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04/2017
Fishing Report by Scott Belbin
on Galloper (Brightlingsea, Essex)
Apr 2017 by Scott Belbin
Report on-board Galloper
Yet again its been too long since my last report on here. As ever we’ve been busy aboard the ‘Galloper’ with lots of people wanting to get out and enjoy the great weather we’ve been experiencing this spring. Nowadays spring time primarily means thorn-back rays (also known as roker) in the thames estuary. As is well publicised we are fortunate enough to have a well managed local population at the moment. Although we now catch them through out the year the thorn-backs are in their best numbers now with lots of big females coming inshore to breed and feed along with their smaller male counterparts. Although the weather doesn’t cost us many trips throughout the year we particularly benefit at this time of year when the thorn-backs can often be found in good numbers right into the sheltered waters of the black water estuary. We have been seeing great numbers of fish come aboard with 30-40 rays commonplace nowadays. There have been some good fish amongst them too with lots of heavily laden females being caught and of course always returned aboard the ‘Galloper’. Mixed in with the thorn-backs there are numbers of dogfish and whiting along with the odd pouting. The first few bass and smooth-hounds have shown in the last few weeks which is a sure sign that summers rapidly approaching.
To mix things up for my self as well as my anglers I still put the odd offshore trip in this time of year to target the brief run of spurdogs we have off here. I was lucky enough to happen upon a couple of marks for these getting on for 10 years ago now and have seen some decent fish come aboard over the years. On a recent trip off there with a group of regulars we found a few spurs, no monsters but some nice fish none the less with the biggest just shy of 12lbs. there was room for me to fish that trip which I always jump at the chance of being an obsessive angler my self. after getting the lads started in the morning with the first spurdog, I was lucky enough to realise a long awaited ambition of catching a blonde ray on my home grounds. She was no giant at just over 12lbs but I was very pleased to catch her . my luck really was in that day. We managed around 20 thorn-backs, a nice bass of 5-6lbs and a couple of pouting and whiting to go along with the constant stream of dogfish for the day.
Over the coming weeks we should continue to see good numbers of thorn-back rays as they start to creep further afield. We will see increasing numbers of smooth-hounds and bass mixed in with them until we make our first trips to target the smooth-hounds.
If you wish to see more regular reports from me as well as available dates, occasional poor quality fishing clips and more information please visit www.essexseafishing.co.uk or find us on facebook. Otherwise please call on 07956411528
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