26/10/12 First Pike.

My first pike trip of the year saw me at Pulborough #1 and  finding the river in pretty good shape considering the recent rainfall.Sardines on float paternosters were the tactics and apart from some eel trouble, and a dropped pike, just one long, lean, upper single turned up to kick off the new season.

Made a nice change to be back on the river and, as I say every year,I suspect the going's not going to be easy...........we'll see.

22/10/12 On the Edge

Primarily a trip targetting cod but, as it turned out, once again i had decent sport with the bream which seem to  reappear on our reef systems at this time of year. The sizes may not be a large as the spring fish but, the majority of bream i caught today, along with a few dogs, were of a reasonable size.Chosen location was 'the edge' and not far away from the usual charters who seemed to be hugging the reef proper. One cod did come up but in general, our results were similar.

Jennifer's Pride was located further west, fishing for plaice on the Eastborough Bank and with little success.It would appear that the door has closed on the plaice fishing for this year.

During the afternoon the visibility deteriorated to the point where i could only see 20to 30yds.Neil on Spirit kindly offered me an escort home if i could wait but i declined having to get back for work.

The return journey was VERY slow going and I had to stand and peer over the top of the cuddy to be able to see at all, as the windows were constantly obscured by moisture.

Without a radar reflector, Neil reported that I was very difficult to see, so this is something I need to consider for the new boat.
The new Suveran rods are proving to be superb in every way.Light, sensitive with a beautiful playing action, I cannot really fault them.They're a fine match with the Avet reels which a year on, and after some heavy use, and with little maintenance apart from a rinse under the tap after every trip,are still as good as new.

20/10/12 On the Beach

Some nice bass have been taken recently in the shoreham area on live whiting so tonight i thought i'd hit the beach and give it a go myself.No noticeable bites and only one solitary eel turned up to save the blank.

14/10/12 An Amazing Experience.

The plan today was to head to mark 5 and drift float fished livebaits for bass. On arrival once again, Clive was in attendance and I felt it only right to leave the mark to him and instead fish another section of the reef westwards.Clive's catch on the day was, as usual quite exceptional and once again I just felt as if i was in the wrong place. With a bit more gaul, i would have muscled in.Another local boat did so and scored good bass on lures but that's not really my style.
I feathered up scad, mackerel and pollack on the tail lure but my live baits remained untouched-I will get there in the end.
The disappointing fishing was forgotten however when this pod of about fifteen dolphins were located and remained with us  for about an hour. I'd called my mate Tim over on the radio to join in the fun and the excellent footage was shot by him.I've seen dolphins a couple of times before but have never been able to get so close, nor engage them in this way-fantastic stuff.

10/10/12 Plaice In the Chop.

Eastborough bank was the chosen destination for today with the intention of plaice fishing in the smallish tide.On arrival, I had the whole mark to myself which was a different scene to my last visit however, I was soon joined by Lynander and Jennifer's Pride.
A good catch of plaice to about two pounds plus was steadily accumulated through the day but, big news from J.P was that his crew had taken three huge fish in the 6-7lb bracket. One of them took a whole squid which was used as a substitute bait when a crew member had ran out of ragworm.
Upon hearing this , I tried the bait myself, except that I just used the head of the squid.It did prodiuce a copuple more plaice, and they were of a better size so, food for thought for the future.

During the afternoon the winds increased considerably making things slightly uncomfortable. Steve on J.P commented on the radio that he'd like a bit more boat around him if he was me and I tend to agree.Despite  the conditions(a couple of waves did manage to reach the deck) and the painfully slow run home ,at no time did I feel unsafe in my little Orkney, but it felt good to make contact with dry land.

7/10/12 Autumn Bream

A trip that began by fishing black ledge with little success,followed by a move to west Kingmere which produced a nice bag of reasonable sized bream.