Six in the morning and it’s hot already. The boat’s loaded and Mitchell Kelvin, specimen coarse, game and sea angler, not to mention big game fisherman, steps aboard. We’re off hunting porbeagles south of the Isle of Wight. It’s glassy calm as Ron Cowling, skipper of Our Mary, takes us away from the jetty. Now, …
Fishing for porbeagles south of the Isle of Wight Read More »
There are several varieties of basking shark throughout the world but only one species — Cetorhinus maximus — occurs in British waters. The basking shark is the world’s second largest fish (the whale shark is the largest), growing up to 15m (50ft) long and weighing up to 5 tons (5080kg). The name basking comes from …
Although British waters don’t produce exotic big game species, they are fairly rich in sharks. There are four sporting sharks to aim at, not counting the monstrous, but plankton-eating, basking shark. Far less common are threshers and makos. Threshers are leaping, long-tailed sharks, found all round Britain, but most often seen and caught off Hampshire …
Sharks are found in nearly every sea in the world, from the icy waters around Greenland to the warm south Pacific. Some are ferocious predators, but others are harmless plankton-eaters. Twenty five or so species of fish belonging to the shark order have been recorded in the waters around the British Isles. One of these …
