Latest Fishing Reports: Vanishing Point-2
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22/09/2016
Fishing Report by TERRY BATT
22 Sep 2016 by TERRY BATT
Well with the weather being fantastic all week we have got offshore nearly every day to fish for Bass, lost count how many were landed and returned, and some medium Bass size Bass kept for the table but the sport was brilliant.
I know you all think Nic was kicking my butt earlier this week.. but I landed a cracker yesterday under the watchful eye of my old mate and mentor John Rawle, in this photo John can be seen (under the watchful eye of first mate Nicola..!) getting to grips with how Vanishing Point-2 works and the hope is even though John has officially retired, we will not lose this fishing icon to retirement but may see him out on either Vanishing Point, or Chinook-2, from time to time..??? back to my fish...! and with a quick photo was slipped back to fight another day..!! (I don't like fish to eat....yuck) but with so many fish out there you could be very selective on what one you wanted to keep.
These fish will still be there well into October, weather dependant, but if you want to have a go for these hard fighting fish, mostly for sport I must emphasise..... then call me on 07768306646 to work out dates, as sadly the tides don't always fall on a weekend, more likely it will be week days but it is tide and weather critical to get it right..!!
Tight lines...!! -
19/09/2016
Fishing Report by TERRY BATT
19 Sep 2016 by TERRY BATT
Some big autumn Bass being caught from Blackwater based boats...
We had some good sport yesterday (19/9/16) myself on Vanishing Point-2 and my old mate Chris Mole from West Mersea on Enterprise were well off-shore and both found the fish.
These bass will more than likely be around until October, so if you want to have a c rack at them give us a call, on 07768306646.
Photo is of my wife Nicola and( full time crew/ and second skipper) of Vanishing Point-2 with a nice Autumn Bass one of nine caught, many returned alive...!!! to fight another day... tight lines.....!! -
07/09/2016
Fishing Report by TERRY BATT
7 Sep 2016 by TERRY BATT
Some good Bass being caught at the moment on the right tides, and some good Smoothounds also being caught, but now starting to thin out..!!
The Thornback Rays are starting to move back inshore, can’t believe another years is almost done.
We would like to thank all our clients for coming back to the new Vanishing Point-2 in droves after our 6 years absence from fishing while we were off working on the wind farms, so it has taken a year for us to prove to you all we are not returning to the wind farm work, and now sticking with the charter fishing, shooting and diving… making us the premier Sport Charter vessel in the UK, unrivalled by any other…!!!
If you want to try to get on this $1,000,000.00 (1 Million Dollar) Sport’s Charter vessel for a most unforgettable day, just call….. 07768306646. Or 01621 786 170. -
16/08/2016
Fishing Report by TERRY BATT
16 Aug 2016 by TERRY BATT
We didn't go this weekend with high winds and monster tides against the wind all day it was decided that fishing is something to be enjoyed not endured,,! and it was a decision our parties were happy with, as I know if I had said we were going they would have turned up, but it is not all about the money..
We have had some great fishing over the last week though hound to just shy of 20 lbs, Bass to 4 & 5 lbs and we had the pleasure of our good old friend Nigel Farage out with us on Tuesday, recovering from his 17 year long hard fought campaign with Europe, and if you look closely at the photos you can see Nigel sporting his new fishing rod his friend made for him made in
UKIP colours and put it to good use.
Nigel's son Tom is a very accomplished angler, and grabbed glory right at the end, of the day ( chip off the old block) with a good 14 lbs Smoothound and with the rest of the guests on board were treated to the most fantastic lunch put on by my very good friend and crewman Colin Pryor, it was a luncheon fit for a King..! many thanks Colin.
Well when the boys did some Clay shooting Nigel was quite good, but got his butt kicked by his son Tom ...lol it was a great day with great friends ending as we always do at the pub..! yes we all went round to the Green Man in Bradwell Waterside to see our very good landlord Micheal who welcomed us all, and cheekily got Mr Farage to pull a pint,
,(which he was as good at pulling a pint as well as drinking it..!)
The rest of the week was just as productive with lots of good fish in the right places.... Tight lines -
28/07/2016
Fishing Report by TERRY BATT
28 Jul 2016 by TERRY BATT
With the weather being so kind to us we have managed some long off-shore trips to have a go at Plaice fishing, which is almost unheard of off the Essex coast, but we have found them, the Bass, mackerel, launts and sand Eel's, all the what we needed to track down the elusive Plaice ...!!
