Charter Boat: Braveheart II
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Boat and Skipper Details
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Availability Calendar
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Individual Spaces
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Reviews
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Location and directionsMap
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Bait & Tackle
Boat and Skipper Details
Very fast powerglide 30 designed by the legendary Rod Baker of the offshore 32 and 105 fame . Spend more time fishing and less time steaming to the marks.
Have been skippering and fishing my own vessels for almost 40 years and I am just as passionate now as I was all those years ago. And giving my anglers a good day out is my number 1 priority. My love of smoothound fishing is no secret, especially in shallow water as pound for pound they are probably the hardest fighting fish in the UK ... especially in shallow water and i love the fact after a quick photograph they are returned. The sand and mudbanks of the Thames Estuary are host to bass, thornback rays, Dover sole, eels , stingray and many other species so even when targeting a particular species you never know what you will reel up, i caught a halibut one year !.
Know for my humour and sarcasm a good laugh is always guaranteed on board and always willing to help the most novice of anglers catch fish, and accomplished too.
I look forward to getting you out there .
*member of the*
: The Professional Boatman's Association
Best regards and tight lines
Phil
May 2025
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
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N.B. Not all Skippers keep this dairy up-to-date. Always check with skippers before making any plans. Last calendar update: 30-Aug-2025 |
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Thu 1st May
Bass, hounds, Ray's |
Fri 2nd May
Bass, hounds, Ray's |
Sat 3rd May Fully Booked |
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Sun 4th May Fully Booked |
Mon 5th May
Hounds, rays, bass |
Tue 6th May Fully Booked |
Wed 7th May Fully Booked |
Thu 8th May
Hounds, rays, bass |
Fri 9th May Fully Booked |
Sat 10th May Fully Booked |
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Sun 11th May Fully Booked |
Mon 12th May Fully Booked |
Tue 13th May
Bass, hounds, Ray's |
Wed 14th May
Bass, hounds, Ray's |
Thu 15th May Fully Booked |
Fri 16th May Fully Booked |
Sat 17th May Fully Booked |
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Sun 18th May Fully Booked |
Mon 19th May
Bass, hounds, Ray's |
Tue 20th May
Bass, hounds, Ray's |
Wed 21st May
Bass, hounds, Ray's |
Thu 22nd May
Bass, hounds, Ray's |
Fri 23rd May Fully Booked |
Sat 24th May Fully Booked |
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Sun 25th May Fully Booked |
Mon 26th May
Hounds, rays, bass |
Tue 27th May
Hounds, rays, bass |
Wed 28th May Fully Booked |
Thu 29th May
Bass, hounds, Ray's |
Fri 30th May
9am to 3pm smoothounds & bass |
Sat 31st May Fully Booked |
Upcoming Individual Spaces on Braveheart II
| Thu 04/09/2025 | 1 Space | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Fishing the sandbanks.
Bass / Stingray (Common) / Mackerel / Smooth-hound / Tope.
| View details |
| Mon 29/09/2025 | 4 Spaces | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Bass / Dover Sole / Mackerel / Smooth-hound / Thornback Ray.
| View details |
| Thu 02/10/2025 | 6 Spaces | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Bass / Mackerel / Smooth-hound / Thornback Ray.
| View details |
| Fri 03/10/2025 | 6 Spaces | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Bass / Mackerel / Smooth-hound / Thornback Ray.
| View details |
| Tue 07/10/2025 | 6 Spaces | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Bass / Mackerel / Smooth-hound / Thornback Ray.
| View details |
| Fri 10/10/2025 | 6 Spaces | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Bass / Mackerel / Smooth-hound / Thornback Ray.
| View details |
| Mon 13/10/2025 | 4 Spaces |
| View details | ||
| Thu 16/10/2025 | 6 Spaces | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Bass on the sandbanks.
Bass / Mackerel / Smooth-hound / Thornback Ray.
| View details |
| Fri 17/10/2025 | 6 Spaces | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Bass on the sandbanks.
Bass / Mackerel / Smooth-hound / Thornback Ray.
| View details |
| Tue 21/10/2025 | 6 Spaces | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Bass on the sandbanks.
Bass / Mackerel / Smooth-hound / Thornback Ray.
| View details |
| Thu 23/10/2025 | 6 Spaces | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Bass on the sandbanks.
Bass / Mackerel / Smooth-hound / Thornback Ray.
| View details |
| Fri 24/10/2025 | 6 Spaces | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Bass on the sandbanks.
