Nearly a shamble at the Shambles

[biggcol]

The forecast for Monday was looking good and because we haven’t had many chances to get out lately we sacked off our band rehearsal. I was thinking of the Shambles and when I saw Steve’s post we made the decision to head that way too. We cruised down to the Shambles at a steady 20knts and as we approached we counted 11 boats already there! We set up our first drift a nice long one right down the middle of the bank. On reaching the end of the drift we had a bit of a problem I put the boat in gear and there was no gear. Oh S**T !!!!. Luckily Steve was there and had just gone past to start a new drift. A quick radio call on channel 6 and we came up with a plan to tow us into shallower water and I would then call up Sea Start (only joined last week😂). So while we waited for Steve, Bobi came up with the idea of turning off all the isolators and basically rebooting every thing. Well guess what, yes it worked !everything was working fine. Another quick call to Steve to cancel the tow as we motored back up towards him. After a chat Steve said he would be around if there was any more problems and would let us know when he was heading back. Boat wise everything went OK for the rest of the day.

 

So we set up our second drift lines down and we had sabiki`s out for launce or Mac’s. I was dealing with a rather feisty launce that didn’t want to go in the live bait bong, when Bobi said what’s that noise. It sounded mechanical oh no ! what now. Well we soon realised it was the drag on my rod paying out line she grabbed the rod to stop it disappearing over the side while I put the Sabiki rod down. She said you are stuck in the bottom but as soon as I took the rod I knew it was a fish and not too small. As it came up to the surface we could see it would need the net. It was expertly netted by Bobi and weighed in at 10lb 1oz . We had several more drifts and the tally at lunch time was 5 to me and 1 for Bobi. There was a steady stream of Launce and one very welcome Mackerel. Over the slack things went quiet Steve had called and said they were off to try for something different, I decided to take the risk that nothing else would go wrong with the boat and we would stay for the tide change. Once the tide started running again we were into fish again Bobi managed 2 on one drift. We ended up with 7 Turbot to me and 4 to Bobi. I had a weaver on the sabiki`s.Bobi also managed a small Blonde . As is normal the last drift went longer and we drifted off the bank I called lines up and Bobi finished the day with a nice fat Dab.

 

We had an uneventful trip home at 22knts having auto pilot makes these trips so easy and stress free.

 

[Jim]

A great day out then Colin & Bobi.

Lovely Turbot.

Thanks for posting.  👍

 

[Gummage]

E3 feels a trip out of Weymouth coming on!

[great white]

Great report of another good trip. Lovely fish Colin double figure flaties are rare now.

 

Glad the engine issue was not too bad.

[Steve S]

Great turbot Colin well done, nice there are some bigger ones around 😃.

 

I wonder what the boat issue was, I've never had anything like that, hope it doesn't come back to bite you.

[biggcol]

Thanks for being on standby Steve. I will be keeping an eye on this problem. I think a few inshore trips would be prudent until I get to the bottom of it. The engine started ok but when I throttled up there was no drive and the revs only went up a little . Watch this space.

Well done Steve on your tally of Turbot and a Brill.

[Graham Nash]

On 4/30/2026 at 7:17 AM, Gummage said:

E3 feels a trip out of Weymouth coming on!

Ive been thinking the same .... 

[Graham Nash]

On 4/30/2026 at 7:17 AM, Gummage said:

E3 feels a trip out of Weymouth coming on!

Keep me informed on when this might happen, with a bit of notice Id be happy to buddy up in my boat. 

[Gummage]

Yes we must talk. I bet the other farmer would be up for it.

[Graham Nash]

49 minutes ago, Gummage said:

Yes we must talk. I bet the other farmer would be up for it.

There's a very good slipway at Weymouth. There's also one at Portland Marina, but I'd guess that's expensive. 

[plaicemat]

There's also a free one at Portland just before the old entrance to the Naval establishment, right by the harbour exit, next stop the Shambles.

 

Terry.

[Maverick Martin]

An old thread about the slipway at  Castletown slip

 

[Jim]

We used to have a "Trail away" section in the club.