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  • 19/12/2016 Fishing Report by TERRY BATT on Vanishing Point-2 (Bradwell Marina, Essex)

    19 Dec 2016 by TERRY BATT

    Report on-board Vanishing Point-2

    Well with not a lot to report over the last couple weeks even the Thornback Rays seem to have done a disappearing act...!!

    But I know these are not our beloved Cod, but the Dab has made a welcome return to the river Backwater in large numbers.

    It is only 6 or 7 minutes away from our marina, and as the tide backs off the Whiting subside from biblical numbers to sensible amounts and give way for the Dabs to come on and give some excellent sport , and to be fair, love em or not, they are a nice size of fish and on light tackle are good sport, and without them in the absence of Cod, they are a most welcome sight.....!

    I took a gamble yesterday and went to a place I have never had the courage to take a charter party too, as it was unknown to me as a fishing mark, but taking into consideration the water temperature, the type of sea bed I was targeting, and the fact they have disappeared for all of the known marks, it was a huge step into the unknown.
    But..... after an hour of fishing for Thornback Rays once again, we had landed 5 lovely Thornback Rays, putting a real bend back into the rods, something we have not seen for several weeks, and two were tipping the scales at nearly 10 lbs so I think I may have un-locked the secret of where these fish go when they just seem to disappear off of the radar, but I will only go there as and when necessary when fishing is pants everywhere else, I will not rip the ass out of this mark just because I can, and a lot of our fish are returned to spawn, and give great sport another day...!!!

    I must say I saw a report on fb the other day from Eastbourne about a boat that had caught and landed a fantastic catch of big, big Bass.... several at 16 lbs, 15 lbs. 14 lbs, and many doubles and while I congratulate the skipper of the charter boat (I think it was called Deep Blue) but cant be sure, I am appalled that this skipper not only allowed the party to kill these superb mature breeding fish, but wants to gloat about it.....!!!! has the world gone completely bloody mad, not only was it quite possibly illegal, but reasonable skippers should be promoting catch and release like they do in America, not only do the have a minimum size fish limit, they also have an upper size limit so anglers do NOT destroy their prime breeding stock, so you cant wonder why they have fish coming out of their ears...!! it's called responsible fish management... something this counties fishing guardians, ie: Skippers of fishing boats, commercial and pleasure, our fisheries ministers, licencing authorities seem to have forgotten ...

    Sorry to get on my soap box, but I know after 30 years of being a very successful professional charter boat skipper, and have seen the good times as well as the bad, we need to look after our fish, and if you put reports up of wholesale slaughter of a days fishing all you are going to do is feed even more information to various regulation authorities that want to shut us down wherever possible , and all you do is give these people who never go out and do some real research just have scientist to come up with wild uneducated guesses, a cricket bat to beat us with...

    Well lets hope the Cod arrive soon in good numbers, they are not to far away so I am told by the commercial boys there are some in our local waters but high in the water feeding ferociously on Herring, which they can see in daylight hours, with bright daylight above them, and they see a big dark mass moving and get on them so the chances of catching Cod in the daylight hours are much reduced, so tonight we have a party that want to try a night trip, from 1700 hrs until 0200 hrs and see if we can get one or two when the Cod cant see the Herring shoals under the cover of darkness, and start feeding by sent trail again.....!!!

    Tight lines and merry Christmas, and a big thank you to all our loyal customers who not only fish with us, but Clay pigeon shoot from the Vanishing Point-2 and have won many TROPHIES AND MEDALS ..!!!!

    Here is to a great 2017....!!!!!

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