Chinook III Charter Fishing Report- February

This entry was posted on 21st February, 2019

We have had a lean time recently which has been made worse by the lack of Cod in the Thames Estuary now, I suspect we will not see any amounts of Cod again, certainly the trend is warmer winter sea temperatures, and this is probably the biggest single cause of their change of migration.

Because of this gap in the winter fishing we have now started to diverse and look for other species to give our anglers something different to catch.



The obvious target was the Spurdog. These hard fighting mini sharks stay well offshore for us but with better knowledge of their habits now we can confidently try for them. Their marauding nature makes it hard work to keep up with their movements but if you do find them sport can be manic. These fish have been protected for 30 years now and a lot of the bigger females are around 16-20lb with our first one this season at 21lb.

Tackle up as if you are fishing for Tope, you will get bitten off otherwise and take care handling them with their spikes by their dorsal fins, best baits are fresh mackerel, but they will take squid and any other fish baits, they are not fussy.

The Thornbacks are starting to show up again now offshore and with this warmer spell of weather fishing will improve quite quickly inshore and offshore.

Prospects are excellent providing we don't get another beast from the east; this spell of warmer weather will definitely get the fish moving and feeding better.

Tight lines.