Alderney
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30th September Where to start..............where to start....................... It's excellent fishing all round at the mo. From the shore there is plenty to choose from. Lots of Black Bream to 3lb 8oz whether you opt to leger or be more of a purist and use light float gear which I have to say match the fight of any mullet you are likely to get. Talking of Mullet, not huge numbers of fish but enough to fish for with best of it around 6lb. Bass have fallen to shads and plugs with up to 5 fish to a rod with fish to 5lb, on the bottom the bigger specimens take fish/squid/live baits with fish approaching double figures. Red Mullet seem a little scarcer at the minute but judging by commercial catches a very real possibility of good numbers, maybe too many big baits on the bottom for other species which is why they're not being caught. Several Small Eyeds to 6lb landed. Bull Huss to 12lb landed too plus a few Conger Eels with the best of those at 40lb. Possibility of a White Bream landed. I made a posting on this site a couple of years ago and it turned out to be false so don't hold your breath, my source though is a little more reliable. No Tope landed but one or two connections have been made. Golden Greys caught both on float and on worm baits on the bottom. Boat sport is pretty hectic too. Rough ground is the place to be for good numbers of Bream, Huss and Eels. Bass sport can be hit and miss but there is some good fish about and with numbers improving all the time the next couple of months should see some reasonable sport. Still a few fish on the wrecks, mainly Pollack but there was a 29lb Cod landed. Reports of a Pollack chomped in two on the retrieve! Still a few flatfish around, one boat yesterday landed Brill to 9lb 8oz, a few Turbot caught too. Gurnards and Red Mullet create a bit of interest on the drift as well. One boat reported a surprise Plaice of 4lb 8oz, very welcome. Our day out Sunday was shorter than normal...........but sweeter! Plugging for the day resulted in around 13 Bass, maybe a couple more, with a good average which included two definite doubles and another which was likely to have been, all landed by Steve Ace. We also had a go for a few Pollack on the pirks which we had reasonable success with but two odd things happened. One was a lovely little Codling of around 4lb and we also had a Bream which took the whole treble!
18th September Latest catches include more Ray, Conger and Bass from the Breakwater........................... in daylight! Plenty of Bream around too and a few Bass reported. Dark nights next weekend, thoroughly looking forward to it. Out in the boats still plenty being caught in the way of Conger, Huss, Bream, Bass and the odd Blonde. Dick Smith pictured here with the best of his Bass, this one went 9lb 4oz, the double has eluded him this year so far with three fish over 9lb in four trips!
I've updated below with some pictures too. Thanks to Dickie for those. 15th September Lots about for both the shore and boat angler over the weekend. The Breakwater has produced plenty of fish for the novice anglers with Pollack, Mackerel and Gars still showing. Triggerfish to 2lb reported as well plus Couches Sea Bream. Lots of Black Bream to 3lb. Two Small Eyeds turned up too which were kind off targeted for!! Other marks are fishing well too with Bass and Mullet featuring high on the successes. I know I am repeating myself but plenty of fish on the rough ground for the boat angler and of course we are in to that time of year when you're not really sure what is going to turn up. Find patches of sand in the beds of rock and they're fishing well too. Plenty of Black Bream to 5lb, Couches Bream to 3lb as well! Blondes are being caught more frequently.............why they're not fished for more often I do not know why. They're big , they're powerful and.............................well, they're Blonde! Bass not quite in the numbers we're used too but they are there and judging by our own fishing the weekend a few flats about too. We had two days out over the weekend. I mixed it up a bit basically because I was never going to handle two days wrecking, I was exhausted after Saturday flippin pirking away. Woke up Sunday and felt as if I'd been steam rollered. Fishing in and around Hurd Deeps we managed a bit of Pollack with fish still in double figures, best of it around 15lb but the real bonus were 8 Cod and 2 Ling. I managed to connect with something that simply duffed me up. Loads of heavy weight, then nothing as it came up 20 odd feet, loads of head shaking and possibly rolling around going on down below 300 odd feet, then a run to the right which is hard to notice in that depth, a change of direction when I thought I'd lost it again but then I engaged in battle again. As line was peeling off I was chuffed that after these few eventful minutes I was still in there and tackle was holding out when what ever it was wrapped me around some wreckage. A real shame not to discover what it was, having caught Tope on this same wreck to 35/40lb it wasn't one of those!
