Latest Fishing Reports: Galloper

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  • 11/2020 Fishing Report by Scott Belbin

    Nov 2020 by Scott Belbin

    Once again I have left it too long since my last update on here. So far the autumn has been fairly kind to us on board the Galloper. We had a successful trip to the south coast and back in September when we took the boat to the isle of Wight for a week or so. Since our return the fishing has been what we expect from autumn nowadays. As the smooth-hounds and bass moved offshore we were joined by large amounts of whiting and dogfish inshore. There were large numbers of thorn-back rays at first although this have thinned out somewhat over recent weeks with a large influx of herrings locally. Thankfully there are still enough coming in between the whiting and dogfish to keep us interested. When the weather has allowed we have been offshore for bass right into November. At times we have fished in some gnarly autumn conditions but the fish have been there so we made the extra effort and it payed off. I must admit there were times I wouldn’t have been there if I wasn’t on a catamaran. Even in these conditions we had 60-70 chunky bass per day.
    Closer to home the blackwater estuary has been on form for those really windy days when you still want to get fishing. whiting and dogfish are in plague proportions. Some of these are a decent size but if you fish through them there are still thorn-back to be caught as well as the odd bass or dare I say codling! Our last trip in the estuary was last weekend with some mad anglers who were undeterred by the strong winds and sideways rain we had in the afternoon. As well as the endless whiting and dogfish to keep them occupied the lads had a few rays and 3 codling from 35cm – 40 odd cm long which can only be a good sign. Lets hope we can get out again soon to try and find some more.
    As ever I continue to post weekly updates and available dates on my website
    www.essexseafishing.co.uk
    or my facebook page or give me a call on 07956411528
    I would also like to add a short note of appreciation for the work that has been done this year by the PBA and Angling trust. I think we all owe them both a lot for the work they have done and continue to do both publicly and behind the scenes. Neither of them cost much to join and are worth every penny in my opinion. As a skipper I am grateful of the work the PBA have done. I would urge any skipper to join the PBA as their advice has been priceless throughout the pandemic (membership runs October- October). As and angler I am grateful of the work the angling trust have done. They got us fishing again as the last lockdown was eased. Thankfully they have secured angling throughout this lockdown which will make it fair less painfull.

