What is happening to freshwater fishing?

What is happening to freshwater fishing?

1. Small stillwater trout fishing has brought trout fishing to the masses, however stocking larger and larger trout has devalued the capture of a big wild trout. Even reservoirs are not immune to the stocking of brood fish! Much as I enjoy catching doubles on these fisheries it always feels somewhat artificial.

2. Fishing for those silver tourists, the salmon and sea trout isn't what it was. Even if your wallet can stand the cost, catch returns from most of our rivers are pitiful. How lucky were those anglers who fished before the 1970's when the decline kicked in.

3. What is it about carp Commercial stillwaters are in many cases so seriously overstocked that visiting match anglers have to catch a hundred pounds of pasty carp during a five hour match to stand a chance of the prize money. Visiting pleasure anglers are guaranteed a bite every few minutes. The RSPCA and environment agency stand by and do nothing about this animal cruelty. Overstocking to that extent is cruelty, period!

4. Where are the young anglers ? Those few youngsters that can be tempted away from their screens are obsessed by carp fishing. Youngsters get all the gear, flock to the nearest carp fishery and camp out until they either get bored of carp fishing or catch a big carp or two and give up fishing because camping out for days behind multiple rods is frankly a bit boring and not real angling.

5. When I was younger a twenty pound carp was a real achievement, nowadays there are waters where every fish landed will be a twenty. Carp fishing has gone the way of stillwater trouting which has devalued the sport.

6. Many of our rivers have suffered serious declines. My local welland for example is a shadow of it's former self. Thirty years ago I could walk a mile of river and spot fifty or more chub,and shoals of small fish were everywhere. Now if I walk that same mile of river I am lucky to see any chub and small fish just aren't present. Cormorants clear a stretch of river as soon as the fish reach six inches or so. Otters which have been reintroduced without any consideration of the entire ecosystem pick off the few remaining specimen sized fish to eke out a living. That river of the seventies would have happily supported otters!

Rant over.

PS. Went fishing for the first time in a month and caught a stack of silver bream up to 1lb 7oz. The highlight of my day was seeing "ratty", it must be a decade since I last saw a water vole.

Relics from the Ice Age

In Falkus and Buller's Freshwater Fishing there is a chapter about the Whitefishes. These game fish are an ancient relic of our glacial past and are probably surviving remnants of migratory stocks which became land-locked during the last ice age.

There are two species, the common whitefish (represented by the powan, gwyniad and skelly) and the vendace. Each species is found in only a handful of glacial lakes in Snowdonia, Lake District and Scotland. The powan is the most common of these and is found in Loch Lomond, Loch Eck and Loch Carron.

Very few whitefish have been caught on rod and line, mainly because few anglers have ever tried to catch one. In Freshwater Fishing, Dick Walker speculates how he would set out to catch a powan from Loch Lomond and suggests that they should be regarded as a kind of stillwater grayling. Dick suggested either flyfishing during the summer or fishing worm or maggot during the winter.



Fred Buller once held the British record with a powan of 11.25 oz caught from Balmaha Pier whilst catching roach to use as bait for Lomond's legendary pike.

Powan spawn on gravel shallows at the mouth of the Endrick River and at this time of year, if you are lucky like Buller one may happen along whilst roach fishing from Balmaha Pier.

The introduction of the ruffe to Loch Lomond has impacted badly on the Powan as they feed on the powan's eggs.

I am ashamed to say that it was pike anglers (through discarded livebaits) who introduced the ruffe and other non indigenous species including bream and carp to the loch.

If you have ever wondered how to keep maggots in perfect condition on an extended trip I can reveal a foolproof method. After purchasing your maggots from the tackle shop:

1. Place them in a bucket in your bait fridge and  let them chill off for a couple of hours.

2. Tip the maggots into a polybag, suck out all the air from the bag and tie off.

3. Put an ice block or two in the base of a decent cool box, add a thick layer of newpaper, then place your polybag(s) in maggots in, add another thick layer of newspaper before finishing off with more iceblocks.

