Not often that we get the weather that enables us to get where we want to go at this time of year out of Brighton, today with near perfect conditions we had our pick of wrecks and the guys onboard made the most of it.
Pete Stotesbury was top rod (that's not unusual!) with a personal tally of 13 high quality Pollock, the best nudging 13lb but everyone got in on the action with 40+ fish kept, plenty into double figures and no fishing trip is complete without a few of "The one that got away" tales! We had quite a few today including bite-offs on 25lb leader with some very hard fighting fish lost.
A beautiful day to be out on the Ocean with a wonderful crew, glorious sunshine , calm sea and plenty of high quality fish..... wreck fishing at its best, a huge thank you to all for a wonderful day.
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
2024 brigand 1st trip
First trip of 2024 for ustoday and the target species was Pollock.
Always exciting to be heading out for the first trip of a new season so with a fantastic crew onbaord, full tanks of fuel, a determination to keep our 8 year, 100% catch rate intact we headed South in near perfect conditions.
Water clarity is vital when targetting Pollock with lures and we could see the colour changes from 3 miles away, really stark .......and really positive as inshore clarity was poor to extremely poor.
The first fish aboard was not particularly inspiring, a rather surprised looking Pouting! Then the guys got into it - 3 double figure fish on the bounce with probably the deepest Pollock that we have ever seen expertly boated by Max..... looked more like a Cod with a hugely distended belly, very unusual. A smattering of smaller Pollock in the 4-7lb range as we worked out around the wrecks before heading in before the forecast F5 on the nose kicked in.
All in all, a solid start to the season with a wonderful crew and plenty of valuable intelligence gathered.
Huge thanks to all who fished with us today, was an absolute pleasure sharing time at sea with you all.
Best wishes
An early start for us today in order to get the best of the weather before what looked like a stiff Southwesterly kicked in - turned out to be the right call!
A glorious, if somewhat moody, sunrise greeted us as we headed across the shipping lanes and into deep water in search of Pollock. This time of year can be fickle with the bigger fish generally appearing later in Winter/early spring but we had a fantastic crew aboard, conditions were great and once clarity improved it was looking good.
Fish to the boat from the off and a steady stream of very high quality fish throughout the day. The weather began to deteriorate around midday by which time we were way out to the SW so a very comfy ride in.
Didn't quite manage to get into double figure fish, 9 1/2lb was the best of the day, very respectable for this time of year and my thanks to a wonderful crew, an absolute pleasure fishing with today guys
We will be running more wrecking trips throughout Winter but ONLY when conditions are very good and at very short notice so keep an eye on here for those. This weekend Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd looking fantastic weather & tide so we are out both days split into part drifting for Pollock and part anchored for Pollock/Bream/Bass and perhaps even an early Cod. Bait can be supplied upon request
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
Busy day again offshore with a 12hr Turbot/Brill & Bass trip. Approx 60 Turbot & Brill and 20 Bass along with some cracking Blonde rays and 1/2 dozen other species.
We will soon be targeting the Big Bream and Nick had a little scout today with his Offshore Bream rig - Happy to confirm that they are where we suspected they would be at this time of year and they are certainly Big! We have a few spaces available on these specialist Big Bream trips, checkout the calendar on our website for dates.
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
Well ........ We suspected they were here when last year we were spooled on an offshore wreck and knew that they were here when we watched one take a Turbot from the side of the boat but today we landed our first Porbeagle Shark..... what an amazing fish!
To be clear we were not targeting Shark, just another day merrily boating Turbot & Brill as we do at this time of year when Rhys's rod doubled over. A 20lb mono - leader V a whole lot of teeth, well, it didn't look good at that stage. Nick took over the rod, lightened up the drag and we had a tussle on our hands!
Absolutely thrilled to see such a stunning and very, very rare fish for us in East Sussex.
Like many anglers Nick and I started out fishing ponds, lakes & rivers as kids where you pretty much know what your going to catch. The draw of deep-sea fishing for us is the unknown, or more accurately knowing that you always have a chance of catching something exceptional........ Rhys did just today.
