Mike Fox

Frisky is probably having a couple of day trips out from Poole, and will probably be seeking a fish supper for Sunday. Any advice or suggestions on where to find sizeable edible fish will be welcome. Without advice, all I can say is that Carol fancies a nice pollack (any over 2lb inshore anywhere????), George has the ray bug, and I quite fancy a crack at the herring (never having been successful at these before)....if they're in yet. Mike

Toerag, I have used paravanes for trolling for about 18 years, almost exclusively for mackerel, though have caught bass, pollack and one sea trout (returned). I have handlines made up with paravanes attached, a 6' trace of 15lb mono, and use a variety of spinners, bars, small plugs, and plastic lures - with small shads being particularly good. I rig these from the stern cleats and troll at 3-5 knots, with the paravanes about 30 yards astern, and set the paravanes to dive to "medium" depth, which I suspect is about 15' deep. By rigging the trace from off-centre points on the back edge of the paravane, I deliberately set the two lines to splay apart in a V-shape from the stern. As you noticed, if there is a load on them, such as a fish, or a large plug fitted, the load makes them flip over, and kite to the surface. The way you can overcome this is to set the paravane to dive deeper. The additional downward pressure will hold quite a large fish (or lure) down. The drawback of this is that the load increases, and the main line is much harder to haul in to check for weed etc. Hope this helps, Mike

I hope to be there, work commitments permitting. Mike

Does anyone know the results of this comp yet? Mike

You could always check E-Bay for "Monica Lewinsky-style Executive Kneepads" Mike, am sure they would save your knees. Mike

and the largest of my two smaller spotted ray of 3.5lb

Carol's 8lb thornback

Having never caught a ray on any of our boats (stealth angling craft) we were recently given some good advice and encouragement by club members Rich and Mad Mike. They both suggested marks in the Swanage area, and mackerel baits (chunks or half fillets), with 6' traces of heavy mono traces (we used 20lb). Well, we gave it a go, and once our "lunch pick" Bruce clone anchor had bitten (which took ages dragging in the gravel), we started getting bites. George had the first fish, a spotted ray, on frozen mackerel, that went 4lb exactly (72.73%), his first ever ray, and on his new spinning rod and reel as well! He didn't stop grinning all the time we were out there, even when his next take proved to be a doggy. I had the next two fish, spotted ray again of just 3.5lb (63.64%) then a smaller one of 2.5lb. Carol had nothing for hour after hour, but her perseverance paid off with an 8lb thornback (61.54%), her heaviest ever fish, and first ever ray. We took advice that these were worth taking, and took this one home. The cloud was well in by then, with drizzle and poor vis, so we headed back into the Swash to try to bag a plaice or two. No joy there, so into the harbour to try one of our sandy marks, but again no good. We tried for flounder up by the Middle Mud, then again in Holes Bay, but flatfish proved elusive. Well, we don't think we have any chance of winning the comp, but it was an interesting day, and a new style of fishing for us - all thanks to the advice from club members. We look forward to seeing what else gets weighed in! Still, we each had a PB today, and confirmed identities online from the photos. Once we had calculated percentages, it was clear that George had the best fish of the day! Mike

Frisky Fox will be fishing out of Poole, with Carol, George and myself, from 10.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. Mike

This will be our first specimen comp with the club, if we take part. I forgot that they can be returned alive, and record the weight on the "honesty" basis, but thanks for the photo idea - prevents the need for identifying on the day. Mike

This ray angling seems mighty tempting, but I'm worried that I might mistake an 11lb spotted ray for a blonde, think it's under 50%, and lob it back mis-identified, when it should be a 200% specimen, or even worse, keep a small blonde ray thinking it's a huge spotted..... If someone on Frisky achieves the inconceivable and accidentally catches one, who is the best person to ask for identification tips and hints on the day? Also, what is the smallest size that is worth keeping for dinner, or should I just put them all back? Mike

Charlie, I e-mailed 3 sets of results to both your usual e-mail and the WChapman account on Sunday evening. Do you want me to do these again, as you didn't list the results you HAD received? Thanks, Mike

Is his hull polished, and is yours fouled with barnacles etc ? Mike

Oh, to be able to get UNDER that infernal bridge! Sounds like you had a cracking day Mike, hopefully South of the "line" ! We couldn't find any flatties either, nor the quantity of bass you had, and we didn't see you on any of our spots on the way back up harbour! Will follow you next time! Mike

The crew of "Frisky" are game to try the flatty/ray comp, but as we've NEVER had any ray in 18 years boat angling round here, we think we might have a problem getting started. The Lulworth banks are just too far for us in our slow boat. Anchoring over gravel seems good, biggish mackerel and squid baits on heavy mono traces fished "hard on" the bottom appears to be the method. I've heard of marks in Swanage Bay, but would need a fairly shallow one (les than 50' ideally), out of most of the tide. Anyone have any suggestions they could share? We've also had a lousy year or two on the flatties. Having caught 3lb flounder, plaice to nearly 4lb, dabs to around a pound, and small turbot and brill over the last few years, we know they can be caught, but we've seen none lately. When we have tried those old inshore marks, there's been nothing there. Maybe inshore trawling? Any suggestions for the Poole area? Thanks, Mike

