Thought I would do an update of the last couple of months fishing excluding the tope which I will update separately in a few weeks.
The north-easterly winds and low temperatures in April affected some of our fishing this spring. It seemed to hold things up a little. The algal bloom (may weed/rot/tobacco juice) was late in comparison to recent years and consequently the water didn’t clear until later. This combined with successive north-easterly winds stopped us from catching bass on lures until quite late. Despite having had some mackerel back in March they too were delayed in their proper arrival by these conditions. The roker (thorn-back rays) kept us busy for a while along with the occasional bass on baits and the smooth-hounds were here around their usual time. Some were even early and always gratefully received. There were some decent fish on the first run as we would expect and young Grayson’s big female is still the biggest so far this season. I cant say what weight as he put her back before I could weigh her! The hounds continue to show in varying numbers and sizes from day to day. we have been seeing double figure fish mixed in regularly though. they will be here in numbers until September and are the main target of our general trips along with bass.
One bonus of a delayed spring was that the spurdogs hung around quite late. We missed a lot of trips towards the end of the season due to those winds. However those very same winds meant they stayed long enough for one last hurrah from them. I was expecting maybe one or two to show on a mark we were fishing but had a rather hectic 90 minutes with over 30 big spurs showing! They were all good doubles with the biggest falling to Barry wood at just over 20lb. things were so hectic we were able to get some group shots as a pack went through and I found my self not even bothering to net high teen spurdogs as they were so plentiful. By the next day the fish were gone, not even one which is often the way with these late season fish. it was great fun when we were in the right place at the right time though.
The bass have been pretty good again so far this year. As I mentioned earlier there have been some nice fish showing throughout the spring with numbers increasing on our general trips. The stamp has been great lately topped off by Honey Gage with the biggest so far. Some people put Honeys success down to her rather stylish lucky hat but I think its more than that.
Now that the water has cleared we have been catching them on lures too in places. Conditions have to be right for this but there is no shortage of bait fish around and plenty of bass too so things are in our favour. We run our offshore bass trips from now until the end of November, the main focus is bait fishing but when ever we can we will use lures too. They don’t need to be anything too advanced. The humble mackerel feathers are often the most effective though if we can we try to refine our angling a little nowadays and many of the lads bring light spinning rods armed with dexter wedges, soft plastics, diving hard plastics and surface poppers too. This year is shaping up to be another good one for bass so don’t miss out.
I will update you on our tope trips separately in a few weeks as well as any other offshore stuff we get up to this summer.
I have availability mid-week throughout the summer so please get in touch if you want to get booked in. its also worth keeping an eye out for last minute spaces with groups or where people drop out. I will list my current list of spaces but there are likely to be other dates so its always worth giving me a call. If I am out of signal range I will get back to you asap
SPACES THIS FRIDAY 15TH @ £60pp
Spaces as follows
15/07/22-general trip 5 spaces @ £60pp
24/07/22-general trip 5 spaces @ £60pp
25/07/22-4 spaces @ £70pp max 7 anglers
01/08/22-5 spaces @ £70pp max 7 anglers
06/08/22- offshore trip 3 spaces @ £100pp max 7 anglers
20/08/22-offshore trip 4 spaces @ £100pp max 7 anglers
25/08/22 Clacton air show trip fish while they fly 10 spaces @ £60pp
26/08/22- Clacton air show trip fish while they fly 5 spaces @ £60pp
28/08/22-2 spaces @ £70pp max 7 anglers
Not all dates advertised, other spaces available for full boat bookings upon request please call 07956411528 for more information
