I had an e mail from Simon Dawber of Wigan who has recently taken a trip to the Isle of Man after shore tope. The north coast of the Island is renowned for its tope fishing in the summer. A few years back I landed three tope in successive casts in daylight, an experience I can tell you.
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I had a great day out with the Fox team this week fishing aboard the Brighton Charter boat Brighton Diver skippered by Paul Dyer. He not only takes anglers fishing but divers diving and being a diver himself has a great knowledge of the wrecks he fishes. We drifted a few wrecks and caught pollack, gurnard and cod on a mixture of lures and then anchored for a conger catching plenty of black bream. The codling are particularly good news for the south east’s shore anglers because they are last years stock that got up to 2lb – when they return to the shore, we hope, in September, they should be anything between 3lb and 6lb and have the makings of a bumper winter for codling from the beaches of Sussex, Kent, Essex and Suffolk FINGERS CROSSED!
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I just had an e mail from my mate Phil Jeffrey – Phil emigrated to New Zeal-with his wife and daughter last year. He was a rep and manager for line firm Ultima for many years. He tells me he has been fishing the Haraki Gulf near Auckland on North Island for eagle rays from the boat using fresh mullet baits and says, “I just love the way the rays fight on the surface, they are that fast that you can have 150yds of line stripped of the spool in seconds and have only time to get 5-10 turns back on the spool and see the ray shoot by the boat in the opposite direction, they jump as well.
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Some excellent news for the England International squad is that Fox International are to sponsor the senior team, they already sponsor the England juniors. The sponsorship, as with most of those available to the internationals is for tackle, clothing etc, no cash. However a couple of rods, all the tee shirts etc you need plus a supply of accessories can be worth a great deal of cash saved and because I am involved with Fox Sea as a consultant I know that the Fox Sea range of tackle is not only excellent, but its expanding all the time with the accessories in particular going through an update. As for the rod range I am very pleased with the models that Chris Clark and myself designed and I reckon there is a model in the range for all tastes including the matchmen. The only problem for the average sea angler may be finding a Fox dealer near the coast, many are inland – My tip is to look for a shop that sells lots of coarse fishing gear because Fox are also big on carp and coarse match fishing.
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The smoothhound have been “in” at Selsey in Hampshire for several weeks and current catches are excellent – I had an e mail from Greg Dixon of Shepway who fished the rising tide into the evening at Selsey this week and he reported 24 hounds ranging from 6lb to 14lb. Essential bait is fresh or frozen peeler crab. All of Greg’s fish were returned alive. If you want to catch a double figure smoothhound, now is the time to try Selsey. Other venues around the UK are also coming on line with the Lincs beaches around Moggs Eye another hot spot.
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DOGFISH CENTRAL
The lesser spotted dogfish been the bane of the sea angler’s life for generations, baits seized by hungry doggies before the species they are intended for arrives. Not much you can do about it, although in many regions the problem is getting worse because of an enormous upsurge in the dogfish population because they are no longer targeted commercially and they are thriving on the food and room left because of the demise of the prime species. I am of the opinion that in some places the other species are also literally eaten out of house and home by the dogfish and that’s why fishing for them is so poor.
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I have had a few telephone calls from members of the England International squad fishing the Home Nations match being fished at Samphire Hoe near Dover at the end of June. It’s my local venue and my favourite match venue. The only problem is in my region is that none of the local angling clubs want to hold matches there because I and a few others tend to win them all the time. Only this week the annual match against Dover and Calais which I ran for years takes place and I didn’t get an invite, it was kept very secret squirrel. The reason I and some of the matchmen do well there is simple - Loadsa fish with pout, wrasse and dogfish every chuck in the right conditions. And that’s the case for many of the matches around the UK where there are lots of fish. The entries numbers are falling because the matchmen dominate, whilst where the fishing is crap entries are rising because anyone catching the odd lucky fish can win. Human nature I suppose, although I can’t help thinking that a lot of anglers are too quick to duck out when the going gets tough and want everything on a plate.
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My first smoothhound of the spring from the beach this week was a miniscule specimen that didn’t make the minimum size limit (51cm) although it’s a start and with a 15lb fish coming from the Dover boats by the time you read this the hounds should have arrived in the south. Especially in the Solent region – I fished Pagham in West Sussex last week for black bream and a few small ones showed so the summer season is warming up.
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Spring has been slow to develop this year with sport pretty limited in my region of Kent. Plenty of dogfish and pout after dark for the match anglers, but in daylight the mixed temperatures slowed the shore crabs mass peel and the arrival of the summer species like bass and smoothhound. Things are just picking up now and with the mackerel having arrived in the top of the English Channel sport should get much better this month. Over the grapevine it’s a similar pattern countrywide although the crabs are showing almost everywhere as I write this.
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Having arrived at St Cassien to find dreamlike conditions, including high water levels, good weather and relatively few anglers, my friend Chris and I had decided to fish the northern arm, towards the barrage. After a busy evening setting up the rods and baiting up, we spent the first part of the night listening to distant noises of carp crashing on the surface, hoping those fish would move into the swim. If the night remained calm with little action except from the odd bream or two, the next morning proved to be very different indeed…
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