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I was hoping for better conditions, I was down on the boat for 5.15am to be greeted with a heavy Southerly breeze which was enough to put me off a sand bar crossing in the dark, so I went back to bed for a few hours and had another go at 10.0am when the tide had risen back up. It was snotty out there on the ledge and a 10 knot trip to the end of the ledge was enough of that. The thought of the planned crossing over the bay was out of the question in a 4ft swell with the occasional 6 footer on the nose, disappointing. I did take some video, not reviewed it yet. Nearly flat calm on the way in. I was followed out by another boat who didn't seem to no where he wanted to go as he zig zagged across my route. Anchoring in a 4ft swell was interesting and I paid out a lot more rope than usual for the rise and fall of the boat and stayed on station with a secure hold, not a big tide it has to be said but 76ft of water is testing. Bites from the off, bream and doggies kept me busy feeding them off till the congers turned up. Then a very strong run with the reel screaming line, lifted the rod out with the clutch released to allow me to get the rod out of the holder and it was gone. Two hooks and a whole squid returned and untouched, what was that, probably a Tope or was it. More congers, bream and doggies and no rays. The Sea was crystal clear, nothing on the fish finder, no mackerel seen. I heard a few boats from PBSBAC but was so busy I forgot to make time for a message. Early finish to get back for the Ryder Cup, what a final day spoilt by the New Yorkers so called fans, they have no etiquette and foul mouths, they should be ashamed of there behaviour which very nearly changed the result such was the impact from the crowd or so called sporting fans. They soon left in their droves with their tails between their legs as the Cup was retained and then won. The governing bodies needs to get a grip, bringing in Police too late and evicting a good number of the crowd was not enough the damage to the event was done.

I bet the pilot boat was doing more than the speed limit and even if he wasn’t speeding his wash would have nearly been as bad as my boat at 10 knots through the water

Got out today as planned…sea state was horrid so stuck inshore between the piers for a few hours after some squid. Took 8 and 3 cuttlefish…dropped 5 or 6. Hope the worms I bought last till Tuesday in the fridge. Only a couple of charters in the area but it looked like they went back into the harbour. Bumpy trip back to harbour but the 175 took it in her stride 😁

Well to be honest Jim, you were restricting our view of Brownsea slightly [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m told it never goes to plan when I’m on board! Well it did yesterday! We got the 7.30 bridge with perfect conditions although Jerrys forecast was showing it would be windy before midday so we stayed in Swanage bay to try for some rays. The tide was rising quite hard and not much was showing. As it slackened off a couple of strap conger and LSD, then a few rattles and a decent bream came up on a large hook. We changed down and caught a few bream for the table. The wind was now much less than expected so at slack water we ventured out slightly further to a bank in the hope of rays. The tide was now ebbing strongly and Jerry was first with a blonde. A hectic half hour followed with two more blondes and a tope each. My shoulder is aching today! It then went quiet and with a chop starting to pick up we decided to up anchor but the anchor had other ideas! It had set in very hard in the tide and would not trip despite some motoring around. After a battle it eventually came up and we headed back to the swash to try for some plaice. One for Jerry but nothing else showing so we called it a day. We spotted a kayaker really struggling trying to get past the chain ferry in the strong ebb so we threw him a line….he was mightily relieved and with some expert boat handling from captain we towed him back into the harbour…..catch and release I think they call it! Jerry has done so well with the cucumbers in his greenhouse this year that he’s having to find other uses for them and it turns out they make very good rig tidiers! thank you skipper!

