Sea Venues

Sandown

Float fishing from the pier during the summer months produces mackerel,garfish,pollack and the occasional Mullet,use small strips of mackerel or a sliver of sandeel for the mackerel and garfish,ragworm for the pollack and bread for the mullet.

Fishing from the sandy beaches at Yaverland is best done at night,as the beaches get extremely crowded.Castng long distance with rag or lugworm can produce plaice,sole,bass and pout.Clipped down rigs using sandeel will take some good Rays.

Walking eastwards towards Redcliff the sea bed becomes increasingly rocky and the quality of fishing improves.This is especially good for Sole in the Autumn, using rag or lug as bait on a size 4 wishbone rig, Ray fishing can also be good at times using sandeel on size 3/0 or 4/0 hooks on a clipped down rig at distance.

In the rocks underneath the chalk cliffs is a good spot to try for conger, try on a warm dark calm night in autumn using either cuttle,squid, mackerel or pout as bait. Beware of the tide though as you are likely to run out of beach, beware of cliff falls, as these could seriously spoil your fishing

Cowes

Cowes Isle of Wight

Cowes is the home of the yachtsman, but is also has varied amount of fishing. Starting off in the town fishing from the esplanade and casting into the harbour can produce Bass, plaice,Flounder,Red Mullet, thick lipped mullet, smoothound,Sole and the occasional codling.

Past the Royal yacht Squadron on the point you will find a shingle beach,this is a relatively deep water venue, fishing is best at night from half flood up and an hour after, There is a good run of Smoothounds during the summer, being caught on peeler Crab and whole Squid, but far the best bait for them is Peeler Spider crab. This is also a good venue for Bass, an hour or so before high water being the best time, bait should be large fish baits or whole Squid on a ruuning ledger, set the drag, and cast no more than 15ft out, make sure you don't shine any light on the water as this will spook the Bass, ground baiting with hand fulls of chopped mackerel will encourage bites. If you get a take hang on for dear life, as your so close to the fish they go potty!

This went 7lb exactly and was caught using mackerel head using this method.

Another method the locals use for Bass during the day is to cast a bubble float out with a small white artificial sandeel on a 4ft snood and retrieve slowly, this can be a very effective tactic.

During the summer this is also a popular mark for mackerel fishing, especially in the evening just before dusk.

One of the most productive marks is centred around Egypt point lighthouse, here a relatively short cast will put your bait into deep water.This is the spot to try for cod and bass but you can rely on plenty of activity from smaller species such as pout,dogfish and silver eels.Short casting with a large fish bait or small live bait has produced some excellent bass.

Egypt point lighthouse

Following the sea wall along you will come to where the natural gas is piped to the island, there are signs warning of the pipes under the sea bed, presumeably for shipping.
Apparently this is the spot to try for conger, I've only fished this a couple of times, without success, and found it to be very snaggy.

Further west along the wall towards Gurnard,the beach becomes shallower,with areas of sand and mud amongst the rocks,these are the ares to try for plaice, sole, Spotted rays and also a chance of a sting Ray.Sole fishing is best between August and the end of October,the sole average between 8ozs to 1lb 8ozs, though several of 3lb come out each year,fish a rising night tide,use size 1 or 2 hooks bait with either rag or Lugworm.

This sole went 2lb 1oz and came from this area in November 09