dicky

varivas and i think sakuma available at veals mail order. try uk hooks for the razorclaw.

plenty of cod showing in the brissy channel, though mainly small at the moment. we had around 20 out of burnham at the weekend and have a club comp sunday so will let you know how it goes. bit of a treck for you guys but if can quite often get some sheltered fishing in when it's blowing on the south coast.

they caught us some bass last year on a charter out of langstone but don't think i've used them since.

i use a beta box and it takes all my tackle and enough room for sarnies. excellent value for money imo. i also have the large tray which is very useful.

just read it, thanks jim. feel confident now to tackle this again and thanks everyone for your input. dicky.

cheers paul. my only concern is that the boat is at my parents in somerset 100 miles from my house! i hope to get it apart and back together again the same day so as not to miss any fishing opertunities. i'm down there next weekend so will have a look then. good idea on the photograph front though. cheers again dicky.

thanks for the reply jim but i'm more concerned about the bearings at the moment. i have read the thread on the hubduck and it looks fairly straight forward but it is a job for the future, after i'm competent at taking the hub/bearings apart.

tried to service my trailer for the first time at the weekend. A friend was showing me how to remove the bearings. when we removed the cap and took out all the old grease we were expecting to see a nut with a pin in. what we found was a circlip, spring and then a disc with a grease nipple on. after removing this we could see a nut with what looked like a pin through but as this was not what my friend was expecting to see we stopped there rather than ending up with a load of parts and not being able to get them back together. is this a bearing saver, and is it just a case of gently tapping it to remove the collar to get at the nut. Although i have no experience in this i feel it should be something i would be capable of and would like to be able to check my bearings and brakes regulary. any advice greatly appreciated. i would also look to fit a flushing kit at some stage.

that is stunning. a truly fabulous looking boat.

i shark fish on white waters out of milford haven and all his reels are loaded with mono of 50lb i think. one consideration when using mono is spool capacity as a tld 15 loaded with 50lb mono doesn't eqaute to loads of yards and you run the risk of being spooled by a big porgy or thresher. i know lots of guys used dacron in the old days but i think mono is the most used now.

vanish in 20lb for all my bassing and wrecking on the drift. use it for turbos and bream as well.

fantastic looking cat. it must be torture waiting for the launch day. do you know whether the 11m was to be a charter boat?

took our boat out saturday with a friend from Burnham On Sea. slow going, spent the first half day after bass but only catching codlets and thornies. tried a couple of moves but just more of the same and managed a 15lb conger last cast. The bass seem late this year in the brissy channel. Got a charter out of Langstone Sunday pollacking so hope the weather holds.

it's been almost dead out of BOS since xmas. Apart from 8oz codlets and pins it has been a struggle with just the very occasional codling. This "warm" spell has helped and it shouldn't be long before the bass start to show. Hopefully the weather will be a little kinder and let us out after them. The conger should be moving back in soon as well so at keast there should be plenty of fish to put a bend in our rods.

Fished out of Burnham On Sea yesterday on our own boat. started off at lilstock which was a bit s;low only producing 4 thornies and a codlet. we moved inshore to a mark off hinkley where the thornies were more playfull and dad managed a codling of 2.5-3lb. When the tide turned the wind increased making it a tad lumpy so we made our way back trying on more spot in the river which was a waste of time. I ended the day on 8 thornies upto low doubles which is my best of the year so it looks like spring is deffinately on it's way and the bass shouldn't be far away.

looks like a pleasant way to spend a couple of days.

can they be fitted to any make of trailer?

very jealous. hopefully one day i will be able to upgrade to something that smart.

long shanked sharp aberdeens for me. sometimes i offset them, sometimes not. can't really say it has any effect on catch rates for me. plenty of good qaulity bait and letting the bitess develope usually works though.

who won then?

weed wasn't to bad. it was a big tide and we were in about 80ft of water. needed up to a pound of lead at times but as long as you checked yuor bait regulary there wasn't too much weed on the baits. fished 1 rod uptide all day no probs apart from on the slack as the boat took a while to settle due to the fairly brisk winds.

fished the solent today aboard valkyrie from langstone harbour. not quite your neck of the woods but maybe of some interest. we were supposed to be bassing down selsey way but wind stopped that so we spent the day anchored off gilkicker. plenty of good sized whiting, pout, dogs, thornies and a couple of codling upto 9lb. dawn venture next to us had one of 16lb 8oz also.

we have rail mounted "down east" rod holders on ours. not cheap but will last for ever. wouldn't trust a rod in them when underway though but never had a rod come out accidently when fishing.

Hi guys. as a member of bbosaa i hope as many of you as possible make the journey up. there will be congers, rays and doggies where ever you anchor up but as a relative newbei i can't help you too much. i am hoping to be there on our boat "natalie jane" so say hello if you see me. there are a few bass coming out at the moment and the smoothies have just started to show around the lilstock area so by the time you guys come hopefully it will be in full swing. mainly uptiding but if downtiding you will only need 12lb class gear as most of the fishing is in under 25ft of water. only medium sized tides as well so most marks will be fishable with 3oz of lead. bait wise rag, crab and squid will catch most species that swim in the channel. hope this helps and you will certainly find the club to be very helpfull and if your lucky simon will even be down to help with the launching on his tractor!

have a safe crossing and catch plenty once over there. looking forward to the reports. hopefully get our boat out in the brissy channel at the weekend but must admit i am a wee bit envious of you guys fishing that loverly clear water.