Poole Harbour This Wednesday - 7th Sep '05

[SpeciMan]

Zzippy, RichSurfer(hopefully) and I will be fishing Poole Harbour launching near Salterns Marina first thing on Wednesday morning. I aim to get down for bait collecting at 6am(low tide). We won't be paddling far and will be out till at least midday I would have thought. If anyone wants to come down at any time they are more than welcome. Bass and plaice will be the target species.

 

PM me if you're interested and need exact location/directions.

 

SpeciMan ghost

[SpeciMan]

Hungry Fisherman, RichSurfer, Zippy and I fished Poole Harbour today. Arriving a little before 6am to find Hungry at the launch point we waited for the morning light then started bait collecting. Shortly after, Zzippy and Rich turned up. With 3 forks between us we soon dug enough bait for the days fishing.

 

Its a 'glorious' morining, we have lots of freshly dug king rag bait. We are about to go K A Y A K F I S H I N G.

 

Look how happy we are!

 

http://www.go-fishing.org/upload/files/arrival.jpg

 

Whilst setting up the yaks, Hungry, Rich and Zzippy managed to find time to cast a few lures.

 

 

Meanwhile, I'm messing around in the background getting ready to take the group pic. Three, 10 second auto timers later, I manage to press the button on the camera, hop down the stairs into the sea and into the frame for this shot:

 

As we're on the spring tides at the moment there was good flow within the deeper water channels of the harbour. Many hours were spent fishing the edges of a channel near Salterns Marina. Between us we caught bream, bass, mackeral, gurnard and a red mullet.

 

Here is Richards gurnard.

 

 

Zzippy brings in another bass:

 

 

A bream I caught:

 

<small>[ 07. September 2005, 10:34 PM: Message edited by: SpeciMan ]</small>

Edited July 26, 2006 by SpeciMan

[SpeciMan]

Hungry travelled down from London to meet with us and to catch a bass. He was a happie chappie when he caught this:

 

We also caught quite a few spider crabs - Hungry won't go hungry tonight

 

A fine day with fine company. Thanks for making the effort and coming down guys.

[Norfolkdan]

Nice one all.

 

Nice read and pics too, well done Speciman

[Hungry Fisherman]

ive had a steamer for over a year now i finally get a chace to use it always said id save it for me frst decent bass it was a great day i got at the meet point 3 am after 3 hours travelling i shut me eyes when i heard speci turn up then it was bait digging

 

one of the exciting bits of the day was when i was trolling a surface popper behind me and had a good take i just saw it everyone heard the reel whine lol zzipy got the best view of that alas i didnt get the fish :/

[Simon Everett]

I know it was your first bass and well done for that - but any more that size should be returned, it is only just legal.

 

The new minimum landing size for bass is 45cm (about 2lbs).

 

Most BASS members return nearly all the fish they catch and certainly anything under 3lbs should be returned really, and certainly any fish over 6lbs should definitely be returned.

 

WHY? because that fish hasn't spawned yet and is about 4 years old. A fish over 6lbs is certainly a female and the bigger females have more, more viable eggs = better spawning success. If you kill one 10lb female it has the same effect as killing 40 2lb females. Kill a big bass and you have killed a boxfull in one fell swoop.

 

The other thing you should bear in mind is that Poole Harbour is a nursery area - I am not quite sure of the lines of demarkation but I can find them out for you. Fishing for bass from a boat, or using sandeel as bait, even from the shore, is forbidden within a nursery area. ALL bass caught in a nursery area, regardless of size, should be returned to stay within the law.

 

What is the point of all the hard conservation work that BASS are doing to try and produce better bass fishing by creating a fishery with more, bigger bass if anglers won't adhere to the means with which to create that fishery.

 

The next arguement will be that it was "just one bass" - a boxfull of fish is made up of lots of "just one bass". It is exactly that attitude which permits the netters to ignore the restrictions and whipe out whole shoals - they say "if anglers won't stick to their own rules then why should we...."

 

Sorry to rant, but we have to be seen to be doing our bit if we want the fisheries department to act on our calls when we report illegal nets etc.

[JRT]

Just to add to Simon's excellent post. Most of the guys I know who catch alot of fish regularly wouldn't even talk to you if they know you kill bass, let alone give you info on marks etc.

 

In fact most would walk away from a mark rather than let 'fishmongers' see them catch fish there!

 

If you are a strict C&R'er then you'll glean much more info alot quicker and get much better fishing as a result.

 

JRT

[Starvinmarvin]

Great report SpeciMan nice to see you all had a great day, but I have to agree with Simon and JRT put the Bass back, I've never tasted their flesh and probably never will, there are plenty of other fish species that can be taken for the table if your hungry.

 

SM

[Simon Everett]

Thanks for the back up lads - I expected to have to get my flack jacket out and duck the flying leads!

[SpeciMan]

Thanks for the feedbank guys.

 

As with dropping 'clangers' about planned trips that don't always quite go to plan, posting pics of fish that don't always go back can leave yourself open to all kinds of comment.

 

Fortunately in this case the bass issue is dealt with in a sensible manner considering such an emotive topic!

 

I agree with all your comments. Personally, I fish for bass for sport and not for the table. But would I ever take one back? Yes on occassion if the fishing is productive and only then one fish of a few pounds (not too big not too small) - it hasn't happened yet.

 

The topic of catch and release did come up throughout the course of the day. I wanted reassurance that any big fish would go back and reassurance is what I received. Barbs were also removed from hooks to aid removal.

 

Ultimately I can only advise on this.

 

The bass nursery area in Poole Harbour is drawn from an imaginery line between Salterns Marina and Jerrys Point (anywhere above that line is the nursery area).