blueboatdriver

Charlie, I sent you a PM earlier with all our details. Cheers, Simon.

Steph probably makes a nicer cup of Earl Grey as well Matty

You'll have to get Matt's opinion, but I don't think so.

She was too busy cutting the bait for the next drop. I have already sent a report, let me know if it didn't arrive. Cheers Simon

Nice one

Had a great day out today on Matty's boat; not just because Steph was wandering around in her bikini all day either, although it all helps. Not loads of fish but good fun all the same. Matt caught his best tope of 18lbs and Alan had one of 19lbs. Mine was only about 6 or 7 but the less said about my luck with tope the better. I did have a 17lbs undulate though which we did return (female). Many thanks to Matt for another enjoyable day.

We found plenty yesterday West of Southbourne Rough and they were very near the bottom. Filled a bucket in about five minutes.

I'll find out tomorrow, he kindly gave it to me as he's still got some turbot in the freezer from one of his latest Alderney trips.

Nice surprise.

Went to Southbourne rough with Tony on Marlyn. Anchored on a mark at about 10.00am and started instantly to get hammered by pout with a few small bream thrown in. Got fed up with Pout pretty quickly so decided to drift. Plenty of small bream until Tony managed to catch a 2 3/4lbs brill; nice surprise. I immediately got into another fish which I thought at first sight was another brill or turbot; over excited I think, It turned out to be a nice plaice. I managed another plaice, one was 1 3/4lbs the other was 1 1/2lbs. I had a nice pollack about 3 1/2lbs on my feathers which we had out just incase one of these elusive mackerel was passing. I then had a 2lbs 10oz bream which was a pleasant surprise as all the others were pretty small. Tony caught a red gurnard and we also had a number of wrasse. As Tony was planning on fishing on his own boat this evening we thought we'd have a go on the way in; not expecting too many. We were about halfway between the piers and they went crazy; we filled a bucket in about 5 or 6 minutes. Plenty of bait for the evening and some homers. I dropped Tony off on his boat at Salterns and headed on in. I then picked up the wife, two kids and my mum and dad and went up to Wareham quay for fish and chips and a couple of pints of Thatchers. A perfect end to a great day. Oh yeah and while I was on my first pint Tony rang to say he had just caught a 3lbs bass on Poole Patch (jammy git).

The brown meat does look a bit inedible but if you refrigerate the body the meat solidifies and is easier to spot ( I think). I haven't eaten one for years. I worked out of France for a few years and you used to see the Frenchmen eating the meat straight out of the shell in the restaurants; they never seemed to have a problem.

Johnson Sea Enterprises; they have a fleet of beamers, well they did about 10 years ago.

It's probably not the daftest thing I've ever done but still pretty stupid. When I first got my new boat to the slip way after driving from Beaulieau(?) to Poole in the snow. I was so keen to get it afloat I backed it straight into the harbour with the trailerboard still attached

Viviers UK in Portsmouth. Is it still owned by Eric Mcleod ( Ginger)? We used to sell to him very occasionally.

Yeah that's right. Though there's not much of it, the brown meat in the shell is pretty good as well; the French go mad for Spiders

We used to land our catch of crabs at the end of the trip (neap tide) in Cherbourg and we'd always have a few bins of dead crabs which were unsellable. Sometimes if we had time we would smash open some of the berried ones and press some of the orange roe onto a small hook and the mullet and eels which used to live under the town quay could not resist it. We used to have them shoaling around the boat. I'm sure if you waited until the crabbers were landing their catch for the week they would gladlly give you their dead hen crabs.

Newboy, Edible crabs become soft and hold a lot of water prior to changing their shells. I don't think you could get at the meat without destroying the whole thing. Also the fishermen are not supposed to bring in soft crabs as they are called.

There is no such thing as an Admiralty map. They are called charts. Maps are for farmers not fishermen.

Probably his last time on that boat Sam.

Sam, I did hear he was stinking of booze.

" Some of the best ones are the high powered speed boats steered by neanderthals who are screaming along at full power, see the flat water beyond Stony and steer straight for it. The banshee howl of 200hp at 6000rpm is shattered by a WHOOPH as the prop hits the stones, bits of expensive metal fly through the plume of spray and pebbles, and the propless engine revs up to an impossible 10000rpm just before the con rods break loose and shoot through the crank case" Great to see. If we're lucky we manage to see a couple a season.

Apparently he was delivering it for somebody. He had only just left Salterns. Didn't get far!

Wrong way

It depends on the size of the cable tie. For my boat one of the large cable ties is enough. The anchor will only usually trip if it needs to i.e. when you attempt to steam your anchor out and it is held fast in the sea bed. I would not recommend going astern to trip your anchor as you will probably only pull it harder into the fastener at best. At worse you might dip your bow if there is a lot of tide and some swell. You are better off starting with too weak a trip and working up to a stronger one when you know how your boat reacts. It' s very important to get anchor retrieval right as it can be very dangerous if you get it wrong on a bad day.