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
A 4am post because that is just about the only time we have to do it - we have been super-busy!
Offhsore wrecking yesterday and a pleasure to welcome father & Son Mark & Alex who travelled down to us from glorious N.Wales in search of Cod & Pollock, they were not disappointed and really pleased to see them heading back home with both after a beautiful day at sea. The fishing machine which is Simon Clark was also with us and landed Cod, Pollock and Bass ...... nothing new there!
Fantastic to see the offshore wreck fishing remaining so consistent this late.
A well needed break for us coming up with some family & friends time planned - just need to get through the next couple of days which consist of 1 Offshore trip and 5 inshore trips. Busy is good, manic not so good!
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
Great to see the Cod still around in reasonable numbers today - currently boating Cod, Bass & Pollock on offshore wrecking trips...... more avid than Pollock this month and I don't think we would be saying that!
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
More COD than POLLOCK, more BASS than COD more TURBOT than BASS…… a perfect days Offshore fishing
Had the pleasure of Fishing with Phil & Jonty Drewe today and what a fantastic day it was.…. even the skipper managed a few!
It’s that time of year when everything comes alive offshore and the biggest decision we have is which of these wonderful fish to target. Our calendar reflects the species that we plan to catch on each trip (we have never failed to do that in 7 years and over 1,000 trips) but we are always open to adjusting plans on the day to suit anglers requests …..and with the Turbot season officially open
that choice just got considerably more difficult!
We still have some availability for the season so if you fancy an excellent day out at sea catching some of these stunning fish drop us a line
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
The fantastic Bream fishing continues with each trip delivering plenty of fantastic fish to 3 1/2lb.
We will soon be moving onto Bass trips and targeting Brill & Turbot as Spring moves into Summer, exciting time ahead!
More stunning Bream today for our anglers. Mike led the way with a cracking first fish of the day but another 35 followed.
Limited opportunities to target these so if you want to get aboard you have 2 weeks before we move into the Bass & Turbot.
Bream fishing has been excellent the last week so now is the time to get out with us if you want some of these hard fighting great eating fish.
A 2 day catch report
Saturday - having hauled in plenty of decent Bream down West Friday with novice anglers we headed back again Saturday with very experienced anglers and plenty of the right bait to give it a good working over ….and with high expectations; they were quickly shattered! A couple of average Bream in as many hours so with little prospect of it improving we upped anchor and blasted out deep for some wrecking (which has been excellent). Caught the back end of the flood, slack, start of ebb so not ideal and the results were the same - A few small Pollock for a whole lot of effort/miles. A fantastic crew, a beautiful day the only thing missing was decent fish. Such a strange day, very rare for us but scant consolation for those onboard for the day and so sorry that you had to experience that.
Sunday (today) - normal service resumed, well kind of! A dense fog all day offshore (which looked like it was going to burn off but never did) saw us undertake 8hrs of Radar Nav with reduced speed to suit conditions and a significant alteration of our plan for the day. The result was a steady flow of god fish, a few decent doubles amongst them and our first Cod of the season to Tom. Lovely to have Mark and his kids along to experience a days wrecking and to see Kieran battle a fin perfect beast to the boat.
A fabulous couple of days with lovely people. The next week looks like a washout so plenty of time to try and figure out what Saturday was all about; such a strange day.
Thanks to all for your company and look forward to fishing with you later in year.
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
A stunning day out on the Ocean again today aboard www.brigandcharters.com
The forecast F5 Easterly was pretty accurate so we hatched a plan to get the best out of the day. A fantastic days wrecking was the result with at least a fish a drift all day and a lovely selection of fin perfect double figure fish in amongst them …….and a fair few lost!
My thanks to the crew for a great day, top angling gentleman and I hope you enjoy your catch.
