Alderney
Angling.com
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21st June All this fine weather means plenty of fishing getting done which makes a real change from moaning about it eh? The shore fishing is finding it really hard to shift up a gear, Mackerel, Gars and Pollack all showing but it is hardly hectic. Plenty of Mullet about with some fish reaching 8/9lb in the shoals. Golden Greys around too with fish to 2lb 2oz being caught. bass to 4lb on plugs and soft lures. Other than that not much other fishing taking place.
Turbot tailing off in the boat as it often does now but normally replaced by turbo charged Bass, they are slow to show not just here but throughout the Channel. Maybe the pair trawlers have done what they were designed to do and decimated the shoals. You have to wonder, I'm normally the first to say everything has a cycle but you need to be wary of the greed of a commercial fisherman. Never happy till it's gone. Hopefully it is a cycle though and these armour plated silver bars will arrive. Plenty of Tope and Huss about, Tope make fantastic sport especially in the areas here where they can be tackled on 12/20's or even 6/12's. Black Bream starting to show in numbers with fish to 4lb. Wrecks are producing well now with plenty of Pollack at the weekend for our Daiwa sponsored Smuggler of Alderney, both days fish to 16lb caught. Cod and Ling being caught as well fairly close to the island.
14h June I have spent too long listening to all these fine stories of Cod being caught so given the fact I've not had a day off for weeks and there was an absolutely perfect forecast how could I resist? Only thing was my boat is out the water requiring some maintenance so I accepted a very kind invite to go offshore in Alan Woodnutt's rib. The day dawned and it was nigh on perfect so off we motored to a Cod wreck which I love and which hardly sees any boat action what so ever due to the nature of its location. There is never hoardes of fish but what is there is of a good quality. The morning fished better than the afternoon but who cares, being out there was brilliant and it was good to have a rod in my hand and fresh fish for the table again. Alan didn't have the best of days for some reason and I managed to collar most of what was caught but this happens to me all the time on my boat so I know how he feels. However he didn't use the excuse I normally come up when my crew rib me about my lack of expertise and that is too just mention all my efforts are concentrated on them having a good day! We managed 6 Cod with only one of those falling short of the double and two were around the 20lb mark. We tried as best we could to avoid the Pollack but still managed around 15 fish, no doubles which was surprising. Alan did get amongst the species, as a bonus he managed a Ling and a Conger on Twin Tails! When the tide turned and the fishing dropped away we got the feathers out for some Mackerel, 20 or so minutes later we were off home pleased with our achievements.
One other thing that did happen to us today which some of you might have experienced in the past is that a pigeon landed on the boat to take a rest. Now this isn't the bit that amazed us as this has happened to me several times with Starlings, Pigeons and even a Swallow although that was brief. This bird was quite comfortable in our tight confines with fish flying around, rods being poked about and two pairs of size 9's taking up the available space, let alone the steam up on the drifts which is always bumpy to us let alone to a small bird. After a couple of hours of this he (maybe she) did take flight only to do a large circle around us but only to return and then remained for the rest of the day. He even hitched the 30 mile ride back to Alderney at 30 knots, 18 miles of that I was holding him on one hand so as he didn't take a beating. We arrived in the harbour only for him to take flight and head for land............not so much as a thanks :-)
