Expectations were mixed as on one hand the quantities of Cod caught in recent weeks has been down, but the size of fish has increased compared to the last couple of years across the Brighton charter fleet, with most of the Cod landed being double figures with a fair few 20lb plus specimens reported.

Anyway, on an easing flood tide, as the Whiting and Dogfish attacked our baits, 13 years old Callum landed the first notable fish of the day – a very respectable 2.5lb Whiting, well done Callum:

Not much happened over slack water but as the ebb got away Andrezj had a decent bite and, after a bit of a tangle, landed a pristine winter cod weighing a couple of ounces over 20lb:

The Whiting and Dogfish kept coming until Darius hooked what was obviously a Cod, which went 12lb:

Things went quiet again for a while until just before home time when, out of the blue, 14 year old Tyler Hallett’s rod arched over with a stormer of a bite. I knew instantly it was a decent Cod, and guided Tyler as he expertly played the fish to the surface. It’s not often a Cod strips line off the drag in relatively shallow water, and there were suggestions of conger amongst the crew as the fight played on – but I knew it was a Cod and kept quiet as Tyler continued to play the fish with natural skill and ability.

Eventually the fish surfaced and I admit I was quietly gobsmacked as I netted this obviously monster Cod. Once aboard the scales were dancing about the mid 30lb bracket, so we arranged for Dave Grinham from the Tackle Box to meet us back on the pontoon for a verified weighing…. this Cod went  34lb exactly!!!! Wow, way to go Tyler, your first EVER Cod, using a hire rod too,  and easily a new boat record for Cod on Grey Viking – wow what a day !!!

Anyway, here are some pictures of the monster Cod:

14 year old Tyler Hallet with 34lb of Brighton Cod

Measuring 45 inches long with a 32 inch girth – wow!!

Skipper is just as delighted too!

Thanks to all the crew for a truly memorable and fun day with an incredible fish of a lifetime for young Tyler and further thanks to Dave at the Tackle Box for coming down to authenticate the Cod on calibrated scales!

The Cod were a decent size too with the vast majority going to double figures and plenty of mid to upper double fish caught too. We had 2 at 19.5lb and things look good for the inshore winter season when these fish are full of roe and pack on the pounds! Here are a few pics, there are more on our Facebook Page if you want to have a look:

19.5lb Cod

Firstly,

80lb Conger

On another note, a few of you who have fished with me before have asked where Mick is. She stopped helping out on the boat at the end of July and we separated as a couple at the end of September. It was a pleasure to introduce Mick to the world of boating and fishing and I’m she’ll use the skills I taught her to good effect on her next project.

Our diary is getting very full for 2010 leading to disappointment for some – especially those looking for weekend dates or good tides. We have some availability on weekdays and a few weekends from September through until the end of the year.

Now is also the time to be thinking about booking for winter Cod. October through until the end of December see’s the best of the winter Cod Fishing, with bigger tides generally the most productive.

We keep our online calendar updated if you want to check available dates. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Edit: I forgot to add that our Individual’s Days on Wednesdays and Fridays are proving to be very popular so if you want to book a space(s) please do get in touch!

Pollack Competition Results

We have also been asked for the Pollack Competition results which are as follows:

Well done to all the prize winners and to all those who took part – see you all next year!!

Following on from my recent post about the new Lowrance StructureScan I now have some more screenshots to show you. These are of a wreck lying 33m down in the English Channel off Brighton. The scans were taken at 8 knots in a moderate sea.

I think these shots are useful to British boat anglers who have mostly had only shots from freshwater American lakes and the like to look at until now. I think these show the technology works at sea!

There are 3 shots of the same wreck – the first is the down scan view, the second is the side scan view and the third is the conventional 2D fishfinder view (albeit this is from the latest Lowrance Broadband sounder – a leap ahead in it’s own right).