The following day was more sedate. Staying close to the island the focus was on the Bass. First of all was to try a flood mark I found the other week, fruitless there so I think I need the massive tides for that to work. Bait was the next problem but that proved effortless in the end so we got to the banks early. We managed a mix of fish which included a bonus 2 Turbot for Gary and a fine Tope come aboard. When the tide got underway so did the Bass. A quick 6 or 7 reasonable ones and then inexplicably it died, as it does! We scratched out another couple before deciding to get in a back eddie of tide and then struck lucky with a Brill and a Turbot, and one or two more spiky things!
12th September I just knew it would happen...................................out again last night to follow up the previous nights success. A change of venue was forced by the swell which had built up in the previous 24 hours and to start with it looked good. Fieona found fish straight away while we both lost fish in the rocks. Unfortunately the cloud disappeared and exposed the moon which put the fish off the feed. Needless to say Fieona stole the glory which I have been constantly reminded off, pictured below was her best Red Mullet of 1lb 8oz.
11th September HOORAH.............took Fieona fishing last night and BEAT her!! I know how to show a girl a good time! Cracking little session on one of the beaches and given the weather we have been having I managed to stay in a T-shirt all evening! Final result between us we had 4 Red Mullet, 2 Bass, 2 Sole, 2 Bream and a solitary Pout. Fie had bites every cast which we think were little Red Mullet. Elsewhere Bass on the plugs, there seems to be plenty Bass close inshore. Mullet to 5lb have been caught as well and another Tope has been landed, this one went 38lb fro the Breakwater. Only one boat here at the moment, they're getting a fair bit of Tope, bream and the a few Bull Huss and a solitary Eel. Local boat Smuggler of Braye is out over the next few days so we'll see how that goes. 3rd September Lack of updates again, mainly due to be being busy but not just business, I have been pretty busy fishing again which is fantastic. Last weekend we had a blitz in the boat. Friday we had half a days wrecking which resulted in some good fishing with Pollack to 15lb and a few Cod as well. The downside was that the Tope turned up in numbers which in turn made it difficult to get fish back to the boat without being bitten off. They also caused loads of damage to our braid and with no spare braid on the boat other than on spare reels we soon run out of line and patience! On Saturday I decided to go Bassing on my own to try a mixture of experiments with venues and techniques. An early start proved not early enough as I flapped around getting going which cost me my first mark to try, also a lack of Mackerel didn't help. Rest of the day went well though with around 15 Bass, (there was a downside as I lost as many through my experiments!) no big fish with the best at 6lb. I did however fluke a cracking Brill, never weighed it but I am sure it would have nudged 9lb. On one of the marks I had a local boat close to me, he landed a cracking Blonde Ray of 23lb on his 12/20 Bass gear in 3 knots of tide! Sunday I took one of the lads who was with me on Friday, a windy day saw us stick closer to the island with just 12 Bass for our efforts although Tim had a personal best fish of over 8lb. Tuesday we managed half a dozen Bass in a few hours just outside of the Breakwater which proves you don't have to go far. It was windy though with winds of 28/30mph recorded!
Elsewhere obviously the Bassing has been reasonable, plenty of Black Bream and as I think I have mentioned before plenty of Tope, Conger and Huss on the rough ground. Our local boat Smuggler of Braye has been out plenty despite the weather and finding all of the above. Skipper Colin Dukes has started taking novice anglers as well as the experienced ones and they are having a great time of it. This time of year it is the shore sport that starts to really hot up. There is plenty of Bream around to 4lb, great eating and great sport especially on the right tackle. Last week there bags of up to 20 fish reported. Bass to 7lb have been falling to various tactics, the bigger fish falling to the bigger dead baits but the best sport has to be on the fly where there has been an increased activity amongst anglers. Mullet have been frequently caught too with fish to 6lb easily caught. Red Mullet, Red Gurnard, Sole all have been reported as well as Eels to just short of 40lb and Huss to 8lb. Its looking good!! I've got loads of worms to use up as no-one is going out in this blustery weather so over the next few nights I will hit the beaches to use it.
