specimen coarse fish captures to gain Kingfisher Guild Certificates from the Angling Times. An Angling Times Top Ten badge was proudly worn for a while, this was the mark of a true specimen hunter at the end of the seventies.

My allegiance then changed to the Anglers Mail, and at one stage I used to send in photos for publication. In those days the Anglers Mail paid £25 for each photo it used. Believe it or not, a 5lb 9oz Welland Chub back in 1989 won me a reel as the fish of the week. How things have changed, even a six pound chub barely gets a mention nowadays!   

Various badges from Trout Fisherman and Sea Angler Magazines have arrived in the post and like the Angling Times Top Ten Badge have briefly adorned fishing clothing. I don't recall ever entering a trout, it being good publicity for day ticket fisheries.

My match career is limited, I have entered one trout fishing match. I travelled all the way to Bure Valley Fishery in Norfolk to find that the only way I could fish that day, was to enter a competition. I fluked a four pound rainbow first cast and walked off with a trout rod for the biggest fish of the day.

Despite this glittering array of awards I had never won a trophy until a couple of years ago when I was the weakest link in a two day RNLI competition aboard Colin Penney's Flamer III. Today I finally got another trophy to accompany it after accidentially winning a Portland and Surrounding Waters competition aboard Flamer IV.

 I have entered several matches aboard Flamer, simply because this has given me access to species rich areas that would not normally be visited during a charter trip. During Colin's matches I have landed several new species including the rare Red Band Fish and the Baillions Wrasse. Whilst I admire match anglers, I have no real desire to compete and continue to concentrate on trying to catch new species. I felt that I had a chance of Trigger Fish, Dragonets and Butterfly Blennies and fished accordingly. Unfortunately I failed miserably and yet again, the angler next to me caught the only Butterfly Blenny of the day. 

I was truly astonished when Colin announced that I had not only landed the most species but was also the points winner by some way. I don't really understand why, as I am sure that Steve Clements the runner up caught far more fish than me. However I would have happily swapped the kudos for Steve's  Butterfly Blenny and the weakest link spot!

Where is my trophy room, the downstairs loo of course!

RNLI Two Day Species Competition

Day 1

 I had expected to be blown off, so it was a pleasant surprise when Colin confirmed that we would be fishing, albeit with an early start as the winds were expected to build during the day. We drew for our place on the boat and had the rules explained to us before Flamer 4 sailed out to sea in the early morning light.

We started by drifting the back of the bank and experienced some superb black bream fishing with over forty between us in little over an hour. I struggled at times to get my baits down to the bottom past the mackerel.

Colin decided that we would have a few drifts across the shambles before moving inshore. The competition fanatics tried for sandeels whilst I baited with a long thin mackerel strip hoping for a brill. On each drift my rod top rattled flatty style, however the hoped for brill turned into two dogfish, mackerel and a tope (worth loads of points apparently........face, points, bothered). Dodgy Dave managed a plaice and a turbot and was pronounced a real angler by Colin.

A session drifting followed, with wrasse of all colours and sizes being boated. My male cuckoo was the prettiest, with Stephan catching the two largest ballans, both four pound plus. Rather than anchor the mud as originally planned Colin took us to a nearby reef, where bullhuss, conger and ling obliged.

A Chinese meal rounded off a very enjoyable day, however I suspect the other diners were pleased to see the rowdy party of anglers leave.

Day 2

Strong winds meant that we were restricted to Portland Harbour and the surrounding area. We started by drifting for wrasse under the cliffs before anchoring up on the muddy bit. Once again I suffered the ignominy of seeing other anglers land the dragonet and butterfly blenny I was targeting. My tiny pieces of rag worm only attracted small smooth hounds and a solitary goby.

We then anchored on the red band spot, by bouncing sabikkis around I managed to tempt three along with a raft of assorted gobies including at least black, and sand gobies.

A drifting session on the Portland entrance saw pout galore and loads of wrasse before a blast on the ships horn signalled the end of proceedings.

Richard Ferre was the winner, with Andy Collings the runner up. Other awards were given for most species, best fish and weakest link. Yours truly finished mid table.