We ran two trips out for Plaice, on Monday and Tuesday, both were good days, and everyone caught Plaice which was good..! and Mackerel was no trouble.
My good old mate Paul Nichols decided to put on a Mackerel strip, and promptly landed a nice 5 lbs Bass, so he was pleased ...
We are running several more trips out (weather depending) so If you want to have a go for these lovely flat fish just give me and Nicola a call..... 07768306646
Tight lines... -
23/07/2016
Fishing Report by TERRY BATT
23 Jul 2016 by TERRY BATT
Now taking bookings for plaice and Turbot fishing, off the Essex Coast, individual places Wed 10th Aug and Fri 9th sep, full boat bookings please call Terry or Nicola on 07768 306646 ,
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19/07/2016
Fishing Report by TERRY BATT
19 Jul 2016 by TERRY BATT
What a lovely couple of days we chose to go on a long 24 hour trip, exploring mid-channel wreaks and offshore banks..!! with temperatures hitting 32 degrees we were glad we took the huge Igloo ice box I brought back from Florida..!!!
We steamed 42 miles South West to make a start, we tried a couple of wreaks but with little success, it was possible pilot error but we didn't go blind we did have co-ordnance but the wreaks were not as big as I was expecting but we did find one that was defiantly there as some of the guys hooked pt on it...lol But Dave Barham had a lovely Gurnard off it , then we started to search for the under water terrain that looked like it might throw up Plaice and Turbot, and we found the perfect spot so we marked it on the plotter with a view to come back to it, as the tide was running to hard to fish it at that moment in time.
Looking at what it was we were trying to achieve, and that was to unlock the mystery of where the Plaice hand out, and with no inside help it was very much a coming together of heads with my 30 years knowledge, and Dave's vast knowledge of all types of fishing, we set about looking at the ground available to us in basically our area, and not having to steam to the Goodwin sands or the Varne ..some 52 miles away, but I was tempted to say the least, as I think I would have found Turbot, but I wanted to find fish on the wreaks and banks off Essex not Ramsgate, or Dover, that would have not posed so much of a challenge as they are known hot spots for these fish, I needed to find these fish on my manor.
Well after a bit of a disappointing start with the wreaking thing we steamed 16 miles Nor-east to some ground me and Dave thought it screamed fish..!!! but more over we though Plaice..!!.
So we covered the distance in roughly 40 minutes, the we started to survey the area, then we found exactly what we were looking for, with large Knowles rising and falling beneath us and went on for miles, this had to be the place..(no pun intended) but first we wanted to see what bait fish was available... and there they were...!!! Sand Eels, mackerel, and launts
As some of you know, me and Nicola have been going to Brighton to learn to fish for Plaice for the last couple of months, and with some success I must say, but learning how to set up the drifts and getting the right set up were critical, and on the first drift, I got a bite, and promptly landed my first ever Plaice on Vanishing Point at £3.5 lbs that was followed by everyone catching Plaice not all as big as mine I have to say..... well it is my boat...lol
But we steamed through the early hours of the morning to an off-shore bank and thought this looks great for some Bass fishing, and with the stern of the boat backed up on to a shoaling bank we were set..!
The only thing that concerned us was although everything was looking good, fist light, calm sea, with just the surf braking over the bank, tide just flooding nicely, no birds were working the the bank, not even patrolling which did not bode well we thought, and after an hour of nothing but a doggie, we thought this is not going to happen so we decided to move on and have another go at the wreaks.
We didn't have to go to far until we came on a huge wreak about 300 foot long, and I set up the drift, it took a few goes to get it right, but once I managed to doge the pot buoys around the wreak I managed to get Vanishing Point drifting right over the bulk and we had Cod, Pollock, Pouting, Gurnard, and the wreak it's self...lol but that was a bit more successful than the attempt the day before.
Well during the night the huge wheelhouse on VP-2 was a sanctuary to everyone as we had a lovely curry for evening dinner which was prepared by our special guest Dave Barham with pilau rice...Emmm,,!! then a bit more fishing, before everyone put their seats back for a well earned sleep in the nice warm dry wheelhouse for a few hours.
