Latest Fishing Reports: Silver Spray II
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08/2014
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
Aug 2014 by Sam Cumming
It’s been another good month of weather down here in Poole with mostly light winds and sunny conditions and only one or two trips cancelled. I’m pleased to report that the mackerel did finally turn up in reasonable quantity at the end of July which has made the trips where we are live baiting much easier. Earlier on in June it was taking up to 3 hours to get enough mackerel just to have a few drifts. Offshore the wrecks have been producing good numbers of ling, more than I have had in previous years. We are targeting them by bouncing a mackerel flapper on a heavy mono trace over the wreckage at slack water. The cod have stayed later than usual this year, we are still finding good numbers on certain long distance wrecks even though they are usually starting to disappear at this point in the season. The pollock have spread out onto patches of rough ground in the channel to feed on shoals of scad. We have enjoyed some fantastic sport targeting them with sidewinder lures, one return trip from Cherbourg saw a group of anglers land 72 pollock to 16lb in just 10 drifts which has to be some of the best fishing I’ve ever seen on open ground. The inshore side of things has been throwing up some really good bass on the live baits. Amelia Clegg caught her first ever bass weighing in at 12lb 9oz using the free line method, the biggest so far this year and the 7th double figure we have had so far this season. In the next month I’m looking forward to our a last few cross channel trips of the year and targeting some big black bream out on the wrecks.
Sam Cumming
Silver Spray II -
16/07/2014
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
16 Jul 2014 by Sam Cumming
It’s been back to back trips down here in Poole for the last month; the weather has been faultless with only a few days rest taken due to the odd puff of wind. It’s that time of year now where everything is in full swing and we are spoilt for choice as to what we fish for. The only thing that aren’t playing ball, as I’m sure many other ports are experiencing round the country, are the mackerel. Some days we are spending up to 2 hours feathering to get enough to go bass fishing for a few hours. There seems to be an abundance of small scad out on the sand in Poole Bay which is helping fill the gap when we want to go fishing with live baits. The one place mackerel have been in abundance for me this year is over in Alderney, all around the Island and down on the fishing grounds we have no trouble getting bait. In early July Graham Kent and his mates did a 5-day trip over to the rock with Silver Spray II and had a brilliant time. Rather than just sticking on the flats for 3 days straight we tried our hand at a bit of everything and we were rewarded with a variety of species including tope, bull huss, conger, bass, turbot, brill, cod, ling, pollock to name but a few. The top fish of the trip for me was Andrew Dunne’s turbot of 20lb 4oz. A brilliant turbot by anyone’s standards made even better by the fact he caught it on bass gear whilst we were drifting at 4 knots in over 100 feet of water. The fish gave a fight like I’ve never seen from a flattie before and took over 10 minutes to get to the boat appearing and then disappearing from view several times in the process. Alderney is certainly renowned for being a destination where anglers can catch themselves some monster fish and not many anglers have spent as much time hunting one down in that area as my Dad, Andy Cumming. On a recent trip to the Island with his Wife for some golf and relaxation he somehow managed to sneak in an afternoon on the banks onboard Silver Spray I. After a good day on the flats he was just packing his gear up when his Diawa Saltist 12-20 rod bent over the rail with a cracking bite. After a struggle lasting around 15 minutes Andy’s wife Alison netted a colossal turbot which I weighed for him back in Brae harbour at 31lb 8oz. I’ve seen god knows how many fish of all shapes and sizes on my travels in commercial and charter fishing but I have never seen anything of that enormity, a true fish of a life time.
Sam Cumming
Silver Spray II -
18/06/2014
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
18 Jun 2014 by Sam Cumming
June Monthly Report:
For the last couple of years the bass have arrived on the last spring tide in May, for us on Silver Spray they made us wait a little longer this year until the start of June. The first hit of fish came on live sand eels, not always available but I think I will make the effort to get them more often after seeing the positive effect they have had. Live mackerel produced the bigger fish as you would expect but we are still waiting for our first double this season, although 9lb 4oz isn't far off. To keep us interested over slack water the rays have been brilliant fun with all varieties making an appearance. After bringing a new PB to the surface on his bass gear of 22lb Dave Griffin gave a brilliant display of skill by landing a 26lber on a 12lb class rod and fixed spool reel, a perfect way to top off a good day on the bass.
