2018 was a busy year aboard the ‘Galloper’ it marked a decade of me running my own charter boat and to be honest I wasn’t a bad year to start the next decade on. The start of the year was promising with a few more codling about than we had seen over the last couple of years. Numbers still weren’t amazing but our best day was 23 codling along with 6 thorn-back ray, a bass, a pouting and some stonking whiting. That was at the start of February and there were a few codling showing for several weeks until the ‘beast from the east’ hit and the cold weather messed up the fishing and bookings for a while.

As things started to warm up the thorn-back rays picked up in numbers as we have come to expect nowadays so very few days were missed and there were lots of happy anglers with bends in their rods and the odd fish for the tackle too.

We had already snuck a few spurdogs out earlier in the year as we tried offshore but we had a couple of fantastic days fishing for them as spring got under way. Our best day was over 80 spurdogs on the boat as well as 40 odd thorn-backs, the ever present dogfish and a few smooth-hounds mixed in with them too. This was on one of our premier days so between just 6 anglers fishing was rather hectic. There were lots of double figure fish in there too and the biggest went around 17lbs.

Back inshore the thorn-backs were the main stay of our spring fishing and there were plenty of big females around. These fish are here to drop their eggs and often do so on deck, we try to handle them with respect and return them as soon as possible. The biggest ray on board went over 16lbs and there were several others close through out the year.

The first decent bass of the year came on a trip targeting tope (which can often be the case).  We had a few bass that week but the best fell to chris at 12.4lbs which beat steve’s fish  of 10.10lbs which was landed less than an hour before hand!

The tope arrived a week or so later and it was the best season we have had for them for several years. They came out from several different areas and some nice fish were caught too. The biggest tope on board the ‘Galloper’ was caught by Billy and went over 55lbs! we had several others on the 20-35lbs range but this was by far the biggest.

As the summer rolled on we turned our attention to the smooth-hounds as normal. These hard fighting fish are great fun to catch and in my opinion more valuable swimming around so we return them all. 2018 wasn’t the best year for big hounds but we had lots around doubles and the biggest went 14lbs or so.

The heat wave seemed to bring out the sting rays and several were caught locally, we didn’t have any monsters but young Charlie managed his first one a couple of days before his eight birthday on one of our short evening trips.

As we moved into autumn the thorn-back rays returned and the smooth-hounds moved off. The bass hung on for later than might be expected and with the bass ban lifted in October we managed a few fish. we had a great day with several regulars offshore on  the banks. Several of the lads hadn’t been off there with me before and they really enjoyed that style of fishing. The 4 lads managed 45 bass between them and kept 4 for the table and released the rest. These fish were averaging 2-4lbs and are great fun on light tackle.

The biggest bass of the autumn went to Andy a couple of weeks before hand and weighed 10.4lbs and was released.

As autumn moved on the wind picked up so we were confined to the estuary and just beyond for several weeks. We had loads of whiting and dogfish and good numbers of rays at times with the odd codling here and there but nothing to write home about.

All in all 2018 was a great year and I look forwards to 2019 and what it may bring.

Please bear in mind many of these fish were caught on offshore trips which are best suited to experienced anglers. The offshore trips such as spurdog, tope, bass ect are only available on certain tides. Several of these tides have already gone but if you wish to book one of these trips its best to get in as early as possible.  I also have plenty of general trip spaces and dates available but if you require a certain date please book well in advance to avoid disappointment.

For more information, available dates, weekly reports, pictures and videos please visit www.essexseafishing.co.uk like the essex sea fishing facebook page or call 07956411528

Tight lines and screaming reels and hopefully I will see you in 2019.