Latest Fishing Reports: Silver Spray II
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13/11/2013
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
13 Nov 2013 by Sam Cumming
So that’s the British Cod Championships all finished for another year, unfortunately due to the North-westerly that arrived today the comp was cut down to just the one day. I delivered the boat down to Lymington on Tuesday, as you can see I may have stopped off to have a little look where we might find the cod the next day. Wednesday’s weather was just perfect and my crew fished really well and brought 4 cod to the deck. Including Dave Woods 19lb 5oz which got him 3rd biggest fish overall. His brother John caught all 3 of the other fish and came second overall for combined weight. I was chuffed as nuts to be named Top Skipper for the 2013 Comp with a total weight of fish of 35lb 9oz, which topped the list just 10oz above Eric Elliot of Wight Rebel. Talk about a photo finish, well done to all who fished and many thanks to the West Wight Skippers Association for organising another brilliant competition.
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01/10/2013
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
1 Oct 2013 by Sam Cumming
Fishing this last month hasn’t been the usual thing we do at this time of year, rather than heading offshore on the spring tides to hunt down the last of the bass we have been staying inshore targeting plaice which have been in abundance both in Poole Bay and down to the west. Using short traces of 20lb line with 1/0 kamasan hooks baited with rag worm and raw king prawns we have had some of the best plaice I’ve seen thus far. It has been nice to use some lighter tackle and target some smaller species for a change as a lot of the fishing onboard Silver Spray II is done further afield. Also in abundance have been both tub and red gurnard, always good fun on appropriate tackle, Andy Hayden beat over 30 flatties one day with his 1lb 12oz red gurnard which is well over 100% specimen. Our last trip across the channel fell on the first few days in October; we decided to combine the best bits of both Cherbourg and Alderney with great success. Pollock and ling of the wrecks on the first day were in abundance with several ling to 22lb hitting, the biggest one was brought to the surface on a 25lb mono bream rig!! On the second day we took the tide round Cap de la Hague, 27miles only took about 1 hour 20 minutes, and fished down on the shoal bank south of Alderney. I didn’t expect the turbot and brill fishing to be excellent but I was gladly surprised when a half day session produced 16 decent flats. After a few more hours on the banks the third day focused on bream, the hard fighting black bream being in abundance on the north side of the island. One species I have never had aboard Silver Spray II is a couches sea bream, lilac in colour they really are a beautiful fish, despite our best efforts we didn’t manage to connect with one but after one of the most enjoyable multi day trips of the year I will definitely be doing another one at the same time next year.
Sam Cumming
Silver Spray II -
16/07/2013
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
16 Jul 2013 by Sam Cumming
I had almost forgotten how much easier a bit of nice weather makes this job, over the past six months I can’t remember having settled weather for more than a few days at a time so when the winds dropped out and the temperature came up we have been making the most of it.
One thing I didn’t get to do much last year was free lining, due to the bad weather the fish don’t tend to push into the shallow water so much. So with the right conditions recently we have been heading round the Jurassic coast and connecting with some hard hitting bass, on the light tackle this really is a superb way to fish for them. Elsewhere the bass have continued to feed as well with the first of the large female fish starting to show up on both sides of the channel. Ian Napier nailed his personal best with a fine 11lber, again on 6-12lb class gear it gave a phenomenal scrap all the way to the boat with several 10-20 yard runs. On the other side of the channel in Alderney we have been spending our time evenly between flatties and tope. The larger turbot lately seem to have been picking out the sand eel flappers over the mackerel baits, Lee Shepherd spent his birthday over in Alderney and gave himself a nice present of a new PB turbot just into the double figures. On the anchoring side of things the tope have giving us the run around, usually coming on the feed at slack water it can be quite interesting keeping up with half a dozen or so hook ups at a time. Darren Carwardine wrestled with his 46lber for over 10 minutes, luckily enough is came into the net very smoothly and curled itself up otherwise I don’t think we would have got it aboard without the aid of the gunnel door.
Out on the wrecks it’s fast and furious, with nicer weather we have concentrated on the cod a bit more than last year and its nice to see it pay off with Colin Jones’ 31lber caught on a 20lb class Abu Suveran rod using a bright orange sidewinder lure. That fish was one of 3 we had over 20lb in as many drifts which I’m pretty sure is a first for the Silver Spray team. We have had so many good fish over the last 4 weeks there isn’t time to mention them all but long may the good weather and tight lines continue. -
26/06/2013
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
26 Jun 2013 by Sam Cumming
Taking full advantage of this continued good weather at the moment, nice to see such a wide spread of fish across the grounds. The bass have turned up in full force both inshore and offshore with a range of sizes averaging at 5lb using the live mackerel method mostly. Looking forward to getting back over the channel after a few more bass trips this week.
