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SPECIES CAUGHT IN 2012:
Pollock, Pouting, Turbot, Plaice, Bream, Mackerel, Gurnard, Dogfish, Bull Huss, Garfish, Scad, Conger Eel, Spider Crab, Squid. |
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Saturday 31 March – Offshore Rebel At last I have managed a fishing trip out of Weymouth after 10 cancellations last year for health and weather. With 10 anglers on board we left Weymouth at 7.45 am with a light wind from the northwest. As this was the first trip of the year everyone was keen to go wrecking in order to ‘fill the freezer’ although the inshore fishing for Turbot and Plaice was quite good. We collected some ‘live’ Sand-eels and headed out into mid channel between the shipping lanes. We stopped off at a small wreck three quarters the way out, but were disappointed to see a net strung across the wreck. We tried a few drifts, but only landed about 4 small Pollack so we continued our way out. This wreck proved a bit more fruitful as the tide slackened with about 10 medium sized Pollack to 11 lbs 1 Cuckoo Wrasse and a Ballan Wrasse landed, but as the tide dropped away so did the Pollack. We were joined by Peace and Plenty for a few drifts, but they had no luck either so they moved on. We persevered until the tide turned, but to no avail, so we too moved back towards Weymouth and tried another wreck which did produce some more Pollack, but nothing sizeable. We packed up at 4.00 pm and headed back to Weymouth with approx 20 Pollack and numerous Pouting. My tally was 2 Pollack and 1 Pouting. Let’s hope the next wrecking trip in April is a bit more plentiful.
Saturday 21 April – Offshore Rebel We were all on board by 7.30 am and although the forecast was not good the evening before it changed in a matter of hours and we were on. We were prepared for a wrecking trip and the conditions were ideal with a light northwest wind and a small swell. We had only 9 anglers onboard, as Mick had a bad knee, as we steamed for 1.5 hours to a mid channel wreck. O the first drift one 6 lb Pollack was landed by myself, but as usual this was the only fish after 5 drifts. The reason may have been a pod of three Dolphins swimming right up to the boat. We moved further south to another wreck which proved a bit more productive with three Pollack landed in three drifts, but as the tide eased away so did the Pollack and on came the Pouting. We again moved to another wreck which faired no better with me landing a 8 lb Pollack and Bob with a 10 lb Pollack. As it was obvious that there were no fish to be caught we moved back to the Shambles Bank and tried for Turbot, but again not much better with only Eric landing a 4 lb Turbot. Again this was a trip not to be remembered with only 6 Pollack and 1 Turbot to show .. I hope this is not going to be the trend this year!
Saturday 26 May– Offshore Rebel - Cancelled
Saturday 23 June – Offshore Rebel - Cancelled
Saturday 14 July – Private Venture - Cancelled
Monday 13 August – Offshore Rebel - Withdrew
Saturday 18 August - Offshore Rebel Again after a long wait I have managed a fishing trip out of Weymouth. With 9 anglers on board we left Weymouth at 8.00 am with a light wind from the southwest and thick fog (clear skies 5 miles inland). This was to be our first trip of the year for Bass and Bream, but they were very sparse so it was decided to stay inshore fishing for Turbot and Plaice as there had been good catches of late. We purchased some Ragworms, Squid and frozen Prawns from Weymouth Angling as this was the bait for these species. We soon arrived at the Shambles Bank and set about hoping for some Plaice and were not disappointed as we soon started to land them of reasonable size. We tried several drifts and eventually had 14 onboard before the tide picked up. We then switched tackle and tried for Turbot, but there were only 2 landed before the tide was too strong so it was decided to try for some Bass on the edge of the ‘Race’, but after 2 drifts it was too uncomfortable to continue so we moved back to the Shambles and resumed our quest for Turbot. We soon were catching them with Mick Sands catching his first ever Turbot and first Brill at 5 lbs. In all it was one of the better days, although it was foggy all day, we eventually ended up with 14 Plaice, 4 Turbot, 2 Brill, 6 Bream, 1 Cod, 1 Gurnard and numerous Pouting and Mackerel. My tally was 2 Plaice and 1 Bream.
Saturday 21 September - Offshore Rebel We were struggling for numbers up to the Friday night, but eventually managed to fill the spaces with a father and young son. We had a discussion before setting off and although this was to be a mixed trip of Bass, Bream and Rays five of the group decided that they were not going to try for Rays as they were only out for ‘the freezer’. As the Bass and Bream were scarce it was decided by the majority that they would go for the Plaice as they were plentiful and of a decent size. We would however try for Bass and we set about catching Sand eels. We started off Plaice fishing on the Shambles with Squid, Ragworm and Prawn for bait and it wasn’t long before we were landing them although some were small. There was a mixture of Plaice, Bream, Dogfish and Gurnards being caught, but it was fun not knowing what was coming up. As the tide dropped away we headed over to the ‘Race’ intent on trying for Bass, but some anglers just sat it out and after one drift the same majority decided to return to Plaice and Bream fishing on the west side of the Shambles. More Plaice and Bream were caught and the afternoon was taken up on this spot. At the end we had landed 41 Plaice and 7 Bream plus the other species mentioned. My tally was 5 Plaice, 1 Bream, 1 Gurnard and a Dogfish. Not what the trip was aimed at, but a warning for future trips with the ‘fill the freezer anglers’.
