Bob the Builder catches a Record Blue Shark

Today I was on board 'Bite Adventures' skippered by Chippy Chapman out of Penzance in search of sharks. An average day sees 6-8 blues landed with the boat record at 186lb. As we sailed the ten miles out to sea, little did we know what the day held in store!

As Chippy prepared the rubby-dubby mix the rest of us set about the task of catching fresh mackerel for bait, and to supplement the rubby-dubby later in the day.



Three sacks of rubby-dubby were hung overboard, so that with each roll of the boat, some of the smelly concoction would be washed out of the bags downtide setting up a scent trail.

The anglers on board drew lots to decide who would take the first, second, third shark etc. This is common practice when using hire gear. Four shark outfits were set up and before long a line of floats were awaiting the sharks. The nearest rod was set shallow with the depth increasing the further out the rod was fished. Bob the Builder, Bob Pollard of the Looe Sea Anglers Club, set up his own rod and a fifth float joined the lineup.

"Shark!" exclaimed Chippy. A group of excited anglers watched as a large blue and a smaller fish worked their way up the trail before disappearing into the depths. Seconds later the reel screamed on the closest rod and the first shark of the day was on. The shark sounded for the bottom, however the hook pulled out after only a few seconds. From the way it dived for the bottom Chippy suspected that we had just lost a Porbeagle.

Within seconds another reel was screaming and Chippy passed the rod to me. The fight was soon over as the shark was only around 40lb and had wrapped itself up the wire trace.

Several of us set up light freelining or float tackle to fish for the specimen garfish that also work their way up the rubby dubby trail. It was great fun with multiple hookups and specimen garfish providing aerial battles on the light tackle. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the largest, a 3lb fish to Shane. My largest weighed in at 2lb 2oz and there were other fish landed in the two pound class.

After the initial excitement, all had gone quiet on the shark front. Chippy suggested to Bob that he might like to try a bigger bait near the bottom. We were drifting in around 250 feet of water.

Bob baited up with a big mackerel flapper and using 8oz of lead to keep the bait down set his float 220 feet deep. Bob's float sailed out past the furthest float and the wait recommenced. After a short wait Bob's reel clicked couple of times and the rod tip pulled over out of sync with the movement of the boat.

"Bob, you have got a shark", someone shouted, and with that Bob tightened.

It was obvious that this was a big fish as the shark took a fair bit of line off Bob's fairly tight drag. Chippy asked Bob whether he needed to start the engine ready to follow the shark. Bob said not yet. The rest of us reeled in the other lines to avoid the big shark fouling them.

During the fight Bob on a couple of occasions cavalierly twanged the taut braid like a guitar;  he confessed later that he just needed to rest his arms. Unlike mono which has a certain amount of stretch, on braid everything is felt by the angler.

After half an hour or so the shark surfaced, with the wire trace wrapped around its body. Chippy grabbed the tail and started to unravel the wire, as one more turn would have resulted in the braid rubbing against the shark resulting in a lost fish. It took three people to drag the shark on board through the open gate at the stern of the boat.

The fish was nicely hooked in the scissors, and was quickly unhooked before having its vital measurements taken. The tape measure recorded the length as 98 inches and the girth as 45 inches. Although not exceptionally long,  this fish was exceptionally deep in the body. Chippy suspected this might be Bite's first 200lb blue shark and the charts confirmed a weight of 248lb.

Bob and Chippy were both insistent that the shark be returned, which meant that they could not claim the official British Record. The shark seemed rather dazed and swam around the boat giving us all one last view before swimming off into the depths.

Another small shark of around 40lb completed the day's sport.

Those of us on board were privileged to witness this extraordinary fish. It couldn't have happened to a better bloke, all credit to Bob for returning the fish.

As we sailed back into Penzance it all seemed a little surreal, Bob the Builder had just landed a British Record Blue Shark!


For the record the tackle Bob used was:

Rod: Penn Torque 30lb Class
Reel: Penn Torque 200
Braid: 65lb Whiplash
Trace and Strop (Rubbing Leader): 480lb Wire
Float: Drink Bottle
Lead: 8oz

Here are a couple more shots of the monster.

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.

Captain Beaky and the Vibrating Fish

The breakwater that surrounds Brighton Marina is one of the best shore fishing locations in Sussex, giving access to deep water. The weather plays a large part in successful angling and after week of warm settled weather I decided to spend a couple of days after a garfish.

Following the advice of the staff at the tackle box on the Marina I decided to fish the western arm. The arm was already busy and by late morning there was an angler every ten yards back towards the shoreline. There were reports that scad had been caught pre-dawn along with mullet.

I set up float tackle on the barbel rod, with a cigar shaped float taking a half ounce drilled bullet and set the depth initially to ten feet. A three foot hooklength of 12lb flurocarbon was used as garfish have needle link teeth which would wear through a light hooklength. Bait was a small strip of mackerel (about an inch by a quarter of an inch) hooked through the end only.

I fished the rising tide up to high water on the float and over the next few hours caught a number of garfish interspersed with a handful of mackerel. 


The fight is a series of leaps, head shakes and short searing runs that compare with mackerel. The gars slim, streamlined body gives them speed through the water, however the bulk of their resistance is at surface level. I imagine scaling down to a light avon style rod and six pound line would provide great sport.


There are a team of helpful bailiffs who collect money for day tickets, offer advice and offer to take your rubbish away! A chat revealed that I could expect to catch a sea scorpion if I fished for mini species in the edge. 


Rigging up with a mini two hook paternoster with size 10 hooks baited with an inch of ragworm or a tiny strip of mackerel I caught various blennies, wrasse, pollack, a sandsmelt and several sea scorpions. Sea scorpions are amusing in that when you touch their undersides they start vibrating like a mobile phone on silent!

I returned to my floatfishing for the last couple of hours of daylight and caught numbers of garfish, with the biggest weighed at 1lb 3oz. Some anglers nearby were struggling and I donated the mackerel and some garfish as they were fishing for food. Is Brighton full of East Europeans or are a high proportion of them anglers?

I decided to stay for an hour after dark hoping for a scad, otherwise known as a horse mackerel. Changing the float to one that accepted a starlight allowed me to fish into the night. After a couple of missed bites and a fish dropping off I landed my first ever scad, a small example of the species. The first thing  you notice is the metallic grey colouration and how bony they feel.

The following morning I decided to fish the western breakwater which was not so busy due to the long walk. I fished a second rod on worm more in hope than expectation.

 After catching several garfish I noticed that the water was becoming coloured due to the undertow. Mackerel and garfish are sight feeders and as expected bites ceased. Interestingly a change to my mini species rigs revealed that mini species also don't feed well in coloured water although a number of blennies, wrasse and sea scorpions did oblige. 

At the height of the tide I caught three "schoolie" bass in succession which brought my trip to an end.

Postscript: Checking Collins Pocket Guide to Fish of Britain and Europe at home I realised that I had photographed a long spined sea scorpion. Had I also caught short spined sea scorpions without realising? The easiest way to tell them apart is that the long spined sea scorpion has tiny barbules on the end of it's upper jaw.