GREG PITT SEA FISHING
Private charter fishing & boat trips
Our News/Blog page
or whatever you call it these days 😄
Not posted here for a year!!
7th April 2024
Sorry for not adding anything to this page for the last 12 months, with my father's health deteriorating through last year his care took priority for mum and myself so that left little time for website updates. As many of you (dad's customers and friends) already know he sadly passed away on 28th December 2023 and will be missed so much by us all.
Also during August last year this website was migrated by Vistaprint over to using the Wix platform which caused me a few issues with how the website looked and behaved so apologies if parts of this site went a little weird for a while. I have been running through the website page by page lately trying to sort out any remaining issues and make it work on both desktop and mobile screens, I'm no webmaster or computer expert that's for sure so you wouldn't believe how many hours go in to keeping this website up to date but for something that is all my own work it seems to work quite well. If you do find any problems on this site that I have missed please do let me know so I can try to fix it 👍
Don't get me started on the weather 🤐😄 what a run of wind and rain it has been since July last year, please it has to settle down soon 🙏 We had to cancel so many days during the mackerel/sightseeing season last year because of the rough weather, it was such a shame and a disappointment for both the families and my bank balance. The winter months continued with the wet and windy theme so just an occasional window to get out fishing and still it goes on into Easter this year, the Easter week is the first busy week of the year for us but I only managed to get out on one day last week the rest were blown out.
Looking ahead and positive that better weather will come 🙏 I have listed all the dates that are still available to book on the 5 & 6 hour trip pages (just added September & October dates) and on the 3 hour trip page you'll find all the available dates and start times for the mackerel/sightseeing charters in July and August.
All the best from myself and mum (The Boss) and hopefully we'll see many of you through the course of the year.
Cheers
Greg..
After the long wet and windy winter
31st March 2023
April and Easter are back again and after the long wet and windy winter it'll be nice to get back to work, had to cancel the first two trips due to storm Mathis passing through the channel today but from Sunday onwards towards Easter the forecast is looking much calmer. Bookings have been coming in quite well but I still have a few days available through April for either the 5 & 6 hour fishing charters or the 2 hour Needles sightseeing charters if you're looking for a springtime trip out on the boat.
Usually I have to add a little on to the charter prices each year to keep up with the cost of everything these days but fuel prices have been falling slowly in recent months which is a relief after last year so I've decided not to raise the trip prices this year.
This SumUp QR code above is now displayed on Osprey II as a new payment option on board the boat, so as well as the usual method of paying with cash for the trip people can now pay with their phone by scanning the QR code and entering their card details.
Happy Easter to you all.
Cheers
Greg.
Looking forward to the new seasonJust need the fuel prices to calm down
19th March 2022
April is just around the corner so it's nearly time to get back out on the water running the 5 & 6 hour fishing charters and 2 hour Needles sightseeing charters, May bookings are quite busy already with just a few days left available but there is still some availability in April and over the Easter period for these trips, all the details and available dates can be found on each trips relevant page on this website.
Osprey II is back on the water again now after this years annual maintenance time ashore at Keyhaven which was a bit of a challenge this year with the storms and rain we had during February but I got all the main jobs done eventually leaving just the engine box and seating to have a new coat of paint when the weather warms up a bit. For more boat photos please see and follow our Instagram and Facebook pages, I tend to put more on Instagram these days. https://www.gregpittseafishing.co.uk/recent-catches-and-social-media
One issue I didn't see coming has been the huge increase of fuel prices in recent weeks, we use red diesel in the boats which I buy from Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight as this is the closest fuel berth to us (we have no fuel supplies at Keyhaven) and when I filled up Osprey II last week the cost was up by 50% on last years prices. Normally I can absorb fuel price increases within the small annual price increase on our charter trips but a jump of 50% is a little crazy and not something I could've planned for so unfortunately I have been forced to increase my trip prices a little more to help cover the extra cost of fuel. I have kept the increases to a minimum at the moment and have not passed on the full 50% amount just yet as I hoping the world will soon sort out it's problems and the fuel prices will level out again by the time our season really gets going, I really don't want to keep changing my trip prices as this isn't fair on my customers and it's the first time I've ever had to do it during the year. Planning ahead is very difficult at the moment so I'm just hoping I've guessed right and the fuel prices settle down.