  • 09/2020 Fishing Report by Scott Belbin

    Sep 2020 by Scott Belbin

    This week I thought I would bring you up to date with a few offshore trips we ran over the summer. Most of these were prospecting on some new grounds I had fancied for the last couple of years but didn’t find the time to try them until now. We spent a small amount of time on the offshore wrecks each time we went. Most we didn’t plan to fish but as I hadn’t visited these specific wrecks before I wanted to mark them and see if they held anything. Most held pollock, coalfish, pouting and codling in small numbers. The first day we anchored a wreck for a few hours and had 12 or so small pollock along with a few small coalie and a couple of codling. There were plenty of mackerel about and as expected the all held plenty of pouting, scad and whiting too. We tried a couple of other marks I had ear marked for turbot potential on the way home. The tide wasn’t great at first but a few drifts later as our speed came right we Stephen Clarke had the first one. I was very happy but managed to resist kissing him in the name of social distancing. We were short of time but to prove this wasn’t a fluke we had a couple more drifts before heading home and Stephen Charles had our second turbot. I had managed a red gurnard too and on the way home we stopped for some bass too. Our next trip we concentrated on where we had the turbot at first. By the time we had caught a few mackerel the tide was pretty poor. We had 3 drifts with just dogfish and whiting so we moved on the try another bit that looked just as good on the chart. We had more dogfish and whiting at first before the grey and tub gurnards made a welcome change to them. This trip I had even managed to drag Stacey out for our 10th wedding anniversary tempted by the promise of turbot. She didn’t catch her turbo but the first flatfish to come up was on my line. It was a first for me in the shape of a small brill. The next drift Stephen had another which came off beside the boat as I was getting the net. The next run offshore was organised by Alec on behalf of James and Mark Slater with Laura tagging along too. The lads told me they wanted to waste some money on doing something mad. They had certainly come to the right place for that. We were limited on what days we could do so I picked the best tide I could even though I wouldn’t normally head offshore on one of this size. We left at some ungodly hour to try and make the tides work a bit better for us. there was a stiff breeze at first which was forecast to decrease as the day went on. After a long steam we stopped for a few drifts on a wreck we were passing to see what it held. We had a few mackerel, scad and pouting on some less than ideal drifts. We varied the rest of the day between drift fishing and anchored fishing. we had a nice mix of species including whiting, dogfish, weaver fish, thorn-back ray, tub gurnard, launce, turbot, plaice and a hectic couple of hours to finish the day with some chunky bass.
    Our last run offshore we opted to try another mew area which looked promising too. Along with the usual bass, gurnard, dogfish, whiting, mackerel, pouting scad, launce ect we had a new species for the Galloper in the firm of a greater weaver fish. these are a deep water fish more commonly found off the south west of the uk. I had been hoping to see one for some time off of here as the habitat looked suitable for them. Shane was the lucky angler who caught the little beast and he was impressed at the colours glistening in the sunlight. Shortly after Barry hooked into a much larger fish. as he reeled it up we all looked over the side I to the depths to see what it might be. It turned out to be a lovely big blonde ray. After a quick photo she was released, this was a new species for Barry and a decent fish too at just over 15lbs. not long after this Steve also had a blonde ray. Although it wasn’t as big it was a new species for him too.
    We may not have set the world alight on our prospecting trips but we did find some interesting new marks which I hope to build on in the future. Who knows if we will get a chance to head off there again this year but if we don’t I shall certainly try again next year. Our main offshore trips for now are offshore bass trips until the winter when we will turn our attention to hunting the spurdogs. We are still busy in between with inshore trips targeting skate, dogfish whiting ect with a few end of season bass and hounds mixed in. although we wont hold our breath we will still hope to see some cod as we move later into the autumn.