18th August I can't believe I've not updated at all this month, I find it the same every year during August that it is a real job to keep everything flowing smoothly due to the influx of visitors to the island, good news financially bad news for a quiet life and plenty of fishing. I've only managed one trip personally which I'll get to in a mo but there has been plenty of fish on my guided sessions. Although this is predominantly holiday anglers wanting to gain extra knowledge or simply to catch fish we have seen plenty of Mackerel, Gars, Pollack and a few Bass. There has been the influx of species we expect during the Autumn, Couches Sea Bream, Red Gurnards, Black Bream, Red Mullet, Conger, Sole are all being caught. A fair bit of Mullet being spotted as well but no-one really fishing for them. One 'local' angler had a brace of 5lb 12oz and 4lb 8oz in a short session then followed up with two Red Mullet over a pound. A cracking Bass of 9lb 8oz was caught on a Mackerel head, a very short stumpy fish it was too which when gutted it revealed just how greedy he was. In the stomach contents there were a Launce, a Mackerel and a Couches Sea Bream over 1lb!! There has been other catches as well but that is the general picture, in the haze of being so busy I forget most of it. One story I got today was of a lobster pot in the harbour with a baby Tope trapped inside! That's the sort of thing I like to hear about, it gives you lots of hope and the expectation that anything could happen. Boat sport...............well it is there but its not brilliant. Small tides on the rough ground I like because you can fish properly and things get thrown up that you don't expect, your busy and sport can be frantic. On the bigger tides there is a bit of Bass about but what with the weather we're not getting the boats here, all have been cancelled this week. There has been a few flatties about too but as we know its not the best time of year for them. Our 'NEW' local boat has arrived, Colin Dukes skipper of Smuggler of Braye has arrived and taking bookings for now and 2009. £400 for the boat for 2008, £450 for the boat for 2009. His first week this week and he has had to struggle with the weather, managed to find the guys some flats and Bass. He'll be out again mid week and is solidly booked for a few days so hopefully it will be a good indicator of what is there. Later I'll have a page detailing his services but for now you can find him on http://www.deepsea.co.uk/boats/smuggler/index.htm and click on Noticeboard. Nearly forgot, my trip out yesterday. I decided cos the boat was out the water and due to the short window in the weather to go out in my kayak plugging, easy eh. Throw it in the water and pedal away. Started off first cast by losing a Bass around 5lb right at the net. Followed that up with fish following the plugs, then caught two Pollack and by now heading towards some turbulent water. negotiated that ok and now I was fishing one of my favorite marks. Landed a Bass around 2lb some more Pollack and then another follow, big silver/gold flank turned at the last minute. Knackered and happy with my lot it was time to go so as I made my back to the car I was having my last 'troll' when bang, all hell was let lose. Had a cracking fish on, obviously I was letting it take line but the shear force of the dives and run I noticed the yak was moving across the tide a bit. I can't wait till the Tope arrive inshore! Anyway after a good 5 minutes of a bent spinning rod, and the giving and taking of plenty of braid I saw what I hooked...............a big Pollack. After a bit more of him giving me a beating I eventually netted him. This was quite comical as he didn't fit properly in the net and the net was used as lift to get him in the yak, well in my lap actually! Brilliant, brilliant fun. 15lb 1oz he weighed ashore. Click on the thumbnails for the big picture.
31st July It has been a good period of fishing until a couple of days ago when everything switched off. Everything is being blamed from Easterly winds on Monday to trawlers mopping everything up. All baloney and verbal trauma as at the weekend the place was alive with fish and shark. Shark stories I'm not going to go in to here, don't phone neither about them neither! Over the weekend the Breakwater was in fine form. Loads of Mackerel, Pollack, Gars, some Bass, and Bream to 3lb 5oz, we even had a Golden Grey Mullet munch up one of our float fished baits. It was crazy. Some lads had a go for Conger during daylight and hooked 6, some in less than 10 feet of water! Best one landed was during darkness and went 27lb. This all happened after I spotted an Eel about 30/35lb that 'beached' itself on a ledge below that I can only assumed it propelled itself out of the water after launching itself at a Pollack. As I said, it was complete frenzied activity over the weekend. Elsewhere there have been Couches Sea Bream, Red mullet, Red Gurnard, other Golden Greys reported and Sole, one of which went 4lb and was another caught in daylight! Out in the boat it was pretty good too. We had a wrecking trip with plenty of Pollack to 15lb and 6 good Cod landed. Unfortunately we lost a couple of stonkers, one which was difficult to hold on 20/30 gear despite my utmost determination that it was going to come upwards. It was a real good fish. Tope were hitting the Pollack on the way up as well which was crazy to watch, we lost several as our traces were geared for lighter fish but we did get one to the boat that was cleanly hooked on a pirk so we sussed they can't chew metal! Then this week it has turned a wee bit quiet which is a shame. I went again yesterday in the boat but it was hard work. We still managed an array of species, Turbot, Brill, Bass, Gurnards, Pollack, Bream, amongst the better of the species we caught. I should have had a Ray but lost it on one of the trots laid close by which was unfortunate. I made a claim for the Ray but of course I was turned down! Got my gear back though! Pictured is Dave again with one of the Cod we caught Sunday, a cracking 22lb 8oz fish. Young Courtney with a 3lb 5oz Black Bream and a rather serious looking Guy with one of the Sole that have been showing up.
