Latest Fishing Reports: Dumfries & Galloway
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01/01/2024
Fishing Report by dominic wilson
on Dawn Venture (Portpatrick, Dumfries & Galloway)
1 Jan 2024 by dominic wilson
Report on-board Dawn Venture
So with atrocious weather blowing, now seemed like a good time to add last year's statistics.
We landed 80 tope upto 51lb
Spurdogs to 20lb
Smoothound to 13.5lb(scottish record)
Bullhuss to 18lb
Pollack to 9lb
Haddock to 3.5
And 18 other species!!
We are taking bookings for 2024 with NO price change on 2023
Max 10 anglers but sole exclusive use Charters are available
Full tackle packages available for hire
Text, whatsapp, email or messenger & telephone(07739231331)
View Boats Page
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02/01/2023
Fishing Report by dominic wilson
on Dawn Venture (Portpatrick, Dumfries & Galloway)
2 Jan 2023 by dominic wilson
Report on-board Dawn Venture
As we say farewell to 2022 and hello to 2023 I thought it was time to display the largest fish of the year and let new and returning customers that bookings are now being taken for 2023.
Please phone,text,email or whatsapp me for details.
Biggest of 2022:
common skate...202lb
tope.....51lb
spurdog....23lb
huss....18lb
pollack....9lb
cod...5lb
haddock...3.5lb
mackerel...3.5lb
seatrout...3.5lb
lobster ....5lb
cuckoo wrasse.... 1lb
25 different species landed in 2022
the photo is of the 51lb tope landed by "pilchard Paul" View Boats Page
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28/02/2021
Fishing Report by steve stringer
on Lucky Dip II (Portpatrick, Dumfries & Galloway)
28 Feb 2021 by steve stringer
Report on-board Lucky Dip II
So what with this weather giving us some really settled seas me n the misses decided on a couple of hours fishing. The plan was to head out and fish one of our deeper (40m) marks at anchor. With the anchor set after just 15mins motoring we put two half mackerel baits down to see what was about while setting up our lighter rods. Before my second rod was ready my rod showed an interest with some gentle nods before line started to be taken. Setting the drag and lifting into the fish i just knew we had hooked my first target, a Common(flapper) skate. while i was coming to terms with a stubborn fish my misses landed a fine 10lb dark grey Spur followed shortly by a LSD. After an hour we finally had the skate aboard, unhooked from the barbless 10/0, photographed, and released this fine male went 107lb when measured. Another bait sent down saw me land one final spur of about 5lb before the tide started to rip through again. pulling the anchor we set of to scout a newly rediscovered wreck that seemed to hold a lot of fish and in just 56m water is prime for another session soon.
View Boats Page
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22/07/2020
Fishing Report by dominic wilson
on Dawn Venture (Portpatrick, Dumfries & Galloway)
22 Jul 2020 by dominic wilson
Report on-board Dawn Venture
So, I have to post some bad news... The boat has suffered catastrophic mechanical failure and was today, put on a low loader and transported to Nobles boat yard at Girvan. Repair time and refloating dates are as of yet unknown. Prior to this disaster, mackerel were prolific, plenty of pollack and coalies on the wrecks, huss to 13lb,tope to 40lb,spurs to a whopping 23lb!!,pollack out of the weeds to 4lb,plenty of pan size haddock along with all the other usual summer species plus a lone dab and a big scorpion fish. We also landed 2 common skate at 138lb and 106lb on big coalfish flappers.... Hard fighting males in only 55ft of water! When I know more, I will let you all know dates to work to but all trips are suspended at the moment... I apologise to one and all for the inconvenience caused and I value your support.
If anyone has any QQQQ's please ring me on 07739231331
Paul is pictured with the 138lb skate View Boats Page
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24/06/2020
Fishing Report by dominic wilson
on Dawn Venture (Portpatrick, Dumfries & Galloway)
24 Jun 2020 by dominic wilson
Report on-board Dawn Venture
So we managed our 2nd trip out yesterday and we had a great day afloat, strings and strings of mackerel, 13 spurdogs all over 12lb with 2 at 20lb,2 huss at 5lb,whiting,codling,haddock,coley,gurnard,sandeel and doggies... And the sun shone all day.
Pictured is one of the 20lb spurs View Boats Page
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29/12/2019
Fishing Report by dominic wilson
on Dawn Venture (Portpatrick, Dumfries & Galloway)
29 Dec 2019 by dominic wilson
Report on-board Dawn Venture
So,2019 is drawing to a close and it seemed like a good time to summarise the year....We landed 6 common skate with the best at 201lb and the rest 171-193lb.We landed over 35 tope with the 2 best at 47lb and 45lb respectively.Spurdogs were numerous and some days they were in plague proportions ! the best however went 24lb with many others at 22/23lb and quite a few over the 20lb mark.It doesn't seem unreasonable to get 1 over 25lb in 2020.Bullhuss were quite plentiful with plenty in the 15-18lb range and the best at 19.5lb(which skipper dom landed!) Smoothounds were scarce with only a couple landed with the best at 5lb.The pollack fishing was dire with poor numbers and the best at 5lb right upto the end of the season and when the water cleared out in late October til mid November we averaged over 50 fish a session with the best at 8lb and 9.5lb and again these were caught in the harbour entrance.We caught quite a few wrasse this year with the best ballan pushing 3lb and quite a few cuckoos (male and female) upto 1lb.returns of cod,haddock and whiting were variable and I put this down to the massive increase in spurdog numbers.We caught 35 species this year plus a new one.....pilchard!
