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October Fish of the Month winner. 1st Place Wendy Chapman Undulate Ray 13lb 8oz 84% Specimen £25 Voucher 2nd Place Wendy Chapman Undulate Ray 11lb 6oz 71% Specimen  3rd Place Charlie Chapman Undulate Ray  11lb 0oz 69% Specimen   4 Registered fish for October The Chapmans have shown the rest of us how to do it, and well done Wendy on great results.

Hi I my experience soon as you use any type of fish bait ie mackerel,pout,blueys you seem to encourage congers some smaller than the common eels?????? cuttle baits ditto we are catching small codling up to 6lbs mainly uptiding with squid with added black lug,another point we are using 1 lb uptide leads,all fish coming from an area West Lepe to Solent Bank buoys try to find depth of 45ft - 60ft good luck stay safe Malc

i went out on a charter in the bristol channel a few years ago. First fish up was a monster conger, the captain went "wow, they are really rare now, lets release it without landing in the boat to ensure it survives". Well that was the worst kiss of death i have ever heard because we ended up catching 20 more, and nothing for the table.

On Sunday, @Tarlach. and I headed west from Pompey Harbour to chase the mythical unicorns of the Solent. We'd heard and seen reports that they were present, and we wanted to try our luck. As we headed out of Pompey Harbour I caught Neil doing his best catalogue model pose... #dontgiveupthedayjob Before long we anchored up and had lines down. Then Neil's rod gave a good rattle... And the first of many congers graced our hooks. Then Neil has a good bite that puts a proper bend into his rod - all indications are that it's a cod, so he gets overexcited and bumps it off in his haste to see what it was... His face was a picture of broken dreams 😭. Of course I did what any good mate would do and took the mickey for the rest of the afternoon 🤣 The fishing was steady, with some plate-sized whiting coming to baited feathers and some decent sized conger tugging our strings. As a light fog descended the Calshot fog horn started up, which gets old pretty quickly when you're not that far away from it... 🙉 Final species tally of whiting, pout, conger and of course, my favourite, the dogfish! Sadly no cod, but then there's always next time! As we ran back to Portsmouth we were enveloped in much thicker fog. Most unsporting but luckily no drama 👍

We eat the good stuff and put the Not so good stuff back to produce more " not so good stuff " So there's lots of baby " not so good stuff " for the good stuff to eat! Far to complicated for Me! I just feed them up for you lot to catch !

You are a generous chap indeed Jim and your efforts are noted and appreciated. Keep it up! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks guys, Wendy will be pleased.

Stick to the science not the stories please guys, that was a conger you lost, Conger, Oversized, determined, we had some of them last wed, well alright C, O, D., For short, 😉

Looks like your Christmas pressie is sorted already Charlie. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks Malc, we'll give that a try next time out. We were using squid and lug with a strip of bluey. Also mackerel, pout and live baited whiting (which took a conger instead of the cod it was intended for... 🙄). Conger do seem to be everywhere this season.

Nice report and session - thanks for sharing..

Only 13ft 5ins Greg so not a problem. He used to have a 16 footer! Tiddler's only 13 feet but I'm not lifting her up on a roof rack though. We'll have to wait and see what happens with COVID but I quite fancy one of those. No launching, mooring, servicing, fuel, or lift out fees. I'm only a poor old pensioner now y'know.

Great reports Thanks Andy hard luck on whatever you lost neal

Jog on boy! 🤣

I’d guess that the lack of cod has left way for the conger to come in and clean up . There’s probably a more scientific reason, but I don’t know it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks Jim. It was a shame and defo a big cod. We had had plenty of conger and this was a completely different bite. A big pull down, then slack line. As I reeled into it the line went heavy with a couple of shakes mixed in. Then , bugger, it’s gone. Andy has never caught a cod so just wouldn’t know how it feels. A great day out though with ok company. [emoji1303] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Don't encourage him. The fish wasn't seen, and we've only got his word that it "definitely feels like a cod". It was probably a goldfish...

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hope to get out at sometime tomorrow