10th June Top boat yesterday for flatties was 13. The best story was an angler aboard Shande III, Don Makepeace, who managed to catch two flatties on some Gulp bait. There are some extraordinary stories surrounding this, well too me, a mythical bait. Now you are expecting me to say Gulp Sandeel or Gulp worm but no it was Gulp Crab.............. what?? This was also dipped in to some Gulp additive as an attractant. This is something that happens in America all the time but for us Brits it is hard to get our heads around it, well it is for me anyway! Don had one Turbot which went 10lb 3oz and a Brill which was smaller, fair play to him. The boats are finding Tope, Huss and Bream, but Bass still very strangely quiet, something that I hear off throughout the western end and middle of the English Channel. 9th June The trip advertised below now has only 2 vacancies, get in touch as detailed below if you are interested. It will be a cracker with plenty to aim at. Easterly winds and a drop in sea temperature appears to be spoiling the fishing at the moment. Turbot and Brill not around in such good numbers so you have to fish hard for them and listen to what your skipper is telling you! What you think might work probably won't! Bass not really getting going but there is a wee bit about. On the upside is plenty of Tope and Huss still, some Ray on the sandbanks, plenty of bait in the way of Launce and Mackerel. Black bream starting to show early with fish to 3lb plus. Wrecks are fishing well with Pollack to 16lb and Cod to 27lb. Shore sport not great, plenty of Mackerel but not much else to rave on about. A few Bass on the plugs, Pollack taking lures far better than float fishing methods and one or two Gars around as well. If you want sport and something to give you arm ache be patient and have a go for a big Wrasse with shore crab. 4th June 2 - 4 spaces available for a five day trip aboard Glen Cairns' very spacious and quick Valkyrie to join a group of 6 experienced yet young but serious anglers from September 14th returning September 18th. If you look back on my reports it is a very good time of year for a whole host of species including Turbot and Brill. Ring Richard Bloor on 07912 985099 or contact myself on 01481 824884 or mark@alderneyangling.com Fishing at the moment is ok with flatties still showing to around 14lb. The wrecking is particularly good with Pollack to 16lb and Cod to 25lb. If you are in to your Tope fishing then there is plenty of fish to 45lb. Black Bream starting to show, very early sign this and I have heard of some Red Mullet coming up on the nets, again very early but encouraging. Bass starting to increase in numbers with fish to 6lb reported this week. Shore sport, plenty of Mackerel, a few Gars and Pollack but no-one doing anything much else. 3rd June Blazing sunshine on one of the best days of the year and I've got an offer on Flotation Suits! Only I could think of that. Anyway, whilst stocks last imagine its biting cold and your trying to keep the wind out and worst still you need the suit to keep you afloat..........what a bargain we have here
2nd June Here is a picture of that monster Turbot. It went 27lb and the proud man holding it a loft is school teacher Daniel Rimmer from Gillingham, and it was his first ever Turbot!!
30th May Its been a blustery old week making life difficult for the visiting anglers. Still a few Turbot about, one or two nice Brill too and on the top of the tides there was a bit of Bass. The boats out there today have had between 10 and 25 fish fish a piece so its still about but oh for some better weather. Top Turbot his week was a cracker of 27lb 8oz, by far the biggest of the season, this fish fell to a Weymouth boat. Shore sport improving all the time, plenty of bait fish about and Gannets very active. Just need more rods to do the fishing! 23rd May I'm getting fed up with reporting the flatty action so here is some different
action happening here in Alderney. A stack of Tope around but nothing enormous,
vast majority of fish in the 30lb to 45lb bracket as demonstrated here by a
serious looking Andy Bosman. Joe Southern displays a fine Pollack from an inshore wreck on which we have a
few cod too. On the shore we're seeing plenty of Huss at night and during the day plugging
is starting to pay dividends as John Copeland proved with this 8lh 8oz Bass.
Also shore sport is seeing improved catches of Gars and mackerel interspersed
with Pollack too. Back in the boats there are Turbot and Brills too talk about as they are showing in reasonable numbers, these fine flatties were caught aboard True Blue on its recent trip, on this occasion the angler is Tony Way.