Hope you find them useful:

Down Scan View

Side Scan View

2D View – Broadband Fishfinder

We don’t normally fish on these inshore wrecks, but they gave us an opportunity to at least test the equipment and see what kind of images and information we would get, in readiness for use offshore on the deep water wrecks we normally fish on. There has been a lot of hype and rave reviews about this new technology, but most of it has been from small sports boats fishing shallow lakes in the USA. We needed to see what it could do when rolling around in a bit of a sea in the English Channel! All the images were captured at a displacement speed of 8 knots.

In short, we were not disappointed – this technology is certainly a leap forward. It wont turn a bad Skipper into a good one, but in the right hands it will allow an experienced Skipper to fine tune things a bit further on the day when drifting or anchoring a wreck. It will also speed up the process of learning a new wreck, as the side scanning feature will allow you to view the seabed up to 250ft either side of the boat as well as straight down in the conventional way.

Screenshot 1

In this first shot we passed over an inshore wreck known to have trawl nets snagged upon it. You can clearly see the netting on wreck on the side and down scan StructureView (left and top right window). This detail is not picked up by the conventional 2D fishfinder (bottom right window).

Screenshot 2

This screenshot shows a small WW2 landing craft. You can clearly see the structure on both the down and side scan views, a very different look to the conventional fishfinder (again bottom right).

The conventional fishfinder was very good at doing it’s job of showing fish echoes and bottom composition – alas we hadn’t worked out how to record screenshots when we saw some shoals and so don’t have any meaningful images to show you this time. We’ll get some for future posts though as we learn more about how to get the best from the equipment.

We’re often online of an evening, so now you can chat to us on Facebook, Twitter, via this blog, by email or (shock, horror) – on the phone

Looking back through my log we managed an average of 8 decent Cod per trip in January with plenty of double figure fish and the remainder in the 6lb to 8lb class. Our best Cod went 18.5lb caught by yours truly! It seems the commercial quota reductions for 2009 and preceding years have paid dividends and as a consequence the winter cod fishing has been as good as anyone can remember. Commercial quotas have been reduced further still for 2010 and that means a very good future is on the cards with 20lb+ Cod likely to become more commonplace this year and overall numbers of fish continuing to increase.

There have also been plenty of Whiting about to around 2lb in weight and luckily we’ve not been plagued by too many Dogfish. Once again the top bait has been big Cuttle on 8/0 pennel rigs fished downtide. Uptiding has also produced the goods with most anglers opting for black lug and squid cocktail baits when uptide fishing. We also went on a spur of the moment Conger hunt which was very productive and made a nice change! There are plenty of photos in our January Gallery if you want to see more of our catches.

If you’re thinking about a trip next winter I’d suggest you consider late October through until early January for the best of the winter fishing after a lunker Cod!

Looking Ahead to February

We’ve a few more trips booked before our annual refit and maintenance which is from the 8th to 18th February this year. Whilst the boat is out of the water we’re also taking the opportunity to upgrade some of the boats electronics. I’m very excited about this investment and I’ll tell you more about the new equipment and how it will help with our fishing in a future post.

When we go back into the water it’ll be time to start targetting Pollack on the offshore wrecks – some of the most exciting fishing in our part of the world. Our diary is filling up quickly so if you fancy a trip for some Pollack please do get in touch!

We have been getting a lot of enquires from individuals who want to get out and enjoy a days fishing so we have decided that for 2010 we will dedicate every Wednesday just for you guys!!

No need to worry any longer about finding enough mates to fill a whole boat.  Just come along, meet some new people and enjoy some great fishing.

For those of you who work during the week and cannot get time off due to work commitments or maybe you just have a grumpy boss who has no idea that fishing is so much more fun than having to slave away all day we will also try to organize a few days each month to include either a Saturday or Sunday.

We have already enjoyed a few of these trips and they have always proved to be a lot of fun. These trips have been very productive with lots of fish coming aboard.

We always have the kettle on for those of you who enjoy a nice cuppa and at this time of year it great for keeping those finger tips warm.

Both Ray and myself look forward to meeting more of you fellow anglers for some giggles and good fishing.

For any of you Tweeters out there you can find us here: FishingBrighton

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year and hope you’re all looking forward to 2010 as much as we are.

See you soon.

Ray