Monday 8 October to Wednesday 10 October - Supanova - Conger Competition I finally decided to have a crack at this annual event although it was later this year. I was up at 3.00 am on the Monday morning in order to get to Weymouth by 7.00am. We had 6 anglers on board and our first task was to catch some Mackerel for bait which was soon achieved on the west side of Portland. We set off on a south westerly direction to our first wreck about 20 miles away and after setting the anchor we got stuck in. The tide was slackening, but only a few small Congers were caught so we headed off to another wreck which proved more plentiful with a variety of other species being caught such as Bull Huss, Undulate Rays and Ling. We persevered on the increasing tide with the Eels increasing in size to about 45 lbs, but this were minnows compared to the 74 lbs one caught on Offshore Rebel. We had to be back at the Town Bridge by 6.00 pm for recording our catch. We had landed 32 Congers, with my tally being 5 in the 20 to 30 lbs range. We repeated the same procedure on Tuesday, but the weather had deteriorated with a strong southeast wind against the tide and heavy rain (this was my first ever wet day in 10 years fishing out of Weymouth). Again we had several specimens of Bull Huss, Undulate Ray and even a Thresher Shark which soon decided who was biggest and snapped off the line. The Congers were larger this time with the best topping off at 56 lbs, but again not as large as on the other boats. We ended up with 28 Congers and my tally was 2 in the 20 to 30 lbs range and 2 in the 30 to 40 lbs range. On the final day the rain had stopped and the clouds were a bit thinner, but the strong wind was still blowing from the southeast and after sailing southeast for over an hour we struggled to get our anchor to hold, but eventually after increasing the weight on the anchor we had success. We immediately got into catching the eels and they were beginning to increase in size, but the ‘ lost ones’ were also increasing. After the tide dropped away we were starting to hold our position on the wreck so we had to lift the anchor and drift ahead of the wreck, but this still proved successful with a nice 64 lbs Conger being landed and kept on board for the official weigh in ashore. Our final tally for the day was 30 Eels with my tally being 2 in the 20 to 30 lbs range, 2 in the 30 to 40 lbs range and 3 in the 40 to 50 lbs range. Who would have thought that we would get all 3 days fished in October. The biggest Conger was caught on Day 1 on Offshore Rebel, but the largest caught on Day 3 was on our boat at 64 lbs. A total of 940 Congers were caught by 66 anglers on 8 boats, with only 12 being brought to the scales and 3 being released back into the harbour (imagine the surprise of the 8 year old at the end of the harbour pier as he hooked into one of them). To my surprise I eventually ended up with the highest Individual score on Supanova and was awarded a shield and some ‘goodies’.
Sunday 21 October- Offshore Rebel - Dropped off for personal reasons
Saturday 27 October - Tiger Lily - RCBDSAF Bass Competition - Cancelled
Saturday 17 November - Offshore Rebel - Bass, Bream and Squid We managed to fill the two vacant places at the last minute, so we were up to 9 anglers. We set off at 8.00 am at the top of the tide and sailed around to ‘The Race’ aiming for some Bass. There were no commercial boats out so this was a good hint of bad things to come. After three drifts it became apparent that there were no Bass about so it was decided to join the rest of the Weymouth boats on the Shambles Bank and try our luck for Plaice and Bream. Although the other boats drifting alongside us were catching the odd Plaice we could not get into the action, but eventually the odd one came aboard with the odd Bream and Pouting, but the going was hard. At slack water the other boats dispersed to other areas and we decided to move to the Kidney Bank and try our luck for Cod (or anything else). We set the anchor and were soon landing Dogfish and Pouting, but eventually a nice 10 lb Thornback Ray was caught by one of our guests followed by a nice 12 lb Cod to his mate. The Dogfish kept being caught with the odd Bream (and a Spider Crab to yours truly), but it was enjoyable fun. We eventually moved back to just outside Weymouth harbour at 4.00 pm and tried our hand at Squid and as it grew darker they soon appeared and after about an hour we had landed over 20 Squid. It was surprising to hear the happy comments regarding our session on the Kidney Bank and the suggestion that we should do this more often. All I shall say is that this is where we go for the Blonde Rays etc, which a few (who were onboard today) didn’t want to try on our last trip in October.
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