August Monthly Report

It’s been another good month of weather down here in Poole with mostly light winds and sunny conditions and only one or two trips cancelled. I’m pleased to report that the mackerel did finally turn up in reasonable quantity at the end of July which has made the trips where we are live baiting much easier. Earlier on in June it was taking up to 3 hours to get enough mackerel just to have a few drifts. Offshore the wrecks have been producing good numbers of ling, more than I have had in previous years. We are targeting them by bouncing a mackerel flapper on a heavy mono trace over the wreckage at slack water. The cod have stayed later than usual this year, we are still finding good numbers on certain long distance wrecks even though they are usually starting to disappear at this point in the season. The pollock have spread out onto patches of rough ground in the channel to feed on shoals of scad. We have enjoyed some fantastic sport targeting them with sidewinder lures, one return trip from Cherbourg saw a group of anglers land 72 pollock to 16lb in just 10 drifts which has to be some of the best fishing I’ve ever seen on open ground. The inshore side of things has been throwing up some really good bass on the live baits. Amelia Clegg caught her first ever bass weighing in at 12lb 9oz using the free line method, the biggest so far this year and the 7^th double figure we have had so far this season. In the next month I’m looking forward to our a last few cross channel trips of the year and targeting some big black bream out on the wrecks.