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Red letter Pollock day on Loobie 1V

Club Competition Winners 2024 Fish of the Month January Charlie Chapman Spurdog 12lb 8oz 78% Specimen February Colin Francis Dogfish 2lb 4oz 75% Specimen March Dave Evans Bull Huss 14lb 2oz 118% Specimen April Steve Scott Black Bream 2lb 5oz 66% Specimen May Kev Couzens Brill 5lb 1oz 113% Specimen June Colin Francis Thick Lipped Mullet 4lb 6oz 109% Specimen July Adam Franklin Red Gurnard 1lb 9oz 125% Specimen August Dave Evans Thresher Shark 200lb 0oz 143% Specimen September Colin Francis Thick Lipped Mullet 5lb 8oz 138% Specimen October Steve Scott Bass 7lb 13oz 82% Specimen November Alun Jones Ballan Wrasse 4lb 8oz 90% Specimen December Charlie Chapman Small Eye Ray 11lb 9oz 105% Specimen Trophy Winners Specimen Fish of the Year Dave Evans Thresher Shark 200lb 143% Specimen Bob Horne Memorial No flounders caught on comp. No flounders reported in catch reports. Steve Chester Memorial No Cod recorded. Frank Fudge Memorial Dale Johnson Conger 11lb 4oz Largest Bream Bobi Francis Gilthead Bream 1lb 6oz Largest Flatfish Kev Couzens Brill 5lb 1oz Largest Ray Charlie Chapman Small Eyed Ray 11lb 9oz Simon Hall Memorial Dave Evans / Chris Witheford Bass 9lb 8oz B.A.S.S. Comp – Catch / Release Dave Evans / Chris Witheford Bass 9lb 8oz Junior Shield Blake Witheford Bass 4lb 10oz Specimen Hunters Shield Colin Francis 4 Recorded Fish over 100% Peter Peck – Chairman’s Award TBA at Presentation Ladies Shield TBA at Presentation Competition Winners Spring Species Hunt Cancelled Specimen Comp Not fished. Junior Comp – Not fished Annual Boat Species Hunt 1st Loobie 1V Jerry Shutter 37 species 2nd Boblin3 Colin & Bobbi Francis 36 species 3rd Reel Magic Dave Evans 30 species Annual Individual Species Hunt 1st Colin Francis 30 species 2nd Jerry Shumbler 28 species 3rd Bobi Francis 27 species New Club Records - £25 Vouchers Dave Evans Thresher Shark 200lb 143% Specimen Specimen Hunters – 7 Anglers with 13 Fish 100% Specimen or over Colin Francis 4 Dave Evans 3 Charlie Chapman 2 Adam Franklin 1 Kev Couzens 1 Gary Witheford 1 Chris Witheford 1 Club Trophies to be presented at Club AGM meeting, Tuesday 1st April 2025. Please come along and support the Club AGM and your club members who will be presented with their trophy during the meeting. Venue: The Oakdale Club, 92, Darbys Lane, Oakdale, Poole, BH15 3EU If there is anything anyone can see that is incorrect, please PM me to check. Top of Form Bottom of Form

First trip out over the sand bar, well I got over it ok. It would have been better to travel a bit further beyond the last yellow marker on Starboard side. say 80-100mtrs past and then head straight at the Needles. The Harbour is very shallow at the moment, I only had 2.4ft in places, we need some cruisers drawing 1 mtr to stir it up. This was a shakedown trip out at Sea and the Auto Pilot is not playing ball, "go to Sea they said and it will reset after a couple of turns" oh no it didn't. You sure miss auto pilot when it is not working. I gave the Rays a good go and managed 1 spotted, to catch that I had to wade through 30 plus doggies, they are really wide spread out there, on every bait as soon as it hits bottom. Managed a few whiting that I could see on the sounder, then back in over the bar. I had to jump out of the cabin whilst on the way in by the first yellow and stop an idiot steering directly over the sand bar, just saved him by 50 yards otherwise he would still be there. Auto pilot a bit disappointing means more effort to get it sorted. Then the marina wanted me to go on another berth while they work on mine, what a pain setting up all new ropes on a fixed pontoon. Big wash down and home absolutely shattered.

Disaster averted. I did without auto pilot for 4 months due to a broken rudder indicator cable, what a right pain, especially on a 121nm wrecking trip so sympathies. Ok I know it's a first world problem.

Having seen lots of reports of some decent Pollock being caught, yesterdays weather window and tide to good to miss. 7.30 bridge and a lovely calm sea and a good run just over two hours at 23knots bought us to our first wreck. Two shooting friends and Dogfish Dave on board, the two friends were new to wrecking so i had tied up lots of rigs!!!! First drift an 8lbs Pollock for Baz, his first ever Pollock so over the moon and a good Red Gurnard to Dave and a fat Pout for Piggy. The sun came out and it was glorious, nearly 200ft with a maximium 3 knot drift all the ducks were in a row! A reasonably steady flow of fish throughout the day with some smaller ones managing to be put back. I christened a new SPJ outfit with first a PB 15lbs Pollock, then a 19lbs Pollock then an 18lbs fish!!!! All the fish gods were smiling on me that day for sure. With 3 Pollock each i decided we should head for home for the 4.30 bridge, after 10 minutes we hit a VERY thick fog bank, about 50m viz, radar on 3 other very experienced Yachtmaster crew on board helped one watching the radar, and two on watch was good for confidence, encountered one small boat off Durleston on the radar then one total ejit in the Swash doing 20knots with no radar echo on a rib!!!! Luckily we made the bridge with time to spare, none of us had seen fog in the forecast. Really red letter day for me and a great all round craic.

Brilliant Jerry, those are HUGE Pollock, well done. Regarding AIS I highly recommend it, get class B so you can transmit position as well. Fishing and transiting where the big ships go you want to give yourself every chance of being seen IMO. I do have a switch on the dash so I switch off position transmissions for those 'secret' spots, mostly it's on transmitting my position. In theory the wife could track me, in practice my son does as he has a desk job 🤣. There's no licence fee so it's a one off purchase. You can get alarms for potential collisions and when connected to the VHF direct call a ship by selecting their name on the radio and also they can direct call you! Also the Coastguard can see exactly where you are, very handy in an emergency, even if you sink the last known position will be stored. Should have put those photo's on March Photo of the month!

Brilliant day out Jerry, it doesn't get much better than that, apart from the fog desending , that was a bit disopointing for you, it proves making the effort can get the resaults, a long treck but well worth the effort.splendid fish well done. Colin.