Bass / Mackerel / Smooth-hound / Thornback Ray.
| View details |
| Sat 25/10/2025 | 4 Spaces | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Bass / Mackerel / Thornback Ray.
| View details |
| Mon 27/10/2025 | 6 Spaces | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Bass on the sandbanks.
Bass / Mackerel / Smooth-hound / Thornback Ray.
| View details |
| Tue 28/10/2025 | 6 Spaces | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Bass on the sandbanks.
Bass / Mackerel / Smooth-hound / Thornback Ray.
| View details |
| Wed 29/10/2025 | 6 Spaces | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Bass on the sandbanks.
Bass / Mackerel / Smooth-hound / Thornback Ray.
| View details |
| Thu 30/10/2025 | 6 Spaces | 9 Hours | £70.00pp |
Bass on the sandbanks.
Bass / Mackerel / Smooth-hound / Thornback Ray.
| View details |
Reviews
Summary:
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Steve Ashdown (02/07/2022)
Great days fishing with Phil gave me lots of advice which paid off for me with a 15lb hound.
Really enjoyed the day can’t wait for the next trip
Thanks PhilSkippers Reponse: Hi Steve,
Was a pleasure to meet you and thanks for taking the time to post a review. Glad you caught your personal best smoothound look forward to getting you out Again
Thank you
Phil -
Nigel Waters (15/05/2022)
Has to be a 5 Star review from me across the board, this website gives all the info you need, to have a terrific day out at sea with Phil, nothing is too much trouble for Phil as he's determined u will have a great day. also as he rightly says banter a plenty, if u don't like fun and a laugh, don't go out with Phil, but coupled with this
His knowledge is top notch, and probably one of the most helpful skippers, I've ever had the privelledge to fish with, and I have been on many many many charter boats over the years. I love that I can check on spaces available by clicking onto here, makes it so much easier. I actually have fallen in love with Braveheart 2, what a beautiful boat, loads of space, not all clogged up with various parafenalia.
Ease of parking, and a short walk to the boat is a major plus for me.
Fish, tea, banter, laughs a plenty.
Superb skipperSkippers Reponse: Thanks nigel. The cheques in the post lol. Its always a pleasure having you rob and dave aboard as I know how much you like your fishing and always do my very best to give you all a good day. We've been catching some big smoothounds lately and have to get you out for that p.b ��
All the best my friend
Phil -
Gary Turner (12/06/2022)
I had a few trips with Phil on Braveheart Charters and always found him to be pleasant and a chirpy skipper always happy to help and good communication.
He always tries hard to put you on the fish and has produce the goods on the 3 trips I have been on.
I have noticed he gives tuition to the novice anglers and has a rod and reel hire on the boat and will supply bait if arranged although some frozen bait was supplied within the booking price of the boat.
I had a good experience and will be booking in the future, thanks Phil and all credit goes to you.
Regards
Gary Turner...Skippers Reponse: Thank you for taking the time to re write a review, it's always nice to have good seasoned anglers like yourself aboard as apart from enjoying your own fishing, the less experienced anglers can also watch and learn from your fishing ability. I always work my hardest to give my anglers a good day.
Cheers Phil -
Alan Smith (06/06/2022)
Our group have had the pleasure of chartering this boat several times this year
Top skipper Phil knows his stuff
He has put us on some very nice fish with pbs a plenty
He supplies decent rods reels and tackle if u don't have your own and will show you the best way to do everything from presenting the bait to correctly hooking the fish when u get a tug on your rod
Phil is our go to skipper locally in Southend
The boat is very fast too , the fastest fishing boat we've been out on
We look forward to many fishing trips with him in the future
Top skipperSkippers Reponse: Thanks Alan for taking the time to write a review .I always look forward to taking you and your crew fishing always lots of laughs on board from a positive crew which makes for a great day out. See you soon.
Best regards
Phil
Location
Bait & Tackle
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Toosey Tackle
St Osyth, Essex, East, England
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Colchester bait and tackle
Colchester, Essex, East, England
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Brian Deans Tackle Shop
Clacton On Sea, Essex, East, England
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Robertsons Fishing Tackle
Dagenham, Essex, East, England
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Alfie's Angling
St.Osyth, Essex, East, England
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Clacton Angling Centre
Clacton-on-sea, Essex, East, England
Catch Stats
- CBUK Catch Log: 23 Species have been caught onboard Braveheart II, including: Bass | Cod | Conger Eel | Dab | Dover Sole | European Eel | Haddock | Lesser Spotted Dogfish | Mackerel | Plaice | Red Gurnard | Smooth-hound | Spider Crab | Spurdog | Starry Skate | Starry Smooth-hound | Stingray (Common) | Thornback Ray | Tope | Tub Gurnard | Turbot | Twaite Shad | Whiting
- CBUK Record Breaking Catches: August 2025, 124 lb Starry Smooth-hound | April 2025, 13 lb 4 oz Starry Skate
Latest Catches 830 photos uploaded
Latest Fishing Reports and News
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08/2025
Fishing Report by phillip browning
Aug 2025 by phillip browning
The weather this year has been kind to us, getting out and enjoying more days at sea doing what we love... fishing.