When you open the bags the maggots look dead, don't panic as after a couple of hours they will be as lively as the day you bought them from the tackleshop.

My first sight of Lomond did not disappoint, this is a stunning location. My plan was to fish a maggot feeder for roach hoping that a powan might happen along.

Balmaha Pier is a popular location and to avoid the crowds on the Saturday and Sunday I fished to the right of the Pier. I set up a light quivertip rod and started off with a helicopter rig with a short hooklength. Initially I struggled to find my rhythm but by lengthening the hooklength I started catching a few roach, perch and ruffe. Indeed I caught more ruffe in four days on Lomond than in the last 30 years of angling!

On the Sunday one of the anglers on the pier caught a powan of around a pound. It was clear that the bulk of the roach, (and powan?) were about twenty or thirty yards to my left.

I made an early start on Monday to secure the swim. I need not have worried as I had the place to myself.
I started catching roach from the off, pristine little fish in the four to eight ounce bracket with the odd larger fish to a pound. During the course of the day I was lucky enough to bag three powan with the largest at 1lb 2oz.

I returned on the last day of my holiday and managed a further five powan to 1lb 3oz.

It is weird but in the photo's they look more like herring, but in the flesh they look like grayling without that sail like dorsal.  Being a game fish they put up a reasonable fight for their size. Powan must not be kept in nets as they are fragile fish.

I had enjoyed my week with this relic from the Ice age and finally achieved a long held angling ambition.

It's a long way to Lochaline!

It didn't look that far on the map, honest!

My cunning plan was to enjoy a trip through the magnificant scottish scenery culmulating in a few hours after a butterfish or yarrells blenny for the species hunt,

After a trip to Oban to purchase bait I travelled north through magnificent Scottish countryside. The journey took me up to Fort William around the perimeter of various sea lochs. Fort William is remote.

Lochaline is a really remote, it was about sixty miles from Fort William, of which thirty miles of the road is single track. What a journey, I stopped to admire red deer, buzzards and my first golden eagle which posed for me on a fence post.

The water off the Pier at Lochaline is deep, it took a minute and a half for four ounces of lead to hit bottom. The fishing was dire and all I caught was a solitary leopard spotted goby. I am sure if I had been able to source some ragworm things might have been different.


After my days fishing I got back in the car and realised that I had a one hundred and fifty mile drive ahead of me! I started to sing, it's a long way to Lochaline.....

The Thames Smelt a bit Fishy!

A number of reports in scientific journals suggested that smelt gather in numbers in the tidal Thames at this time of year before migrating up river to spawn in freshwater.

The smelt is better known as that pike bait that smells of cucumber. Despite having used them on a number of occasions, I have only ever caught one pike on a smelt, albeit my personal best at twenty-four pounds.

Although we were still in the grip of cold weather I decided on an attempt on a Thames smelt as:

1. There was a spring tide with high tide at 4.11pm
2. There had been a report of a smelt caught at Erith Pier a couple of weeks earlier
3. I could not get back here for at least 3 weeks by which time my opportunity would be over.

To cut a long story short I failed to catch a smelt. Actually, no one on the pier caught a fish of any description! In fact no one fishing on the pier seemed to have heard of smelt being caught from the Thames.



Those scientific journals were begining to smell even fishier than a smelt!

Ice hole fishing for Trout!

When the water temperature drops below 40 degrees most coarse fish stop feeding. Rather than struggle away on the rivers I like to dust down the fly rod and have a relaxing days fishing for rainbow trout.

I like the fact that you can visit a new stillwater trout fishery with every expectation of catching a few fish on your maiden visit. My stillwater trouting falls into two camps, either fishing big fish waters that offer a chance of a double figure trout, or catch and release waters where I can enjoy a days fishing without  having to stop once the agreed bag limit is reached.

I decided to visit Withern Mill in Lincolnshire, a five lake complex which has the added bonus of half of mile of river holding grayling. I purchased a two fish ticket which enabled me to catch and release once my limit had been reached.