19th July A far better week fish wise for most boats but the last couple of days was a bit fresh wind wise so the fishing did get a little difficult. A smattering of Bream to 4lb close to the island. Some boats found a fair bit of Bass to 9lb but the shoals were hit and miss and follows a pattern of an unusual year. Flatfish fishing is looking more positive with fair numbers of Brill to 9lb reported proving that our one last weekend was no fluke. Turbot normally go off around now before returning in September but they even showed up in reasonable numbers. On the rough ground lots of Tope to 50lb plus, Bull Huss, Congers, Cuckoo Wrasse, Bream amongst the more popular species and some boats even reported Whiting. Knew there had to be more than one around! Triggers reported too. Shore sport slow with baits on the bottom. Float and spin tactics probably best for Bass, Pollack, Gars and Mackerel your likely species. Far more Pollack showing on the Breakwater. One or two Mullet caught as well to 5lb.
15th July We had a cracking days fishing on the boat on Sunday, the best day of the year so far. Having the opportunity of small tides and having not been in the bigger boat for three weeks or so we were faced with many options. The wrecks have been fishing really well, quite a bit of Brill about, reefy ground we could anchor and also the tides were small enough to have a go for Ray. Planning the day was as much fun as the fishing, other than the added stress of 'if what I chose to do didn't work then we could have been better off elsewhere' ........ life and its dilemma's eh? An early start saw us bombing out the harbour as the sun still had its night hat on and very quickly we were anchored up putting baits on the bottom. A slow start had me worrying this wasn't what we should be doing but once we got a scent trail going we were off. Jamie's first four fish were all different species and Gary and I were scratching our heads as to what we were doing wrong. I knew what Gary was doing wrong, he was to hung over from the the night before! Anyway, we got our act together and we were soon in to fish, unfortunately for Jamie he undid his act and until the last hour of the day struggled to find fish due to 'tackle' and 'knot' mishaps! Best fish off the first mark was a 45lb Tope and we also had plenty of Black Bream showing. Tide having turned we were then off to have a drift for some flatfish. A quick hour resulted in 4 Brill, Gurnards and other bits including dropped fish and missed bites before the tide slackened and we were off again. Choosing to anchor for some Ray we got plagued with Dogfish, so we then decided not to persevere as we had another opportunity for Ray later in the day so we drifted to try to get a Turbot. Good move because Jamie landed a fabulous Brill which was around 9lb and we added another couple of species, the downside was we were convinced we had missed some Turbot bites. Somehow we were a little disappointed (on 16 species now!), we then played our last card for one last go on the anchor. Gary dropped a fabulous Ray with it biting through the trace, I managed to get one around 15lb. Getting late now we still had a chance to get two easy species, a Gar and a Ballan, but with a clean down to come we opted to call it a day and travel in.
Jamie with a Smoothound, Gary with a Bull Huss, myself with a Cuckoo Wrasse, Jamie's brilliant Brill and myself with a Blonde (makes a change ;-) ). We finished the day on 18 species which given the fact we weren't planning for it (hence the wrasses/gars we could have got etc) we were made up, and in with it some really good quality fish. Did I not say a couple of posts ago the Raider could be up for sale.................think again Mr. Mark! Just for the record as we always have a little competitions on the boat (which this year I have come third each time!) I had the most species at 14, Gary had 12 and Jamie had 6, but I bet that Brill more than made up for it. The full list of what we had is Bass, Black Bream, Brill, LSD, Bull Huss, Red Gurnard, Tub Gurnard, Launce, Mackerel, Pollack, Pout, Poor Cod, Blonde Ray, Sand Eel, Scad, Smooth Hound, Tope and Cuckoo Wrasse. After those exploits I got out again on Monday afternoon/evening with some friends visiting us. They were desperate for Bass which we managed just the two (small tides) and some Pollack. Then we went and anchored some reefy ground and encountered numerous numbers of Huss, Conger, Tope, Bream, Pout and other bits. I also managed a short beach session on the Friday night, quiet with just one Bass to show for the effort. Some guys on holiday here managed a nice 6lb fish yesterday and the day before caught some Mullet to 5lb/6lb. More unusually and possibly reflecting on how little we really know about what goes on in our seas one of the local lads spotted a Whiting in the inner harbour in just a foot of water. He grabbed his rod and actually caught and landed it for his tea. Nice fish too around 1lb 6oz. I was speaking to him as he was clambering back up the quay. It begs the question what is a Whiting doing in our inner harbour on a bright July afternoon in 20+ degrees?!! Weird.
