Latest Fishing Reports: Deep Blue

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  • 12/01/2025 Fishing Report by Simon Logan

    12 Jan 2025 by Simon Logan

    Sunday 12th January
    What a stunning day at sea, and what a cracking haul of fish for my crew.
    4 fish on within a minute on the first drop.
    Over 2 dozen pollack, few gurnards and a solitary codling (not forgetting a nice squid) all from drifting the shipwrecks in the shipping lanes.
    Biggest pollack was just shy of the double, at 9lb 13oz after being dispatched, but the overall stamp was very good indeed.
    Some VERY good fish dropped or lost to the wrecks too. Lots of bites at either side of slack water.
    200 litres of fuel burned, 60 odd miles covered. A cracker.

  • 15/01/2025 Fishing Report by Simon Logan

    15 Jan 2025 by Simon Logan

    Wednesday 15th January
    A mixed crew to fill the boat around 4 of the fishaholic Species League crew.
    A day out on the banks (with a few wrecks thrown in for good measure) was the request. Greater weaver and gurnards were the intended target.
    Given the success of our last offshore wrecking trip, the other anglers making the numbers up came on board to get amongst the pollack
    It was a different day to that of a few days earlier….
    Flat calm at sea again. 7.1 metre flood tide turning to ebb at midday. No wind forecast. We found a very steady drift of 2.2kts mid lanes on the banks. Almost that bit too quick. We plugged away until the tide started to drop a little, catching weaver, tub & red Gurnards and the other nuisance fish.
    The fishing didn’t really pick up on the sand when the tide started to drop so we made a dash to the first wreck. Another boat was on the first big wreck that I wanted to have a go on, so I chose its smaller neighbour wreck instead. The tide dropped off so quick that we only managed a few drifts before the boat was spinning every way but the right way. A bit of ghost net must be on here as well, due to the fact that when the tide dropped, snags appeared a good number of turns above the wreck.
    Steaming several miles to the second wreck got us there just in time to catch the start of the ebb. Fishing was slow, but there were fish marking so we persevered a little while until we started to get knocks.
    A few pollack for the table to take home followed.
    Back right inshore for the last 20 mins to see if the crew could get some flatties to tick off their lists, but it proved futile in the swamp coloured 6m deep millpond.
    Fish there but not feeding much on this big full moon tide. Not a bad day still.

  • 17/01/2025 Fishing Report by Simon Logan

    17 Jan 2025 by Simon Logan

    17th January 2025
    Common Dolphins, rods overboard and a bit of fishing happened today….. never a dull moment on DB.
    Wrecking offshore. Full crew. Overcast, not much wind. Falling tides of 6.8m, flooding most of the day.
    Steaming out at nearly 30kts to the shipping lanes with 8 of our regulars on fairly flat seas. I saw a couple of fins off my bow so slowed for a look, only to see a lot more fins start to break the surface and turn towards us. We spent about 5 mins going round in circles playing with a massive pod of Common Dolphins. They were everywhere, the videos don’t do the scale of the pod justice.
    Onto the wrecks…. patchy, but fishy. A few pollack we took off one wreck all had very bad net rash along their flanks (see photos). The wreck in question did have a very snaggy end on the flood, presumably these fish live amongst it as residents.
    Moving across another couple of wrecks saw us with more pollack, as you do. A quick look around at the south of the reef system on the way back in found more fish, a good few table sized pollack, a nice chunky pollack which fell to a new prototype lure - a collaboration with Sidewinder Lures & our good mate The Fish Locker, and a Codling, to keep up our Cod wrangling reputation

  • 22/01/2025 Fishing Report by Simon Logan

    22 Jan 2025 by Simon Logan

    A wrecking day mid channel.
    7 crew, 5.35m tide, flooding from 10:30. Overcast and damp. Little breeze to start, a cold NE wind picked up at midday.
    Bombing it out to the wrecks to catch the last of the ebbing tide. It was a bit sloppy until we reached the first shipping lane then it flattened right off.
    Lots of gurnards, some decent, around the wrecks. A few nice pollack (no monsters) picked off. Best pollack of the day spat the lure half way up. Couple of codling on the reefs on the way back in, with more gurnards.
    One of my eagle eyed crew spotted a bit of pot rope round my engine while we were transiting at speed between the wrecks 20 miles off. Thankfully the boat speed had kept it straight out the back and didn’t allow it to wrap the prop, but it was close.

