1. 2014 - Hordle

 

The aim was for Turbot with the outside change of a small eyed albeit that a specimen of either was highly unlikley.  It was very coloured with some weed and not that much action. Lots of anglers on the beach which usually indiactes that something is up on a midweek tuesday!!  The Captain followed in Ben's footsteps by landing a specimen Undulate of 13-07.  other than that and new record Turbot of 15oz it was poor



11. July Species Comp Brighton Marina 2st july

 

This venue was chosen for its huge variet of species. On the night nothing huge was caught but species caught were garfish, mackeral, eel, sole, wrasse, pouting, bream, smoothound and plaice. Sofa won the match with an eel and a wrasse for 120%.

 

10. Johntys Mullet Quest Continues 17th June 21013

 

So, I went to bed last night around 11pm, the air was warm and still. Anticipation was high and sleep hard to come by.

04.30 hours and the distant sound of the sea shore and passing ships came alive as the alarm sounded. Damn, it is raining; back to bed? No, I am awake and the tide will not wait. Off to our special little mullet mark....

Out into the garden to get the pond net, I pick it up and the net snags and rips. Perfect. Best take the Smurf net then.

I arrive and the rain has ceased drumming on the windscreen. The wind however....will it ever go away?

I walk down and look over the side, nothing. Nevermind. 10 minutes later and groundbait is in the water along with 2 hooks of bread. The bread is stale and refusing to stay on the hook. Second rod out.

An hour passes and I start to get bites on the feeder rod. Very tentative though and nothing to suggest a feeding frenzy. Time to bring the match rod in, damn got distracted by spectacular rear in tight lycra and I bring in the feeder rod by mistake. Bang! The match rod is off. Clutch was lightly set, so line starts to spool off....

A 5 minute fight ensues and I start to ponder how to land the silver bullet as I am unable to reach the water with the net. I climb over the railings and crouch down. Close but not close enough, back over and onto my belly. The net just touches the water, I am in with a chance...

As I stay in my belly, wedged under the bottom railing I wish I had not put on a few extra pounds, but then the mullet comes to me and is safely snared in the net! Will it be a S.H.A.G fish.

Scales out and the numbers climb.....2lb 3oz after deduction for the bag. Done it!! Mullet dance ensues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. June 2013 Shag Match - Chesil

 

An unremarkable (crap) session saw Sofa beat Johnty & Tony with an 80% Red Gurnard & an 80% doggie​ & squirt sun tan cream into his eye instead of his arm!!

 

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8. Sofa Still After a Specimen (6th June 2013)

 

Having seen Ben land the first thick lip of the year, and lose two, Sofa decided to head up to his fave mullet hole.  It turned out to be a great day with Bens magic groundbait really working its magic.  Only bait was bread and first fish was a turn up being a Bass of 3lb 8oz!! Later this was followed by two mullet, one of 4lb 9oz (a specimen) and one of 1lb 9oz (a baby).

 

































7. Shaggers Trip to the Adur (2nd June 2013)



After a glorious evening of beer and curry for Sofa and his student, Johnty, four Sh4ggers converged on the river for some plugging and mulleting. The arranged time was 6am, possibly a little early given the amount of beer and wine consumed! Sofa of course decided to start at 5am.... due to an excess of beer stopping him from sleeping!!!

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Bass. Well we did not see any or catch any. However, JonT managed to amuse with a popper the size of a reasonable tuna; it made a satisfying splash with subsequent mini Tsunami. Tony managed to amuse with a welly / 3 quarter length short combo. Forthwith such attire is banned!! The unemployed goon has however purchased a lovely spinning rod and reel for several hundred pounds. Shame he overfilled the reel with line :-)  Anyway after thrashing he water to a spurious foam the tea decided to head off for the next target.............



Mullet. We arrived at the highstreet fortified with McDonald's and saw several mullet. None caught, although Ben managed to hook and lose one. Good skills.

JonT, Ben and Sofa then moved up river, where after losing another fish Ben finally landed one to 2lb 9oz. A specimen for Sussex.