20th May Business is brisk of late so I've not been giving this page my full attention. Fishing last week was difficult due to the 'breeze' but nevertheless there were a few flatties about, best day was for the crew of Poole boat True Blue whom saw 24 come aboard. This followed a good cross over on the wrecks with Pollack and Cod and then the weather caved in for their last three days which was a shame. There seems to flatties on most banks now so if you are able to get over then drop a line for accommodation and such. Our local boat has a few places left amongst his bookings at £50 per day, see the link at top of page. Fair bit of Mackerel now arrived so no shortage of bait plus stacks of Launce on the banks too. My own fishing has been curtailed due to work commitments, boat is sat merrily with plenty of green grass instead of green sea underneath it. Hopefully that will change at some point during the summer if not when the fish get real close to shore I'll be back in the kayak again. Shore sport improving with Gars, Mackerel and Pollack. The Bass are starting to respond to the plugs during the rough weather which is good to see. Paul Smith Skipper of Rapid Fisher II has 2 Spare Places left at a great price of £300 including B&B on the 15th-18th of June Due to the deposit taken it is reduced to £300.Paul can be contacted on 01202 747793,07836717055 or email on rapid.fisher@ntlworld.com , his web page is www.deepseafishingpoole.co.uk
14th May A great offer from Aurigny to make you aware off. Flights must be booked by midnight May 15th and the offer is for this weekend flying Friday 15th, Saturday 16th or Sunday 17th for an incredible £39.50 each way including taxes. Aurigny are the only airline to Alderney from the UK and also fly from Guernsey and Jersey. Go to their website www.aurigny.com and quote code flyaway. 12th May I have updated more of my Mail Order pages, this time with a whole host of Mustad gear which has gone on the Clothing page, Luggage page, Accessories page and Terminal page where you'll find a whole load of deals on Mustad hooks in boxes, rigs and feathers. The Clothing and Luggage is fantastically priced which is great news when so much tackle is on the increase. More to follow with their rig bits etc. 10th May
A good day was had yesterday aboard Smuggler of Alderney despite some inclement conditions. A dozen or so flatfish came aboard the Daiwa sponsored boat, the most impressive fish fell to Matt Cosheril with an absolute cracker of 20lb 4oz. It was Matt's second fish of the day, caught on a flowing trace and mackerel bait. Matt is something of a novice to this Turbot fishing and I am sure there were tinges of jealousy from some of the die hards aboard who would give their right arm for a fish of this quality. From the pictures you can see a couple of decent Brill caught too with Jeff and Marcus. Fishing last week generally hadn't been as good as previous weeks but this is more due to the breezy conditions affecting the drifting. In the main though the boats managed to get to double figures per day when flatties were targeted. Plenty of Tope to 45lb and Bull Huss caught. Signs of some Bass showing as well. Shore sport still a bit slow but there were a couple of Plaice caught from the Breakwater the weekend and reports of Bass from Platte Saline with one rod managed a dozen fish in the 1-3lb bracket. 5th May Paul Smith, skipper of Poole boat Rapid Fisher, has a spare place for an Alderney trip Friday 15th May returning Monday 18th May. Due to the deposit taken it is reduced to £300 which is the place on the boat and B&B. Paul can be contacted on 01202 747793 or email on rapid.fisher@ntlworld.com, his web page is http://www.deepsea.co.uk/boats/rapidfisher/index.htm 3rd May Whilst all you lucky people spent Sunday fishing I stayed in and chored away updating my website. Managed to get all my Shimano stock on there. Things to look out for are some extremely cheap Butterfly Jigs (link above), quality Shimano sweatshirts from just £18 on the Clothing page, and those prices apply to UK customers too! You might not be aware but Shimano prices have gone up twice during the Winter, all the stock I have listed was bought in the Autumn so the prices are very good compared to where they are heading for if other companies have not yet increased their prices, so look out for that on the rods and reels. If you see something you fancy buy it now or get me to book it down, don't wait cos when it is gone at that price the new stock price WILL go up. Loads of boats over from the Poole Bay Small Boat Angling Club. A good bunch of lads giving it a right shot. The Tope fishing is providing a heck of a lot of fun with fish to 47lb caught. I need to get confirmed a fish was lost of 70lb when the rod broke while the fish was on the surface, the story is second hand so the weight might be exaggerated but when one of the lads reads this I am sure he will confirm. Turbot fishing has been pretty good too with a smattering of flatfish for some boats. A few doubles have been landed which is good news. One local angler has caught 9 on his own as well so happy days at the moment. The odd Bass putting in an appearance too. 1st May Apologies site has been down for a couple of days and thanks for your patience, treading a fine line with that bandwidth again! Fishing has been poor from the shore with very little reported. A few Turbot and Brill from the boats about this week, a few Bass starting to show as well. Tope fishing has been good with fish to 45lb, anglers are fishing lighter for them than they used too, not many though as light as Pete from Essential Tackle, (some of you might know him as Boycie, you'd know why if you met him! :-) ), who used a 4' rod which I think the Eskimos would use in the ice flows! It had a butt which was around 8" long so all the pressure is in his wrist and arm thus he managed to maximise the sport, tremendous stuff. Strangely no-one else wanted a go!! Plenty of Bull Huss about too. Pictures below show Boycie with that rod, Liz Hibberd with a nice Brill and Boycie with a PB Turbot of 14lb.
