Lepe Beach Gypsy Lane Difficulty Rating: * Accessibility:****
Variety of Fish:***** Parking: Free
Gypsy Lane at Lepe is set right on the mouth of
Beaulieu River and has a deep channel dredged into the mud for the boats' keels to glide over at even the lowest tides on
their entrance to the river. This deep channel offers some fantastic fishing for a wide variety of fish species such as Bass, Dogfish, Smoothound, Flounders and many more.
The ocean bed is a mixture of stones and mud and holds a lot of crabs, ragworms, blennies and other small fish making it ideal hunting territory for scavenger species.
As Gypsy Lane is on a river mouth it also creates a tidal holding area for many small fish species like Bass and Mullet fry, which in turn makes this spot a fantastic Bass ground with reported captures of Bass up to 11lb 8ozs during the summer months.
If you are able to hit the deep channel you will get a huge variety of fish
(especially if you are in a comp). You will see a lot of people who can cast big distances
do well at Gypsy Lane as you will be an odds on favourite to get a good mixed bag if you can
hit that magic channel (I know I for one can’t)
Having said this about the venue, one of the best specimen approaches is the classic ‘big bait close in’ for the Bass. The two Bass caught below were October fish caught no further than 15’ from the shore at high tide in broad daylight! The rig of choice is the sliding red zip slider with a four
ounce lead and a six foot trace to a pennel rig. Some prefer a whole fillet of Mackerel and others favour a large squid bait.
Alan Shergold
(The above mentioned information was written by Mr Alan Shergold on 14/10/2006. This information is to be used as a guide to help you find places to fish in your local area. Any damage to persons or persons property whether it be fishing gear, transportation or other is at the readers own risk and Mr Alan Shergold will not be held responsible. If you are in any doubt about your permission to fish any spot from Hampshire’s shore line make sure you contact the relevant authorities to check first.)