All the best.
Greg.. 😎
Back to normal (ish)🤞
6th July 2021
It's looking like most of the Covid restrictions are going to end on 19th July which is really good news for everyone and let's all hope that the vaccines continue to keep the virus at a manageable level going forward and also into the winter, I miss my winter breaks in Cornwall so no more lockdowns please..
From 19th July onwards the maximum passenger numbers on our charters will be as follows:
5 & 6 hour fishing charters ~ 6 people maximum.
3 hour mackerel/sightseeing charters ~ 8 people maximum.
2 hour Needles sightseeing charters ~ 8 people maximum.
These numbers are a maximum limit for each trip and are subject to change at any time if the Covid restrictions were to return. You don't have to bring this many people on your charter of course, many of the trips I do now are booked by groups of up to just 4 or 5 people as this gives them plenty of space on board the boat.
Cheers
Greg. 👍👍👍
When Lockdown 3 ends
1st March 2021 (Updated 3rd March)
If the governments plan to ease lockdown restrictions stays as is we will be going back to the 'rule of six' from 29th March so if you have a booking with us on or after 29th March you will be allowed to bring up to a maximum of 6 people on all fishing charters, the 2 hour Needles sightseeing charters will also have a maximum of 6 people per trip although this can be increased to 9 if your group is made up from no more than 2 households. From 17th May we could be back up to full passenger numbers again which is 6 people on all fishing charters and 9 people on the sightseeing charters but this date is yet to be confirmed and as we found out last year all good lockdown plans are subject to change at any time so for now we're keeping everything crossed 🤞🤞🤞
Osprey II is still out of the water at the moment for her annual makeover which is thankfully giving me something to do and gets me out of the house, she's normally ready to go afloat again by now but things were delayed by lockdown and weather, another 2 weeks should do it.
All the best and hopefully we can all get afloat again soon 😎👍
Cheers
Greg..
1st January 2021
Wishing you all a very happy and healthy New Year. A big thank you to all our customers for supporting us in 2020 through all of the cancelling and rescheduling of trips due the the Covid restrictions, hoping 2021 will turn out to be a much better year for everyone.
Now we're in tier 4 and with the virus spreading at quite a rate we won't be running any trips for a while, all being well and Covid restrictions permitting our 2021 season will start in April with 5 hour fishing charters and 2 hour Sightseeing charters viewing the famous Needles rocks & lighthouse available over the Easter holidays and throughout April. I've put some available dates for the Easter period on the 2 and 5 hour trip pages and hopefully the restrictions will have eased enough by then to run the trips as planned, if you book a trip that then has to be cancelled by either you or us due to anything Covid related don't worry you will not lose your deposit we would either try rebooking you on a future date or refund your deposit payment whichever you prefer.
Best wishes, stay safe and we look forward to seeing you from April onwards.
Greg, Ray & Maureen.
When Lockdown 2 ends
24th November 2020
The government have announced that when lockdown 2 ends we will be going back to the 'rule of six' so if you have a booking with us on or after 3rd December you will be allowed to bring up to a maximum of 5 people again. 👍
Lockdown 2
7th November 2020
Here we go again back into lockdown restrictions, under the current rules which are valid until 3rd December we can still use the boats but are limited to just 1 passenger + the skipper on board so I've spent the last day or so having to cancel most of our bookings for this month.
Hopefully the restrictions will be eased again for December but we'll have to wait and see what happens. If you'd like to do a one person charter during this lockdown please contact me for details.