  • 07/2020 Fishing Report by Scott Belbin

    Jul 2020 by Scott Belbin

    Its been a while once again on since my last report on CBUK so I thought I would fill you in on this years tope season aboard the ‘Galloper’. its been a good season all together. We managed to get most trips out and we were successful on most of them. Those that we didn’t see any tope on were either struggling for weather and bait or we got carried away bass fishing. we started back in may when despite struggling to catch mackerel Stephen Clarke set a nice bench mark with male a fish of 44lbs. Stephen had the boat on his own that day and I was lucky enough to fish too. I had a small tope around 10lbs and lost two more including one that did a good job at clearing 300yards of braid from my reel on the first run!
    The next couple of trips we had better weather and a good supply of bait. The lads had 5 decent fish the first day going from c.15lb, 27lbs, 38lbs, 44lbs and the biggest falling to Ian Hewett at 47lbs and another male. Many of these were personnel bests for the lads which is always nice to see.
    The next trip saw two decent fish on the boat, Fred managed a new PB of 41lbs on a carp rod of all things. To be fair both Fred and the carp rod did very well but this isn’t something I would encourage too often. Mark also had a new PB tope of 31lbs that day and consequently booked another trip with some different pals soon after this one.
    The next trip came and Mark bought Tom and his Friends along. The weather was spot on and with plenty of bait we headed off for a mixed day. we started off targeting bass and had loads in the first few hours. There were plenty of sizable fish to go around and the time flew by. It was soon gone 11am and we had to drag our selves away from the bass that were being so obliging if we were to have a chance at any tope. We were finally set up and fishing for tope just before midday. I had set my sights quite low and decided I would be happy if we saw a tope. We had a tope run first cast on one of the rods but unfortunately we were broken off. This was a promising sign even though it could have been our only chance. Happily it wasn’t and we went on to bring 8 tope to the boat that afternoon and loose a further 6. It was madness at times to be honest with a few beginners on board. At one point we had 3 decent fish hooked at once, needless to say I had my hands rather full and it was no surprise one or two were lost. The biggest that day fell to Mark at 37lbs so he had beaten his PB from last trip. Many of the fish we had that day were around the 30lb mark and very welcome.
    As we came to the end of our main tope season we mixed in more bass fishing with the tope again and once the lads had their quota of bass we went in search of tope. We scratched a few more out to finish the season off with more PB’s for Dave and Chris along with some nice bass. Stephen Clarke has the biggest bass so far this year with a nice fish of 10.7lbs. its quite common for decent bass to be a bycatch while tope fishing as they tend to favour the fish baits we are offering.
    Although we may see one or two more tope this year our main season is now over. I will be taking bookings for next years tope fishing soon.
    Closer inshore our trips have been productive as ever. Over the last week or two we have seen some good action on the hounds at times. The lads fished hard the other day and kept count of 63 hounds. There were plenty of scrappy fish in the 6-10lb range and the biggest went 13lbs. we had a few sizable bass too. We have been getting a few bass mixed in most inshore trips which are popular for both sport and the table.
    Most of my offshore trips will be for bass until into November this year.
    Staying with this year I have been through my diary for the next couple of months and consulted my parties regarding current covid rules. Some have chosen to give it a miss for a while which means I have the following availability.
    08/08/20- offshore bass (weather permitting) £90pp (worm required can be provided at extra cost) 6am start 4 spaces
    09/08/20- offshore bass (weather permitting) £90pp (worm required can be provided at extra cost) 6am start 1 space
    16/08/20- general trip 3 spaces @ £80pp max 5 anglers
    31/08/20-general trip 1 space @ £80pp max 5 anglers
    05/09/20- general trip 3 spaces @ £80pp max 5 anglers
    06/09/20- general trip 5 spaces @ £80pp max 5 anglers or boat £400
    12/09/20- general trip 3 spaces @ £80pp max 5 anglers
    I am still keeping things the same regarding numbers on the boat until I hear anything different. So its max 5 anglers (unless living together in which case 6) I don’t have much availability at the moment although I could have to move groups around due to numbers ect. Please keep an eye on here for spaces.

    Please call me for more information on 07956411528

    Dad (Stuart) has availability on the ‘Razorbill 3’ please call him on 07850234077

  • 05/2020 Fishing Report by Scott Belbin

    May 2020 by Scott Belbin

    Its been nice to get afloat again after a couple of months under ‘house arrest’. It seems many of you are also keen to get afloat and although we cant take everybody we have at least been getting some of you out. So far we have only taken single person bookings and I must say I was very grateful for the support offered by some of our regular customers who were willing to hire the whole boat on their own. I understand this may be outside of many peoples budget so the good news is we are now taking groups of up to 5 for the rest of the month in line with current guidelines. Hopefully by next month we will be able to take more again as there is plenty of room on our catamaran.
    The first trip I did post lock down was just my self and my wife to blow the cobwebs away. The weather was glorious and the fishing was even better. We had a great mixed bag of smooth-hounds, bass, dogfish, dab, thorn-back ray and tub gurnard within the first couple of hours. After that we drifted through some bass with lures for a short while. I didn’t get much time to fish as stacey had string after string of decent bass several of which were 3-4lbs in weight. We anchored for the rest of the trip in search of some more big smooth-hounds. We weren’t disappointed as several packs of double figure fish made their way through as the evening progressed. We didn’t have any monsters but several were 13-14lbs. they were also interspersed with yet more bass and a couple more rays before we headed home. On our trips since then we have seen similar fishing and the biggest hound we have had so far is 18.8lbs. hopefully this will be beaten before the summer is over.
    To be honest I don’t have room for anybody before July and my diary is all over the place from then on depending upon what guidelines are relaxed so please bear with me.
    For regular reports and more information please visit www.essexseafishing.co.uk or like the essex sea fishing page on facebook.