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
First trip of what is going to be a very busy Season for us today. There is always a hint of trepidation when you haven’t been able to gather intelligence of what wrecks are fishing well and with around 2,000 to choose from off of our East Sussex coastline getting on the right ones, at the right time is absolutely critical.
In 7 years we have never failed to catch the target species on wrecks so we had a good idea where to find the better fish but you never know for sure! We needn’t have worried, we were soon into good fish and the tally kept growing and fish sizes improving throughout the day. Great to see so many fantastic early season fish in excellent condition and some nice doubles amongst them. Best of the day went to Ian that tipped the scales 14lb 6oz and a new PB - well done Ian.
Great to catch-up with some of our regular anglers and to also welcome aboard some other fine chaps new to fishing with us, we look forward to welcoming you aboard again.
We are going to be making the most of this wrecking for the next couple of months before hitting the Bream, Bass, Turbot & Brill so if you would like to join for more of the same drop is a line and we will hook you up.
Species today - Pollock, Coalfish, Gurnard, Whiting and of course no wrecking trip complete without the mighty Pouting!! Lost count of numbers but we were into the second big fish box which is always a good sign.
Thanks all who sailed with us today and well done on your catches.
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
Squid fishing on fire at present so if your keen to get a few of these Big boys drop us a message.
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
Our first go at the Offshore Bream this year and really pleasing to see such a great stamp of fish. The brisk Northerly wind which was forecast to fade (it didn’t!) made anchoring the boat in the right place a little challenging but we got there.
Bass are everyone at the moment and we picked them up as by-catch on mackerel feathers, lures and baits as a bonus.
We have more of these Offshore Bream trips scheduled for the year so if you fancy bagging yourself a few of these fantastic table fish drop us a line.
Great bunch aboard today, always nice to welcome a few new faces as well as our regulars that we of course enjoy welcoming back. A special thanks to Andrew Kennedy who between catching Conger, Bass, Bream & Mackerel proved to be a very capable crew
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
Just as things start hotting up on the Turbot, Brill and Cod front we get hit by winds that are just too strong for us to get out and fish in comfort…. How frustrating!
On the upside, great to see Cod in decent numbers and this blow won’t do any harm on that front so anticipate a strong September & October on both the flatties and Cod.
We still have a few spaces remaining on scheduled trips this year but will not be adding any additional dates before we end the season in 7 weeks time so if you want to get some Turbot, Cod, Bream before the end of the year take a look at our booking calendar and drop us a line.
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
We are focusing on Turbot with decent results. Expect the fishing to continue to improve into October. We have built a reputation for delivering on the flatties over the years so if you fancy getting amongst them get in touch.
Best wishes
Steve
More amazing Bream fishing for us yesterday with consistently high quality fish.
Another great day out on the wrecks with plenty of decent double figure Pollock and the odd Codling thrown in for good measure.
Very little availability for the remainder of the year and no additional dates being added so if you would like to join us you had better get booked on.
Best wishes
The last of 5 consecutive days at sea and what a lovely way to complete this block of fishing! Another Bream trip to the rocks in search of some Spring fish and the crew absolutely nailed it! Frantic at times, slower at others but the general quality of fish was extremely high. Colin (pictured) is probably feeling pretty pooped right now, he seemed to be into a fish every couple of minutes and most were of a similar and fantastic stamp to this one…… very well done Col.
Fun and laughter all day from an outstanding group, great fish for the table and a happy crew - perfect days inshore fishing.
Best wishes
The last two days we have had the pleasure of Julian and his crew. Great bunch of guys who have been regulars since their first trip to France with us. These two days had been pencilled in as a French trip but a combination of Brexit & Covid meant that was not viable so we headed out far for more Bass action….. and it was predictably crazy!
9 fish on some drifts, double hook-up’s on the jig assist hooks of both mackerel and Bass, the action was non-stop. Getting through the smaller fish was a struggle at times, plagued by 3-4lb fish but they managed to get the bigger ones in the end.