Again to many species were caught to list on the labels as blogger has a 200 character limit for labels!

Portland Species Competition!

Today, I was a guest angler amongst the regular Friday Species League crew aboard Colin Penney's Flamer 4. Although I not personally into match fishing of any kind, you can learn a lot from match anglers. The fishing today would be restricted to the areas in and around Portland Harbour, a species hunters paradise.

After a short sail we arrived at Colin's secret muddy mark where the rare red band live. These unusual fish live with their heads sticking out of the mud grabbing shrimps and the like. A set of mini sabikkis were baited with tiny strips of squid ready for the first of several short drifts. By the time we moved we had acounted for more than twenty red band fish between us. They are truly stunning looking fish being a pinky orange colour with electric pinky purple edging the fins. If Barbie was a fish she would be a red band fish. I also managed a goby or two including a Jeffreys Goby (it has an elongated 2nd ray on its first dorsal). Unfortunately I managed to drop it back in before getting the photo.

We spent some time drifting a range of marks including the harbour entrances. The rocky areas were wrasse city and a wide variety of species were caught including ballan, cuckoo, goldsinney and the rare ballions wrasse. Tompot blennies, gobies, mackerel, scad and pollack also showed.

Gurnards manly tubs showed, I only managed to catch reds........again! Several anglers caught dragonets which again evaded my hooks. Andy Selby from Weymouth Angling even managed a couple of red mullet, the first Andy had ever caught. Two trigger fish were also landed.

In retrospect I should have fished short flowing rigs to keep all three baits on the bottom, rather than a paternoster rig. I am back for a two day competition in October which will allow me to test out my hypothesis. Most of the anglers on board had homemade bait containers divided into sections and hung on the boats rails, which immediately means less time is spent baiting up and more time spent with a bait in the water.

The planned drifts over the wreck of the Hood had to be abandoned due to the presence of divers.

Our final mark was at anchor over a muddy patch where I targeted butterfly blennies and dragonets on tiny hooks baited with slivers of ragworm. I became a smoothound pup magnet landing four of them along with some dogfish.

Richard, the angler next to me landed the only butterfly blenny of the day. Again I suffered the indignity of seeing others landing dragonets and tub gurnards.

What an enjoyable day in good company. I added three species to my challenge total and missed out on five others (butterfly blenny, dragonet, red mullet, trigger fish and tub gurnard). In excess of tweny species were landed by the crew and I ended the day with 14 species, in fact too many to record as labels on this blog item (blogger has a limit of 200 characters)!

Right time, wrong Plaice!

Although I failed to catch my target brill or tub gurnard, I have just enjoyed a couple of enjoyable days fishing onboard Colin Penney's Flamer 4. Two days were spent drifting the mussel beds and the Shambles Bank out of Weymouth with a short spell at anchor.

Weymouth is is the place to catch specimen plaice and Colin Penney is the man to put you onto them. Don't expect to catch numbers of fish but where else do you have a realistic chance of a specimen place of over 5lb. Whether you can catch them is another matter!

Although I improved my personal best with the 3lb 12oz plaice pictured, this was believe it or not only an average fish amongst those landed. Whilst I was there fish of 7lb and 6lb 14oz were landed along with a few fives.

Pompey and the Pop Art Ray

The undulate ray is perhaps the least common of the ray species targeted by anglers, indeed all undulates must be returned by law. Marine biologists are currently in the midst of a scientific survey of the undulate ray in the Solent to understand more about this rare and beautiful fish. The albeit limited data collected so far, suggests that these rays stay in the same general area throughout the year, much like their bigger relatives the common skate.

I travelled down to Portsmouth the night before as I had an early start ahead of me. My hastily booked bed and breakfast turned out to be a recently decommissioned care home complete with emergency night nurse alarms, that story will have to wait for another day!

I boarded Sea Juicer skippered by Rob Hicklin ready for a 6.45am sail. Portsmouth is an interesting place to sail from, as there is lots to see on the outward journey. There are a number of naval craft including the oldest commissioned ship in the navy, Nelson's Victory.

