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Marlin had a quiet day watchin Rob and his guests catching all of the Rays on Solan just 15 meters from us !!! However, I did eventually get to land 3 Rays in the end, a spotted ray 2lb 5ozs, and two small Eyed Rays, one 5lb and one 7lb10ozs. Also, an unusual catch that came up in the mouth of half a mackerel bait - a Sea Horse !! Now I am sure that is not on the Year species list??????

Had a good day on Illusion with tope,best 30lb plus.2 nice bass 4 and5 llb.Good size bream and a 20lb Blonde ray caught by a non member. We also had the smallest congers I have ever seen plus a couple of mackerel A real pleasure to be out.

Loobie 1V had a wonderful day like everyone else.! The fishing was slow, mackerel, straps, Bream, Brill, Tope,, lsd, and 3 blondes best 12lbs 8oz. Andy had the first fish on the boat and great company, really good turnout of boats and anglers, shame more rays hadn’t heard about it. Doombar to finish the day with the Madness crew, perfect. Result TBC

So a plan was hatched as Saturday only allowed for a potential short trip, which was cancelled. Sunday I tried to hitch another ride, to no avail. And this forecast was so good Jo mentioned the 4 of us going out. Great idea. We can fish the comp. Well, good intentions and all that, we hit some small scad early on after a 9:30 launch at Mudeford. With no livebait well the scad were too good a opportunity to give up, so in to a coolbox with water they went. And off to the ledge. A few drifts and we had bass a drift and a couple of keepers. Then I remembered I didn't lock the trailer! (Too much going on with family when launching, left my brew in the car too!). Then after popping back to the quay with the key we needed more bait, managed one in 30 mins so not great. Met up with Alun on Gastro, stalked him to find bait, that didn't go well! So we hit the ledge with one bait and feathered whilst drifting. We managed a bass a drift and put a few back of undersize, kept a few (bonus having all of us aboard) and lost some in the fight. Wind picked up on what had been a clam day, so what to do. Kids want to head out to a ray mark, so off to near southbourne rough and find a featureless flat spot. It was sloppy, a few white caps and the girls loved the journey out! We had baits down for 10 mins and Lottie had her thornback on which was fun @10:13 Then we had a couple of dogs (go mum and dad), then Livvy had an Undulate of 12:4 that gave a good account for itself. Not bad for 40 mins ray fishing. We then headed in at 16:00, tired and happy. Met with Al on the slip, he had some plaice, and a bass but nothing special. Great weather (little cold) and good fishing. Thanks for the radio check Mal, I do seem to have interference on the radio from the plotters. Shame we didn't meet up with JV, we had planned to but they were enjoying the plaice as we enjoyed the bass. Rob

Ray Competition Results 1st Trevor Thomas Thornback Ray 13lbs 2oz 100.96% 2nd Charlotte Frances Thornback Ray 83.17% 3rd Livvy Frances Undulate Ray 12lbs 4oz 76.56% 4th Mal Thomas Thornback Ray 9lbs 8oz 73.08% 5th Greg Toms Small eyed Ray 7lbs 10oz 69.32% Congratulations to the winners and everyone who took part. It was great to see an excellent turnout.

O/k, let's rein in on the horse jokes. You might have asked it why it had such a long face though. Terry.

'Terry your home made pasties heated up in the Dutch ? oven were superb.' Jim, close, no cigar, Swedish oven but thanks for the mention. 'Also, an unusual catch that came up in the mouth of half a mackerel bait - a Sea Horse !! Now I am sure that is not on the Year species list??????' Greg, did you weigh it? Yay or Neigh? Terry.

Steve Personally, I would have thought it would have preferred Horse Mackerel !!!!!!!!!!!

Skipper did not take the glory, I just didn’t have my glasses on when posting, I thought it was J2 🤣🤣🤣 Jerry Sumbler had the 12-8 Blonde🙄

Tigerfish, no Rays. A late start, Diane doesn't do early! Tried a new offshore mark, lost a tope and that was it. Went over to my banker blond ray bank and it let me down. Failed to catch any fresh mackerel either so fished with frozen the whole time which didn't fill me with confidence. Sounds like I should have fished inshore.

Hmmm good company ? That's not what you been calling me all day 😂 It was a wonderful day out again on Fisheagle thanks to Alan my species count is climbing and a visiting friend who has come to down from the north to do some fishing down south had a great day sharing knowledge and banter and catching a few nice bream and red Gurnard thrown in for good measure so a good day had by all

Kept Looby 4 company off Old Harry and then a second mark further East - this was where I managed a couple of smalleyed rays - biggest 5lb 2oz. We had plenty of other species - dogs, straps a nice tope to Glen and a cuttlefish for me too, A lovely day out.

No Terry, it seemed quite plump, so I guess it hade been on a stable diet 😁

GROAN......

We have over 35 of them at work. All are now Icom's after other brands gave us issues in the past. We use the floating ones and they come with a three year warranty.

The sea horse sounds like a legit catch, guess it was rather hungry...

Hi, It was good to chat to you in the marina, we weren't in the comp but we had a reasonable day. I caught my first red mullet, too many small bream and we had a few bass. One was a fair size caught on a live pout. See you again soon Jim

I have icon very good Graham

Hi Neil, I like the standard horizon range part of the YAESU brand can't give you a preferred model number as mine is about 5 years old and non dsc but has performed well over the years floats upright(not tested) and has good battery life and range.It was about £130 then but assuming range has evolved a dsc type must be available now for the same price although their HX890E DSC type is around £200 sale price on some sites. Another plus for the brand for me is that their main support office was in Winchestetr.I also have a standard horizon fixed dsc vhf which is great. I know many people swear by ICOM but my personal experience with this brand when I used to use their VHF/UHF handhelds (non marine bands) for communicating during work projects was not the best regarding reliability and battery life problems. When they did work they were very good but they used to visit repair centres quite regularly . YAESU have some really low cost handhelds (around £60 ) and make good kit.

Fisheagle tried a few well trusted ray marks. We had some fresh mackerel and given the tide and weather conditions, we were quietly confident. We caught every thing but rays. It was only our last mark that came up with a single solitary undulate of 10 lbs. to me. Good fun was had with largish tope and we were all bitten off. As the tide turned, we went onto another bank. Several bags of chum later, we had more small Conger, Tope and a few other fish. We then started to hit decent bream on the Ray rigs. We probably had over a dozen between 2 and 3 lbs. The best one of 3 lbs. 12ozs. going to Mike. A bonus bull Huss, which I needed for the Individual Species Comp. completed what turned out to be a day of contrasts. A lovely day to be out with good company and a weather forecast that was almost correct.

Hi Neil, I have the Icom IC-M33 VHF Marine tranciever. A few of us bought them at the same time. Not sure of the price but just over £100 I think. I think I bought it about six years back. It's waterproof and floats. ( I've never tested that though ) It still holds a good charge and has never had any issues. The floating bit is very important though I believe. Hope you find a bargain. Jim

Just the one to me lowest bounce 12llb i think we managed the 25 but dogfish. nice to fish a new mark and to take part in comp.

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