I arrived to find a hard frost and a dusting of snow.  Three of the five lakes were frozen solid and there was a small clear patch on the other two lakes around the inlet pipes. On lake two the ice hole was about twenty yards by ten and perhaps half that on lake five.

The morning was spent trying to catch a grayling on an upstream nymph. Every few casts I had to clear the ice from the rings of my little brook rod. Every time the line stopped I struck, three sticks, loads of weed and a foul hooked stickleback resulted!

After a warming cuppa in the "refreshments shed" I set up my heavier outfit with an intermediate line, tying a white nomad on the end of a twelve foot leader. First cast into lake two, the line tightened and I was into a fish of around two pounds. A couple of casts later I was into a second fish, which came off!

After another warming break in the "refreshments shed" I returned and again first cast everything went solid, I lifted into a powerful fish that went screaming off to my left under the ice. Eventually I managed to net the rainbow which went exactly 7lb on the fishery scales.

Over the next couple of hours I had some more fish in the two pound class before the pull of the river became to strong. I spent the last hour trying in vain for a grayling. The water did have a tinge of colour and maybe that was the reason for my lack of success.

I heard a high pitched peep which was swiftly followed by that sapphire blue flash as a kingfisher flew upstream past me, what a nice ending to the day. With the temperature falling fast I decided to set off for home so that I would be back on the A16 before it was dark. I suspect the ice will claim the rest of the lakes surface overnight and the fish will be left in peace for the next few days.

Plan B

I was supposed to be boat fishing out of Poole today, unfortunately my planned trip after blonde rays and spurdogs coincided with the belated start of winter. Freezing temperatures and a force 5 easterly wind mid channel meant that both days were cancelled.

After last year's plethora of cancelled boat trips it was a disappointing start to this year's boat fishing calendar. Shore fishing at this time of year is at a low ebb so it was no surprise when I failed to catch anything from Swanage Pier (my very poor Plan B).

If you regularly read this blog you may have noticed that I have had several wasted trips to the coast over the last couple of years. In future I am going to pack an emergency outfit into the car which will enable me to either fly fish or pursue estuary mullet. All the kit I need should fit into the pockets of a waistcoat.

River Piking

I have been an angler now for over thirty years, and in all that time I have never attempted to catch river pike. I decided to put that right and spend a day on a day ticket stretch of my local River Nene.

My plan was simple, to fish a single rod and spend twenty minutes in each likely looking swim. Hugh Tempest Sheringham wrote "A float is pleasing in appearance, and even more pleasing in it's disappearance".  Like Sheringham I like to use a float wherever possible, so I fished my deadbait well over depth with the sliding float lying flat on the surface.

During the course of the morning, the appearance of my float was indeed most pleasing and three times I became even more pleased as it slid downstream submerging as it went. None of the pike were leviathans, the largest being perhaps eight pounds.

Like many rivers nowadays I had the stretch to myself and the wildlife. This part of Northamptonshire is a stronghold of the Red Kite.  I watched one of these magnificent birds soaring up and down the valley in the strong winds. It wasn't hunting but seemed to be just out enjoying the windy conditions.

Unfortunately my day was cut short mid afternoon when my landing net broke, the metal thread connecting it to the landing net pole had sheared. As the banks were not suited to chinning a fish out I called it a day.

Although I have spent many days in the past piking on stillwaters, and been lucky enough to catch a sprinkling of twenties, frankly I find it all a bit boring! For me, winter fishing is all about rivers and after 30 years I think I have finally found a way to enjoy catching pike. Next winter I will target a twenty pound pike from the Nene.

X marks the Spot

For the river angler January to mid March sees the best of the fishing with most species in prime condition. Chub are my favourite target, but I have also had some of my largest roach, dace, perch, grayling and barbel in these last couple of months of the river season.

I am never in a rush to get on the riverbank at this time of year, and it was late morning before I arrived on the banks of the Upper Welland. Although overcast and unseasonably mild I suspected the clear low water would provide difficult fishing.