The wrecks of the Herd Deep provided some fantastic pollock fishing on the return journey from Alderney. Using live mackerel, the bigger the better, fished on a 6 foot trace and worked very slowly up over the wreckage the hard fighting pollock just couldn’t resist. Colin Jones equalled his personal best of 16lb, a very well conditioned fish that fought all the way to the top in nearly 300 feet of water. As well as the pollock the cod have been coming in good numbers into the high teens, mostly taking brightly coloured lures but some on the live baits as well. It usually late June when the larger fish arrive off Poole so fingers crossed next time I’ll writing about some quality as well as quantity.
Sam Cumming
Silver Spray II -
18/05/2014
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
18 May 2014 by Sam Cumming
We have honestly had too many good days in the last month to pick one out in particular. It’s amazing what a bit of calm weather and warmer temperatures can do for the fishing. The fishing inshore around Poole has been phenomenal with some of the best black bream fishing I ever seen right on our door step, both quality and quantity. Using a 2-up rig baited with half a squid head and a bit of rag worm seems to attract those bigger fish around the 4lb mark. Along with this the mackerel have arrived along with the first bass of the year and rays of all species and sizes. One day this week saw spotted, blonde, undulate and small eyed rays all hitting the surface within minutes of each other. As I mentioned in the last report I have done my first trip to Alderney for this year. Favourable weather conditions, for a change, meant we were able to get down to the shoal bank 3 days on the trot. Amongst the mountains of bait fish on the banks south of Alderney we had some good turbot up to 12lb 8oz, landed by Gary Kent. This week we are visiting Cherbourg on our first trip to France of the year, lets the weather and fishing keep up with our side of the channel.
Sam Cumming
Silver Spray II -
19/04/2014
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
19 Apr 2014 by Sam Cumming
April Monthly Report
It’s now Easter bank holiday weekend and It’s that time of year when the variety of species we see throughout the summer have started to arrive. I decided to skip the report in March because there just didn’t seem anything new to write about, there is only so many ways to say that the weather is terrible and is making most of the fishing hard work. Things have certainly come a long way since then with the first plaice, turbot, pollock, bream and mackerel of the year all hitting the deck. Temperatures have picked up and the south coast has enjoyed some settled weather for a while now which has allowed the visibility in the water to increase dramatically, in turn this has brought a lot of those spring species on the feed.
Using the usual method of a short trace baited with rag worm and prawn the plaice fishing down to the west has been just as good as the last couple of years. The fish are well fed already and most tip the scales between 3 and 4lb. On the Shambles Bank there has been an abundance of herring which have proved brilliant bait for the turbot. It’s not been uncommon to see half a dozen or so fish during the tide up to about 10lb, nothing monstrous just yet but there is still time. Offshore we have finally seen the first pollock come off the wrecks, be it about 2 months late, good plump fish up to 15lb have been a regular occurrence. One of the most important species we target during the year is the black bream, once they arrive they stick with us until September time and really make fantastic fun on light tackle. I had the first hit of bream this last week, some years they can be a little small to start with but the average fish seemed to be around the 2lb 8oz mark and most of them males. Looking forward to another good season after such a positive start, off to Alderney for the first time tomorrow, hopefully the turbot are on the feed on the other side of the channel.
Sam Cumming
Silver Spray II -
13/02/2014
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
13 Feb 2014 by Sam Cumming
I’m sure you won’t be overly shocked to hear I haven’t been out much since my last monthly report, a grand total of 2 trips as it happens. Both of which saw us leave port at first light and return early to make the most of short windows in the terrible weather we have been having. What we lacked in weather we certainly made up for in spur dogs as anglers Kevin Griffiths and Roger Clarke landed the 2 biggest spur dogs I have ever seen on the same trip. The pair were using large mackerel cut baits on single hook flowing traces of 100lb mono. After sporting fights the fish were safely brought onboard and weighed in at 22lb 4oz and 25lb 8oz respectively for Kevin and Roger. Both fish were heavily pregnant with pups and were returned alive and kicking after a couple of minutes. Roger’s fish would have beaten the current British Record for a boat caught spur dog had we brought it ashore, I’ve had a couple of different reports of the record size but it would have beaten it by at least a pound. Both days produced plenty of blonde rays as well up into the mid twenties along with a handful of bull huss and congers to keep rod tips bouncing. Let’s hope we get all the bad weather out of the way now so we can enjoy a nice summer again!!
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25/01/2014
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
25 Jan 2014 by Sam Cumming
Managed to get away just before sunrise this morning with winds at about force 3. Only fished for about 5 hours but well worth it with plenty blonde rays up to 24lb, undulates, bull huss and 2 monster spur dog weighing in at 22lb 4oz and 25lb 8oz. Both were large female fish and were returned alive and kicking after a quick photo. 25lb 8oz smashes the british record but as angler Roger Clarke said it would be a tragedy to kill such a beuatiful fish just for the sake of a record. After this the wind got up to gale force 8 and we had a bumpy steam in but a good day had by all!!!!!
