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  • 05/2019 Fishing Report by Scott Belbin on Galloper (Brightlingsea, Essex)

    May 2019 by Scott Belbin

    Report on-board Galloper

    Its been a while since my last report on here so I will try to give an over view of the spring so far from mersea aboard the ‘Galloper’. The early arrival of mild weather meant that the thorn-back rays and dogfish started to move inshore far earlier this year. This was great news for us as we hadn’t seen any codling to speak of so we were greatful of some decent fish to target. The numbers of rays have been steady since then although we have had to work a bit harder at times to find them. This should remind us not to take them for granted as they provide some great sport for us along with a few nice fish for the table too. the rays were joined by the usual dogfish and whiting along with the occasional bass from early in the spring.
    We did head offshore when conditions allowed us to, we didnt get off as much as I would have liked to though and cancelled more than went ahead due to strong winds. When we did get offshore there were good numbers of rays, plenty of dogfish and a few spurdogs to be had. We only managed two trips off here while the spurs were about and had a couple of doubles first trip and 11 on the second. The second trip was very busy with bites but we lost at least as many as we landed. We had several multiple hook ups as a pack when through but lost the majority. At one point the lads had 4 fish on and lost all of them under the boat! We couldn’t work out why but the ones we did land had lots of fresh scratch marks on so perhaps they were pre-occupied with mating? Our biggest was just under 15lbs and there were plenty of big females mixed in.
    We managed two more days offshore in the beautiful weather at the end of march. This time we planned to mix it up a bit and tried some lure fishing to start each day. we didn’t get our intended quarry but we stumbled across some early bass on one mark and had a dozen the first day. the next day was just as nice so after a couple of hours bait fishing we headed back to find some bass. There we weren’t disappointed and spent over 2 hours bringing bass of all sizes in. there were several in the 3-4lbs range and lots more smaller. The top rods managed 30-50 bass each and we must have had around 150 in total. This is by far the best days bass fishing I have had in march!
    This seemed to be a sign of things to come and sure enough over the past few weeks we have seen several bass mixed in with our general trips in shore. Most of these are coming on worm, I like both lug and rag for bass but must admit ragworm can be better for other species. You may even be lucky enough to pick up a bonus stingray. The ragworm along with crab baits will help to pick up smooth-hounds too. this have showed early too this year, we had our first hounds offshore at the start of march and they are in places inshore now. I haven’t seen a double yet this year but it is still early and hopefully the first will come this month.
    Prospects look good for the summer as it approaches, with many of the summer species already here we hope to see the arrival of the first tope by the end of this month. i will offer trips for them until july some time and hope that its as good as last year when we had fish up to 55lbs. After that we will concentrate on the smooth-hounds and bass along with offering some offshore bass trips. Some of these trips require certain tides so its best to book as early as you can to avoid disappointment.
    I put regular reports on my website and facebook pages along with keeping CBUK as up to date as I can.
    For more information please call 07956411528
    Or visit www.essexseafishing.co.uk
    Or find us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/Essex-Sea-Fishing-614244935320553/

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