Becky M Newsletter

Monday 19th December, 2005

Seasonal Greetings to you all, once again I am like the proverbial cows tail, (all behind) with my jottings, I promise to get my act together for next year.

Well what has happened this year, well we have enjoyed some great Black Bream fishing this year with some excellent catches being made, and it has been good to see them being returned as well. I am sure that by doing this we are able to preserve the stocks, as well as have great sport from these feisty little fish, especially on light tackle.

I have also noticed more people using the multi tipped rods more this year, it certainly enables anglers to bring only one rod along to cover most types of angling. I was amazed how well they can cope, when Steve Cuthbert, one of my regulars, latched into a conger of about forty pounds, (he thought it was a good Cod!!) the rod proved to be quite capable in handling the job. Steve uses this rod for all of his inshore angling trips now, and he says that he wouldn’t change back to the old heavy gear unless it was for fishing for the big Blonde Rays, or wrecking, and this is an angler with a lot of fishing under his belt.

The next thing was the WWCSA Light Line Competition, this little comp was held mid August, and even though we called it our Light Line Competition, apart from us providing the 10 lb breaking strain line, it was a species hunt with all fish carrying a points tariff, it was as usual a great fun day out enjoyed by all those taking part.

The most outstanding part of the summer fishing was Mark Harris’s Bass that he caught weighing 12 lbs 2 ozs which was returned alive, and won him the special prize that was being awarded by Boat Fishing Monthly in their August competition for the biggest Bass to be caught and returned that month.

It was uncanny really, because as we were on our way out Mark said to me that it would make his day to catch a Bass of 12 lbs or over, well as every angler knows we Skippers will try to accommodate most requests of anglers, well it is our duty to “bring pleasure to the public”. Anyway it was well into the day before Mark hooked into his requested fish, and I grabbed a net to land the fish, only to be told those immortal words “you will need a bigger net than that Skip”. (It makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end at the very thought of it). So the big net was brought into play and the said Bass was duly boated, photographed and returned. At first it just lay on the surface, but then with a splash and a roll it was away.

Then came the British Cod Championships, this event was my second attempt at organizing a competition, and even though it was an idea that Dave Pitt and I formulated some fourteen years ago it was still a major event to put together, but we had some great sponsorship from Union Sports of Ryde, Raymarine, Pryde of Cowes, Stainless Steve Engineering, to name just a few. The turn out was great, I had twenty boats on day one, and twenty one on day two, the boats came from all over from Langston, down to Poole, my thanks go to all the Skippers who supported us.

Top angler over the two days, and British Cod Champion 2005 was Kim Bowden, and the winner both days was Perry Dack. It has been said that Perry got through five, five pound boxes of squid each day, still it paid off for him, big baits catch big fish.

Well all that is left for me to do now is to wish each and everyone of you who has fished with me over this last year

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS & APROSPEROUS NEW YEAR

See you all next year

Tight lines,

Dave

Monday 5th December, 2005

Well the Cod Championships are over now for another year, so I can now concentrate on my own business, until I set the wheels in motion for next years competitions.

I must also give my thanks to the weather Gods for being kind to us for the competition this year, although the first day was a bit fresh with the wind blowing in from the northwest at about a force five to six, which meant that the boats were laying a bit awkwardly across the tide, but as the tide got away it became more fishable. The second day was just what we could have wished for, a light dusting of frost, bright sunshine, and next to no wind, great, but not many fish though.

I didn’t do very well on the competition this year, in fact I never netted a Cod, although having said that there weren’t many Cod caught over the two days, I put it down to the fact that the water is still too warm for them, even though it is the end of November, but we are at least getting a few sharp frosts, and that must be bringing the temperature down for things to improve.

Once again we are seeing a lot of Conger Eels over the open ground this winter, and there are some reasonable ones amongst them.

You may remember me saying, even singing the praises of these multi tipped rods that are around now a few months back. Well one of my customers was using one the other day and he hooked into a reasonable Conger of about forty pounds or so, and it was giving him a bit of stick, and he was giving the rod some welly back, and the outfit stood up to the task well. So as far as I am concerned, if anyone was to ask me what my thoughts were on their ability to stand up to the rigors of general inshore fishing then I would recommend that they wouldn’t go far wrong in buying one.

Good News at last!!!

I have at long last got the capstan working, and hasn’t it made life easier all round, and it makes me wonder why I have taken so long in getting it done. The old method of getting the anchor up was good, but this is so much better.

Mark “ Count Dracula” Staddon had a good Pollock of thirteen pounds the other day (photo on picture gallery), he was dead chuffed with that as it was the biggest Pollock that he has ever caught.

The Solent is still a worth while bet if it is too rough to fish “outside the light”, as long as the tides aren’t too strong, we fished there on the last trip because it was too sloppy “outside”. We only managed to get some Rays, Dogfish, and Pout, but I do know of at least one twenty pound Cod being caught, but it a case of being patient, but they will come.

Once again the wind is blowing like a good’ un so it looks as though the next couple of trips will be cancelled.

Tight lines,

Dave