As well as the ships there are some interesting buildings. The Spinakker Tower at 170 metres in hight dominates the skyline as you leave Portsmouth Harbour. The Palmerston sea forts were built in the Solent to protect the eastern approaches to Portsmouth Harbour in 1859. One of these forts is apparently being developed as luxury apartments, presumably complete with helipad?

On the way out we stopped off to catch some mackerel for bait, however despite trying three marks only a handful of mackerel rewarded our efforts. I am convinced that substituting the lead weight for a shiny pirk improves the catch rate, especially when the mackerel are thin on the ground.

We drew lots for our fishing position and I drew a peg at the stern of the boat, generally considered the best spot for downtiding.

Rob explained that we would be anchoring in sixty foot of water over an area of broken ground off the Isle of Wight, where we could expect to catch smoothhounds, thornback and undulate rays. We arrived just before slack water and were told to expect rays in the first hour of the flood and again when the tide slackened off at high water. I tackled up with 20lb class gear and a four foot trace of 80lb line with a 4/0 hook which was baited with a fillet of mackerel.

Within a few minutes I had a series of vicious bangs on the rod tip and landed a small tope. We were to land several small tope between us during the day and lose a couple through bite offs.

You can usually tell when a ray bites, as there are a few gentle knocks as the ray settles on top of the bait, followed by the rod pulling over as the fish moves off. As Rob predicted an hour into the flood I landed a specimen 16lb undulate ray. The markings are exquisite, indeed Trevor Housby called them the "pop art ray". Other anglers added a couple of small thornbacks to the bag.

Rather than stick with the rays I decided to change tactics hoping for a common smoothhound. As we all know, smoothhounds love crab. These hounds hadn't read the rule book and my crab was ignored whilst squid produced. Baiting up with squid (a la Colin Penney) I didn't have to wait long before catching a couple of starries, the largest at 9.5lb was my best to date. I had a couple more smaller hounds including my first common before the bites dried up. Despite fishing through the flood the easing of the tide towards the end of the afternoon failed to produce the expecting run of fish.

Once the tide eased I unsuccessfully fished baited hokkais hoping for a tub gurnard. Other anglers who fished light had some black bream, scad, mackerel and a red gurnard between them. It was one happy angler that sailed back into Portsmouth Harbour that evening.

I spent a few hours fishing at Brighton Marina the following day hoping for a Red Mullet or Twaite Shad. Ideally I would have liked an evening tide rather than high tide at 4pm. I fished a two hook flapper with lugworm on one rod and floatfished mackerel strip on the other. Mackerel and garfish are great sport on light tackle, and although not numerous, I caught enough mackerel and garfish to feed the family and supplement my bait freezer. One of the problems with trying to mix styles is you do neither well and I missed a couple of bream bites on the legered bait. To avoid the wrasse I fished about twenty yards out and landed four small black bream, the angler next door asked me to ID his gurnard which turned out to be a small red mullet! With the wind strengthening I called it a day at 4pm as waves were starting to crash over the breakwater.

It takes two to Conger!

My third and final day fishing aboard Flamer was on a reef and bank trip. We fished the Shambles bank on the drift for black bream, I fished a portland rig with a long flowing trace armed with some yellow attractor beads. This appeared to do the trick and several bream responded. As the tide slowed we moved and drifted over the mussel beds for plaice. Two plaice were landed by the same angler who fished a wishbone rig; was it the extra scent that attracted the plaice? I had to make do with pout.

Our final mark was a reef past Portland Bill where some of the party continued fishing for bream and other smaller fish. I decided to go big fish or bust and set up a 20 - 30lb class rod with a pennel rig holding a large squid and mackerel cocktail. After catching several dogfish I had a different sort of bite and struck into a good fish, or so I thought! The fight felt odd and I realised I had crossed lines with Ian who was also playing a fish. I slackened off and Ian landed a conger eel in the 15-20lb range. After Colin had released the fish, Ian told me that it had my hook in its mouth and had taken both our baits. It takes two to conger!

You are the Weakest Link!