  • 28/02/2025 Fishing Report by Simon Logan

    28 Feb 2025 by Simon Logan

    Friday 28th February.
    February has felt twice as long as January, and seen us only manage to beat the weather a handful of times.
    8 crew, mixed abilities, wrecking!
    High hopes for today’s big 7.42m tide. It was always going to be a struggle first thing, with choppy seas, wind against tide, and the dreaded (at least for me) flood tide for the first few hours. Punching the tide out to our first mark was a bit bumpy.
    I said to the crew that the best of the days fishing would come towards slack at 11:30 and the first half of the ebb, and that proved to be absolutely ��.
    Smaller pollack starting to appear as the tide dropped below 1.5kts, a few better fish before the turn, a good few more fish when things got moving again.
    The smaller pollack were released (all bar 1) after slow retrieves from 50m.
    The bigger ones were my crew’s rewards for a bloody tough morning, but a lucrative afternoon.
    Hard work pays off…..��

  • 20/03/2024 Fishing Report by Simon Logan

    20 Mar 2024 by Simon Logan

    Wednesday 20th March:

    Day 2 of the Hampshire Police social ��‍♂️.

    We headed out to the sandbanks in the shipping lanes this morning.
    The conditions were perfect for it, and it gave the crews on Deep Blue, and Manx Belle a different prospect from yesterday’s inshore trip.
    Now, the fabled Turbot & Brill would’ve been a more than welcomed sight, but alas it wasn’t to be. It’s probably still a little bit early for them, but I’ll be keeping my ear to the ground and heading back there to coral some of them into my crews hooks later this spring.
    Every whiting in the channel seemed to be on the banks this morning. Every now and then we’d see a greater weaver, or and tub/red gurnard, but the whiting were thick. Lots and lots of birds working the water near us, but not obvious why.

    We headed back in to have a look at some wrecks. The water was very clean, with excellent visibility, better than I’ve seen it in a long while. Lots of fish hugging the back end of the first wreck, with a few pollack coming up quick as a flash.
    Onto the reefs for slack water saw more fish marking, and again a few pollack for our troubles.
    Fishing the last half hour of the day back on the sand where we started yesterday saw plaice, dabs a flounder. There seems to be a good number of plaice this year, which is a vast improvement on the last few years.
    A dozen or so species to the boat today, on what was a flat calm, and pretty warm in the sun, trip.
    Thanks to John on the Manx Belle for buddying up with me to provide the 16 chaps guiding for their 2 day jolly.
    We had Sea Angler magazine onboard today too, so there may well be a little write up in an upcoming issue - cheers Tim.
    Last but not least, a big thank you to Shaun Gratton for coming along to assist, and for trying to give me diabetes with all the sweeties ������.

    Species:
    Dabs
    Plaice
    Goldsinney Wrasse
    Pollack
    Flounder
    Greater weaver
    Red gurnard
    Tub gurnard
    Mackerel
    Dogfish
    Pout
    Whiting

  • 21/03/2024 Fishing Report by Simon Logan

    21 Mar 2024 by Simon Logan

    Thursday 21st March:

    First COD(ling) of the year. Our last cod was on the 2nd December, so 3 months and 3 weeks without a rod and line caught cod - and I’m SO GLAD we found this one.
    Leaving the harbour and straight onto my new favourite plaice grounds, we got into a good stamp of fish straight away. This was short lived with the tide coming to the end of its flood, so we blitzed out onto the reefs for slack for wrasse, and ready to fish the start of the ebb.
    Ballan and Cuckoo wrasse found. Still small tides currently, but they are building in size. The clarity is still improving, with 6m visibility at least at 4miles out.

    Moving onto a mark that we fish a lot for multi species over spring and summer, codling and numerous pollack landed on a mixture of lures, including my usual go to Bass lure - the 6” pearl Sidewinder sandeel. More wrasse here too, as well as a small Coalfish - that’s 2 coleys in as many days. Nothing to shout about for some, quite a feat for us this end of the channel.

    Back onto the plaice mark as the tide eased and the wind picked up. Wind against tide pinning us to the spot for about an hour, a few fish caught.

