MOST WANTED TURBOT & BRILL

One of the most wanted species yet least caught are turbot and brill. Some English Channel ports, especially Weymouth, have a reputation for still producing fair numbers and some good-sized fish, but it’s often the case elsewhere that few anglers deliberately target these prize flatties. Therefore, charter skippers can also ignore them as a target species understandably concentrating on more popular fish. It’s all too often a case of “out of sight, out of mind”.

There are though, still localised concentrations of both brill and turbot right around the UK coast. These tend to exist in inshore areas where commercial fishing is less prevalent. The Cornish coast, the sand banks that feature off the Welsh west coast, the west coast of Scotland, and especially the south and west coast of Ireland all have their share.

If you feel like experimenting, then look to the banks around the Orkney Islands, the banks off the east coast of Scotland, off Whitby, and even off the Norfolk and Sussex coasts.

SEASON

Turbot, you can argue, are caught throughout the 12-month period. April and May will produce, but the peak time is from June through to November with September to mid-November typically giving the