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19/01/2014
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
19 Jan 2014 by Sam Cumming
Just like when I wrote last month’s report it is still quite mild for this time of year with the temperature nudging 8 or 9 degrees some days. Unfortunately high winds from the southwest and, as I’m sure you have noticed, plenty of rain have called most of my trips off. I managed to get out on 2 days before the New Year which resulted in some of the best winter fishing I have seen this season, typical that this good fishing should be going on during the worst weather period. 5 cod took a mix of squid and cuttlefish bait over the two trips ranging from 13-21lb. Along with these we saw plenty of by-catch in the form of whiting, rays, smoothound and bull huss. This winter I have seen more congers on the open ground than ever before, some days it’s not uncommon to see 20 or 30 whilst trying to target the cod. Last Saturdays trip came with neap tides and good weather which gave me the first chance to get out to the offshore banks and target the spur dogs. Lee Cullen managed top fish on the day with a fine 18lber, 7 other spurs also made an appearance. When the tide died away and the spurs went off the feed the fishing didn’t slow down with even more congers, whiting, blonde rays, bull huss and even a tope taking the mackerel and squid baits. Mark Turner got a welcome surprise when winding up to change his bait as half way up he hooked into a large squid, it was weighed ashore at 3lb 9oz!! Hopefully the worst of the weather is behind us and we can look forward to getting out to the offshore marks again soon.
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15/12/2013
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
15 Dec 2013 by Sam Cumming
December Report:
Christmas is only 9 days away as I write this report and the temperature outside is still 10 degrees which is pretty much unheard of at this time of year. After about 3 weeks of pretty nice weather we are now in for southerly and south-westerly with rain for about a week so it may be after Christmas before we get out again. Cod fishing has been plodding along nicely with some really big fish taking the baits, in the last week of November we had 3 fish over 20lb in two trips which doesn’t happen often enough. Derek Morton took home a 23lber after trotting back cuttlefish bait at the height of the tide with a light lead; this really gave a good scrap on the lighter tackle. Ray Baldwin hooked up to only his 2nd ever cod on the 1st December and despite only being a very short fish it weighed in at 28lb 12oz, our biggest so far this season. During the winter all the fishing we do aboard Silver Spray is at anchor so it gives me some time to play around with our GoPro video camera. It’s taken a little while to get the hang of but this year’ efforts have produced some good footage which can be found on our YouTube channel and our Facebook page. As well as the cod we have seen some very good mixed fishing with congers, bass, whiting, thornback, small eyed and spotted rays all making an appearance. I will be heading out to the offshore banks on the first set of neap tides in January in search of this year’s spur dogs and blonde rays, let’s hope we get some better weather than last year. Until then a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at Silver Spray Charters.
We are now taking bookings for Cherbourg and Alderney trips in 2014 for individuals and charters. If you would like to fish regularly on a Saturday please email us on info@silverspraycharters.com -
18/11/2013
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
18 Nov 2013 by Sam Cumming
At this time of year the winter season is well and truly upon us so the only sort of fishing I’ll be doing for the foreseeable future is for the inshore cod and whiting. The season was slightly late starting with the first cod hitting the deck on the 7th of November, but since then we haven’t had a blank day with 10 fish in the last 5 trips. Dave Perrett and Robert Summers supplied us with today’s action with a pair of 20lb fish. Dave hooked a pout on his 3 squid bait which was then taken by a very greedy cod, this highlights the importance of having both hook points showing well on your penel rig otherwise I expect the cod would have claimed its prize unchallenged. As well as the cod and whiting we have been kept busy with congers, thornback rays, bass and bull huss. The selection of quality species is what makes inshore winter fishing one of my favourite parts of the season. On the 14th of November Silver Spray II attended the annual Lowrance British Cod Championship down in Lymington, unfortunately due to weather we had to cut it short to just 1 day rather than 2. We managed 4 cod on the day, the biggest of which got angler Dave Wood 3rd biggest fish on the day. Dave’s brother Jon caught all 3 of the other fish and came in second place for overall bag weight, he used a squid and crab cocktail which proved very effective. Thanks to my anglers efforts I was extremely proud to be named top skipper of the 2013 comp, even if I only scraped the top spot by 10oz!!
We are now taking bookings for Cherbourg and Alderney trips in 2014 for individuals and charters. If you would like to fish regularly on a Saturday please email us on info@silverspraycharters.com