Superb! Mike

We also tried for triggers, following our chat at the club meeting, but not a sniff. Mike

Had to get out and fish this species comp, after weeks with windy weekends, but the low tides would mean we would struggle to get out on the 7.30 bridge from Poole, and all the best spots would have been taken by the 9.30 bridge! We popped out into Poole Harbour on Saturday afternoon, and picked up a buoy to spend the night, reckoning we might be in with a chance of an early start, so booked in 7:00 till 2:00 as our "shift" for the comp. Well, the alarm went at 6:45, and we struggled on deck to face the rising sun, dew covered decks, and the faintest hint of an Easterly breeze. First teas and coffees co-incided with the rag hitting the water, to see if an unseasonal flounder or bass might be interested, but with the huge springs, the gear was washed down tide in seconds, together with masses of green "lettuce" weed that filled the lines every drop. Carol somehow squeaked out a small bass (5 points), before we dropped down harbour for a dangle at Brownsea Castle. Well, we beat the ferries to the Castle, but the tide was boiling in at nearly 4 knots (we can hold 6 knots!) and discretion over-ruled boldness, so we moved to the tidal "lee" of Stoney Island, and rigged a drift so we would enter the slacker tides of South Deep. Great in theory, but an hour later, just a small bass for George and I each. All equal again! Our next planned spot was to fish the Swash Channel, but frankly, battling that ferocious flood tide, it took ages to get out past the chain ferry, and we knew it wouldn't be possible to fish it with that tide, so went out through the East Looe channel to fish the Poole Patches. Carol hit a pollack first drop on the first drift, which would have gone almost a pound. Good job it was a species comp, cos it was still a 5 pointer, but it proved to be the last of the day. Well, we continued drifting again and again, the tide being much weaker here in Poole Bay, and the wind still E2 or so. We also had gurnard, wrasse, mackerel, black bream and a solitary scad. Unfortunately, the fish seemed to all go off the feed at the same time, and after a couple of blank drifts, we decided to drop the anchor. Hit the ideal spot first time, dropped over the mark, and started groundbaiting. Was it worth it? Nope, almost nothing in the next 45 minutes before we decided it was time to move again. We reckoned we needed a shallower area of mixed ground to broaden the species mix, so moved over to Boscombe Pier on the last of the flood to try our luck. We hit the small bream, Carol and I bagging up quickly. Carol dropped a nice small bass of about 2lb on the surface before she could get it to the boat, and George got one of his favourite garfish on float to add to his tally. We stuck it out there for an hour or so, adding fish to the tally, but no more species, and after a final move back to the Patches to try to add to numbers, we called it a day at 2:00 p.m. Final check showed 8 species between us, to rag, mackerel strip, squid and slipper limpet, with a total of 27 fish. We struggled. We should have used different tactics to duck tide, travelled less, and fished more! Still, that's competitions! Mike PS Forms now submitted

Trev, Superb ! Thanks for the guide and the samples. I've been smoking fish a couple of years now, and yours is loads better. Mike

I am obviously missing something here .... Is it the length or the action of the carp rods that matters? Wouldn't a medium action light spinning rod of 8' work, and if not, why not? Thanks, Mike

What a great fish! Have only ever had one red mullet, and that was at the back of the Hook Sands, but so small it had to go back. What bait was it on? Mike

Wonder if the "species comp weather jinx" will be impacting 3rd September too? Saturday is looking seriously grim, whereas Sunday merely looks grim.... And I wanted to catch something this weekend too........ Mike

Not sure how the proposed constraint will impact French fishing vessels, or British vessels temporarily staying in French harbours, as we did for a couple of days. I mention this because we returned to the UK from Dielette, around 10 miles South of Cap de la Hague. The outer harbour has good shelter, and nearly full tide access - for small boats with shallow draught, probably no restriction. Picture below shows it at low springs, with the large slipway. The headland in the picture is just South of Cap de la Hague. The true outer harbour (not shown here) is off to the right over a sand sill, with walk ashore access. A retaining wall beyond it, keeps water in the marina, and dries 5.0m. Tides are huge here, rising a foot every 10 minutes at peak springs. It would be fairly easy to fish the Alderney Race banks from Dielette, and no need to play with the Alderney Race or Swinge either.... Just a thought.... Mike

Sounds like you had better luck than we had yesterday chaps. Tried Southbourne Rough, but wind and tide gave a 2kt drift that prevented anything at all finding our baits. Never even seen a scad anywhere near there - so am surprised at that report! We went inshore to Boscombe Pier for an hour or so. Plenty of mackerel (at last), but nothing else worth keeping - plenty of small bream around still though, plus a couple of other bits and pieces that would be interesting in a species comp.... Came back to Poole inshore, dangling by the various chines, but again no real luck. We had heard there might be a few giltheads and triggers around, but nothing that exciting bothered us at all! Far too frisky for us out there today, so roll on next weekend! Mike, Carol and George

Sam, cos of new bridge etc, am thinking of moving. Any idea about full year rates - or summer only? Thanks, Mike