Spoils report friday 13th October

[Lookfar]

Hi folks,
Well, the weather held good and we finally got afloat on friday. I was up early for once and made the slip by 8am. My crewman Simon was already there, but John didn't arrive until we were just about launched. That didn't happen in a rush. I'd arrived to find Mark and John, Lady Christine's crew, looking rather pessimistically at the enormous mound of shingle that covered the top of the slip. Since it was low water, we'd at least be able to get a run at it coming out with the empty trailer but when we got back in at high water we'd be looking at trouble. John volunteered his Pajero for launch duties and we went for it. Lady C went in the water and the Pajero emerged with the empty trailer on the second attempt. John then kindly put SeaMouse in as well, as there was no way my low-slung Subaru was ever getting over the heap of shingle.
We then followed them out to the Spoils over a gentle chop. I detoured over to a couple of wrecks along the way just to show my crew them, catching up with the others again after a stern chase over several miles. It was dead slack when we arrived and I repulled the anchor and went on the drift to let the tide pick up a bit first. Nothing came on feathers but there was some surface activity and fish following lures. Then we settled in uptide of the Cuba and started feeding down baits and groundbait to try and draw some fish out of the metalwork. It worked, I started landing some nice pout of 1lb plus. A much heavier fish gave my 12/20 rod a severe workout and we'd already guessed it was a conger before it surfaced well downtide. On the surface it started spinning and that was too much for the 50lb hooklength to stand. Hard to say how big, but not less than 20lb and would have been a new PB for sure. Simon got bitten off, and shifted to wire traces but I stuck with the 50lb pennel rigs. Next fish was too frisky for a conger, so with Lady Christine having already reported a 4lb bass we were hoping for a flash of silver to show. What we got was silver and brown, a good pout and a 5lb bass sharing the same pennel rig. The pout was done for, with a bloody eye, so it looks like it was hooked up when the bass smacked it one and caught the free hook. I wasn't complaining, that one made my day
Simon was blanking heavily at this point, with John pointing out from his perch in the cuddy that they were neck and neck even though he wasn't fishing. Cruel! Finally Simon hooked up and started to slowly pump up a fish that started out pretty lively then largely just gave up. He was on a light rod and with the tide screaming through was taking things steadily. However, I then spotted that the lines were creeping back under the boat, the anchor was slipping! Simon was encouraged to hurry things up a bit before we dragged into the wreck, and he piled on the pressure and up came a neatly balled up dogfish. Disappointment evaporated as we realised the size of the thing, it was the first bullhuss I've seen from this area and conservatively estimated at 6lb though it barely got a glance and a quick snapshot before being dropped back as I was in something of a rush to rescue my anchor.
After a social call on the Lady Christine (they were enduring a blank spell after the earlier bass and conger), we hazarded a guess at re-anchoring the same spot. Nothing more of note came out, just a run of genuine dogfish and a few more jumbo pout. We also had a few huge swells go through, the kind where you look up and find the horizon has simply vanished.
As the tide eased, things went dead. I tried further out but the wind was over-riding the last of the flood and making life difficult, no bites were being registered and I was quite happy to call a halt. Lady Christine had brought a huge conger to the boatside on their last drop, estimated at 35lb, so they were more than happy and led us home at a fair pace across the swell.
Back on the slip, the tide had not reached the mound of gravel and the Pajero simply couldn't get Lady Christine moving. With the trailer disconnected we then couldn't get the Pajero back either. In the end, we needed to bring in John's Mitsubishi truck to pull the Pajero out then we could rope out Lady Christine. For SeaMouse we didn't mess around, we roped the cars in line and came out on dual 4x4 power. That does it for me, I'm going back to the Hayling side where at least you only have to contend with ill-mannered jetski owners.
Cracking good day in all. We met Karl (squidlips) at the top of the slip and had a brief chat. Nice to meet you mate, apologies if I was a bit distracted we were running well over time by then!

Steve

[pingu]

great report steve
unlucky on the conger but a great double shot to make up
well done
dave

[fishypaul]

great report lookfar,well done

[Lookfar]

Originally Posted by pinguprogress

great report steve
unlucky on the conger

I was happy enough Dave, I'd got it up to the surface on a 12/20 rod and at least got a glimpse of it. We'd only have T-barred it off at the side anyway.

Steve

[plugger]

great read mate and well done on fish.

plugger

[squidlips]

nice to meet you steve.
the council cleaned the slip before 6am on saturday and we have been told the contractors are supposed to clear it every day.we were also told the contractor has been put on watch to make sure it is cleaned as per their contract so it should not be a problem anymore.
two club boats fished the north edge of the spoils on saturday they caught tope to 30lb and loads of smoothounds.
you made the right choice by going friday as it was apparently quite rough by saturday lunch time.

[Norfolkboy]

Brilliant report Steve and well done

[Solent Fisher]

Originally Posted by Lookfar

That does it for me, I'm going back to the Hayling side where at least you only have to contend with ill-mannered jetski owners.

Hi Steve,
Good report mate. I haven't managed to get out for ages! I would never leave the Hayling side but then again i don't drive a 4x4 so couldnt even if i wanted to! Jet skis not so bad plus Pub lets you park up all day for a fiver at weekends if its busy or free during the week when its quiet.

James

[Lookfar]

Originally Posted by Solent Fisher

Good report mate. I haven't managed to get out for ages! I would never leave the Hayling side but then again i don't drive a 4x4 so couldnt even if i wanted to!

Hi James,
Thought I'd not heard from you in a while. Want me to nudge you next time we go??
You just about can launch Eastney side without 4x4, I used to use an Escort. Even a hint of gravel though and life gets VERY tricky.

Steve

[Lookfar]

Originally Posted by squidlips

nice to meet you steve.
the council cleaned the slip before 6am on saturday and we have been told the contractors are supposed to clear it every day.two club boats fished the north edge of the spoils on saturday they caught tope to 30lb and loads of smoothounds.
you made the right choice by going friday as it was apparently quite rough by saturday lunch time.

Hi Karl,
Good to know the slip should be cleared from here on but I think I'll try and check with you through the forum before the next time. If we have to up stumps and go round to Hayling it loses us a good 30 minutes fishing time.
Interesting to see there's still hounds and tope around. We had a few hardbacks with us on friday but didn't get round to sending them for a swim.

Steve