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I have been fishing for 13 years and I am still learning every time I fish. I live in Hythe in the New Forest National Park and so I am not far from the coast line. One of my favourite places that I fish is Magazine Lane in Marchwood.
Magazine Lane is an amazing place as it offers so much to the beach angler, it is set just of a Southampton docks shipping channel so by its very nature it is incredibly deep and as a direct result of this it always has water there to fish no matter what the state of the tide.
In my time spent at Magazine Lane I have caught a total of 19 species of fish (and this does not include some of the mini species) I have had Sole, Plaice, Dabs, Dogfish, Bass, Mackerel, Dragonets, Wrasse, Pollock, Whiting, Pout, Flounders, Smoothounds, Rays, Scad, Tub Gurnard, Poor Cod, Eels and Mullet! I’m sure you will agree that this is an impressive list of species.
I don’t have many complaints about Magazine lane but one thing that always upsets me is the litter left by so called ‘anglers’ when they have gone. I see so many empty packets of bait and polystyrene Ragworm containers and I don’t understand why people don’t just take there stuff home?
In fairness there is a lack of bins at Magazine Lane but that is no excuse for littering.
My best result to date from Maggy has to be my Sole that I caught last July , it was not my biggest fish from this venue by any stretch of the imagination but it is my best result because of how it was caught.
I had been fishing all evening with my two main beach rods, one fished at 65 yards with a two hook rig and Ragworm as the chosen bait, this set up was to catch me some Sole that had been showing in recent weeks the other rod was a carp rod that I was using to free line live baits for Bass just under the rod tip.
I had picked up 3 Sole on the distance rod already that evening but none of them were any size, the biggest one was nearly touching the one pound mark, as I was running out of live baits for the Bass rod I made my way down to the rocks to catch some more mini species with my trusty 6’ spinning rod and reel loaded with 3lb line and an rig consisting of 2SSg split shot pinched 12” away from a size 6 carp hook.
I attached a very small Ragworm to the hook and plopped it about 5 feet out and sat and waited. After about 10 minutes I knew something was up as I would normally have had loads of little bites by now so I lifted the rod and felt what I thought was weed. As I put strain on the rod the tip hoped over and line started to pay off of the spool! I shouted for my brother to come and watch as the fish was loosing the plot on the end of my rod!! After 5 minutes I got my brother Rob to hold the rod for me and I grabbed the fish out of the water.
What a result!
I had been seriously fishing for Sole at range all evening with all the right gear and all I had only managed 3 fish, the biggest being 13ozs! And as soon as I break out the ‘Noddy Rod’ up comes a proper Sole of 2lb 11ozs from only 5 feet out!! Sods law I guess!
Sole of 2lb 11ozs.
I hope you have enjoyed this piece and please don’t hesitate to contact Alan at bells of
Hythe if there are any questions that you might want me to answer for you.
See you on the beach.
Steven Perry.
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