I scaled down my hooklength to 4lb fluorocarbon as the river was so clear, and only needed a single swanshot to hold station when fishing to the far back. As there are a few decent Perch on this stretch, I decided to bait up with lobworms and reserve the cheesepaste for after dark.

As expected I fished the first four swims without a bite, although I nearly hooked a fully grown labrador. The dogs idiot owner threw it's ball into the river just off my rod tip, which was naturally retrieved. Thankfully the labrador somehow avoided tangling itself up in my line.

The next swim down was a deep hole where one has to poke the rod through a gap in the trees. Here was a deep eddy which Mr Crabtree would have marked with an X for perch. I missed the first bite, the bobbin rose slowly to the rod, bream thought I. Two minutes later another slow and deliberate bite resulted in my largest small river bream to date at 7lb 1oz.

This was followed by an altogether different bite, the bobbin rising in a jerky manner. Perch thought I , and a nicely conditioned perch of 1lb 7oz was netted. The next perch fell off which as I expected killed the swim.

My next swim was a massive flood raft, Mr Crabtree would have marked this with an X for chub. As expected a chub resulted and a good one too at 4lb 14oz. It had the length of a five but was hollow. Revisiting three of the swims I fished earlier through dusk and into the darkling resulted in three further chub to 4lb 8oz.

What a lovely day on a delightful little river,  I somehow think that Mr Crabtree would have approved.

Review of 2011

I can't believe that another year is nearly over. In the run up to Christmas I like to take a break from fishing and spend time with the family.

I suppose I miss the "closed seasons" that used to be a part of the coarse and game angling year. I think that this field sport our ours is all the poorer for it. An enforced break is the ideal time to reflect on the years fishing, sort out the tackle and make plans for the year ahead. Newbies will never know the excitement that came with those first casts of a new season.

During 2011 I fished on 47 days, most but not all of which are written up in this blog. Six days were spent game fishing with seven days coarse fishing. 2011 was totally dominated by the call of the sea. I failed to catch a fish on only three occasions. 

Although I had intended to do some midweek coarse specimen hunting during 2011, I had not realised just how much time is needed in planning trips and preparing one's equipment when almost every trip is targeting a different species.

 

I fished in 16 counties during the year (Cornwall, Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Essex, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Argyl, Wrexham, Carmarthenshire, Gwynedd and Anglesey). 

At the start of this year my target was to reach 90 species during 2011, so I am pleased to end the year on 98. The weather frustrated my plans with at least half of all the charter boat trips I booked, being cancelled due to strong winds. I suspect that if the weather had been kinder on my October holiday that I may well have reached the 100 a year early.

If the windy weather was the low point,  some of the fishy highlights are pictured on this page. I must take the opportunity to thank the charter skippers, fishery owners and tackle dealers that have helped put me on fish. One of the nice things about fishing is the "brotherhood of the angle" and I have met loads of great lads (and lasses) who have added greatly to the enjoyment of my fishing trips.

I was so focussed on the 100 that I surprised myself when I counted up my species count for the year. I managed 73 species of which 54 were saltwater species. I was not aiming for a high species count, merely looking to add new species. It has made me think about just how many species it might be possible to catch in 12 months.  

 Only two species of fish that I had previously caught in British waters have eluded me so far in this challenge, the blue shark and stone loach.

In addition to the species I caught, I witnessed and missed out on a further six species: brill, common dragonet , butterfly blenny, greater weever, red mullet and trigger fish.

The largest fish I caught during 2011 was a "back breaking" common skate of 202lb, the smallest a two inch motherless minnow.

I have drawn up a list of over twenty species that I hope to target during 2012 which will take me to the West coast of Scotland, Wales and the Southern coast of England. I suspect that I may make several trips down to explore the species rich waters off the beautiful and rugged cornish coastline. Hopefully in 2012 I will get out a couple of times on average each week, life really is too short to let work get in the way of your fishing.

My hitlist for 2012 comprises of porbeagle shark, blue shark, black mouthed dogfish, small eyed ray, stingray, three bearded rockling, tadpole fish, brill, megrim, streaked gurnard, greater weever, butter fish, viparious blenny, pilchard, canary goby, butterfly blenny, yarrells blenny, smelt, shad, red mullet, trigger fish, powan, gilthead bream, red bream and stone loach.

