Bothrops
Member
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2022
- Messages
- 25
- Reaction score
- 120
- Points
- 28
- Location
- Christchurch
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
As an oldish git please indulge me as I delve into some shore fishing nostalgia. I started shore fishing seriously as a teenager back in the sixties around Portsmouth where the favourite marks were Gillkicker, Stokes Bay, Eastney, Hayling Island and last but by no means least Pompey harbour.
No surprise that the main species were bass, flounders, plaice pouting, whiting and the occasional dogfish and codling. In those days smoothhound were never caught from local beaches, ever, nor were rays of any description. I think that start of the smoothhound bonanza, particularly around the Selsey area a few decades ago,must have coincided with the arrival to our shores of spider crabs, a species again that never featured at all back in the day. Maybe the same conclusion can be drawn about ray fishing but I have no real idea.
From Pompey we occasionally ventured down to Taddiford and Hordle which then had good reputations for sole and even maybe a small eyed ray or two but today rays are by comparison quite prolific all along the Solent coast which again was never the case back then. Strap congers now seem to feature regularly, a species once normally associated with deep water rocky coasts, but now they seem to turn up everywhere even from open sandy beaches. Maybe I was a rubbish angler but in those early days back in the sixties and seventies neither I nor any of my fishing pals ever caught a ray, smoothhound or conger from the local beaches.
Pompey harbour around the Tipner firing range was an absolute banker for plentiful flounder some of which regularly exceeded 3lbs and sport was more or less guaranteed with hardly any blank sessions during the prime months of November and December. How different it is today with the pot bait boys having almost wiped them out as a reliable catch.Casting and beach gear were also areas where change has been phenomenal due to the inevitable march of progress. Back then beachcasters we’re usually soft or brutally stiff and fishing with old Mitchell multipliers guaranteed hours spent untangling birds nests!
Then along came ABU multipliers and suddenly things became a bit more manageable as far as casting was concerned. I remember what a dream it was to cast with my first ABU 7000. All the top anglers like John Darling, Clive Gammon and Lesley Moncrieff were making headlines with their cod catches at Dungeness where hundred yard plus casts were needed to reach the “dustbin” an area where the cod congregated. Thus was born the pendulum cast and rods designed to exploit it. Unfortunately many of these stiff beasts like the Conolon and Zziplex Dream Machines were unforgiving in the hands of normal mortals and not optimised for fixed spool reels, so 100 yard casts with bait remained a distant dream for the majority of anglers who were confined to the overhead thump and modest distances. Fast forward to recent times and we now have ultra effective, long 14ft and 15ft beachcasters that allow anglers using that same restrictive overhead thump to reach 100 yard plus casts quite easily, certainly a game changer where distance is a determining factor in whether you catch fish or not.
Of course all the above ramblings are just my personal perspectives and others of a similar age might well have had different experiences. But one thing remains constant for me regardless of changing conditions, available species and tackle technology and that’s the almost childlike buzz of expectation and anticipation every time I arrive at my mark, bait up and make that first cast. This has never dimmed during my angling career whether it be fly fishing in river and sea, lure fishing or shore fishing and I guess it must be the same for the majority of anglers otherwise why would we do it? Long May it last.
No surprise that the main species were bass, flounders, plaice pouting, whiting and the occasional dogfish and codling. In those days smoothhound were never caught from local beaches, ever, nor were rays of any description. I think that start of the smoothhound bonanza, particularly around the Selsey area a few decades ago,must have coincided with the arrival to our shores of spider crabs, a species again that never featured at all back in the day. Maybe the same conclusion can be drawn about ray fishing but I have no real idea.
From Pompey we occasionally ventured down to Taddiford and Hordle which then had good reputations for sole and even maybe a small eyed ray or two but today rays are by comparison quite prolific all along the Solent coast which again was never the case back then. Strap congers now seem to feature regularly, a species once normally associated with deep water rocky coasts, but now they seem to turn up everywhere even from open sandy beaches. Maybe I was a rubbish angler but in those early days back in the sixties and seventies neither I nor any of my fishing pals ever caught a ray, smoothhound or conger from the local beaches.
Pompey harbour around the Tipner firing range was an absolute banker for plentiful flounder some of which regularly exceeded 3lbs and sport was more or less guaranteed with hardly any blank sessions during the prime months of November and December. How different it is today with the pot bait boys having almost wiped them out as a reliable catch.Casting and beach gear were also areas where change has been phenomenal due to the inevitable march of progress. Back then beachcasters we’re usually soft or brutally stiff and fishing with old Mitchell multipliers guaranteed hours spent untangling birds nests!
Then along came ABU multipliers and suddenly things became a bit more manageable as far as casting was concerned. I remember what a dream it was to cast with my first ABU 7000. All the top anglers like John Darling, Clive Gammon and Lesley Moncrieff were making headlines with their cod catches at Dungeness where hundred yard plus casts were needed to reach the “dustbin” an area where the cod congregated. Thus was born the pendulum cast and rods designed to exploit it. Unfortunately many of these stiff beasts like the Conolon and Zziplex Dream Machines were unforgiving in the hands of normal mortals and not optimised for fixed spool reels, so 100 yard casts with bait remained a distant dream for the majority of anglers who were confined to the overhead thump and modest distances. Fast forward to recent times and we now have ultra effective, long 14ft and 15ft beachcasters that allow anglers using that same restrictive overhead thump to reach 100 yard plus casts quite easily, certainly a game changer where distance is a determining factor in whether you catch fish or not.
Of course all the above ramblings are just my personal perspectives and others of a similar age might well have had different experiences. But one thing remains constant for me regardless of changing conditions, available species and tackle technology and that’s the almost childlike buzz of expectation and anticipation every time I arrive at my mark, bait up and make that first cast. This has never dimmed during my angling career whether it be fly fishing in river and sea, lure fishing or shore fishing and I guess it must be the same for the majority of anglers otherwise why would we do it? Long May it last.