Oh how I love being pretty much retired. Us semi or full on retirees can please ourselves (almost) what we do and when we do it. So happens that the weather man said Friday is going to be a good day, after pontificating for a moment or to and along with Mrs B's wise words of why don't you just man up and get out there a plan started to appear. Messaging back and forth with Mal (must learn to make phone calls as much easier) it was decided to go out on the 7:30 bridge and concentrate on inshore stuff. The first port of call was a bank just off of Ballard about a mile off where we were hoping to get a ray or two. The plan fell by the wayside as we were inundated with small to average 1lb Bream which was nice but frustrating that nothing else had a chance or look in. The moment baits hit the deck then rattle Bream were on the rag and squid baits. We decided to move approx 3 miles offshore to look for bigger stuff. The mark I suggested used to hold a larger stamp of Bream and so it did with fish up 1.75lb so not quite what we were looking for. The tide got up and the anchor tripped which caused a few moments one of which was one of my Kenzakit 6-12lb rode getting stuck in and crack the top 75mm broke off Shite. We took this opportunity to move again as Mal was becoming desperate for a Ray. Anyways we re-anchored to the 50/50ish banks with fish from the off. first drop and almost instantly was a Bas, I must have planted the bait on its head as I never even put the rod in the holder it was straight on. Only small maybe 1.5lb at best but a good start. Not as busy as the inshore mark but we had several rays of which only one was landed a blonde of probably 8/9lb but nice to see. I was into a good fish which was stripping line from my 20lb class Kenzaki and ABU 7000 synchro reel but unfortunately after a couple of mins it bit through the trace line (oh pooh) and so it continued. Al in all the weather was as good as the forecast if not better, the sun was out, the sky was blue and the fish were playing. Such a crack being out with Mal, I loved it, here's to the next time IMG_0022[1].MOV IMG_0026[1].MOV

So glad you remembered how fishing goes, Martin. 😉 A lovely autumn day, some fish playing ball and good company, what more could you want, apart from more and bigger fish! If I may (well, I'm going to), I'll attach my record to yours. My friend Pete and I headed out about 08.30 and it was bloody tight getting under the town bridge. Going through the harbour with a flat sea no other boats about got me thinking what a shame it is not October. I decided to use the first of the ebbing tide trying for plaice and this proved to be a good decision with a good stamp of fish interspersed with other varieties making their presence felt. We had quite a few small to medium sized bream, sometimes two at a time, Pete got a couple of small bass, a lone dab showed up, something I haven't seen (or eaten, very sweet) for a long time, a thornback ray to me on the plaice gear and, as I reeled in the last cast, a BIG mackerel. What a good start apart from there being not a single squid around. At one point, Alun turned up and neither of us saw where he came from, suddenly he is just there sitting off our bow with about five rods out for squid, Ninja fisherman! And no, he didn't get any either. Now, off to the edge of the Ledge to try for bass which we ticked off, fish around the 3 - 4lb mark, perfect. We also had a lot of wrasse including one very large specimen which put up a bit of a scrap. Then, it all just suddenly stopped so, we decided to fish our way back to Poole, drowning the remaining worms. We did stop at Hengitsbury to see if there were any more mackerel about but, no luck. I did have something plucking at my feathers but not hooking up, I did convince myself that this was probably a squid, not getting it's tentacles caught on the small single hooks. Nothing else interrupted our peace on the saunter back to base. With an 04.30 start, the drive home after the boat washdown seemed to go on much longer than necessary. Looking forward to the next window, it's good, as Martin said, to be retired! Terry.

Just after the visit at our meeting saying they "turned a blind eye" using their discretion we got moved on by "Dad's Army" whilst fishing in the channel right away from anyone around the far side of Brownsea. Us, Greg & them were the only boats in view. Not sure who we were obstructing.

Think I saw you just up from the chain ferry slip…I did wonder what that jet ski was with the Christmas lights going 😂 I got a speeding board reminder from the pilot boat going up through the harbour…was doing 10.8knt.

Popped out with Adam on Kodiak. Got plenty of live baits on the patch, then off to the Purbecks for bass. They didn't play ball. The weak tide and strong winds meant drifts were strange or non-existant. At one point we were being thrown about on Peveril and did about 100m in 10 mins! And that was towards the shore!! I squeaked one out before we headed back to a very quiet harbour. Condor was leaving on our arrival, we waited and let is pass. Only to be talked to by the HM rep on a jetski about not fishing the main channel. I think the HMs visit to the club when there was a hint of turning a blind eye if not causing any issues was not flet by this water based Nazi. He then called his mates on us who turned up in the big pilot boat. They conceded we were impacting no one and tbh, we hadn't had a touch so we advised we'd be off. Would have loved to have hooked a good bass with them as an audience. Typical day, live well rammed and returning the majority at the end of the session. R