I like to set targets each year and have set myself two for 2012. Firstly I hope to reach my challenge total of 100 species from British waters in three years during the first half of the year, and add a few more as the year progresses. Secondly to make life interesting I am also going to see whether I can beat my 2011 total of 73 species. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed my fishing during 2011, have you? Join me in 2012 to see whether I finally reach my target of catching 100 species of fish from British waters, and find out just how many species is it possible to catch in just 12 months?

100 Species of fish from British Waters - The Rules!

A number of people have asked me what the rules are behind this challenge! I am sure some of my non fishing friends see it as an organised event rather than as a personal challenge. I thought it might be fun to put down my thoughts and and come up with a draft set of rules for anyone embarking on this mad challenge.

Use of a Net?

In Discovery Channel's Rod Race Matt Hayes and Mick Brown included Stone Loach and Bullheads in their species count caught with their trusty friend, the child's fishing net. The logic behind this was that these mini species were almost impossible to catch on Rod and Line.

In my view if a fish isn't caught on rod and line by fair angling it doesn't count. I suspect most anglers would be in agreement on this one?






Variants

Matt Hayes and Mick Brown also counted common, mirror, koi and ghost carp as distinct species. In reality these have all been selectively bred from the original fully scaled wild carp. Biologically they are all King Carp. Likewise Golden Tench, Golden Rudd, Golden and Blue Orfe have been selectively bred for the ornamental market.

Some trout fisheries offer the opportunity to catch Blue and Golden Trout, which are colour variants of the Rainbow Trout.

 It is true that some of these variants behave differently from their wild coloured parents. Golden Trout, for example, are very wary, this might be because they are more vulnerable to predators being brightly coloured, or it could be that being visible more anglers target them? I have enjoyed targeting and catching most of these variants over the last couple of years but do they count?  In my view to count Tench and Golden Tench as two species would be wrong, however I would feel comfortable as counting a Golden Tench as a Tench if I hadn't caught one. I suspect that a majority but not all anglers would agree with me. Despite in my view these not counting I still intend to target an Ide and Golden (Rainbow) Trout to complete my "variants" collection.

Hybrids

Hybrids are produced where two species interbreed, this usually occurs in freshwater where both parent species share the same spawning grounds.

I enjoyed a whole summer fishing for massive Roach/Rudd hybrids on Hollowell reservoir in Northamptonshire, catching fish to 4lb. They are a beautiful quarry, fighting harder than either of their parents, likewise the few large Roach/Bream Hybrids I have caught have also fought harder than their parents.

Trout and Char species can also be deliberately crossed to produce Tiger (Brown x Brook Char) and Cheetah Trout (Rainbow x Brook Char). The Tiger Trout is rarely stocked these days and the Cheetah has passed into the history books. The appallingly named F1 is a selectively bred cross between the King and Crucian Carp.

I know that Dave Park did not count hybrids towards his tally of 100 species. I vaguely recall Mike Thrussell (and I apologise to him if my memory falls me) stating that he includes hybrids within his species tally. Who is right? I have sided with Dave Park and chosen to exclude hybrids.  Incidentally Mike Thrussell had caught 103 species at the last count (so by either measure, Mike has exceeded 100 species). I suspect anglers would be divided on this one and that it is a personal choice as to include or exclude hybrids.

British Rod Caught Record List

The vast majority of fish species that can be caught in British Waters appear on the listings produced by the British Records (Rod Caught) Fish Committee. Ireland have their own record listings.

However some fish list are thought to now be extinct in Britain, for example Walleye and Burbot. Some species are still to be caught, most years a new saltwater species is added to the list, certainly if I caught a new species from British waters I would count it!

Some species are protected and the lists have been closed, for example Powan. To discourage illegal imports distorting the record lists, records for some coarse species have also been closed, for example grass carp and wels catfish.