We struggled for bait at times as the Bass were nailing feathers so we moved away only to hit shoal after shoal of massive mackerel and let me tell you a 2lb mackerel puts up a fair scrap!
Two long, tiring but fantastic days with wonderful crew and stunning fish……. Just about perfect
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
So ……. another fantastic crew and another day of Bass chaos, monster mackerel and multiple hook-ups!
Today was slated as a Turbot trip but I gave the chaps a heads up to be prepared to alter plans. A short pow-wow in the morning, tank full of fuel and a football match to get back for the decision was unanimous - gun it out for the Bass.
Most anglers will never have experienced fishing like this and I was delighted that a consensus was reached so quickly.
Hit the mark bang on time, set the boat up for the drift and we we’re off straight away - 14 good fish on the first drift in a little under 10 minutes …. And that was just the start! Tally for the the day, 72 keeper sized Bass in a little over 90 minutes! Some anglers wanted bigger fish, some returned those over 5lbs, it’s a personal choice and the crew were very responsible in handling fish to be returned…. Well done guys.
Once Bass quota was reached we turned to those
Monster mackerel and we’re not disappointed - again more fish around the 2lb mark and lots of medium sized fish around 1 1/2lb and once again gratifying that the crew only wanted to keep 2-3 each when they could have taken dozens.
Our day was almost done but just enough time to boat a couple of Turbot to round off another outstanding day.
Thanks all for an excellent day at sea, if the England football guys perform as well as you did today we will be in for a treat
Best wishes
www.brigandbrighton.com
Another long day at Sea for us today targeting Bass & Flatties with Dave and his regular crew of fabulous guys- always look forward to catching-up with these chaps.
We have been doing really well on the Bass of late so offered them the chance to do both Bass and Flatties in the same trip. There is a risk that when you take on multiple species on the same trip that you may end up doing both badly and it is often better to focus on just the one…….. but they didn’t have that problem!
Bass fishing was slightly slower than previous trips but still plenty of excellent fishing and the job was done with time to spare and a couple of decent Tub Gurnard as a bonus.
Plenty of big mackerel around so we nabbed a few of them before setting our sights on the flatties. Deano couldn’t put a foot wrong boating Brill & Turbot including a clonker right at the end.
Another glorious day to be far out on the Ocean, a few sunburned faces and plenty of smiles all around.
Thank you Dave & Co for a wonderful day and well done on your fine multi-species haul
Very few places left for this year I’m afraid but there are a couple of spots available if you would like to experience a fishing day like this drop us a line
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
Another long day at Sea for us today targeting Bass & Flatties with Dave and his regular crew of fabulous guys- always look forward to catching-up with these chaps.
We have been doing really well on the Bass of late so offered them the chance to do both Bass and Flatties in the same trip. There is a risk that when you take on multiple species on the same trip that you may end up doing both badly and it is often better to focus on just the one…….. but they didn’t have that problem!
Bass fishing was slightly slower than previous trips but still plenty of excellent fishing and the job was done with time to spare and a couple of decent Tub Gurnard as a bonus.
Plenty of big mackerel around so we nabbed a few of them before setting our sights on the flatties. Deano couldn’t put a foot wrong boating Brill & Turbot including a clonker right at the end.
Another glorious day to be far out on the Ocean, a few sunburned faces and plenty of smiles all around.
Thank you Dave & Co for a wonderful day and well done on your fine multi-species haul
Very few places left for this year I’m afraid but there are a couple of spots available if you would like to experience a fishing day like this drop us a line
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
Well what a day! Headed out on one of our long distance trips today to an area we usually fish on our French trips and which has never failed to throw up excellent fish when conditions permit - today’s crew hit the Bass Jackpot! I’ve never seen so many, good quality fish in such high numbers. At times the chaps were pulling up strings of 6lb Bass on feathers 3 at a time, and they were the smaller ones………..it was absolutely insane fishing!
Great company, great fishing and now I’m in need of some sleep!
