Steve S

Happy and Healthy New Year one and all, hope it will be a great year with big fish all round and no boat trouble.

Tigerfish is out also but we will be fishing over Cowes way so I doubt radio contact will be possible. Tightlines guys

Subscription. They are pretty good, standard has been maintained so far. A Jim Wippy production.

All action this flounder fishing!

Those are the decoy boats Mike. As you can see it wasn't at all gloomy...

Found the document on the EU site about who is allowed to fish for Bass in 2017 and what the limits are: In summary: On 13 December the Council adopted the following measures for 2017: No fishing for sea bass by commercial vessels targeting sea bass, except for long lines, pole and lines who will have a closure of two months in February and March 2017 and a maximum catch limit of 10 tonnes per year; A monthly limit of 250 kg for vessels deploying fixed gillnets and traps to cover unavoidable by-catches; A small by-catch allowance of 3% and a maximum of 400 kg is envisaged for demersal trawlers and seiners. The decision of the Council takes into account that artisanal hooks and line fisheries depend on sea bass to a greater extent and may not have other alternatives to catch. Recreational anglers are asked to practise a catch and release fishery in the first half of the year and to limit their catches to one fish per day in the second half of 2017. So seems like it is rod and line only, but 250kg per month for gill netters as by catch is a lot of by catch. The Recreational angler 'asked' does that mean it is just a request? Here is the full document. QA sea bass Dec 2016.pdf

Classy looking hamper Alun. Just depending on Neal to put us in a good spot

Putin gets hay fever

Neil the weights don't look correct for November

Interesting details on the bite Mike. The two we had on the boat gave the usual few taps on the rod tip and then pulled the rod round, as soon as the rod started to go over we lifted the rod out of the rest gave a little line then leant into them. Most charter skippers say a lot of their punters strike too soon, having seen a few in action I agree with them, rod starts to go over, lunge at the rod, wild strike, met with nothing but fresh air! I guess you made contact pretty quickly, who knows whether it would have moved off bait in mouth in classic fashion or dropped it.

1.5 miles due south of the needles lighthouse! Patience, persistence and luck required.

Yep, nice one Mike, well done.

Nice to see all the Poole boys in my neck of the woods today. Seemed like just Lofty was fishing elsewhere. Alun had one cod of 13lb 4oz Steve had one cod of 11lb 8oz We had a mixed bag, a number of sizeable whiting, a fair few pout, best 2lb 7oz, 1 poor cod, a couple of Thornbacks and numerous conger to 20 to 25lb est not boated. There are a quite a few mini conger around this year it seems. Most of the action was in the morning. One of the conger contrived to eat both our baits and made a right old mess, snip, snip, snip, snip even the braid felt the cut of the scissors. Thanks goodness we had the ebb tide with the easterly wind, had it been the flood fishing would have been a nightmare. We did slip anchor a bit until I let out another 30m, that did the trick. Once again no dogs for me , Alun had them all, I did better with the whiting with my christmas tree rig, other than that it was a ray apiece, a cod apiece and shared the conger. All in all a very pleasant day.

Alun and I had one each, details later.

If the anodes are getting a hammering try using a big ball anode lowered over the side on an earthed wire, it's taken in when using the boat. That should reduce the erosion on the others and save a bit of time and money.

Interesting MPs view, very supportive actually http://fishingnews.co.uk/2016/11/inshore-commercial-bass-fishery-mp-response/ This really annoys me, forget the lobster story, oh look I caught a sturgeon, never had one of those, must be rare, takes it ashore, offered around, no thought for returning it alive. http://fishingnews.co.uk/2016/10/unusual-catches-orange-blue-holy-island-lobster-sturgeon-off-newhaven/

personal email sent

The weather forecast seems to be amended, but not in a good way...

1) Court Jester - Neal + crew TBA Club and Poole Sea Angling Comps 2) Alfresco- Charlie, Will, Sam and Dan Club and Poole sea angling comps 3) Tigerfish - Steve, Alun + possibly 1 more ask if interested, Club comp only probably as will return to Lymington 4) Reel Magic Dave crew TBA both comps

1) Court Jester - Neal + crew TBA Club and Poole Sea Angling Comps 2) Alfresco- Charlie, Will, Sam and Dan Club and Poole sea angling comps 3) Tigerfish - Steve, Alun Club comp only probably.

Haha, 800lb Tuna, 50lb boat rod, no chance, that would be Crazy Fred I hooked a big shark off Kenya on a plug, played from a fighting chair for all I was worth for 4 hours, never even saw it, totally knackered myself. That was on something like 50lb gear, we broke the line in the end trying at least to get a sight of it. Skipper said probably a tiger between 500 and 1000lb. The very best of luck Fred, but I suggest you step up the gear.

Tigerfish has one, a Max Power 2hp, it has it's own battery shared with the windlass and I would recommend that, works fine in both directions, seems to be unchanged from new in 2006, I have had no trouble from it at all, has a single propeller. As yours is 40ft with a big keel and the concern is overcoming windage you may need to go for 4hp.

Update and final conclusion, the story after over 3 years use. Ultrasonic Antifouling works well on Tigerfish (a solid hull) when used in in conjunction with a single coat of antifouling. Tigerfish speed loss at end of season 100 to 150 revs, approx 1 to 1.5 knots, fuel consumption does not increase very much over the season (fuel used v distance traveled is noted at every fill up) this year it has gone from 2.15 l/nm to 2.25 l/nm Savings Saves fuel. On my previous boat a Merry Fisher 805 fuel consumption steadily increased over the season until I had an end of summer scrub off; top speed also was markedly down. Amount saved is a function of hours used obviously. 1 coat of antifoul instead of 2, so uses 2.5l instead of 5l No summer scrub off needed. Would I buy it again? Yes I would for another solid hull boat, Tigerfish a Botnia Targa 31 has a solid hull construction. For a sandwich construction eg most if not all of the Jeanneau's I would need to research where to fit and how many to fit as apparently the sandwich hull construction deadens the ultrasonic sound levels somewhat. Note: Ultrasonic modules use about 20w continuous and need to be on during daylight hours at least, a 180w solar panel provides enough power from March to October, but for November to February it struggles so the system is activated less and less. I fitted a voltage control switch so that the battery does not go totally flat and also a light activated switch so that it will only try and come on in daylight hours during the winter months which is the time of day the fouling build up mainly occurs. I'm now on a mooring with mains power so no problem.

Good stuff, looks a very well thought out and executed improvement for retrieval.

I see the carrier is belching out black smoke, very old school engines, yuk.