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  • 12/2014 Fishing Report by Adam Shaw on Warrior (Chichester, West Sussex)

    Dec 2014 by Adam Shaw

    Report on-board Warrior

    Here we are at the end of another year, with only two weeks left until our last trip of 2014, it is time to sit down and evaluate the past few months.

    2014 was our first season working out of Chichester Marina, this has worked well for both us and our customers, with the easy access to the boat, the free parking, and the cafe that has provided us with bacon or sausage baps in the mornings and a beer upon our return

    After the winter gales and unsettled weather, our spring season got off to a good start. We had warmer sea temperatures, meaning the fish didn't need much encouragement to come inshore.
    Our first few trips of the year we were fishing for rays. We found many rays, including Blondes, Undulates, Small eyed, Thornbacks and Spotted rays. None of them were massive however the biggest were a 14lb Undulate and a 10lb Small Eyed. There were still a few congers and cod around at the end of March and April, which added variety to our days fishing. The 3rd of April Saw our first couple of Bream landed on our first half day trip of the year, this was the start of our summer season.....

    We had fantastic weather this year, it felt like a proper summer, and we had very few cancellations. The biggest problem, which was for everyone along the South coast, was the lack of mackerel. The marine biologists have put this down to the fact that there was a lack of plankton in the channel at the beginning of the year.
    As there was not much mackerel showing, our half day trips saw us looking a little further afield. Our half day trip customers who come every year, were quite surprised as instead of mackerel they were catching other species such as Dogfish, rays, gurnard, bass, bream, tope and smoothounds with the odd mackerel thrown in.
    The best day on mackerel saw just under 100 being landed with around about 30 bass.
    On the upside we had a few customers achieve their personal bests on Blonde rays, undulates, conger, bass, tope and brill. The boat had 2 new records, which were the biggest conger of 75lb, and two days of around about 70 tope each day.

    At the end of August we saw our first run of codling and whiting, they were quite small, but still very nice to see that early on in the year.
    September was a slow, hard month, with not much showing apart from the odd small codling or whiting.
    We had a good few days in October with the best day landing 68 sizable bass., and the second best day landing 30 bass. We also had our best day on the rays, with 11 landed in 2 hours, the biggest being a 17lb undulate.

    The winter fishing has seen us catching a lot of little whiting, the odd codling and a few rays. However Adam and I have both had 18lb cod on the boat, which has made us feel a little better.
    So overall this year was disappointing, but with the abundance of codling, it has made us look forward to next year already.

    As we say though, a bad days fishing is better than a good day at work.

    We will be keeping one boat in the water until late January, so if you fancy catching a big cod, then please contact Adam on 07900 086085.

    We look forward to seeing you all next year.

    Bex

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