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
After the last 3 days boating Bass, Cod and Pollock on the offshore wrecks today was a far more relaxed affair! Target was inshore Bream and as this was our first go at these this year there was a hint of trepidation - would we find them in the numbers and the sizes we wanted? Well that was soon answered and a really fun filled, non-stop, fishy day saw us boating around 150 Bream, a dozen or so Plaice and few beautiful wrasse. We always observe our local IFCA recommendations on sizes and really pleased to see this year not just minimum take sizes but also maximum sizes recommended. These bigger fish have avoided predation, disease and (until this point !) capture; the DNA of these fish allied to the fact the egg production of larger females grows exponentially is a very important factor when considering fishery conservation.
Great weather, great fish, great company so a wonderful day all around and I finally had an opportunity to have a proper fish and ended up in a head to head contest with Mark Pantony who between catching Plaice and Wrasse boated a pb tally of 28 Bream - do correct me if I’m wrong Mark! It was hilarious banter, great competition and most of all wonderful to see an angler who through sheer grit and determination had developed both offshore and inshore angling techniques to that level..... I smell a fishy Rob Robin Howard
A very chilled day and great to catch up with out friends who fish regularly and to meet a few new ones who I hope we see again, a real pleasure sharing time with you all today and Mrs Brigand is extremely pleased to have a few Bream in the fridge!
We do not have any full boat availability for this year but do have limited individual places for Cod, Bass, Pollock, Turbot, Bream & Tope so if you would like to join us availability can be viewed here www.brigandcharters.com
No photo’s today I’m afraid - I was too busy trying to keep pace with with Mark and his diabolical, underhand tricks () - besides, pretty sure you all will know what a Black Bream looks like
Best wishes
Another fabulous day out in the deeps with a bunch of top chaps. I thought I would steal Paul Coventry report of the day (apologies Paul!), refreshing to have an anglers view of a days fishing with us instead of ours;
Catch report 29/5/21.
It's been a good days fishing. All of our guys caught. First stop was a bass mark then onto a bass wreck. Schoolies Initially but then a better stamp of fish around the 5lb mark saw several keepers. On again and we were into pollack. Again some smaller ones that were still mostly keepers but Ian Hamilton latched into and boated a 10lb plus fish , 10-4 rings a bell, only to be outdone by Andrew Kennedy with a 14lb 9oz PB. We then saw a couple of cod come on board....to Ian and Andrew again!
In all I guess around 20 keepers in the ice box and a nice sunny day afloat!
Thanks as always to Steve and Nick at Brigand Brighton .
Well done Andrew on his Pb Pollock and to those who took Bass, Cod & Pollock today - some excellent angling
Best wishes
Www.brigandcharters.com
Fantastic to be out on the water again after some pretty poor weather and great to
Welcome back Peter and his crew, always a pleasure sharing time with these guys.
Day started on a little inshore Bass hunt before heading offshore. Bumped into our resident Bass expert and mentioned that we wouldn’t be hanging around as we targeting Cod and couldn’t hang around. Rob picked up a nice Bass around 5lb and off we went. Pretty steady stat with a fish or two a drift and a good mix of Bass & Pollock, slack water and things slowed which signalled the time to move to the Cod wrecks. Some
beautiful prime Spring Cod boated and the odd Pollock as the tide built before heading home...... its great to be back at it
www.Brigandcharters.com
What a strange day. We cast-off in the midst of a snow shower under heavy skies and ended the day in the gentlest of breezes with the Sun on our back ..... and experienced everything in between! Wind was stronger than forecast offshore and with a big tide that just amplified the sea state, so for a while it was difficult fishing and rewards were just not worth the challenging conditions. A change of plan, course alteration and we were in business! Always great to see anglers battling doubles and we had 3 or 4 of those today, also dropped a couple but we will pick them up on Thursday
Paul and Andrew picked up last minute places aboard today’s trip and both landed double figure fish, think Paul had a couple.