Stay safe everyone 👍
Summer trips 2020
16th September 2020
After the months of uncertainty caused by the Covid 19 outbreak the restrictions eased enough for us to run our usual 2 and 3 hour trips through the school summer holidays with passenger numbers limited to 6 people per trip and private charter bookings only. The 2 hour sightseeing trip viewing the Needles rocks & lighthouse area is becoming more popular each year now and the 3 hour mackerel trips are as popular as ever, even though the mackerel numbers were poor this year people were still enjoying the boat trip around the Needles and the challenge of trying to catch a couple of mackerel for their dinner. Unfortunately the days of catching hundreds of mackerel every trip seem to be long gone now but the changes we made for this season turning the trip into a family private charter for 6 people sightseeing & fishing around the Needles has worked so well that we will be doing the same next year too.
The 3 hour mackerel trips are finished for this year now but the 2 hour Needles boat trips can still be booked on available midweek days through October and November, weather permitting of course.
Full details on the2 hour trip page.
3 Hour Mackerel Trip Update
2nd July 2020
JULY & AUGUST TRIPS
With just the one boat running this year the next few weeks until 20th July are now fully booked except for a few 2 hour sightseeing trips and more availability for the 2 hour trips may happen at short notice so please keep an eye on here for updates.
Our 3 hour mackerel trips and 2 hour Needles sightseeing trips will be available from 20th July to 3rd September, these trips are only available as private charter bookings for this year and to help keep everyone safe we are limiting groups to a maximum of 6 people per trip so there is plenty of room on board.
3 Hour Mackerel Trips
9th June 2020
We're getting quite a few people asking if we will be running the mackerel trips this year and all we can say is we hope so but it will be for private charter bookings only and at the moment we don't know how many people we'll be allowed to have on board the boat due to the social distancing measures.
Virus restrictions permitting we will be running mackerel trips from 20th July to the end of August. If the social distancing remains at 2 metres we will be restricted to just 4 people per trip but if it gets reduced to 1 metre we'll be ok for 6 people, my guess would be that 6 is probably the best we can hope for this year. Hopefully by July after the next government review I'll have a better idea of what's going to happen but we are just watching the governments announcements the same as everyone else.
We can go to sea at last but only with one passenger!
12 May 2020
Hi, I'd like to thank everyone that has called and messaged us enquiring about going fishing again over the last 2 days since the restrictions were eased a little. Angling was included in the activities that people can do again from Wednesday 13th May from the shore and from small private boats but there was no mention about charter boats. After a lot of reading yesterday I couldn't find any specific guidance for charter boats so the only rule that could be applied to our situation is that one person is allowed to meet up with one other person from another household provided they keep 2 metres apart so I don't see any reason why we can't go to sea from 13th May but we could only have one passenger on board which wouldn't be any use to most of our crews. Hopefully the restrictions may ease some more when we get to June and July so we could take 2 or 3 people or maybe a small family depending on the type of trip but I think to keep to the social distancing rules the best we can hope for this year would be 4 passengers on board per trip but we'll just have to wait and see what happens as the weeks go by.
If anyone would like to charter the boat just for yourself (1 person) give us a call, email or message and we'll see what we can do for you.
Many thanks to you all and hopefully see some of you this summer.
Cheers
Greg.
Sorry we're still closed for a while.
30 April 2020
Well that's April done, still this horrible situation continues and I'm none the wiser as to when we will be able to start work this year.
We'd like to say a huge THANK YOU!! to everyone in our amazing NHS for everything you do to look after us mere mortals and also to all the KEY WORKERS keeping the country going, THANK YOU SO MUCH.
For now we will not be running any trips until further notice in line with all the government advice and guidelines. When the restrictions have eased enough for us to be able to make a plan for this year I'll post it on this website and our social media pages, my guess is that when we are allowed to work again the social distancing measures will still remain so that would limit the number of passengers we could have on board the boats but we'll wait and see what happens.
