FaSS relaunch: Solent & Portland morning briefing
14 April 2026 — £132 million for UK fisheries, five years
FaSS impact on inshore charters
The relaunched Fisheries and Seafood Scheme delivers £132 million across the UK over five years and it lands where skippers feel it: pier-to-boat cash for cold storage, safer berths and engine upgrades. Local Solent and Portland charter skippers can apply for vessel grants and small-scale shore infrastructure. Faster access to replacement outboards and insulated bait lockers will reduce cancelled trips and keep boats on the water.
Bait supply — the immediate win
Investment targets processing and cold-chain projects. That stabilises bait supply for dayboats out of Lymington, Portsmouth and Weymouth. Frozen mackerel and squid allocations will be easier to secure. Charters reporting early reductions in spoilage already adjust boat packing lists accordingly; better storage at landing ports shortens the gap between catch and freezer, improving live bait runs and overall availability for morning bookings.
Morning sea‑bass windows: Solent and Portland
Sea bass are on the move. Morning windows on the Solent and around Portland remain at dawn and through the first two hours of the flood tide. Tactics include light running ledger rigs, soft plastics in chalky seams and switching to fresh squid when fish go deep. Calm mornings with an easterly chop concentrate bass along the shorelines from Ryde to Southsea and around Portland Bill. Skippers are scheduling dawn charters to match those two-hour peaks and using larger bait stores and improved onboard refrigeration to keep clients fishing longer.
The FaSS commitment runs for five years from 14 April 2026.
Recommended: portable sonar fishfinder