Not a place I particularly like and it should be treated with caution, you will only be able to fish it on a neap tide and I would try to anchor in as shallow water as you can and allow the boat to drift in to deeper water, there are a few shelves on the Southern side worth a go.

I once fished here a couple of years ago during a smallish tide on a calm day and you could see all the rips and whirlpools and you wouldn't want to be caught in any of those, so be careful.

 

One of the Gosport boats winkled out two of the best bass i've ever seen from the deeps on cod/conger gear.
Both over 12lb.
Five calimari on a size 10/0 pennel hooks on wire held down with 2 1/2 lbs of lead to wire line .
Serious stuff in those pre dyneema days !
A proper bit of deep rough ground !

 

Andy,

We fish that area in summer for tope. Fantastic ground which can go +/- 100ft in a very short distance. It’s only fishable at anchor for max 1.5 hours either side of slack tide on a neap. But that will be enough because your arm will be aching from fighting the tope and tide. Trick is to anchor uptide of one of the drop offs and fish into the deeper water. You’ll be ok with 180m of rode. I only have 600ft myself.

As Steve says the rips and tide whirlpools are quite a sight. It’s a magical place albeit a long way from the Hamble.

Had a full string of bass all of which were 5lb+ in 2017 when drifting for mackerel.

We see dolphin there every year. Occasional threshers too. That’s were Danny Voikins does his shark fishing on the drift. You can find him on you tube.

Can’t wait for the tope season!

Paul

 

Thanks Paul, I'd heard it can fish well on the right day, and I'm glad that someone sensible can confirm that :thumbsup:. It's tope and conger that I'm after, and a bonus bass is always welcome.

It's a fair old way from Langstone too, about a 50 mile round trip according to Navionics. I'll have to take an extra tank or two for that but it sounds like it'd be worth the effort.

 

Its also been a dumping ground for hundreds of tons of munitions from both world wars, carefull dragging your anchors !

 

I've heard of divers bringing up live shells which is a bit iffy , far more so if phosphorus is in the ammo as it ignites out of the water and burns through your deck !

 

Probably need 12/0 hooks for those.....

Joking aside the dumping grounds are clearly marked on the charts and easily avoided. The shark fishing is mostly to the S/SE of the Deep.

 

Not a problem to drift it fishing . Bigger tides the better . Have an offshore 25 that handles it well . Try using 12 oz pear shaped leads , with a 2 fathom trace , with live Mac or scad . You will catch very big bass there !

 

I've heard of divers bringing up live shells which is a bit iffy , far more so if phosphorus is in the ammo as it ignites out of the water and burns through your deck !

Hmm phosphorus - also through clothes, you.. and the deck..

 

Thanks Paul, I'd heard it can fish well on the right day, and I'm glad that someone sensible can confirm that :thumbsup:. It's tope and conger that I'm after, and a bonus bass is always welcome.

It's a fair old way from Langstone too, about a 50 mile round trip according to Navionics. I'll have to take an extra tank or two for that but it sounds like it'd be worth the effort.

If you need a first mate Andy ......:cool2:

 

I used to fish the area heavily when I lived there, it has to be one of my favorate spots. Pollack was my main target simply drifting, was never keen on anchoring.

 

Jon, what length of trace did you use for gilling? Guessing you were using redgills, jellyworms etc?

 

Jon, what length of trace did you use for gilling? Guessing you were using redgills, jellyworms etc?

We used pretty long traces around 2m on homemade booms which kept the trace about 30cm away from the main line. If I was to fish it these days I would be keen on using jigs in the 250-300g range on reasonably light braid 20-30lb with 20-30lb mono leaders. I used to use braid back in the days when I fished there but only Berkeley fireline was on offer back then and we all tended to use 50 or even 80lb. The heavy line defeated much of the advantages of braid simply because it was thick and less senasative and if you got snagged you were in big trouble. By using the lighter line with lighter leaders at least you can break jigs off if you have to.