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15/06/2013
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
15 Jun 2013 by Sam Cumming
Last month’s improved fishing has continued right into June, with the aid of some good weather, I’ve only had to cancel one trip in the last 4 weeks. It is never fully the summer season until the mackerel shoals arrive properly and they started showing in good numbers in the last week of May. Unfortunatly this was just a touch too late for my first trip to Cherbourg this year as we only managed to catch 3 mackerel in as many days. Despite this the weather was on our side and we had a good trip with mainly pollock and cod hitting the deck but also a few ling and bass aswell. Gareth Awbery landed a nice double figure cod just after slack water to find that something had bit its tail clean off, the wound must have been a couple seasons old as it had fully healed but it amazes me that it could survive after such a major injury. I finally managed to get an Alderney trip in with nice weather to go with it; you know you have had a couple of bad ones when you are saying east/northeast force 4 is nice weather! The banks fished well with Steve Bealing pulling out the best turbot of the trip at 13lb, Steve’s brother Graham managed to catch 3 turbot on the same sandeel flapper one drift after another.
I mentioned in my last report I didn’t think that the summer cod had fully arrived and I, and my anglers, were glad to see I was correct with a few days bringing over 20 fish to the boat. One day Silver Spray regular Bill Thornton caught 9 cod with the biggest coming on an orange twin tail with a lead head and weighing in at 21lb 4oz, hoping to get out there again soon to find a few more of that size. On our side of the channel the first of the mackerel have of course brought in the tope and bass with them. Although the fishing has been good so far it seemed like the fish were easily spooked and on some days wanted live mackerel on the bottom and others wanted lures high up in the water. I am hoping for another good season with some big fish as we have already seen our first double. Whilst drifting just after slack one day waiting for the tide to build Gary Legg managed to catch something sizeable on a live mackerel, we all assumed it was a tope until it was in the net and had 2 large spikes sticking out of its dorsle fins. The spur dog weighed in at 22lb and could have potentially have been a new record, it was certainly the biggest one I have seen. I’m looking forward to writing next month’s report with the first of the freeline bass trips and a few more journeys across the channel.
Sam Cumming
Silver Spray II -
22/05/2013
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
22 May 2013 by Sam Cumming
First Cherbourg trip of the year completed. Nice weather and a top group of lads certainly makes the multi day trips easier even before you start fishing. It was nice to see all the lads getting stuck into some good fish over the 3 days with bass ling cod and pollock all making an appearance in varying quantities. The only problem came with the mackerel....we had a grand total of 3 over the trip which was not helpful when it came to fishing over slack water. Still its another 3 weeks until my next one so i expect they will have arrived in more numbers by then.
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05/2013
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
May 2013 by Sam Cumming
Off to Cherbourg for the first time this year tomorrow. Cod starting to show up in numbers, few bass and plenty of pollock so should be a good trip fingers crossed. Awesome day on the place yesterday with plenty of 3lb+ fish hitting the deck the biggest at just under 5lb.Second Alderney trip was hampered by weather last week but we perseverred and it came good in the end.
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06/05/2013
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
6 May 2013 by Sam Cumming
A few photos from the this last week, as you can see some stunning weather to go with some good fishing. The first big hit of bream came on friday with a good selection of males and females of all sizes up to about 2lb 8oz. A couple of late spur dogs from slack water on thursday was a bit of a surprise to round off some good sized pollock and a few cod off the wrecks. Another first for this summer was Dave Faulkners bass weighing a respectable 5lb.
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21/04/2013
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
21 Apr 2013 by Sam Cumming
A quick summary of the week aboard Silver Spray II for you. First 4 day Alderney trip completed in some terrible weather, got down to the turbot grounds both days but mixed success due to the weather conditions. Ashley Williams bagging the first cross channel double figure of the year at 11lb 4oz. On the wrecks there are plenty of pollock and the first of this years summer cod along with too many congers to count. The offshore banks are still holding lots of rays and spurdogs. Next month will see our first Cherbourg trip and another venture over to Alderney.
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02/2013
Fishing Report by Sam Cumming
Feb 2013 by Sam Cumming
We are now into that quiet part of the year where if you are unlucky with the weather you might find a lot of your trips cancelled, which has been the case quite a lot lately. The inshore fishing for whiting and cod tailed off a little early this year, I put this down to a lack of settled weather, January isn’t renowned for being the best month weather wise but it’s been worse than usual. To keep the rods bending I decided to utilize our offshore fishing on the banks, even though you can’t sit it out all day on the stronger tides you can still head out for a couple of hours either side of slack in search of some different species. As you saw in last month’s report the rays and spurdogs were there in abundance and I’m happy to say it was much the same again this month, the brief period between the inshore fishing grinding to a halt and the wrecking for pollack leaves us with just the neap tides to head out to the offshore marks. Best fish in the last couple weeks goes to Gary Holmes with his new boat record undulate ray of 19lb 4oz, the ray took a mackerel bait just after slack water on a rough ground mark 15 miles off.
Even though it’s a bit earlier than usual with two nice days of settled weather this week I decided to get the first couple of wreck trips of the year under my belt. There were plenty of pollack to be had, all of a nice fat healthy stamp due to the numerous shoals of sprats and scad hovering around the wrecks. Whilst fishing a wreck just before slack water we had a big surprise in the form of a new boat record ling. Andy Deacon was fishing half a pout for a conger when the monster took the bait, after fifteen minutes of scrapping with the fish on his 15-20lb class ugly stick it hit the surface. Weighing in at 31lb 4oz it is certainly the biggest ling I’ve seen in my career so far, well done to Andy what a fish!!!
