October Monthly Report

Fishing this last month hasn’t been the usual thing we do at this time of year, rather than heading offshore on the spring tides to hunt down the last of the bass we have been staying inshore targeting plaice which have been in abundance both in Poole Bay and down to the west. Using short traces of 20lb line with 1/0 kamasan hooks baited with rag worm and raw king prawns we have had some of the best plaice I’ve seen thus far. It has been nice to use some lighter tackle and target some smaller species for a change as a lot of the fishing onboard Silver Spray II is done further afield. Also in abundance have been both tub and red gurnard, always good fun on appropriate tackle, Andy Hayden beat over 30 flatties one day with his 1lb 12oz red gurnard which is well over 100% specimen. Our last trip across the channel fell on the first few days in October; we decided to combine the best bits of both Cherbourg and Alderney with great success. Pollock and ling of the wrecks on the first day were in abundance with several ling to 22lb hitting, the biggest one was brought to the surface on a 25lb mono bream rig!! On the second day we took the tide round Cap de la Hague, 27miles only took about 1 hour 20 minutes, and fished down on the shoal bank south of Alderney. I didn’t expect the turbot and brill fishing to be excellent but I was gladly surprised when a half day session produced 16 decent flats. After a few more hours on the banks the third day focused on bream, the hard fighting black bream being in abundance on the north side of the island. One species I have never had aboard Silver Spray II is a couches sea bream, lilac in colour they really are a beautiful fish, despite our best efforts we didn’t manage to connect with one but after one of the most enjoyable multi day trips of the year I will definitely be doing another one at the same time next year.

Sam Cumming

Silver Spray II