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05/2014
Fishing Report by Scott Belbin
on Galloper (Brightlingsea, Essex)
May 2014 by Scott Belbin
Report on-board Galloper
May was another busy month aboard the 'galloper'. We were lucky enough to get most of our trips in with some very good weather at times. May has marked the transition from spring to summer with a few late winter species showing earlier in the month and summer species arriving in the form of mackerel and tope. We had some more big numbers of thorn-backs at the start of the month with some of our customers choosing to target them over the bass which also showed in decent numbers. We had several days with 35-50 coming out on several trips. Thankfully there have still been a few rays in the estuary which have saved the odd day when it has been windy.
The last couple of weeks have seen the biggest change and although the odd cod has still been showing it seems summer is here with good numbers of hounds spread throughout most area's. Most of these have been the 3-7lbs fish which are great sport on light gear although 'big guy' did manage a double figure one on a trip with us the other day. The main numbers of the bass have slowed down on the ground fishing. However there's a few coming out on most trips and there will still be good numbers to be had over the coming weeks either on lures or offshore. The most promising signs of summer have been the big number of mackerel which are no doubt helped by the warmer weather and more settled conditions than last summer.
Sundays trip saw a surprise for one of our regulars john. As usual we were having several last casts and were rewarded with a nice early tope of 13lbs. This is no monster but what was surprising was john managed to get her in on a 35lb trace having hooked her in the scissors. The tope can often turn up this early and with the warm spring we've had I thought there might be one or two about. Its typical that we had two rods out with fresh mackerel yesterday and didn’t have a sniff. The trip was fairly typical of late other than that with a nice mixed bag coming out. We had 14 or so rays, 20 odd hounds loads of dogfish a bass a dab and a tope.
The thorn-backs will hang around over the next few weeks and slowly move further out as the summer goes by. If we're lucky we should see the first run of bigger hounds in the next week or two. Im hoping that seeing the first couple if smaller tope is a good sign for the season ahead. Were due a good year and those mackerel will make great fresh bait. As I mentioned bass will show on many trips with worm helping to target them. If conditions are right then we'll have a go with feathers or red gills and I have a few trips in search of them offshore coming up.
With regards to baits Squid will pick most fish up, worm is best for targeting bass and crab for smooth-hounds. If targeting tope then fresh mackerel is great and can pick up the odd decent bass too. for more information, available dates and a weekly fishing update visit www.essexseafishing.co.uk
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