The Fishing

Spring Fishing

Our spring fishing is mainly the pursuit of bass, early smooth hounds, late cod and huge amounts of thornback rays.
Most of these fish are caught fairly close inshore as they are here to feed on the crabs that peel on the chalk ledges that Thanet is famous for.
Ideal tackle for this is a medium weight uptiding outfit, although downtiding with a medium weight rod (20 lb max ) can also be very effective.
The main bait needed is of course live peeler crab, which Dave can supply at cost, with a few days notice.

Early Summer

The cross over time from spring to early summer is always exciting, as many of the migraitory species now get firmly established. Early mackeral show up and hot in pursuit are the larger bass.
Many of the species that have been inshore looking for crab now move further offshore looking for alternative foods such as the huge shoals of sandeels and launce that populate the sandbanks. The Goodwin sands are world famous as "ship swallowers", but what is less well known is the huge amount of food they hold for hungry fish!
Mainly we anchor and fish into or over the banks, this normally produces good results with bass showing at the tops of the banks and smooth hounds and thornbacks in the gullies. The best fishing technique for this is downtiding, but the secret is in the weights! Enough is needed to hold bottom but you must be light enough to be able to trot back in the tide to find the fish holding areas.
Also during early summer some of the offshore wrecks come alive with huge amounts of cod. when the weather permits this can be electrifying fishing, but also quite demanding, as you wont get a rest!
Ideal tackle for early summer wreck codding is a heavy uptider or a long light boat rod( 20 lb max). Mainly we use either shads on a short trace or jellyworms or artificial eels on a longer trace.

High Summer

What a super time! either relax and enjoy the weather and being out at sea, or get serious and lets go get `em! we are so fortunate in having a huge range of target species this time of year. Bass are prolific both inshore and off. large numbers of smoothhounds give super sport, without travelling huge distances, giving more fishing time. if offshore wrecking pulls your string we can certainly help. we have access to many wrecks that hold good conger, along with black bream. for these trips a mid sized or neap tide is prefered. these trips to the deep water wrecks often throw up some nice surprises this time of year in the form of large turbot. they often shock a conger angler by taking a mackeral flapper, but these large flatties (10 to 30lb) are actually quite prolific in the scour holes around some of the wrecks and they certainly make for a fabulous meal !

This time of year sees huge shoals of mackeral invade, not only do they provide a good bit of dependable sport but they also make a number one bait.
we have a livebait tank for keeping these and the launce alive. They both make super bass bait, either for inshore or for drifting the wrecks.
BIG BLONDES, now ive got your attention! yep, these magnificent rays show in fair numbers this time of year. Mackeral is the bait. The fishing can be a waiting game, but the results are worthwhile, with fish in excess of 35lbs possible. These are best tackled with a conger outfit, and dont forget your butt pad. You haven't experienced real pain until a big ray kites in the full bore of the tide !!

Autumn/Winter

Gradually the mackeral move off, back down the channel and the seasons start to change. At this time we can set our sights on many species. The water is at its warmest now and there are fish everywhere! Most of the predominately summer species will stay untill october/november. Tbe bass now over winter in our area in fair numbers, late Autumn sees the arrival of the whiting inshore and close behind them the prized cod. The early fish usually show at the southern end of our area as the weeks go on and we move into winter proper the cod range extends and they are found all across our area depending on the wind direction we can either go north and up into the Thames Estuary or south, towards Deal and Dover. During this period of least daylight we are lucky in having fabby fishing just a short steam away. the area known as the Broadstairs Knolls always produces fish. it may seem strange not heading over the horizon, but during january & feb there is really no need. large numbers of codling roam over these grounds hunting the sandeels and sprats that live here. great sport can be had using light tackle. all that is needed is an uptiding outfit or a 20 lb class downtde outfit.these fish arent usually large. mainly in the 2 to 5 lb class, but they are a welcome catch and the perfect table size.