This boat created a lot of interest when it ventured in to harbour. Apparently it is pretty quick, I was told how fast but have forgotten. I was also told if it nose dived it could submerse itself in up to 20 feet of water and it would still be operational.
11th July We've had a very windy week here thus not a lot of boat activity. There are some fish showing though on the rough ground, Conger Eels, fair bit of Bream, Huss and Tope. On the bigger tides earlier in the week there was a bit of decent Bass to be had, but now tides have dropped away so have the numbers of fish. There was one corker that I know of in the Harbour caught on a yacht. Using half a sandeel legered on the bottom an 11lb Bass was landed during daylight. Not many rods trying on the shore marks so it is hard to guage what could happen but there has been Garfish, Mackerel, Pollack and Wrasse. Bass are about to plugs if you can find some clear water. Fieona and I tried one of the cliff marks one blustery evening and yes I got beat again, Fie had two Wrasse to my two missed bites (with two rods!). The wind eased yesterday, well it was meant too, so three of us ventured out in our Kayaks. We're all novices on about our third/fourth trip each so to gain confidence we went in to one of the bays where tide rips occur and the ground has one or two sandbars where the tide can run at around 4/5 knots. Exhilarating or what. This kayak malarkey is going to take me over I reckon and at the moment if I get a decent offer for my boat I think it would be sold! I can't see it getting used at the moment! The fishing was good too, we're not on the best of tides, a bit of colour in the water as well but we still caught Bass and Pollack. I managed 2 Pollack and 2 Bass. Matt had a Pollack and Dick had the best Bass at 3lb 12oz. I thought it was a 5lb'er. Great fun when you hook in and given the stealth of the Kayak I am sure you get a better chance of fish. One of my highlights from last night was that on one of my retrieves I had a Pollack chase my Toby, myself unaware of this until the lure left the water and jammed in to my rod tip, then the Pollack flew out of the water pass my rod tip!! Flippin awesome stuff.
8th July Fly fishing on the sea is becoming increasingly popular and we are finding that more anglers are turning to it. This week we have had a couple of lads over and despite the weather they have found it very productive with the Bass in one of the bays. Not big fish but big enough for a fly rod, Bass of 2lb odd are testing their gear to the limit stripping line at will till they tire. Seeing their smiley faces is very satisfying I have to say and despite my resistance to adapt to the fly it is certainly pushing me a bit closer to trying it! In my time here the successes are starting outweigh the failures. 4th July An error on my reporting has just been bought to my attention with regards to the 52lb Tope caught by Paul Watson recently, it was caught aboard Lady Godiva not Tiger Lily as I previously mentioned. It didn't sound right at the time..............Tiger Lily was getting mentioned far too much!! ;-) Apologies to Dave Gibson for that. Fishing this week hasn't set the world alight, one boat did particular well for Brill but in the main it wasn't Alderneys normally high standard. All the other bits are there as you would expect, Bass, Tope, a few Turbot to 14lb, Bull Huss, Bream and Gurnards all seemed to be about but the best you could hope for was good fishing, not exceptional. Get ready for a windy weekend 2nd July Perfect weather yesterday evening so I couldn't avoid getting the Yak out again. I did the easy thing by launching it off the slipway and fished alongside the Breakwater aiming to get amongst the different species. I only managed the three, Mackerel, Ballans and Dogfish. Missed the Bream bites that were there and never found a Garfish which disillusioned me so packed up early at 9.30pm. Wish I hadn't as the boats on the moorings did ok for Bass and Pollack on livebaits during the evening. Further afloat there is a good bit of Tope about with some Bullies. Bream on the same ground as well. On the sandbanks there were Turbot to 12lb and a fair bit of Brill with one boat doing rather well but I can't give too much away on here! Some of the boats found a bit of Bass too. |
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