Outside Days » gosport http://outsidedays.com Bespoke Fieldsports for the Discerning Wed, 02 May 2012 08:33:54 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 Outside Days http://outsidedays.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/outsidedays/favicon-outsidedays.png http://outsidedays.com Bespoke Fieldsports for the Discerning Copyright © Outside Days 2011 office@outsidedays.com (Outside Days) office@outsidedays.com (Outside Days) 1440 http://outsidedays.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/outsidedays/outsidedays_144.jpg Outside Days http://outsidedays.com/wordpress 144 144 Bespoke Fieldsports for the Discerning Outside Days Outside Days office@outsidedays.com no no Seabream Bonanza http://outsidedays.com/2009/06/seabream-bonanza/ http://outsidedays.com/2009/06/seabream-bonanza/#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:20:47 +0000 Howard http://outsidedays.com/?p=128 bream-on-squid.jpg twofer.jpg

Making the most of this year’s unusually good weather, I took the chance to grab another day out with Matt Horne and Martin Broad on Matt’s boat the Optimist. We left Gosport Marina with the early birds, getting a jump on the rest of the fleet, and headed east along the coast to one of Matt’s top marks. Almost as soon as the squid hit the water, we were into a shoal of seabream. Made even more amusing by the fact the boats all around us, some less than 100 yards off our bow, were catching nothing.

Now that day old partridge have turned Martin into the largest broody hen I’ve ever seen, I’m not sure if we will manage to get another day out. Matt keeps leaving tempting messages like someone chumming. Apparently the cod, bass and tope have to be caught to be believed. Martin has a new under keeper, his son George, so now that the rearing field is in capable hands…

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]]> http://outsidedays.com/2009/06/seabream-bonanza/feed/ 0 Smut, blondes and dogs http://outsidedays.com/2009/04/smut-blondes-and-dogs/ http://outsidedays.com/2009/04/smut-blondes-and-dogs/#comments Sat, 18 Apr 2009 21:04:58 +0000 Howard http://outsidedays.com/?p=126 martin-blonde-ray.jpg george-smiles.jpg

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.

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