Crew, well what can I say, all lovely chaps and a huge thank you for your company today, always lovely to catch-up with those that fish regularly with us and I’m sure we will be seeing more of Paul & David in future.
Highlight of the day....... The fantastic doubles and of course Bob’s Bakewell tarts!!
We have 1 space available this Thursday for wrecking so if would like a go at these hard fighting Pollock on the offshore wrecks just get in touch.
Best Wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
Another stunning day out on the water today with a wonderful crew. Conditions were as predicted and the very early start certainly paid dividends with a steady stream of good quality fish coming to the net. A little quiet over slack but as ebb kicked in we were off again.
Thanks to the crew for the great company and the artisan food which was absolutely delicious.
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
Great to blow the cobwebs away and get out onto the wrecks. Some fantastic fishing with Pollock to 15lb. A combination of the seasonal change and weather means that realistically we probably have another 5 trips to target fish of this quality before moving onto Bream and then Turbot.
If you would like to join us please get in touch and we will do our best to accommodate.
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
Made the most of a narrow weather window and headed offshore today to target some flatties. A fantastic group of anglers onboard who managed the conditions admirably. Pete led the way with a personal tally of 9 Turbot & Brill - excellent angling by a bloody nice bloke.
Sarron Ward left things late to boat a beautiful Brill and Damien Gary Marc Pantony got things together to land a steady stream of fish including 2 lovely Turbot.
Heavy weather forecast for the next week so unlikely we will be getting out...... sooo frustrating!
Our 2021 dates are now loaded and we have a new booking system coming online later this week which, I hope, will make the booking process easier and quicker with reduced burden my end so please keep an eye out for that.
Best wishes
www.brigandbrighton.com
Another cracking day out on the Ocean with plenty of action on the flatties. Total of 18 Turbot & Brill today to the merry crew who will be dining on the King of fish this evening
Best wishes
Another stunning day out here with a great bunch of guys and seriously good anglers.
Some more very nice Turbot & Brill, total for the day was 12 and a couple of Cod off the wrecks for god measure.
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
Another cracking day out here aboard Brigand with a nice of mix of Bass, Pollock, Codling, Gurnard, our jumbo Mackerel and of course Turbot. Fozzie was top rod today with 4 Turbot which included this beautiful 9lb 8oz specimen Fozzie.
With fishing like this I might just be tempted to lay on another trip this Friday.
Best wishes
An interesting week before wind stopped play - the banks have started to come alive and plenty of variety out there, best day we boated 14 Turbot, also lost the biggest Tub Gurnard we have ever seen at the net (est. at around 7lb) and the first ever Monkfish we have landed. Only a tiddler and safety returned but great to see such a unique fish. Our jumbo Mackerel have been present in numbers, 45cm has not been unusual on last weeks trips and at that size a tremendous fish for the table.
We have had to cancel our plans to fish our way over to France this weekEnd but still have 3 more scheduled for 2020 so fingers crossed Weather will be kinder to us on those.
Super day out in the Channel again today. Slated as a Turbot day but conditions really not suited. We did have a small window and managed to bag a couple of Flatties off the bank in the hour set aside - the rest of the day was all about wrecking. Some more beautiful Cod and Pollock and decent size Tub and Bass as a bonus.
Great bunch of guys who made the day fly past.
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
Yet another stunning day out in the Channel with yet another great bunch of guys.
Nigel Holt was king of wrecks with 7 good Pollock and a Cod to go with his Turbot and Colin topped the Turbot stakes with 3 to go with his Pollock.
We’re spoilt for choice on the fishing front currently and we decided that we would try a bit of Turbot with our wrecking. All target species captured and the Mackerel are also proving much more reliable with strings coming up thick and fast.
A real pleasure fishing with limited numbers and great to see such a great variety of high quality Summer fish.
Best wishes
www.brigandcharters.com
Fantastic day on the wrecks today with non-stop action from start to finish. Great to see ALL anglers going home with plenty of decent Cod & Pollock.