Likewise new records for alien species established in British Waters will not be accepted. These would include the Motherless Minnow (or sunbleak) and the Topmouthed Gudgeon.

British Waters


Wikipedia states "Great Britain refers to England, Scotland and Wales in combination, and therefore also includes a number of outlying islands such as the Isle of Wight, Anglesey, the Isles of Scilly, the Hebrides, and the island groups of Orkney and Shetland. It does not include the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands which are not part of the United Kingdom, instead being self-governing dependent territories of that state with their own legislative and taxation systems."

Although I have not fished in Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands I would have no qualms in counting any species landed in these waters despite these not being politically part of Great Britain or indeed the United Kingdom. Mike Thrussell counts species landed in Irish waters and if it is good enough for him it is good enough for me.

Although it is true that when wrecking from many of the South Coast ports that you could be fishing closer to France than England, as long as I sail from and return to a British port the same day I am happy to include any species resulting from the trip.

So here are a set of proposed rules for would be species hunters:

Rule 1 - Fish must be caught on Rod and Line by fair angling.
Rule 2 - Selectively bred colour and scale variants do not count as separate species.
Rule 3 - Hybrids do not count (not sure about this one)
Rule 4 - The species should appear on the BRFC listings. However established alien species in freshwater or "new to Britain" saltwater species can be counted.
Rule 5 - British Waters include English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish inland waters and surrounding seas
Rule 6 - Saltwater boat fishing trips should leave and return to a British Port on the same day

Unfortunately family and work commitments combined with strong winds at the weekends mean that I appear to be stuck on 98 species until next year when I hope to finally reach my target of 100 species from British Waters in three years. However with the 98 species I have caught during the first two years of this challenge and another two species I had caught earlier in my fishing career (Blue Shark and Stone Loach) I have caught a total of 100 species from British Waters.  To date only Dave Park and Mike Thrussell have stated that they have caught 100 species from British (and Irish) waters, so that makes me the third to declare that they have achieved this (although I am sure others have achieved this and chosen to remain anonymous).

A Bite Adventure!

The sea around Penzance is a species hunters paradise with a number of species that are rare in other parts of Britain. After a couple of days where we couldn't get out due to strong winds, on the Wednesday I finally boarded Bite Adventure skippered by Chippy for a species day. Chippy was confident he could add several species to my challenge total.

We sailed close to the Cornish coastline towards Lands End, where we would be drifting a range of marks. However the swell out at sea meant that some reef marks would not be fishable today.


The rig was a three foot flowing trace of twenty pound fluorocarbon to a size 2/0 hook baited with a long thin strip of mackerel.

We needed 10oz of lead on the first mark so I started with the 12lb outfit. Chippy advised that we were likely to catch haddock and and sure enough within a couple of minutes the rodtip announced the arrival of my first haddock. Another small haddock soon followed along with a cod. Despite being on virtually every fish and chip shop menu, haddock are an unusual catch in British waters.

We moved to the sand banks off Porthcurno to drift for turbot, brill and a vast range of other species. I dropped down to a 6lb outfit as only 6oz of lead was required to hold bottom. I finally managed to catch my first tub gurnard, a very pale fish compared to those I had seen off Weymouth.

A couple of greater weaver fish (a Porthcurno speciality) were caught by other anglers. I managed to add a small turbot and some mackerel, although I did miss a couple of rattly bites, possible weavers?

A short session was spent at anchor, legering sandeel in the hope of a small eyed ray. The rays were not playing, however I managed another tub gurnard and some more mackerel.

Our final mark was further offshore over a reef. I joked to Chippy that he had brought us out to a top pouting mark as that was all we could catch. The next drift I hooked into something that tested the light outfit was to its limit, as a hard fighting fish repeatedly made long runs for the bottom. Chippy suspected a pollack, but the bite was definately breamy.

The culprit turned out to be a couches bream weighing 4lb 12oz, the lad next to me landed a slightly larger couches at 5lb 1oz. This warm water visitor to the British Isles is more at home in the Mediterranean and is at the northern most extent of its range. Apart from the Channel Isles this is the only place where you have a chance of seeing this beautiful fish.

