Leaderboard

Went out at 9.15am Tuesday with friend Ken. Tried the entrance for a few drifts with artificials - one small tub was the only response. Tried a few drifts along ther swash for no return so off to the Sadler and put down the hook half a mile ahead of the Allure of the Seas. Frozen maccy gave me a smallish tope, and two strap congers. The head of a fresh maccy - Ken had a couple - then gave me a smalleyed ray. Wind rose a little so back to the swash where Ken winkled out a small plaice amongst the weed. A good day out with good company.

Dean and I decided to take advantage of the small tides last weekend and make for the offshore bass marks & wrecks First stop was at Brownsea Castle to stock up on livelies, after half an hour we decided that wasn't going to work so off we went to see if we could get some mackerel. First drift at our chosen banker mark off Swanage saw us getting as many joey's as we needed in quick order. Bait sorted we then sped off to our bass mark some 18 miles offshore. Half a dozen drifts and zilch, nobody at home other than Tope which bit off our light lines and cuttlefish that ate the head off of every other bait we sent down (kept one cuttle for home) Moving on we went to several wrecks non of which gave up anything to write home about. Our tally for the day was several jumbo pout, red gurnard, one solitary 6/8lb pollock a couple of tope and cuttlefish. We ended up closer to Portland than Poole and some 20 odd miles offshore covering around 80 or so miles in total for not a lot. Lessons learned are that wrecks don't fish that well on mean neaps and that we need to invest in new rods as our current line up of aging equipment no longer seem to work......................well at least that's our excuse to go shopping

Dan and I could not resist the combination of a small tide and good forecast to try anchoring a wreck on Sunday Rowing out to the boat at 0700 there was no wind and a flat calm, fully loaded and off we go. the usual call on channel 6 gave us a brief chat to Martin on Madness looking for bait fish. Passing the chains we go up to 20 knots to the chosen mark, after recent trips I decided to not even try for mackerel, we would use frozen and catch some pout at the wreck. On the ebbing tide we were soon at the wreck. Big anchor down and settle on the tide. According to No 2 son I got lucky, we were 57 meters in front of the wreck in 40 metres of water. a couple of baits down on 12 oz leads, and we wait!! 😀😀 Fish on. That was the start of a busy session on the increasing ebb tide, mainly conger and one stroppy Tope. Baited feathers kept us supplied with poor cod and pout for bait and occasionally we got up to 2 rods each. 😎 The small tide meant that we could fish through, but did go up to our largest leads for about an hour [1 rod out each and Bacon Butties on] As slack water approached so did a Swanage diving boat called "Wight Spirit" The skipper asked me to call him on 6, "here we go" says Dan [remembering some history with dive boats] He asked me what our intentions were, when I told him we were going to re anchor for the flood, he asked if he could put divers down on slack. after I told him that it would ruin our fishing he moved off to another wreck close by, what a nice skipper, Many thanks we moved a little early and it took a while for the flood to start, no problem as we were now getting lots of medium size Tope. 😀😀 Just as the Lasagne was cooked and ready to eat, we swung into place and the congers started to feed again, catching and T barring weighty fish off, while trying to eat our late lunch is just the sort of Multi tasking we like. 😍 No monsters this time, the only one weighed went to 39lb in the net, allowing 2lb for the net, its a 92% specimen. But my god did it make a mess of the boat. It reminds us why we usually leave them outside of the boat. We had at least 10 eels each averaging 25/30 and half as many Tope that were a little smaller. Nice warm day with a dropping warm wind Just my sort of day.😍😎

Please do Martin Not a problem with me, He is from Swanage so I have asked Sam to keep an eye out for him ashore and thank him again

Sounds like a good day. Closer inshore the tide barely got going on the flood so a good call. Full marks to the skipper of Wight Spirit too in his sense of co-operation with other water users too 👍

Went out with member Geoff at 9am yesterday and drifted off Bournemouth pier towards Boscombe pier. Plenty of small plaice mainly well undersized. A few small bream and half a dozen tubs. Managed a gar on float at second attempt - first one didn't hook up. Three good maccy on the lazy line and later a further two. Wind made it a little uncomfortable so a move was decided - Hello another take on the three small feathers - another maccy and a bonus herring. Slow motor to the harbour and tied up in the Wytch for a bag-full of weed and nothing else so it was back to Cobbs for fuel and a wash down. a pleasant day afloat with plenty of action on the drift. Geoff managed a couple of keeper plaice too.