  • 05/2020 Fishing Report by Scott Belbin

    May 2020 by Scott Belbin

    while we are still under lockdown I thought I would take this time to report on our offshore trips between January and April (obviously cut short by the lockdown). Even on a big comfy catamaran we need the right weather and tides as well as some willing anglers to get over 30 miles offshore. This restricted our trips to just 4 this year, several were cancelled due to weather. The rest of our bookings were after the lockdown and typically the weather was cracking then! When we did get offshore we had varying amounts of thorn-backs and the obligatory dogfish. our main target species would be spurdogs as it has been for several years. These trips have produced some nice cod and bass in the past as well as a blonde ray a couple of years ago. With this in mind we try to cover all of the basses with our traces. Sure enough the very first cast on the first trip produced a double figure spurdog on each rod for Shane Ashby. The biggest went 15.4lbs and was a new PB for shane. The other went just over 13lbs. these are the stamp of fish we have come to expect around here over the years. unfortunately this brace of fish wasn’t a sign of things to come. We did catch a few more spurs throughout the day and a few hounds too. People often seem surprised when we catch the hounds off here at that time of year. The water was just shy of 10’c off there (3’c warmer than inshore at the same time) and the hounds do seem to run in the packs with the spurs. In fact I have seen hounds in small amounts in every month of the year off here. The next trip we managed 11 spurs but nothing bigger the 13lbs and nothing to beat Shanes first fish. with the lock down stopping us by the end of march we will have to wait until next year to target the spurdogs again and already have a couple of parties booked down for them. In the mean time who knows when we will be allowed out again? hopefully it will be in time to sample some of the fantastic sport we can have for smooth-hounds, bass or tope in the summer. If you wish to book a trip please get in touch or bear us in mind when we’re allowed out again.
    For now I am putting various reports on my website and facebook page to keep you occupied.
    Stay safe from Essex sea fishing call Scott 07956411528
    www.essexseafishing.co.uk

  • 03/2020 Fishing Report by Scott Belbin

    Mar 2020 by Scott Belbin

    Our best few trips were shortly before we had to stop going. We did three trips on the bounce with 72, 93 and 80 thorn-backs between 7 or 8 anglers. As usual most fish were returned alive and we kept just a few males for the table. There were a few decent females mixed in each trip with several low doubles and a nice pair one after the other both going over 16lbs (it was a bit lumpy and hard to get an accurate weight). Often we were the only boat within sight and we could fish in comfort with out having to seek extra shelter.
    Regarding any trips in the coming weeks and months. At the moment we are unable to take trips and even myself and stacey are abiding by the rules and only leaving the house for essential goods. Over the coming weeks and months we will take it week by week depending on what rules are tightened or relaxed. If you’re booked in for a trip please bear with me and I will evaluate it nearer the time. If you wish to book for a future trip please feel free to do so. We promise not to spent your deposits on bulk buying loo roll and instead keep them separate in case they need to be returned to you.
    If you fancy a trip and wish to know my availability please call 07956411528 and I will update you with our current plans or visit my website and have a look at the availability page at http://www.essexseafishing.co.uk/availability/
    Please keep an eye on the essex sea fishing page for more reports old and new over the coming weeks.

  • 02/2020 Fishing Report by Scott Belbin

    Feb 2020 by Scott Belbin

    Despite the seemingly relentless gales February has been fairly kind to us on the blackwater. The blackwater estuary has continued to provide great sport in all but the worst conditions. Luckily where most of the fish have been showing is very well sheltered from the south and west so we can fish in a gale of wind and its no rougher than on the mooring most of the time. The sprats have gone now although plenty of herring remain, but this doesn’t seem to be having an adverse effect on the fishing. Last week Carl and young Billy-roy hired the boat for just the two of them and they had a great days fishing. It was their second trip with me and Billy-roy had remembered so much from his first trip. He was casting on his own and did a great job of reeling in some decent thorn-backs all on his own. The lads had steady fishing all day and managed 31 rays between them as well as a few whiting and a dogfish for good measure. They are already planning their next trip for later in the year. We have had days with more rays on board but this was undoubtably a good day between two people, in February on a windy day.
    We have only been able to get further offshore on the occasional day to be honest but this should improve in the coming weeks and we should see a bit more variety in the fish we catch. The rays seem pretty wide spread now so we should be cooking on gas for a while inshore.
    I have plenty of spaces coming up including this weekend coming.
    For more information, regular reports and available dates please visit www.essexseafishing.co.uk follow us on facebook or subscribe to our youtube channel

