July 2005 
Written and posted 19th July
The weather has slowly picked up allowing us more days out fishing this month. With the strong winds that we've been having I must admit we were beginning to wonder whether or not we were going to get a summer!
All of the boats have been out and I think we've all been finding a good variety of fish with the bass still around in good numbers on certain tides. The codling arrived on the Varne, spot on time, providing many anglers with plenty of sport. Mind you on Sunday the first trawler appeared and has been out there scooping them up and has now been joined by other trawlers starting to net the Blond Rays that have also been arriving. A few of the boats have started to catch the Blonds and they certainly are good fun - although you do need to spend a little bit more time playing the waiting game but it's well worth it.
We have started to see the Gurnard appear on the Varne and over the last couple of weeks, whilst trying to catch codling, a few Plaice have been showing and we have caught some good black bream. The sand eels, one of the main baits we use for catching the bass, have been hard to catch at times. When this has been the case we have used Joey mackerel and Trace Ace's bass bandits that have proved themselves to be pretty effective - especially the mackerel styled lures that seem to be deadly (see our links page for further details about Trace Ace).
All of the inshore wrecks are holding small numbers of fish - some particular wrecks holding more than others. Close in towards Samphire Hoe and Shakespeare beach there's a good chance of picking up a bass and Fan bay is starting to produce a few flat fish but not of large quantities. With regards fishing on the piers, the Admiralty pier sprang into action last weekend with people chasing the mackerel which is great news. Unfortunately it is marred where I have heard of an incident of a family that went fishing only to find themselves threatened by a group of anglers bullying for space and they were frightened enough that they don't want to fish on the Admiralty ever again. This is bad news, totally unnecessary and very selfish of certain individuals. At the end of the day, the fish are there for everyone. Anyone fishing on the pier should be very careful and I do not recommend that you let children fish unaccompanied without an adult if these sorts of incidents are happening.
On a much nicer note, the outer break-water has started producing some good fish as well, and is well worth a try. Try to choose the smaller tides as the tide run around the outside of the piers can be very strong and is not really suitable for the inexperienced angler.
This week the winds have picked up again making it a bit difficult for the boats to get out but hopefully by the end of the week things should be improving ready for the weekend action. For all those out fishing...tight lines!
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