I don't normally fish competitions, however the opportunity to fish the Flamer Annual Two Day Species Competition was too good to miss. I knew that it would be an opportunity to fish a variety of marks, learn from some good match anglers and hopefully add to my species list for the year. Ten points were awarded for a species on the list and up to ten fish of each species would gain extra points. On landing a fish the captor calls out their name and species to Colin the skipper. I wasn't bothered about competing and decided to concentrate on tactics which might add a new species to the challenge.

The forecast for Saturday was poor and we set sail later than planned to miss the worst of the weather. As a consequence the water had coloured up and we could only fish inshore marks. 

At anchor we fished three hook flowing traces and caught dogfish, red gurnards, starry smoothhounds, scad and for James a dragonet.

In between the sessions at anchor we fished several areas around Portland drifting for wrasse. Due to the colour in the water the wrassing was poor, although we all managed to catch some ballan and corking wrasse along with pollack and pout. Just off the end of Portland Breakwater I had battle royal with a specimen ballan weighing 5lb 4oz.

Robin suggested that we ended the day fishing for mini species in Weymouth Harbour itself! Imagine the scene, a charter boat moored up to a pontoon by the bridge with five grown men fishing off the stern of the boat, catching tiny wrasse, blennies and gobies shouting out their name and species to the scorer, with an audience on the quayside! Anyway I did catch my first black goby. Robin caught a light coloured goby, probably a sand goby. At the end of day one I was in third position.

One of the anglers, Gareth (who was the army champion) could not fish on Sunday. His place was taken by Andy's partner, Glenys. Sunday was an early start and it was still dark as we sailed out of Weymouth Harbour.

We started the day in Portland Harbour on the drift where we caught mackerel, pollack, pout and wrasse including a goldsinney to me and two cuckoo wrasse to Glenys.

A drift over the wreck of the Hood didn't produce the targeted red band fish so we went east off the Purbeck cliffs. The area just off Durdle Door is a top spot for cuckoo wrasse. Although the wrasse were not playing ball, Robin caught a rare baillons wrasse, which looks like a corkwing but with red fins.

A few drifts over a wrecked landing craft produced loads of pouting and some black bream. The day ended at anchor where once again the dogfish showed along with thornback rays, garfish and a tub gurnard.              

Over the two days I caught thirteen species including one new to the challenge and saw my first baillons wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, dragonet and tub gurnard. I learned that when species hunting, a sensitive boat quivertip style rod helps to convert more bites, especially on the drift for wrasse and that at anchor it pays to use attractor beads.

Although I came fourth, I was awarded the "weakest link" trophy as the lowest scoring angler who fished both days. The trophy currently adorns our downstairs loo.

Next year I will compete!

Poole Interlude

Today I was going to fish the Purbeck banks and reefs out of Poole on Silver Spray skippered by Sam Cumming. The crew consisted of a mixed group of 10 individuals and the plan was for a multi species day.

We spent most of the morning failing to catch mackerel for bait from several different inshore marks. With very limited bait stocks we moved onto the banks.

We fished a couple of spots in the hope of rays, hounds and tope during the slack water period, legering mackerel fillets on a size 6/0 hook to a four foot trace of 100lb mono. A pound of lead was needed to hold bottom even on the slack. Few fish were caught, largely I suspect due to the shortage of bait. Ernie, a likable old boy and regular on Silver Spray caught a fabulous Blonde Ray weighing 17lb and a French lad next to me had a small blonde. Another lad landed a common smoothhound and apart from a couple of doggies, one to me that was it.

With the tide picking up we moved inshore to a try for a black bream. The 12/20lb outfit was rigged with a portland rig with a size 2 aberdeen and 4 yellow beads on a three foot 20lb fluorocarbon trace. The technique is to bounce the lead (in this case 6oz) across the bottom downtide. Despite the limited fishing time I had several rattles hooking one bream which probably only weighed a pound or so. Unfortunately I dropped the bream back in before I could photograph it for the blog. I like the technique and would like to do more black bream fishing in future. Next time I would pack a spinning rod for the bream which I am sure would result in a better hook up rate.