Well we will be running more trips similar to this one, but will trim up the distances per trip as we know where we need to be and at what time.
I would like to finish of this report with thanks to some of our regular fishermen for coming on the trip with us to share this adventure .. Tom, Andy, and Dave, well done guys, and to think you were there, to catch some of the first Plaice to be caught as a target species...!!!
And a special thanks to my good old mates Dave Barham, for all his input to this success for the hunt for the elusive Plaice, and also to Jim Midgley for his amazing photography skills and great humor ......Tight lines. -
11/07/2016
Fishing Report by TERRY BATT
11 Jul 2016 by TERRY BATT
Sorry I have not put up any reports lately, but we have been that busy on charters that I have been to knackered to sit and write up the days events....
But we have a day off, and still up quite early, and this is when I tend to sit at the computer to tap out a few lines.
Fishing as I think we all know has been good from all around the Estuary, from Sophie Lee, to Enterprise, Eastern promise, Daphne Carole, and Vanishing Point, from the Blackwater, and all the Crouch boat, Predator, Early dawn, Hard Labour, all having great catches of hounds and Bass, and Roker...
I have to say, and I an only speaking from my own very bad experience of this Sunday just gone !0th July, we had a cancellation from one of our regular parties which was a shame but these things happen, so no problem there..... But..!! I got a call from a guy, who was obviously from overseas, asking if he could book the Vanishing Point for 10 of his mates..?
As we had the day free, and my dad was feel a little better, we took the booking.. and OMG I wish we never...!!!!
Now I hope Gareth Howlett does not remove this as it has nothing whatsoever to do with racism... but the total disrespect some of our fishermen from other Eastern block countries promising one thing and doing totally the opposite, and in that I mean, on the phone at the time of booking he asked if it was OK to bring some beers, well I am not a lover of alcohol on the boat, but I said as long as you just have a couple each and no getting drunk on the boat that would be fine, he said yes just a couple would be fine, no problem.
Well I was attending to bait and stuff when they arrived and didn't see the amount of booze loaded onto the boat...!!
as we started our journey to the Barrow deeps Nicola asked if they wanted tea..?? no we are fine thank you and asked if we had any shot glasses, I laughed and said no, I think it was at that point I should have terminated the trip..!!
Can you imagine it, they are running around the boat like school kids, saying how big the boat was and wow..!! never been on a boat like this, 5 of then standing on the bow to take selfies at which point I had to go and remove them as I couldn't see as they were obstructing my view, and it was a little blowy out there and even though the railing had been secured there still could have an accident, but they just laughed and said.... " don't worry we are
Russian we good" but Nicola went up, and got them down, so we continued.. by the time we got to our destination, they were all on it, turned out they had 40 bottles of Becks, in their bags it became obvious why they wanted shot glasses, they had a litre bottle of Vodka, two litre bottles of Capt Morgans Rum, of which was going round at an alarming rate... and after telling them the house rules on the very nice toilet facility, they come to me and said,," I think you toilet is blocked, and I went down to find this horrid brown mess that was full to the brim with water where they tried to keep flushing the toilet before informing me, then say in " I dot know what happened .?? only a little paper went down, I had to use the wet-vac to suck out tonnes of paper, and human crap, and it took at least three goes to finally get by the grace of God the remaining paper out of the impellers of the macerator, then finally the toilet was again usable..... amazingly they did actually catch hounds and skate, but the end of the day could not come soon enough for us, it was the charter from hell, I hope all you charter skippers never have to experience that, and in hind-sight I blame my-self as I should have put a stop to it early into the trip, but went on the promise they made to drink responsibly, and they just didn't give a stuff about anything, I am sorry to say... they were animals, and when they were finally leaving the boat, the organiser said..." great day Terry we will book more trips" well guess what..... they will never step on the vanishing Point-2 again of that much I can assure you,
Well that rant is over .....lol
But once again we were out yesterday very windy a constant 33-37 mph SW most of the day, but the party still wanted to see if it was possible to get out, well I said it's nearly always possible, as we have lots of sand banks to hide behind, and we did just that.
