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One of the advantages to being a sporting agent (or for that matter a ‘keeper) is being able to take advantage of sport close to home in between sporting seasons and foreign jaunts. I joined ‘keeper Martin, his son and underkeeper George for a day out with Captain Matt Hone on his boat Optimist based out of Gosport. In the middle of a week of wind and cloud, we were blessed with a balmy almost breathless day for sport. Small tides and great weather meant Matt took the opportunity to visit marks well offshore…18 miles, to be precise. Our target species for the day were the big blonde rays.
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Excellent mark selection, and not a small amount of luck on the fisherman’s part had Martin reeling in the first fish, a 13lb blonde ray, with in five minutes. Why luck? With 6 lines out, Martin had the second fish five minutes later…another blonde ray, this one a stonking 17lbs (although with the UK record at 32, he has some way to go). I had a lovely smoothound at 14 lbs (28lbs is the UK record). Many dogfish later, and George got stuck into the first tope of Matt’s season, a welcome harbinger of the coming summer at an impressive 22lbs (although we will be pointing out that at around a quarter of the record 80lb fish, he has some work to do to catch his father up).
Matt will be running his trips for groups and individuals all through the year, and I can’t recommend his service and his local knowledge of marks highly enough. We’re heading out after bream, weather permitting, later in the week.