We've had some great sport with big smoothounds in the shallows and bass both on baits and lures, with thornback rays for those fishing for them using squid and herring/mackerel baits. Eel's have started to make a comback after a good few years of absence... we had 6 in one trip the other day.
With the warm settled weather we are starting to see a few stingrays which are amoungst my favourite fish, and we've had 5 so far on the last few weeks and it's always a thrill when an angler catches one of these magnificent fish, especially as some of the angler's have been fishing for in excess of 50 years and never caught one until they stepped on BRAVEHEARTII, and in 2023 we had 25 to the boat in that season.
I look forward to welcoming anglers old and new aboard BRAVEHEARTII.
Many thanks & tight lines
Phil browning -
07/2025
Fishing Report by phillip browning
Jul 2025 by phillip browning
The weather this last few weeks has been awesome, settled and good fishing, we've caught smoothound, bass, thornback ray, tope, eel's, lsd's, mackerel, Scad, and even our 1st conger eel which norw seems to be appearing more frequently around the essex and north Essex coast, and recently we added yer another species aboard BRAVEHEARTII.... the Bluetooth Rockfish! A beautiful little brightly coloured fish that wouldn't look out of place in the red sea or Caribbean!
We had no less than 5 that morning and I was more excited about them than the nice tope i caught on the 1st cast in the morning.
That's the beauty of sea fishing, as you never know what the next trip will produce.
Many thanks And tight lines
Phil browning 07970 728707 -
29/06/2025
Fishing Report by phillip browning
29 Jun 2025 by phillip browning
Out of 200+ anglers and 80 odd boats.. Alan Smith on BRAVEHEARTII wins the crouch open boat competition smoothound with a stomper estimated at 18+ pounds and 121 cm
4th year and a podium position in ALL 4 comps.
Remember its the skipper that finds the fish not the boat....... bookings & enquiries 07970 728707
Many thanks & tight lines
Phil Browning -
06/2025
Fishing Report by phillip browning
Jun 2025 by phillip browning
The Bass catches aboard BRAVEHEARTII continue to provide good sport and fish for the table. Here's Rocky and crew from essex/ London, and although complete novices and using the hire tackle aboard BRAVEHEARTII, managed to land a constant stream of bass through the day. Coaching them throughout the day saw their bite to hook up ratio drastically improve as I'm always happy to provide tuition for those that want to learn.
Great company and weather... the guys really enjoyed themselves and have booked additional trips throughout the rest of the year.
Every day is booked in June and only a few days left in July, so get booking if you want to go fishing.
Families and kids welcome, although check with me personally on age limits.
**Whole boat 6 angler's £390 inc frozen bait***
**additional angler + £60 to cover extra fuel/bait*
** individuals £70 based on 6***
** individuals £97 based on 4***
** rod/ tackle hire £5 ea...... ***
** free tea/coffee onboard microwave ***
Many thanks & tight lines
Phil Browning 07970 728707 -
06/2025
Fishing Report by phillip browning
Jun 2025 by phillip browning
As i predicted the last set of spring tides pushed the big female smoothounds in and we've had some big lumps aboard BRAVEHEARTII This last week or so with the best fish going to Dave Potter..a colossal 22lb which smashed his pb by a country mile ... and it wasn't even in pup!!! Which would easily add another 3-4lbs it was huge but unfortunately I never pressed the screen on my phone properly so no video was recorded, which we didn't discover until we had released it unharmed.....I was gutted. Fortunately one of the other angler's got a couple of snaps on his phone, but they really didn't do it justice. There are bigger ones down there and it's my mission to break the British record as it has come from this area in the past.... its where the monsters live.
If you fancy a day targeting these powerful fish, check my availability calendar and get booking..... HIRE TACKLE AVAILABLE.
many thanks & tight lines
Phil Browning
Braveheartcharters.com
