Eastern Solent 01/06/07

[overrun]

Launched from Tanners lane at 7.00pm, wind blown chop on the water was enough to confuse the depth sounder so switched it off. Tied off to a buoy in 8ft of water, tide was O.K, 1.5ozs just holding the bottom. Lobbed some Rag out 10 yards, instant action with a mini Bass first cast, second cast and the mini species really got going with this Black Breamlet, which gaffed itself on a 2/0 hook!

 

 

Constant plucking bites and bait being stripped for the next 30 minutes, managed the occasional cast with the other rod and surface popper. Mid retrieve with the popper and the line out clicker screamed off on the ledger rod. Grabbed the ledger rod to find something substantial was hooked, tanked off down tide and took a couple of minutes to subdue, nice little (Starry?) Smooth Hound, wrapped itself around the trace and practically strangled itself. Weighed in at 2lb 7ozs and after some gentle resuscitation was returned and swam away.

 

 

The evening continued with loads of sharp plucking bites and bait being stripped, presumably the mini Bream. Once again was fishing with the surface popper on rod 2 and rod 1 was screaming off. Another substantial fish on, this time felt bigger than the last, and boy did it go, tore off down tide, any attempt to put pressure on resulted in another run, wedged the rod between me and the Scotty and wound the popper in. There now followed what seemed like an age as the fish was brought to within a few yards of the Yak only to turn and run, must have done this 3 times during which time I was sat there laughing and generally enjoying whole experience. Finally, enough was enough and I bullied the fish towards the Yak, this resulted in another run and having wound the drag-up something had to give, the line broke. Well, I wasn’t too upset, would have been nice to see the thing, but whatever, great sport. Examined the 15lb trace to see that it was broken well away from the hook, must have been damaged by the earlier Smooth Hound or rubbed through.

 

 

New hook length from 25lb mono and back out for more! Switched the popper rod to bottom fishing. Another thirty minutes of plucking bites, one dropped run then off we go again with a decent fish. Much the same as before, any pressure and away it went, dragged the Yak round across the tide at one point! Once again, after several good runs the drag was increased and then hastily reduced as another run began. During one of these moments I fumbled the drag the wrong way, the rod bent a little too far and snapped! Was only a cheapy telescopic. The tip headed off down the line and this signalled the end of the fight with the fish finally breaking surface, and what a fish. Took a couple of goes to get hold of it, wound itself around the line, the paddle leash and the remains of the rod. Had to unclip the paddle to get the beast into the Yak, just a little concerned that I’d get bitten, but no worries there as it turned out. Cut the trace away and retrieved the hook, no idea on size so tried to weigh it, too long, read just over 10lb on the digital scales but the tail was resting on the Yak, tape measure gave 39-40 inches long. Here's a pic, rod bits and all:

 

 

Returned after gentle resusitation, definitely a personal best by a large margin. Back fishing and the action had ceased, no bites, the tide and wind had eased to zero and the sea was flat, fished on for an hour then headed in for 11.00pm to be met by the Police! They were out checking cars, as apparently there were break-ins during the week in daylight; the PC thought that the thieves were watching as they only broke into cars where items had been hidden.

[YakDiver]

Nice photos and report, but "eastern solent" Tanners lane????

[overrun]

Nice photos and report, but "eastern solent" Tanners lane????

oops, Sowley

[richi]

Spent the evening at Sowley Sat-had 2 smoothies and a 3lb Bass

 

 

 

 

 

[overrun]

Return visit to Sowley after Friday night’s fun, this time in the company of Richi and Phooey. Launched just after 6.00pm, Richi already well away and half way across the Solent! Tied off to buoy 916 as Friday, only 400 yards out, Phooey just behind me. 30 minutes of small Bream ‘pecking’ the baits off then heard Richi in the distance whooping and shouting, obviously into a fish. Phooey headed off towards Richi and I followed, found another buoy 200 yards short of Richi & Phooey and stopped there. No bites whatsoever for 30 minutes, there was some sort of an air display going on near Lymington, a Harvard was doing low passes over a field with simulated ack-ack and big explosions on the ground, in the midst of this Richi was whooping again so I guessed another fish. My No.2 rod then started banging away and line was going out, a good fish, a very good Smooth Hound, got it to the Yak and saw that it was at least as big as my biggest caught on Friday. Off it went, uptide, downtide, under the Yak, lots of surface action this time, got it to the Yak, grabbed the tail and dragged it in still full of fight, it proceeded to whack the hell out of my sounder and compass and some how lost the hook and stuck it in my suit. Definitely bigger than Friday’s personal best, not much longer but much fatter, well into double figures.

 

 

Could hear both Phooey and Richi whooping in the distance so clearly they were having fun too, just got the Smooth Hound returned and No.1 rod was away, another Hound. A medium sized one, perhaps 4lb. The Bream appeared again, a d**n nuisance, were getting through my bait rapidly, nailed one eventually.

 

 

Had another Bream, bait nearly gone and thinking about packing up then Phooey arrived, was going in and very generously offered me his Ragworm. Phooey had caught 2, the largest was 'Tope' size, so will be interesting to see how that compares with mine. A few minutes later and Richi paddled-up, also going in, had two Smooth Hounds and 3lb Bass. While we were chatting, No.1 rod screamed off and another Hound was on. Much the same size as before, around 4lb, this followed by yet another a few minutes later.

 

The tide was easing and all bites stopped, headed in for a 10.30pm landing.

 

Well, what a weekend, couldn’t have been any better, great fishing and great company, can’t wait to get out on the water again.

__________________

[YakDiver]

Excellent report and photos guys

[richi]

Decided to paddle out to the Ledge today.Heard all the chit-chat on the radio how the charters thought it was really slow.

 

Did well with a couple of 2lb Bream

 

 

a couple of Wrasse of which this beauty was the biggest

 

 

and the usual bucketload of Doggies and Pout

 

 

where will it be next weekend?

[Martin Hurst]

well I think i can guess!! shame I wont be able to join you this time

[richi]

well I think i can guess!! shame I wont be able to join you this time

 

 

Choice of 5 marks all which have yielded TOPE!(you got 1 out of 5 tho )