  • 01/2020 Fishing Report by Scott Belbin

    Jan 2020 by Scott Belbin

    The year has got off to a great start for us here on the blackwater estuary. There may have been lots of sprats around but the thorn-back rays have still been feeding well. The mild weather has undoubtably helped this and they have shown in both size and numbers. The best of the fishing has been well within the shelter of the estuary so we have been able to fish in all but the worst weather. Our best trip in January was 42 rays to 14.8lbs. we saw double figure fish mixed in most trips and plenty of happy anglers. As long as we don’t see any prolonged cold spells the rays should be here for the spring now. Although at times it was mostly rays we caught we did see a few other bits and bobs with the usual whiting dogfish and dabs showing. When conditions allowed we headed further afield and even had a couple of tiny codling, hopefully we will see some of their larger relatives as the sprats move off in the coming weeks. I have several spaces coming up at weekends as well as midweek availability and evening as we get into the summer. For more information, regular reports and availability please visit
    www.essexseafishing.co.uk
    find us on facebook
    or call on 07956411528

  • 01/2020 Fishing Report by Scott Belbin

    Jan 2020 by Scott Belbin

    We have managed to get a couple of trips out to start the new year off. The weather hasn’t been perfect but we are lucky that the sheltered waters of the blackwater estuary and surrounding areas mean we can got out in most weather if we want. Happily there are still plenty of fish to be caught giving us good reason to head out. The sprats have arrived in the estuary which has distracted many of the bigger whiting although there are still numbers of smaller whiting taking our baits. The last couple of trips have produced a few nice dabs for us with out even targeting them. Dad had a trip booked with a few of his regulars the other day. There were only 3-4 anglers on board and they still managed 79 dabs on a nice leisurely day in the comfort of the estuary. There have been plenty of whiting mixed in to make for a busy day on the right tides.The mild weather has kept the thorn-back rays and dogfish feeding. The fish are a bit lethargic and finicky but we are still seeing a few in the right places. Last weekend we headed out in a load of wind with the Maldon sea anglers on board. We spent the morning catching dabs,pouting and whiting with a 5 bearded rockling making a surprise appearance. We moved for the afternoon to target some rays. The fishing took a while to get going but the lads had 10 thornbacks and lost a couple more as well as catching some more whiting and dogfish. The biggest ray went to martin and just went over double figures. On the way in the lads commented that they were pleased they had made the effort to go out and I was pleased we could find a few fish on a windy day.
    I have a few spaces coming up if you wish to get out soon, if the weather stays this mild the rays should move inshore in numbers in the next few weeks. If we get the weather and tides we will be heading further off in search of spurdog and alike which I think will also happen early this year so please book early so you don’t miss out.
    For more information, regular reports and availability please visit
    Essexseafishing.co.uk
    Follow the essexseafishing page on facebook
    Or call 07956411528

  • 12/2019 Fishing Report by Scott Belbin

    Dec 2019 by Scott Belbin

    Despite loosing a few trips to weather in December we have still got afloat here and there. On the last trip there were still hoards of whiting but a few roker mixed in with them. Most trips we have seen 6-12 roker which isn’t great guns but they put a decent bend in the rod and are a welcome break from the whiting. On the right tides the estuary is producing plenty of dabs which can be a bit of fun on a windy day and gets you afloat. on our first trip in december Robert even managed a small bass so you never can tell. I have plenty of spaces over Christmas and into the new year. So please get in touch if you fancy getting out over the Christmas break there is still plenty to be caught and you wont catch them sitting at home!
    We will start to head offshore soon in search of the first spurdogs of the season, I wont publish any catches until the end of the season though (around april).
    Please keep an eye on my website www.essexseafishing.co.uk or facebook or call me on 07956411528

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