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05/2021
Fishing Report by Scott Belbin
on Galloper (Brightlingsea, Essex)
May 2021 by Scott Belbin
Report on-board Galloper
Although I never rule anything out with sea fishing, it is safe to say our spring season on the spurdogs is now over. Due to the lockdown from Christmas onwards we lost a large chunk of our season this year. However the northerly winds throughout April bought the water temperature down and helped keep them here long enough for us to find a few.
To be honest Stacey and I couldn’t resist heading out on our own during the lockdown. We had a lot of work done to the Galloper while we couldn’t operate. Once she was back in the water we wanted to give her a good run to check everything was ok which was a great excuse to head offshore. As well as finding vast amounts of dogfish and a few roker we located the spurs too. Of course Stacey had the biggest at 17.8lbs shortly before we headed home.
Our next trip was with a group of lads from Norfolk, the lads have all fished with me before various times. Some have been off for spurs with me before and others like Tom were one their first trip. Tom told me he would be happy to catch a 2lb spur as that would be his first and therefore a new personnel best. After a good steam out we arrived at our first mark and the lads sent their first baits out. First cast and Tom had a bite, it was fighting better than a dogfish but wasn’t of any size. As luck would have it he had a spurdog on his first cast! It wasn’t much bigger than that 2lb but it was a start. this wasn’t the only spur around either as one or two others started to come out too. Billy was fishing next to Tom and soon pulled in the first double of the day. this was a lovely fish of 16.8lbs in weight. A couple of other double figure spurs followed for Tom, Dean and Steve but Billy must have trodden in something as he was finding the big girls. We had a move in between but billy had a great run of double figure fish starting with one at 16.8lb followed by a 17.6lb, 18.4lb three at 14lb and a 15 before I stopped counting! A couple of packs of big females passed through after which everybody had double figure fish including Joe and Ian. After Toms modest target of just catching his first spur of any size he went on to crown the day off with a cracking fish of 22.6lbs! this was obviously a PB for him but also a new boat record for me on the Galloper beating Stacey’s long standing fish of 21.3lb from back in 2007/2008 some time.
We finished the day off with 37 spurdog, several roker, hounds a few whiting and plenty of dogfish. our next few spur trips didn’t disappoint either. We had to work harder to find them on some day than we did on others but we still found some good fish. one of our regulars Leon Saville has tried a few trips for spurs over the last couple of years without much luck. However his persistence paid off with a lovely double figure fish on his first trip this year. The same day produced some big for all on board including Neon with a mid-double and Dave with a beast that just broke the 20lb mark. The next trip saw Russells crew boat even more Spurs with several more mid doubles up to 18.8lbs.
Our best trip of the year was when all the ducks seemed to line up. The weather was typically snotty on the way out although it settled a bit during the day. our first mark produced very little appart from a few roker but a short more made all the difference and the fish came steadily throughout the rest of the day. As is often the case when there are numbers we had a lot more smaller ‘pack’ spurs but there were no shortage of big girls out there too. At times I was nothing short of carnage as a pack passed through and several fish went banging away down the tide. once again there were lots of mid doubles mixed in and a couple of upper doubles too including two over 19lb for Steve Hill and Stephen Clarke.
After seeing all these big female spurs It was hardly surprising that our next trip produced a lot of tiny pup spurs. I would wager some of these were not long born. despite struggling between adverse weather and tides we did still find some spurdogs and the biggest fell to Ian Hewett at 15lb. we were now getting very late in the season for spurs and we failed to find any one trip. It wasn’t the last we saw of them though as they had one last hurrah and a few found their way closer inshore before migrating for the summer.
Its not only spurs we see on our offshore trips and we have been lucky enough to catch a few hounds and roker each time. We caught one or two of each into double figures too mixed in with the spurs. There have been lots of dogfish and a few whiting as well as a few other species here and there as we try different marks depending on tides and weather. We had a few bass, a codling and a coalfish, a nice brace of pollock and even a spotted ray. This fishing is not for beginners and to be honest I wont take bookings from just anybody for these trips. The fishing can be challenging, the conditions can be tough (we were offshore on days other boats cancelled) and it can be hit and miss. As long as we are allowed to operate as normal this winter I will be running my first spurdog trips from January next year. For now my offshore trips will concentrate on tope and then from July right through to mid-november my offshore trips will be targeting bass. These are better suited to anglers of most abilities although the sea conditions can be a little testing for those without sea legs.
I don’t really have much availability for tope but I can offer plenty of spaces for offshore bass trips over the coming months. Please remember we encourage catch and release but you are allowed 2 bass per angler in line with the current rules.
NEXT SPACES
I have plenty of midweek availability please contact me to discuss midweek dates.
Weekend spaces as follows
05/06/21- offshore trip 1 spaces @ £90pp max 6 anglers
19/06/21-offshore trip 1 space @ £90pp max 6 anglers
04/07/21-3 spaces offshore trip £90pp max 6 anglers
18/07/21-6 spaces offshore trip £90pp max 6 anglers
25/07/21-6 spaces @ £70pp or boat £400 max 6 anglers
Please call me for more information on 07956411528
Stacey is still operating the ‘lady grace’ on a bookings only basis both mid-week and weekends at the
Moment but and is likely to fall under the same restrictions as me. so please call her on 07791859624
Dad (Stuart) has availability on the ‘Razorbill 3’ please call him on 07850234077
COVID-19 UPDATE
We have now had confirmation that the large deck area on Galloper we have some good news. we are able to accommodate up to 8 anglers plus the skipper as of 17/05/21.
This is great news for anybody planning a full boat booking as they can try and keep the cost per person down a bit.
However we are keeping any existing bookings as 6 anglers plus the skipper for now and I will only take bookings for later in the summer on this basis. I would rather leave the date open for now until we are out of the woods with covid. It wasn’t much fun re-arranging things last year and I hope to avoid it this year if I can help it.
If you wish to book a trip with more than 6 people at short notice and the guidelines are still the same then I will gladly take you.
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UPCOMING INDIVIDUAL SPACES ONBOARD Galloper
View Full Charter AvailabilityFri 27/12/2024 3 Spaces 12 Hours £100.00pp Offshore tripView details Sat 28/12/2024 8 Spaces 10 Hours £60.00pp General tripView details