Got an offer here is anyone is interested, give us a tinkle on 01481 824884 or email mark@alderneyangling.com if you are. if you live in the UK it is plus VAT taking the offer to £138.
24th April The weather has been cracking here this week and has enabled anglers to get on the banks where the fishing has continued to be fairly good for the Turbot with the odd Brill and Bass showing too. I think I mentioned before of the odd 20lb'er being caught but it was all hearsay, well yesterday there was one caught on the local boat Smuggler of Braye. It fell too Bristol angler Steve Churchill, who comes annually to the island, but has never managed that dream fish of over 20lb. He did it in style with a cracker of 25lb 12oz, does he look pleased or what? My challenge for this weekend is not to go fishing but I am hoping to get some new stock listed on my mail order pages, they have gone a bit stale and the prices in many cases are still showing 2008 prices which are being honored to our cost. Stacks of gear laying around that needs selling so it's a desperate job waiting to be done. (So with that said look out for the fishing report Monday! Joking!!). We're also having a clear out on ebay so watch my account which is markharding1, it won't be just fishing gear listed there will be all sorts of tat! the listing will probably go on for a couple of months with the aim of clearing space more than anything. 20th April I have a couple of pictures to share with you from last Thursdays trip with Colin. Here he is with that near double figure Turbot and myself with the only Brill and a Turbot around 6lb.
The weather has continued to be good, boats have arrived today in simply stunning sea conditions. Smooth as silk and sunny clear skies, exactly how it should be! On the wrecks across mixed results was had with the Pollack depending which direction you came from and if you hit the clear water or not. Fish to 15lb were caught. One boat opted to have an afternoons session on one of the banks and found 5 Turbot willing to take the baits, no idea of the size. I was lucky to get that info as the skipper clearly wants to be back there tomorrow, as he was today............ on his own! I had a shore session Saturday evening drowning worms, total blank which is reciprocal of our bottom fishing at the moment. Far better of slinging a float out at for Gars and such like. 17th April The good weather continues, so different to last year! Wednesday night I hastily arranged a trip aboard Colin Dukes' boat Smuggler of Braye and boy I glad I did. We headed out quite early to some grey, overcast skies looking down on a less than satisfying swell and chop with my thoughts pondering as to how long I would be connected to my stomach. A slow first hour and with me still holding on to my cooked breakfast we managed our first Turbot after several Dogfish. Actually it was Colin's, and then he went on to catch the first four! Boy not only do good skippers put you on the fish they can also catch them, thinking back I can only recall seeing one skipper ever fishing on the charters I'd been on and that was Spike Spears from Langstone. Anyway, with a smoother sea I just had to get my eye in because the stick was relentless! Once I managed one it seemed easier and the Colin went on a run of dropped fish which enabled me to catch up, one fish he did drop the hook hold failed just a few feet beneath the surface and was certainly bigger than one of his best fish which was just short of double figures. Moving around the bank during the day I could see he'd done this before and before we made for home we had managed 25 Turbot and 1 Brill. A cracking day between the two of us, was this a red letter day or is it how things are at the moment? Who cares its what's fishing about the good and the bad, take it as it comes and have fun. Plenty of mackerel and launce around for bait so that's good news too. 14th April Cracking weather the weekend enabled Smuggler, Alderneys premier charter boat, to get afloat and find them flatties. Saturday wasn't as successful as Sunday despite the latter