The boys were a breath of fresh air after the day before, a really nice bunch of chaps, and all 12 wanted to do the clay shooting as well as fishing,
Well we fished up to low water about 11.10, where they had some Smoothounds, and by then the water was low enough behind the sand bank we were behind, and it was windy, but flat calm ... so we set up for the clay event, and it was a close fought competition, with only one clay separating 1st, 2nd and 3rd paces...
That all took about an hour, then we moved to a spot where I know the wind will be with the flood tide so at least we would sit ok, and John Rawle very kindly gave me some lug worm on Sunday as he knew was out on Monday, and they came in very handy, as this mark I went to for the flood is primarily a Bass mark, and we had about half a dozen Bass before it was time to head for home, but the guys from yesterday were a joy to have on the boat, and we like to extend our best wishes to Dave, and his lads for a most enjoyable day out......
Not out today....DAY OFF....!!!! well not really, got a few jobs to take care of today, it's the only time you get to do maintenance is on your day off.. Grrrrr but got to be done, so when you lot say what a dream job i is, you don't realise that when your busy you don't get a day off at all.... well we are out tomorrow so will report back then
Tight lines.....!!! -
27/06/2016
Fishing Report by TERRY BATT
27 Jun 2016 by TERRY BATT
With the storm clouds gathering over the Essex coast line on Saturday, we got away with it until it was time to go home 14.30.
We left Bradwell quite early (0630 hrs) and headed to a deep gully South East of Bradwell 16 miles, it usually fishes quite well at this time, but we anchored in 57 foot and the tide was pouring through much harder that I would have expected for a tide of that size, but hey that's the Thames Estuary for you, can sometimes throw you a curve ball....lol.
But the lads were all fairly competent anglers and coped well with good uptiders at the Bow, and great down tiders at the stern, so glad to say tangles were very few, just the occasional hound hitting the bait's at the front and running like grease lightning down tide and getting caught up with the odd fishing line at mid-ships, but wasn't too bad.
But the fish were not there in the number I would have expected, and as we were short on numbers it was not possible to ask the lads to put more money into the pot for extra fuel to go further off-shore so we made the best of what was on offer closer in...!!
Well a mate of mine was doing quite well a few mile South of my position so we went over to join him, but weather we got there too late, or sometimes the fish, especially Thornbacks, can be very tightly grouped and you can watch one boat scooping up fish while you sit there just spectating....!! and that is not for me..!!!
So we moved 3.5 miles East to a spot that should also fish well but once we arrived there we couldn't really get on the mark as there were a few Crouch based boats already anchored up there, Rob on Dawn Breaker, Predator, and one other I didn't recognise, but I would have only been in their way if I had dropped where I wanted to be and that would not have been very professional of me and I know these guys wouldn't do it to me so we trotted another 3/4 of a mile East and fished a rising bank out of the deeper water, and as the flood tide got away, the fish started to bite, not big fish average around 4 to 5 lbs, but fish never the less..
But as Nicola was NOT on the boat, it was typical the rain clouds gathered the sky turned Black thunder rolled, and lightning was striking..!! and who had to go out and pick up the anchor...??? yup, me...lol but I didn't get too wet thank God..!!
As we made our way back to Bradwell the radar was blotted out with rain, you couldn't even see the Gun-fleet Sands wind farm it was raining that hard, it was bouncing off of the water... but the lads were nice and dry and warm inside the wheel house watching the football on our 32 inch flat screen TV drinking tea and coffee .. blimey how we spoil our guys..lol
Well on Sunday we had our boys out from Canvey, Mark, Bruno and Co, and they all instantly agreed to through an extra £5 a head in the pot for extra fuel to go the 30 miles I recommended they go to get some serious action, as they did that last month, they didn't take any convincing..! so we set off early once again to get as mush of the Ebb tide as possible.
After an hour and fifteen minutes of steaming, we arrived as usual to our mark, and not another boat in sight.....lovely, just how I like it, not trying to fish in a car park.
The first fish hit within 4 minutes, a nice 10 lbs hound, followed by another at 11 lbs, and so the onslaught went on, I am glad Nicola was with me yesterday coz we had two landing net's on the go virtually the whole time. Bruno had the biggest fish of the day, a lovely hound of 14 lbs... well done mate, I bet that will be envied by you brother Phil, who was match fishing elsewhere, but the bar has been set now..!!!.