Take care everyone, stay safe and we look forward to seeing you all again once it safe to do so.
Best wishes and good health.
Greg, Ray & Maureen.
Coronavirus!!! Sorry we're closed for a while.
29 March 2020
I never imagined I'd ever have to make and post a photo saying we are closed 😞 but here we are in these sad times for the world. For obvious reasons we are now closed for the whole of April and I would guess that it will probably last beyond that too, all we can do is sit and wait to see what happens in the coming weeks and months.
Take care everyone, stay safe and we look forward to seeing you all again once it safe to do so.
Best wishes and good health.
Greg, Ray & Maureen.
Coronavirus!!! Just what we didn't need.
21 March 2020
Well we battled the weather and got Osprey II all prettied up and back on the water ready to start the new season in April or so we thought but now we have the disaster called Coronavirus sweeping the country and it's now looking very unlikely that our season will be starting anytime soon. It's been a very long wet and windy winter for the last 6 months allowing us very few days of work (the worst I've known) so we were really looking forward to getting going again with April and Easter coming up but there we are. The situation is still fairly confusing for our line of work as we are rather well isolated out on a boat but with the virus becoming more widespread as the days pass I'm starting to feel the the risk is becoming too great as everyone's health is more important than a boat trip, I'll wait another week before making a decision about April and let the crews already booked in April know then. If you are worried about your booking and would like to talk with me now you can contact me by email or text and I'll get back to you, our main phone number will be active again from April.
UPDATE 24th March ~ We will not be running any trips during April.
Take care everyone, stay safe and good health to you all. Let's get this virus beaten quickly and maybe with a bit of luck things can start returning to normal for the summer..
Maintenance time
19 February 2020
We've finished fishing now for a while so it's maintenance time for Osprey II to get her ready for when our new season starts in April. She was lifted out of the water at Keyhaven on 7th February and I'm slowly getting things done on her but as we're out in the open the stormy and very wet weather we're having at the moment has stopped me making much progress other than polishing the blue part of the hull and dismantling some hull fittings and valves which I'm replacing with new parts this year. Hopefully the weather will give us all a break soon so the country can start drying out a little, I think a nice warm dry springtime is what we all need after this long wet and windy winter 🌞🌞🌞🌞
Autumn/Winter 2019
December 20, 2019
The weather hasn't been on our side for this part of the year, the strong south westerly winds and storms have been almost relentless through October November and December so we haven't been able to do too many trips. When we did manage to get out to the Needles we found plenty of hungry Conger eels waiting for us along with the occasional different species such as Rays, Bull Huss, Pollack and Whiting etc. A few of the better fish can be seen on the Recent Catches page.
Just a few more trips to do during January now for the regular crews then it'll be time for Osprey II to come out of the water for her annual maintenance once again, the year seems to fly by.
Best wishes to you all for a great Christmas and New Year..
Summer 2019
September 18, 2019
It was a bit of a mixed summer this year with the weather, a few spells of nice calm conditions but for the most time it was southwesterly winds which make it difficult for us to work around the exposed area of the Needles. Our summertime mackerel fishing trip season ran for around 6 weeks during the school summer holidays and came to an end during the first week of September, the mackerel were very patchy again this year and the weather certainly didn’t help very much with strong southwesterly winds forcing us to cancel 2 weeks of trips in August. Mackerel catches varied from trip to trip so I never really knew what to expect which was very frustrating for me at times but we usually managed to find some. We’re having a short break now to recharge our batteries before the winter trips start in October.
April and May
May 26, 2019
It's not been a bad start to this season as the weather has been fairly kind to us so not too many cancellations, with Easter being late this year we had a few more family private charter bookings than normal for April and the fishing wasn't bad either for so early in the season. May has continued in the same vein with the bream arriving for our mix of 5 hour family charters and regular 6 & 8 hour charter customers. Fishy photos from our trips can be seen on the "Recent catches" page and all the latest day to day pics are on our Instagram page which I update as regularly as I can so please do give us a follow if you can.
