Leaderboard

I booked a launch and retrieve at Ridge wharf and sat/sun on a finger pontoon with a view to returning to wilts on Monday. I’m trying to avoid the late night tow home. Endeavour 3 has a 6 foot cuddy. I cut some board to throw across the benches. Me and an old Ag college friend Ian,resolved to have another boys weekend staying on the boat. The steep slip launch nearly went badly. I shall use a belay rope next time. Spent the day scratching a variety of the usual marks and jigging for mackerel for a few hours. I blanked but my guest caught a small bream on the drift and managed to foul Hook one Mackey on the feathers. As advised we found less weed on the Patch and Ian upped a lively conger. Intersting couple of minutes when Ian’s light tackle was slammed and bitten off then immediately this denizen snatched his heavier ledger which was nearby. Eventually all we got was a well chewed snood. (There’s a song in that). Got back to Ridge late evening and slept p

I was sitting in the lounge watching some boring crap and the phone went , Errrrr , my engine has gone up in smoke, the cowling shot 20ft in the air and singed my eyebrows but the good news is the fire extinguisher worked fine and we have got a flask of tea and the old auxiliary is on and running 🤔 Tracey was already sitting in the car, I grabbed the vhf , a very quick trip to Cobbs 🤪and found the Gummidge crew pootling along all safe and well (nothing I could do about the eyebrows etc) so as a exercise , we tide up along side and took the p*ss out of his engine that was covered in a heavy clotted cream with burnt bits A very slow trip up the river, , round the nasty bit to the slipway, I’m getting good at this retrieving thing 😁 Very simple job getting the old crusty tub onto the trailer , all nice and easy UNTIL a passing comment about how slippery slipways are saw me on my ass and sliding into the stinking 💦. Next issues, errrrr , forgot how quickly the water disappears from the river , 😅 oops Sometime later , back at Cobbs, noticed my knees was more than a little swollen, that’s the lawn not getting any attention for the next few days 😂😂😇😇😇🥳 To sum up it does show that you that it is better to have it and NOT need it than trust a chubby old man put the boat onto the trailer Amazing how a sticky starter motor and a split fuel line can make your days fishing that more challenging 👍💪💪 Edited ☹️ Tracy insisted the need to film me taking a bath and show my shame (I’m NOT posting the video 😂😂😂)

Glad all went well in the end - and well done Hooky!!! I was fishing the Patch last friday on a charter, and small tope to 15lb were biting off snoods. Two came to the boat on conger gear, but bit through before a chance of netting. Mike

Happy Birthday Trev. I hope all's well and that you have a great Birthday.

Oh dear, sounds like a day to forget, and a day to laugh about all in the same breath. Glad everybody was fine, and hope the repair to the engine is not too steep (like the slipway)!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

thanks maverick but I havent go to the good bit….. Day 2 We seriously wanted to take some Mackerel home and avoid the weed. So resolved to go to Hengistbury jigging. Thought we would explore the blind side of Brownsea route by way of a Jolly. I got confused amongst the way marks and concerned about shallows so we switched off to check the chart. Now I bought this motor last year as a replacement for my aging 2 stroke 1982 mercury. I bought a 90 hp mariner 4 stroke 2004 vintage for economy and key start reliability. I got a bit more than I bargained for when I went to restart it . The starter motor failed to engage there was a popping sound and in the time it took us to say” that didn’t sound good” It exploded sending the cowelling 15 foot into the air. The rest of it was ablaze. Using an extinguisher in earnest was on my bucket list. We quickly had the fire out. And then saw the canopy about 20 yards away still floating but in trouble. We grabbed the paddles and pulled hard towards it as we got within 6 foot down it went. still using the paddles we did a bad boy thing and roped up to a metal shallows marker. Ian advised that our hearts and nerves needed to settle. It was a hell of a bang! So we sat down and had a cupotea. It was not long before we had the attention of the jolly boys on the harbour authority vessel. On realising our predicament they were friendly and helpful. They offered us a tow which we declined but they put a man aboard who helped us rig and start the auxiliary.They also politely toldustoget off their pole😕😕 They saw us off…Hooky meanwhile on hearing our problem turned Doombar into thunderbird 11 and launched from Cobbs to cover our backs. When he caught up with us we accepted his tow and he skilfully and Quietly took to the ridge wharf slip and assisted us in a low water retrieve. (We used a belay😃) It’s great to have good friends in the boat club. So it all ended in a blank and an early run home. The following photo sums up our mood

Happy cake day, Trev. Terry.

Have a great day🎂🎂🍷🍷

Went out last Sunday with Mike Hall and Mike Bennet from the Fisherman's Cafe. Had a really relaxing day with a good variety of species and enough fish to keep us interested. Caught an unusual Gurnard weighing 1lb 1oz. which, after further checking, I believe to be a Streaked Gurnard. I will enter it for the Species Comp. and put it forward as a new Club Record if everyone is happy. The Streaked has a more vertical nose, thick legs, bright red lips and fins as well as short spikes on the lateral line.

Reminds me of an old girlfriend. 😉 Terry.