day losing a few hours steaming out to the Deeps to look for some Pollack which didn't play ball due to the colour of the water. However the following day one of the first charter boats to cross the Channel did find plenty of Pollack and a solitary 20lb Cod, how two days differ! I digress, the flatties seem to be showing well on the banks with both Turbot and Brill coming aboard. Jasper Osbourne showed the 'experienced' guys the way to go as he bagged the most. Jeff Ceillam won the pool with the best which fell just shy of 10lb. I'm getting a fair few reports of reasonable numbers from the different banks, lets hope this isn't the tip of the iceberg and the start of a good couple of months fishing. Click on the pictures to make them look even bigger!
Shore fishing is slow, I had three sessions yesterday including a Conger session. Total result was three Gars, some Pout and Bream. Plenty of Mullet showing but no-one fishing for them. Big fish reportedly showing in the harbour and both sides of the Breakwater. 6th April Saturday we had plenty of Gars with the kids from the Breakwater, some nice fish to 1lb were caught. There were some Bream on the bottom too for other anglers fishing there. Yesterday we made that trip out on Alan's rubber ring, we were looking for some Turbot. This we managed with yours truly taking a fish on the first drift. Without making a long day out of it we did manage 5 between us, not big fish with the best around 4lb. We also caught Mackerel as well which was a surprise but it did confirm what I'd been hearing that they are about. Plenty of live bait too on the banks and the visibility was good. Other boats have been finding fish too so it is a good start to the flatty season ................................ so far. A cracking Gar was reported too for a Guernsey angler, it went 2lb 4oz! It measured 93cm which is 3cm longer than the diagonal on a standard fish box!! There's also been one or two Tope caught plus some Pollack. One surprise catch was this cracking Red Gurnard caught by Andy Bosman which went 2lb plus!
4th April Good news for all those boat anglers that used to stay at the Harbour Lights, it is very close to being re-opened. The word is early May and it looks terrific. Take a look at the site and keep a regular eye on it as Steve will be updating it soon with the finished result http://harbourlightsalderney.com/ Fishing wise it is quiet. No one has been afloat and shore sport showing the odd Bass and some Wrasse. My guiding/tuition sessions start today so hopefully there will be something there for us and tomorrow three of us are out in a mates rib of all things to take a look for some Turbot on the Schole. Yep the same rib I punctured two months ago, Alan has a sense of humour!! 1st April How many times do we do it? Stare out across the sea (for those that are lucky enough to live by the coast) which is flat calm and think 'I wish I was out there hauling them in' but unable to get away from work or other commitments. Normally I can resist but weather wise we have had a really good period from mid Feb right through March and this week I have fallen foul to my imagination, yep..............I was afloat again yesterday which due to our own commitments I should be leaving it well alone. The day never matched my imagination fish wise but we still had a great time. I even prepared a list of friends whom I could give the fish away too so I knew how many I could take home without wastage. DOH! We arrived at the wreck to murk, scooted around another couple to have a look but finished up at the one we started at by the time slack water had arrived. Visibility had improved considerably and on the turn of the tide the Pollack started to see our lures. I missed one and dropped two in two drifts, Joe whom accompanied me for the trip managed to get two to the boat. Nice fish around 12lb. As regards results not what I envisaged but as I said a good day afloat had, also a lesson taught that just because it looks flat that alone is no recipe for success. |
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