New season
April 04, 2019
Our notice board is back by the jetty at Keyhaven ready for the new season. We have some days available through April/Easter/May for our 5 hour friends & family fishing charters and 2 hour Needles Lighthouse/Alum bay sightseeing charters. Both trips are private charter only.
Ray's not finished yet!
March 17, 2019
As some of you will know my father Ray (founder of our fishing empire many many years ago 😁) has been having a rough time of it over the last 6 months, he was forced to have the winter off while he underwent a course of chemotherapy but I'm glad to say that he has come through it and is now recovering from the effects of the treatment. The Doctors are happy with him and the treatment seems to have been successful.
We would like to thank all of the crews that have been patiently waiting to see if Dad will be able to take them fishing again this year we really appreciate it and I'm happy to say that he has passed his annual medical and has just been granted his skippers licence for another 12 months so he would like to announce that you haven't seen the last of him just yet 😂
We're now on Instagram
March 12, 2019
I've just started an Instagram account, there's not too much on there just yet but once we start fishing again in April I'll be adding more photos. If you'd like to follow just search for gregpittseafishing on the app or here's the link https://www.instagram.com/gregpittseafishing/
We're now on Twitter
March 05, 2019
For latest day to day photos etc.
If you'd like to follow it's @GregPittFishing here's the link
Osprey II back afloat
March 03, 2019
Osprey II went back afloat at Keyhaven on Friday 1st March all polished and painted ready to start fishing again in April. Many thanks as always to everyone at West Solent Boat Builders in Keyhaven for looking after her during the lift out and relaunch.
Osprey II ashore
February 23, 2019
It's that time of year again, Osprey II is currently out of the water for 3 weeks of annual maintenance. We're open to the elements here at Keyhaven but the weather has been very kind to me since she's been ashore so just a few more days and she'll be ready to go afloat again. Just a note on the weather, the temperature sensor on the wheelhouse was reading 17C today, amazing for February.
December/January
February 1, 2019
The weather took a turn for the worse during November and it continued very windy through December so we were only able to run just a handful of trips each month on the occasional calmer days. When we did get out there the cod were still worryingly conspicuous by their absence but the conger eels were fairly constant along with an occasional different species mixed in such as Bull Huss, Spur Dog, Ray or Bass. Photos are on the Recent Catches page. Not all that many Whiting around this year either but we did see a few better ones just after Christmas and into January with a couple going around 4lb.
We're about finished for the winter fishing now with just a couple of regular bookings before Osprey II is lifted from the water for her annual maintenance, another year gone by so fast but we'll start all over again in April.
October/November
November 11, 2018
As I write this (11th November) we are still waiting for our first cod of the winter off the Needles which isn't very good but a few whiting arrived towards the end of October so the season is changing to winter slowly, the eels have also moved inshore now too. Earlier in October we couldn't find any winter fish in close to the island but a little further out there was still some tope, eels and rays to catch and like last year at this time we started seeing some nice bull huss.
Edit 16th November*** At last we had a cod on board today, a nice 11lb fish caught by Dave Mansfield. Photo on the Recent Catches page.
Summer 2018
November 11, 2018
Sorry I'm so late posting this update but thankfully I was very busy fishing through this summer and with a few other things to deal with since then I'm a bit behind updating the website.
What a fantastic run of weather we had this summer, a real summer for a change where for most of the time we weren't having to struggle against constant south westerly winds as is usually the case these days.
