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Needles Today


Paul D
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Early start from Lymington this morning and almost disaster before we had even set off. Mentioned to Dan that the boat rolls off the trailer easily now but it came off rather two easily ( as in half way up the slipway. ).

Depth sounder transducer was removed from the hull and the bottom of the transom was ground down a bit plus a few chunks from the gelcoat - still could have been a lot worst ....

 

Made sure we had no leaks and then set off of the Needles. Flat calm, so tanked it all the way there.

 

Fishing was slow with suprisingly few dogfish ( we only had around 4 all day ).

A few pout to hokkais and then Dan hooked into a better fish on his squid bait.

Fought well on the way up and up comes a 4lb 4oz Whiting ( 2oz short of the club record ).

 

At this stage I have caught a solitary pout which was smaller than my hand.

 

Tide turns and then it is my turn. I was fishing with my new Penn reel and hooked into something big, feels like a ray and after battling against the tide up comes a nice 13lb 8oz Undulate Ray.

 

10 minutes later and same rod gets another bite and into another ray. This one fights harder and the tide is stronger. Second Undulate weighs in at 16lb.

 

Fishing is then dead quite until Dan has a strap conger which we could have sworn was a cod.

 

All quiet again until I hook into something which is not huge but is fighting differently to a whiting - Up comes a COD smile.gif - Only a small one 4lb 8oz and exactly the same size as Dan's Whiting but at least I managed to catch one this year.

 

Now need to do some repairs on the boat - but well worth the trip today.

 

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thanks for the trip paul. some good fishing, but we really had to work at it. I look forward to the ray pics and especially the pic of the whiting. Shame about the launching though, but hopefully the repair is something you can sort quite easily.

 

Danny T

Edited by Gnasher
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Wondered why the boat was coming off the plane continually on the way back. Found out why this morning as there must have been around 1 foot of water in the bilge and also learnt that the compartments on the 520 at the rear must have some sort of drainage in the bottom of them as my fuel tank and batteries were sitting in 6 inches of water.

 

Now need to fix the transducer and apply some gel coat to the ground down bit ( it is obviously leaking ! )

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Hi Paul

 

Nice report Paul some excellent specimen fish to go with the other recent reports

 

Bad luck with the boat, I still have plenty of materials here if you need some for the repair,

 

I would advise getting rid of the salt water ASAP, flushing it all out with fresh water [From the inside would work] then look for the leak prior to fully drying before repair.

 

Hopfully it is only leaking from the transdocer mount screws. If it is leaking through the damaged gellcoat you will need more of a repair than a dollop of gell

 

Call me if I can help-advise

 

Charlie

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Hopfully it is only leaking from the transducer mount screws. If it is leaking through the damaged gelcoat you will need more of a repair than a dollop of gel

Couldn't agree more!,

make sure you know where the water is getting in before making a repair the last thing you want is saltwater getting into a de-laminated section of GRP.

help also offered if needed. post up some pictures of damaged area.

 

Simon L

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Found out where the water was getting in. It was the rear of the transom ( ie. The but which got "ground down" ). It was only seeping through slowly but fast enough to put around 120 litres or so of water into the bilge.

 

To quickly drain I stuck a screwdriver through the damaged fiberglass and out came the rest of the water. Cleaned the fiberglass and cleaned with acetone.

Applied some matting and gel over the hole ( 5 layers ). Intend to add another 5 layers once this has set and then reapply gelcoat.

 

The trnasducer screws are still in the hull and sealed - so no leakage there.

 

 

 

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