Again this year,we struggled with the windy weather and it tore the bookings book apart! That said,I have invested in a new vessel...."OPTIMIST" which is a 32ft heavy build offshore that is licenced for 10+2 crew and has a 400hp Iveco engine + turbo under the deck combined with a 5 blade propeller giving a cruising speed of 12-14kts and top speed of 18-20kt.It also has 2 bunks onboard,a gas hob with twin burners,a toilet and a live bait well
As always,bookings are being taken for the following year and 2020 is no exception! I have the tidebooks for next year to assist in tide/day/date selection.
With the added speed,I am now looking to venture further afield on the longer trips....it would not be unfeasible to fish the deep water marks off the Mull of Galloway and south of it and also venturing off to the coast of Northern Ireland and perhaps 2/3 days away to the Isle of Mann.
Phone me on 07739231331 for a chat
The attached photo is of Wullie Shaw and his 24lb spurdog View Boats Page
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10/11/2019
Fishing Report by dominic wilson
on Dawn Venture (Portpatrick, Dumfries & Galloway)
10 Nov 2019 by dominic wilson
Report on-board Dawn Venture
Reporting period 8-10 November....
The wind eased and we managed to get to sea on the Friday and sunday.Having noted on the Wednesday that the water was gin clear and temperature was up at 13.5c,I thought it would be worth trying for the pollack later in the day and it was.Through Friday we drift fished for codling,haddock,gurnards and a couple of mackerel.The bottom fishing failed to produce and so we went lightline pollacking under the headlands and took over 50 fish in 2 hours with the best sport occurring in the last 30mins before dark and again the best fish(es) came from the harbour entrance with the biggest at 9.5lb and the best of the year.Saturday was blown off and sunday produced the same results except that we caught 2 huss (17lb and 9.5lb) and more good pollack from the headlands and harbour entrance,with the best at 8lb
.Choice of lure for the pollack was rhubarb and custard 6" sidewinders.
Species caught over the weekend were: cod,haddock,whiting,rock cod,pouting,poor cod,ling(tiny!),pollack,coalfish,grey gurnard,tub gurnard,mackerel,huss,LSD
The attached photo is the 9.5lb pollack View Boats Page
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11/2019
Fishing Report by dominic wilson
on Dawn Venture (Portpatrick, Dumfries & Galloway)
Nov 2019 by dominic wilson
Report on-board Dawn Venture
Report covers period from mid sept to Nov 5th.....
As with the last report,the wind has been our nemesis and has caused many cancelled bookings which is a shame because there has been some great fishing out there.The mackerel still linger on as the water is warming enough and there has been several days where we have had between 100-150 spurdogs in a day with the smallest at about 4lb and the biggest at 24lb !!!!(willie shaw well done).there has been tope to 45lb,huss to 18.5lb,common skate to 201lb and the pollack fishing in the weeds is now at the consistency it should have been in the summer.
One sunday in late September,fishing the banks at Port Logan,we managed 16 species: cod,haddock,whiting,pouting,poorcod,coalfish,mackerel,scad,red/grey gurnard,spurdog,lsd,herring,pilchard,wrasse and ling!
pictured is colin with his 201lb skate
the boat is afloat all winter and available for booking...diaries and tidebooks are out now for 2020 so book early for the best tides View Boats Page
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08/2019
Fishing Report by dominic wilson
on Dawn Venture (Portpatrick, Dumfries & Galloway)
Aug 2019 by dominic wilson
Report on-board Dawn Venture
this report covers the period 16th August -26th august.....
The wind has wreaked havoc with our ability to get to sea and its a shame as there are plenty of fish out there both in species and size.We have continued to land a good number of tope averaging 25-30lb,spurdogs have dwindled in numbers and the huss are putting in a show again averaging 15lb.we have also hooked into more common skate but landed only 1 at 179lb.All the usual suspects are still at sea with grey gurnard in plague proportions and mini-mackerel everywhere.The pollack fishing in the weeds has improved vastly with mackerel belly outfishing the artificial lures.
bookings are still being taken for this year with first available weekend being 19/20 October and with the boat staying afloat this winter,I am looking at doing uptiding for cod .
diaries for 2020 have now been released and bookings are now being taken so please ring for best tides and dates
picture is of Piers and his 179lb skate View Boats Page
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16/08/2019
Fishing Report by dominic wilson
on Dawn Venture (Portpatrick, Dumfries & Galloway)
16 Aug 2019 by dominic wilson
Report on-board Dawn Venture
This report covers period 19th july - 16th August
When the wind allows,we have been getting out and the fishing has been good with some days being great.I have lost track of how many spurdogs over the 20lb mark we have landed with the best at a whopping 23lb....these sharks are getting bigger each year and more prolific and I don't doubt that some will top 25lb next year!....the best tally for spurdogs in the reporting period is 38 landed with all being 12-17lb with a few bigger ones mixed in. we have had mixed results with the huss with the best going 18.5lb in the past month.The tope are more numerous this year and we have had 5 in a day twice last month which is well up on last year and we have lost a good few through biteoffs!...more common skate continue to show with the last 2 at 185lb and 188lb.The pollack fishing in the weeds has improved vastly with floatfished mackerel belly being very productive...there was also a good run of codling and haddock during the big spring tides where we were fishing closer in out of the tide run.
The mini mackerel have now arrived in plague proportions and strings and strings of them are possible....at less than 6" long they make great bait!
Species landed this month : cod ,haddock, whiting, pouting, pollack, coalfish, poorcod , ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, common skate, tope, spurdog, huss, smoothound, LSD, mackerel, herring, launce, red/grey/tub gurnard, dab( 22 species)
bookings still being taken for this year but first available weekend date is sunday 13th October
the boat is staying afloat this winter so uptiding for cod is on the agenda
bookings now being taken for 2020 (mobile 07739231331)
photo is 188lb common skate View Boats Page