Thanks Chippy for getting me that bit closer to the 100, I will definately be back for another bite adventure.

The Buggeration Factor!

Fishing is not like Golf! Despite rain, snow, wind, heatwaves or fog you can still hit the little white ball into the hole a few hundred yards away. The hole doesn't decide to move and rarely is a golf course closed to golfers!

Fish do move in response to the weather and may decide not to feed. In the case of the silver tourists the salmon and sea trout the river may be literally devoid of your target fish. The hole is no longer there!

Indeed the following fishy saying has a lot of truth to it.

"If the wind is from the north, do not sally forth,
If the wind is from the east the fish bite least,
If the wind is from the west the fish bite best,
If the wind is from the south it blows the bait into the fishes mouth"


One thing I have discovered about sea fishing is that strong winds are to be avoided unless you are a shore bass or cod fanatic. Shore fishing suffers as fish move offshore as the shoreline colours up.

Boat fishing is even more affected. This year upwards of 50 percent of my planned boat trips have been "blown off" and cancelled, with a number of other trips being limited to inshore waters.

During this latest holiday I only managed to get out on three occasions with two Penzance trips and a sharking trip out of Milford Haven cancelled.

I did get in some shore fishing hoping for a gilthead bream and a three bearded rockling but despite my best endeavours and help from Chippy and Richard at Camborne's County Angler  I failed to catch either species. I had to settle for some ballan wrasse, pollack, shore rockling and a strap conger. Thanks guys, I am sure that your advice will result in the target species responding when I return next year.

The weather had one last surprise for me, with dense fog making it difficult to find my way off this rock mark in the dark. I spent a worrisome ten minutes trying to locate the route from the rocks up to the cliff path above. Golfers normally make their way safely to the nineteenth hole in broad daylight!

The wrong sort of weather has always been used by fishermen as an excuse for not catching. In this species challenge it has become my buggeration factor!

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!

Dracula isn't the only creature with teeth in Whitby!

Whitby is famous for its associations with Dracula, Bram Stoker wrote the novel whilst staying in the town. Many of the locations used in the book can be found in Whitby such as the churchyard where Mina first encountered Dracula in lupine form.

As well as the locations some of the events are based on real life. In the book, Dracula arrived in Whitby when the Demeter ran aground. Just prior to Bram Stoker arriving in Whiby the Russian vessel Demetrius had ran aground with only one survivor.

Twice a year, in April and October, the town is invaded by Goths, and one bed and breakfast even supplies garlic to hang on your bed posts!

Dracula might be fictitious but vampires are not the only things with teeth to be found in Whitby. Whitby is one of the main charter ports in the north of England and famous for its wreck and rough ground fishing where cod, pollack and ling can be targeted with the occasional haddock, halibut and even porbeagle shark being landed.

I had booked a days' wreck fishing on Shy Torque skippered by Rich Ward to target ling. On the way out we stopped at Bell Buoy for mackerel and again they were few and far between, luckily I had brought a few frozen mackerel and garfish with me as an emergency bait supply.

The sea around Whitby is littered with wrecks, most of them dating from World War 2. As the weather was good Rich steamed out to an offshore wreck 18 miles from shore.

I rigged up with a 30lb class rod as I would be working a baited pirk. To minimise snagging I replaced the pirks' treble hook with a single 6/0 adorned with a luminous green muppet. A whole fillet of mackerel provided the bait. Ling are predators with teeth and need to be targeted with big baits.

The technique is to jig the pirk up and down with short movements of the rod. As you drift across the wreck occasionally line needs to be let off to ensure the pirk continues working just above the wreck.

On the first drift I landed a small ling, and although a few fish were landed in subsequent drifts, Rich soon moved to hopefully more prolific wrecks inshore. Despite a number of moves it was a slow day, but with four ling and a cod to my rod I was well pleased with the result. I can confirm that ling make superb eating, firm and meaty, like cod but better.

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.