All in all, we like spinning and fishing for mullet. We REALLY like bait collecting for this type of fishing.























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6. Third Shagger Match, May Pagham (23rd May 2013)

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​The Captain, Ben and the self-styled Bream guru, Sofa made the short journey to Pagham in the hope of finding the shoals of specimen size Bream for which the venue is rightly renowned. Sofa having missed his opportunity to bag a couple 2 weeks previously when they had been about.  Conditions were about as perfect as they could get with a light northerly wind, warm and a flat clear sea.  The downside of this being a proliferation of other anglers in the "Bream" section of the beach meaning Sofa fished a fair bit further right than us to start with.

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Just before darkness fell the first flurry of fish came through with the Captain bagging 2 identical fish at 1-06, just shy of the specimen size. Ben managed to lose one (and a bunch of dodgy rigs) while sofa sulked out to the west.....

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Just after High Tide Sofa managed to move closer to the main SHAG team and immediately found a dogfish and a couple of smaller bream around 14oz mark.  As the tide ebbed so did the fishing which left Sofa in the driving seat with a 1-10 dog and a 14oz bream enough to see off the captains single species haul (Top 2 species only count).

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Well done to the Sofa, Champion in May, all he needs do now is catch a specimen

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​​5. Shaggers Trip to West Sussex (19th May 2013)

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Johnty and the Capt took a trip out to a flat sandy beach in West Sussex looking to bag a specimen Stingray.  These peaceful beasts like to sun bathe in close this time of year along this stretch of coast. This was the second of a few planned trips over this period as the guys look to make the most of the calm weather that is long over due. No stingray were captured on this occasion but Johnty "fluked/spawned" a gold medal specimen Ballen Wrasse of 3lb 11oz which is 163.89% of the specimen weight. Whilst a few small wrasse do turn up along the coast from time to time it is a really rare occurrence that wrasse of this size turn up in Sussex, especially from a flat sandy beach!!! (Sofa 20th May)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​4. Second SHAG match - Arun (21st April 2013)



Johnty, Sofa and Ben fished the second SHAG match, again based on percentage specimen weights. Again Johnty won with his catch of a 2lb 5oz eel (92%) and a flounder of 1lb 3oz (37%) for a total over two fish of 129%. Ben caught three micro eels and Sofa caught................ not a single fish. Specimen matches seem to suit Johnty. (Sofa 26th April)

 

3. Inaugral SHAG match - Chesil (2nd March 2013)

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Johnty "No thumbs", Captain Mikey and Sofa the ODD disappeared west for the very first SHAG match with the winner being decided on the total percentage of specimen weight over 2 species.  As it was we only caught one, Plaice, though that didnt prevent an entertaining match albeit a little lacking in fish.  Top "Blaster" John was the winner with 44% (a plaice of 1lb 2oz) with Mike 2nd on 23%.  Sofa paid the price of choosing the wrong peg coming last and seeing the freelance angler next to him take a 2lb plus fish which would have won the match and been a specimen contender. I also wonder about the err "freshness" of his newspaper wrapped bait.......... Congratulations to John , forever forged in SHAG history. (posted by Mike 8/3/13)

 

 2. Shaggers trip to Seaford (1st march 2013)​
 

Sofa and Tony headed off to Seaford on another plaice mission.  The target was to catch a plaice over 2lb which is the Angling Trust specimen weight for plaice in Sussex.  It was a very cold day with an icy cold easterly wind.  Too be honest although we did catch plaice, they were only small. The real highlight of the day was the fantastic fat-boys breakfast we enjoyed in Pevensey Bay.  (Posted by Sofa 6th March 2013)

 

1. Shaggers Trip To Southsea (26th February 2013)

 

The target was a specimen plaice, which for the Hants/Dorset area is 2.75lbs. So with very little expectation Capt and Sofa headed out on a very cold day with a bracing NE wind.  Lets just say there was, as expected, no specimen plaice, but if you are not out there on the beach you just won't get that specimen and lets face it they are specimens for a reason.       (posted by Sofa 28th Feb 2013)