The fishing was our usual mix of species rays, eels, smoothound and tope etc.. Some nice bream mixed in with the catch from May to July and then I switch over to my 3 hr mackerel trips from Mid July to the end of the school holidays. The mackerel weren't in great abundance once again this year but I was probably averaging around 40 to 60 mackerel on most trips and occasionally we were lucky enough to find more so there was usually enough to keep most people happy, the days of catching hundreds of mackerel every trip seem to have gone now but the trips are more popular than ever I was fully booked weeks in advance this year. For the first 3 weeks of mackerel trips the weather was hot (very hot sometimes) with calm seas so I could fish out around the Needles lighthouse every day making it a great boat trip for everyone even if the mackerel were playing hard to get, especially great on the days when we were lucky enough to be visited by a pod of dolphins. The weather finally turned back to the south westerlies for last couple of weeks of August restricting where and when I could fish and making the mackerel hard to find which was a shame after such a good run of weather but that's fishing.
April ~ back to work
April 24th, 2018
After our winter break from fishing during February and March it's now time to start doing a few fishing trips again, first of all though Sunrise was lifted out of the water for a couple of weeks so we could do her annual maintenance jobs, polish the hull and antifoul her bottom.
On Osprey II I managed to fit in the first few fishing trips of the new season during a break in the weather with mixed results on different days but overall not too bad for the cold waters of early April with some congers, rays and smoothounds around, latest photos are on the Recent Catches page now. We mainly just book our regular crews in April but we'll be getting much busier from May onwards as the sea temperature rises and the first of the summer species start to arrive in our area.
We have started taking bookings now for the summertime mackerel trips on Osprey II, all the details are on the 3 hour mackerel trip page.
Also available spaces, dates and times on our individuals trips can be found on the 5 hour fishing trip and 6 hour fishing trip pages, to book on any of our fishing trips or to book your own private charter just give us a call on 01425 612896 (9am to 9pm)
Osprey II annual maintenance
February 28, 2018
Well this has kept me busy for the last couple of weeks, February = annual maintenance time for Osprey II. The first two photos below are the before shots showing her being lifted out of the water looking rather dirty and sporting a years worth of weed and slime on her bottom, also we found the remains of someone's crabbing net attached to the propeller, I wonder how long that has been there. Picture 3 is how she looked after I'd finished the polishing and antifouling and the rest of the photos are of the lift and launch in the sunny but freezing cold weather this week.
Osprey II is a "Lochin 33" hull and was built in 1976 so she is now 42 years old but she is ageing very well and is still in great condition, I do my best to look after her and often people on board can't believe it when they find out the boats age so that makes my time and effort worth while.
Over the last couple of years I've been looking around at some different boats with the idea of possibly replacing Osprey II with something newer but so far I honestly can't find anything better for the type of fishing trips that we do and for working in the shallow waters of Keyhaven, not without spending a fortune and being in debt for many many years anyway so you'll probably be seeing Osprey II with me at Keyhaven for a year or two yet.
Osprey II is now back on her mooring at Keyhaven ready for when we start our fishing trips again in April, hopefully the weather will be a little warmer by then too.
Cheers
Greg.
Do you sell gift vouchers?
February 3, 2018
The reason for not selling gift vouchers is that most of our work is private charters for groups of people and families etc, when we are asked for a gift voucher it is usually for a birthday present for someone to go on one of our individuals trips and the problem we have is that the spaces on our individuals trips during the summer can be very limited and I don't want to get into the situation of having sold a lot of gift vouchers and then not have enough spaces to fit people on a trip when they come back to us with their voucher as that would just make for some very unhappy people. You can of course make a confirmed booking on a trip and then pay the deposit as a present.
Cheers.
Greg..
Welcome to our News/Blog page
January 24, 2018
I hope you are finding our new website useful and informative about our fishing trips and a lil bit more user friendly than our old website, I will try to improve this site as I go along but please bear with me as I'm just a charter skipper not a computer wizard lol.. If there's something that you think would be a useful addition to our website let me know in an email and I'll look into it.
First improvement for 2018 is this News/Blog page, I will be using this page as the name suggests to share our news and information with you and also I hope to be able to answer some of the more commonly asked questions here.
Best wishes to you all for 2018, lets hope it's a good year and please come back to this page now and again for further updates.
Cheers
Greg..