November 2014 Monthly Report

The winter cod season is well underway now with the first cod hitting the deck on October 25^th for Martin Lewis weighing in at 21lb. Since then we haven’t enjoyed the best of weather only managing a couple of trips a week due to southerly winds and the temperature has yet to drop which is key to a good days cod fishing. In between cod we have enjoyed plenty of congers, rays, spur dogs, bull huss and whiting. Paul Hathaway pulled up a monster of an eel over slack water one day at the end of October, the fish really fighting every inch of the way. We eventually managed to roll it up into the big landing net and had it aboard but unfortunately it was too rough to weigh it. We estimated it to be around 65lb. You always know the season is properly underway when it’s time for the Lowrance British Cod Championships down in Lymington. Due to poor numbers this year it looked like we wouldn’t be needed up until the last minute when a mechanical problem forced another boat to drop out. Both days saw up to 30knots of south/south-easterly wind so we fished in Solent. The first day was just a practice for us as we didn’t manage a decent bite at all but we more than made up for it on the second. Fishing a different area the lads managed 13 cod throughout the day up to 7lb. They may not have been the biggest of fish but it was good enough to see Clive Webb into second place overall with 5 fish weighing in at 21lb all together. The most effective rigs were 3 down flowing traces with 4/0 hooks baited with lug worm and a squid head, I’m so used to fishing big all the time for cod so it was interesting to see a different technique produce such results. It may sound odd but I’m looking forward to it getting colder soon so we can see more cod turn up down in Poole Bay

 

Lowrance British Cod Championships

Brilliant time down at the Lowrance British Cod Championships again this year, many thanks to the West Wight Skippers Association for inviting me. Great bunch of guys on the boat for the 2 days, both of which were fished in the solent due to plenty of south/sou'easterly winds and rain. We were just practicing on day 1 bringing no cod to the boat but we more than made up for it on day 2 with 13 cod hitting the deck. The key seemed to be small lug and squid baits fished on 4/0 hooks on a 3 down rig. We missed out on top boat by one fish, we either came second or third i think, and well done to Clive Webbwho was top angler on Silver Spray II, caught 5 fish today and finished 2nd overall with a total weight of just under 21lb. Roll on next years comp!!