 

We used pretty long traces around 2m on homemade booms which kept the trace about 30cm away from the main line. If I was to fish it these days I would be keen on using jigs in the 250-300g range on reasonably light braid 20-30lb with 20-30lb mono leaders. I used to use braid back in the days when I fished there but only Berkeley fireline was on offer back then and we all tended to use 50 or even 80lb. The heavy line defeated much of the advantages of braid simply because it was thick and less senasative and if you got snagged you were in big trouble. By using the lighter line with lighter leaders at least you can break jigs off if you have to.

Jon, what sort of depths were you fishing in

 

If I was to fish it these days I would be keen on using jigs in the 250-300g range on reasonably light braid 20-30lb with 20-30lb mono leaders.

Now that is one of those ideas where I ask myself "Why didn't I think of that?!?". Already have 20 and 30lb braid, and I have a couple of 180g slow jigs which I'll try, and will also invest in some heavier ones.

 

Looking at some heavier ones too but going wrecking.. loosing a £1-2 lead or lure vs a £10-20 jig is hard on the wallet.

 

Lead head shads plus a bit of lead for hopping probably as effective and cheaper on losses.

Just a bit woolier to fish.

 

Jon were you fishing the main trough? Or the rough ground inside and out of the trough??

 

Yup -the UK shops £16 each.. for example. So the only way to to get them from eBay and the slow boat from china.

 

@JonD, thanks, that's great. @FishySaint and I are hatching a plan to check it out as soon as the weather and tides allow. No excuses for us not to catch after all your guidance. :laugh:

 

@JonD, thanks, that's great. @FishySaint and I are hatching a plan to check it out as soon as the weather and tides allow. No excuses for us not to catch after all your guidance. :laugh:

Think I’ll just tie my line to your toe and chuck you over Andy

 

Suppose you want me to pull your string too eh? Let's face it, you'd only blank otherwise

 

Now that would be a good trick !!

 

Because of the deep water and strong tides it used to produce conger and bull huss on the neap tides. Then the Belgium long liners started fishing it and it went downhill from there. We were actually fishing there when a Belgium long liner started pulling his lines so the skipper phoned Southern Sea Fisheries and reported it. They said they didn't have a boat available but to take pictures and the Lat and Long and they'd investigate it. One of the anglers even took a video on his phone but nothing was ever done about it. Still get the pollock and bass but not many conger and huss. SSF's were a complete waste of space and never earned their money.

 

Something that may be worth trying are jigs with illuminous paint work. Even here where we have mostly bright sunny days and 20m + water visability the lumo striped lures definitely out fish non lumo lures. I found they work so well I bought a spray can of lumo paint to put stripes on my old jigs. I would imagine that deep water would be pretty dark over there, which is probably why the bright green or orange redgills mostly worked best.

 

Deepwater favourites years back always used to be black or red if the light does not get down there !

 

If Neil didn't have any bad luck he's have no luck at all. :whistling::whistling::whistling:

Hang on a mo, where’s this “Neil’s a cr@p fisherman” come from ???

 

Think we were just pulling your string waiting for you to take the bait :thumbsup:

 

I've heard that black provides the strongest silhouette at the depths where light hardly penetrates. The theory is that it's more easily seen by fish vs other colours that lose their colour at depth.

 

Think we were just pulling your string waiting for you to take the bait :thumbsup:

Dry land fishing I like it !! Something I do to BK all the time !!

 

Yep. And you still blank! :tongue2::tongue2:

 

When fish I fish for Pollock on the wrecks, Black was always the most successful colour in dull conditions and bright Orange in sunny conditions.

That explains it! I only fish sunny days, thats why I moved to Australia. My memory isn't what it used to be and there must of been a reason I bought black ones, I just can't remember ever catching anything on them but bought the orange and green in big numbers as those were the ones I lost the most. Black surface lures are popular here for night fishing, so it really does make sense.

When I use big jigs here in water 300m + deep the bright colours and lumo's have always worked, I will have to see if I can find something black to try at those depths.

Anyway good luck lads, I really hope you get among some good fish, pollack were always good to eat in my opinion.