    We had a very good year with cod last year, even though no fish managed to break the magic proper COD threshold of 10lb, which make them codling to me, we still had a lot of them from March - December. According to some commercial friends, this winter has produced a good number of them, but they have been moving around a lot.
    Hopefully this year is as good, if not better than last for this species. Given the number of pollack we’re seeing inshore, the commercial ban along the SW may allow Eastbourne to have a better year than usual on them too. Still no bass, but I can feel it in me bones that they aren’t far away, and you can trust we’ll be right at the front of the queue for them when they do finally arrive.

  • 22/03/2024 Fishing Report by Simon Logan

    22 Mar 2024 by Simon Logan

    FRIDAY 22ND MARCH:

    Species League UK trip with 15 anglers on 2 boats.

    Catch list: 8 anglers on Deep Blue
    53 Wrasse (5 different species of kelp donkey)
    78 Whiting
    47 Lesser spotted catsharks
    15 Pouting
    6 Dabs
    5 Pollack
    2 Plaice
    1 Smooth-hound
    1 Coalfish

    Don’t let the number of fish fool you. Today was a struggle. It was pretty lumpy out there, certainly not for the feint hearted, and conditions that would make me cancel 99% of my charter trips. But, the crews on the boats today were made up of very well seasoned species hunters, that have seen it, and been in it all.
    No two days are ever the same. Yesterday was flat calm but overcast, with a small crew with differing abilities catching some decent fish. Today, the fish switched off at lunch time and that was that.
    Not many photos of actual fish today. I’m always far too busy scoring and netting fish on these trips, and the anglers just want to get back on with fishing.
    Good fun as always, but the fishing was tough.
    Also worth noting, only myself and the Manx Belle were brave (stupid) enough to go out in these conditions. This kind of weather is no place for small recreational boats and amateur anglers.
    The photos and videos don’t show the true scale of the big rolling waves and howling winds that were swirling around us.

  • 30/03/2024 Fishing Report by Simon Logan

    30 Mar 2024 by Simon Logan

    Saturday 30th March:
    Bank holiday weekend started off with a windy Good Friday, and the outlook for Easter Sunday and Bank Holiday isn’t looking all that fishable either.....
    So, with a little weather window today we headed out to see what’s what with 8 willing crew. Some say - that fishing is good after storm. I say BO***CKS. Especially after having the dredger in the harbour for the last week kicking up a load of silt into the inshore marks.

    As expected, the water was murky, even several miles out. Anchor fishing with baits hasn't been all that good this winter, so that wasn't plan A. The plaice have all buggered off (for a now at least) with the dredger's presence too. Drifting the reefs was sloooooow during the flood tide, with only a handful of fish being seen.
    Anchoring (plan �� produced more fish, just not the ones we were after. So, a tough days fishing, until the tide turned this afternoon and the wrasse started to play. Lots of these toothy beasts landed in the last hour.
    Species:
    Pollack
    Ballan wrasse
    Goldsinney wrasse
    Smooth-hound
    Bass
    Dogs, whiting etc etc...

  • 25/06/2023 Fishing Report by Simon Logan

    25 Jun 2023 by Simon Logan

    ��TODAY: Sunday 25th June��

    COD! COD! COD! (CODLING)

    Wow, well that wasn’t expected in all honesty. After yesterdays tricky trip (which was fish filled, just not the most desirable type) I had everything crossed for an improved trip today.
    The flood tide has made for some tough fishing recently, so I was pretty glad to get the chance to fish the ebbing tide for a couple of hours this morning.

    Mackerel was first on the list as usual, and we found them straight away.
    Black Bream were next up, getting to the anchor spot in time before the tide started to drop being crucial, and bream were found in some good numbers.

    COD! Being not a million miles away from my cod mark when the tide finally switched off was also stage 3 on the list…… And we most definitely found them. All but one angler landed cod, with most of them landing more than one, and most of them losing BIGGER fish too.
    Today was definitely the most prolific day on the cod we’ve had. The tide widow for them is small, so being in the right place at the right time is key.

    Species today - Cod, Mackerel, Smooth-hound, Ballan & Cuckoo Wrasse, Pollack.

    Great day out on the sea.

    I even had a little dip cutting some braid off my port engine, it was quite refreshing ��

    Sidewinder Lures
    PENN Fishing
    Navionics UK
    XTRATUF
    Carhartt
    #sidewinderlures
    #pennfishing
    #navionics
    #xtratuf
    #carharttwip

    �� Full boat available this Thursday 29th June & individual spaces available this Friday 30th June ��

    https://deepbluecharters.co.uk/availability

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