At the end of the session, we had to stop fishing for the mighty Smoothounds purely because we ran out of bait.. I cant remember the last time that happened..?? but it was relentless and I think our numbers of fish boated was 91, so you can only imaging how manic that was, but like all things distance, x, diesel,= £'s that's why we have to add a fuel surcharge if anglers want to go the distance, but you don't have to there is still good fishing closer in, but if you want the chance of an exceptional days fishing, then sometimes you have to do the extra miles.
Ok well Bruno has won yesterday trophy, and a very worthy winner, and Nic and I will be going to Canvey to the boys Fish restaurant the Islander probably the finest fish restaurant we have ever been to, no wonder people drive from London to eat there...!!
We are meant to be out later this week on a 24 hour wreaking trip going 42 miles off-shore, but looking at the weather forecast as I am writing this report that is looking doubtful.... sadly we were looking forward to that, but it will only be delayed, not cancelled, so I hope the trip will be all we expect.... I will keep you all informed of our progress......... tight lines..!!! -
15/06/2016
Fishing Report by TERRY BATT
15 Jun 2016 by TERRY BATT
We have been out just about every day this week, and for the most part the fishing has been electric...!!
Many, many Smoothounds over 10lbs and the better ones hitting the scales at 17 lbs.
Well on Wednesday, some good old mates of mine, Albie, Terry Les Terry, and a few of their mate that have fished with me since the Vicky Emma days, booked to come out after a 3 year absence as we were away wind farming, but now we are back they booked up their first trip, and what a trip it was, non stop action..!! from the time we dropped the anchor until the time it was time to go home..
At one point we had two landing nets on the go, me at the bow, and Nicola at the stern, and we couldn't keep up, with 5 rods hooked up on big hounds of which two snapped up purely because we couldn't get to them in time, !! but it is difficult when that happens because most were hire rods, we didn't have time to re-tackle the rods but after a sort lull in proceeding, Nicola shot back into the wheelhouse and quickly re-tackled the destroyed terminal rigs that had been involved in what can only be described, hound carnage ....lol
After a few hours, the bites did subside, and I said to the guys, we need to move from this spot and go about half a mile east to catch up with these fish, and get back into it again, but they said they were fairly tired out, and as much fun as it was could we now go for Thornbacks...!!!! (see Ron, some people still like them ..lol)
So we mover around 3.5 miles to the South West a bit of ground I have not fished for 10 years, but I was banking on the fact things usually stay the same, and we were not disappointed, first fish up was a lovely 13 lbs Roker, the a string of Thornback's followed in a nice constant flow giving me and Nicola a well earned rest, from the manic onslaught the Smoothound attack...lol it was like a scene form Zulu Dawn...lol.
Right.... now down to the hero to zero story...!!
Yesterday our party wanted to have a serious go for the big Tope, boy did we have the right conditions for it.
We departed Bradwell at 0700 and headed out a very long way, even by our standards, we had a tide just on the verge, of the start of the ebb, fresh baits blue skies zero wind, the water was like tap water, and confidence was high.
Once the tide started to flow properly, we were further encouraged by seeing a lot of Cuttlefish bones floating past, with small triangular teeth marks in, so we knew we were in the right area, so just a matter of time..... Time...... more time.... but nothing, with the tide now pushing through quite hard, I decided to make a move a couple of miles NW to a know hot spot..!!! this'll do it I thought, after 15 mins with nice fresh baits on we had a pick up..!!! we got ready for the first run... but the fish just dropped the bait, and that was it... we didn't see a Tope all day, we had some hounds on another rod we put out while waiting for the main event, and some Thornback Rays, plenty of Doggies... but sadly no Tope.
It just goes to show you can have everything just right good bait evidence these large predators are right in the area, but they just wont play..... and that' Tope fishing For you, but the boys fish right on till the end with no complaints they new the score before we went, but I take my hat off the specimen hunters who stick it out, fish or no fish ...!!! I think it helped that England were victorious over Wales which the match was on our 32 inch flat screen tv so they didn't have to miss the footie....lol
Ok guys, a day off today to catch up on life before tomorrow, when it all starts again..... So there you have it we don't always have startling days, sometimes it just don't happen, and I think you should tell of the days when it all goes pear-shaped and not always bells and whistles ..... Hero to Zero, .. it happens...
Tight lines....
