Steve S

Lymington Harbour Commissioners are selling a number of dinghies and small craft that have been abandoned within harbour limits or have been seized because of a failure to pay harbour dues or mooring fees. As the Statutory Harbour Authority, Lymington Harbour Commission has powers to seize and remove craft and to sell them to recover costs. The craft offered for sale are marked with a lot number and will be made available for inspection through the Harbour Office from Tuesday 29th March (office hours). Interested parties are invited to submit tenders via a sealed bid process. The closing date for bids is 16.00 hours on Friday 15th April 2016. I've no idea on the quality of the boats, I would imagine some TLC will be required for many of them. More details in the link: http://www.lymingtonharbour.co.uk/news-article.aspx?page=S635942476984744860&ArchiveID=3&CategoryID=7&ItemID=293&src=

I'm going on Sat 30th for 4 days all being well if not the 13th if not...

If our UK politicians really wanted to stop commercial fishing for bass or any other fish in our waters they can, they don't want to sadly. Unfortunately.being politicians they they try to pass blame and generally that is on the EU as a convenient scapegoat, the result is all manner of problems are blamed on the EU when it is often not the case. Ireland wanted to stop commercial fishing for bass many years ago, they banded it and they are still in the EU, we can do that if our politicians had a will to do it, seems they don't. The French take the piss as far as obeying fishing regulations but the UK being out of the EU is not going to change that, in fact we will lose our voice at the table to even complain the French (or others) are not obeying the rules let alone trying to get the rule changed. It is all very frustrating, improved enforcement will help but budgets are tight and enforcement vessels expensive. There is the technology to improve enforcement, eg CCTV on commercial fishing vessels, automatically uploaded but it is not widely used, it should be. I would be pushing for that at EU meetings to help ensure regulation already passed are kept to.

Welcome to the club. Sorry to hear that you have blister trouble. Most if not all the Merry Fisher range are double skinned, I don't know that particular model. A good way to tell is look in the area where the sonar, hull speed sensor is fitted and often other skin fittings. That part won't be double skinned, if it looks different (lower, ie thinner) to the rest of the hull then the rest of the hull is double skinned.

It does clutter up the system especially if using lists of members to find the one you want but have forgotten there online name. I use the member spreadsheet to do that now, very handy. Oli could something automatic be added to remove unused accounts?

Totally agree with Martin, that's all I do when on the hard. If you read the mags you will end up with loads of jobs and expense when a sensibly placed heater on a stat sorts the issue. Of course if we were 'up north' it would be different.

Congratulations Sam and Eileen. [emoji127] [emoji176] [emoji183]

Thanks for the story Mike, interesting for us, probably you have different feelings.... Do let us know what it turns out to be.

Hope you have a good one Martin. The big 6 0 [emoji2] so time to push the boat out. I'm not far behind you. Steve

1st try end April for Tigerfish. BTW Alderney week falls on big tides this year so I will be giving that a miss, fishing comes first.

The Government has responded to the petition you signed – “The decision to water down the recent European decision on the bass stocks”. Government responded: The petition title misrepresents the EU process. UK Government successfully ensured anglers could fish for sport and the derogation for gillnets excluded driftnets that take most UK netting catches. The UK Government has not sought to water down the EU decision to protect bass stocks agreed in the EU fisheries Council on 15 December 2015, as suggested in the petition title. The terms of the petition are either a misrepresentation or misunderstanding of the EU process and the UK Government’s approach. It is actually the UK Government that has consistently pressed for EU action to address the decline of the stock, and we secured emergency action in 2015. We were not the authors of the recent proposal for 2016, however – this was a Commission proposal – nor indeed of the derogations offered in the compromise deal tabled at Council. However the agreement for 2016 is tougher on most sectors than that for 2015. The UK Government did manage to achieve some key outcomes to adjust both the proposal and the related compromise deal. These help to protect the EU bass stock’s progress to sustainable fishing and the interests of both recreational and small scale commercial fishermen as EU bass fisheries move towards that goal, as follows. We fought for and secured continuation of a recreational catch and release fishery for recreational sea anglers during the 6 month moratorium on bass catches, which was under threat in the Commission proposal wording. This means that anglers and charter vessels can continue sport-fishing activity throughout the year, subject to the ban proposed by the Commission on keeping bass during the first six months, coupled with a single fish daily bag limit per person in the second half of the year. While accepting the principle of the proposed 6 month moratorium and a subsequent catch limit of 1 tonne per vessel per month for most commercial fisheries, we aimed to avoid disproportionate impacts on the lower impact, small-scale inshore hook and line and inshore fixed gillnet fisheries during the first 6 months. But as the UK Government position was for a more modest derogation than that offered on the day, we sought to reduce the impact of this on bass stocks. Our negotiating position was based on different fisheries’ relative impacts and reflected several factors. Hook and line has the highest degree of selectivity for the right size of bass taken – though gillnets also perform well compared with other fishing methods. We also needed to consider the proportion of the bass catch taken by UK vessels using these methods: although the nets gear group has previously accounted for half of the annual UK bass total landings (46% average from 2011-2013), drift-netting is estimated to account for up to 90% of this, as the Commission are aware, and drift-netting was not agreed for inclusion in the derogation. In the final compromise these two commercial fisheries (hook and line and fixed gillnets) were given identical derogations for all Member States fishing for bass (February-March moratorium and 1.3 tonne catch limit all year). The UK Government negotiating position in advance of the Council decision had been to press for lower – and differentiated – catch limits for derogations to apply for these two EU fisheries (excluding drift-netting) during the moratorium. But while the compromise offered higher monthly catch limits for netting, matching the limits for hook and line, these are not applicable to the majority of UK netting activity and are combined with the complete closure for two months. It was necessary to agree EU-level measures for bass in this way because we share the fishery with other Member States who need to be fully signed up if we are to achieve stock recovery. We now at least have a firm timetable with Member States’ and Commission agreement, to achieve sustainable fishing of bass by 2018, and the EU’s interim management package will increasingly be complemented by regional measures, including in the context of multi-annual management plans driven by the Member States concerned, as well as national ones. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Click this link to view the response online: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/116747?reveal_response=yes The Petitions Committee will take a look at this petition and its response. They can press the government for action and gather evidence. If this petition reaches 100,000 signatures, the Committee will consider it for a debate. The Committee is made up of 11 MPs, from political parties in government and in opposition. It is entirely independent of the Government. Find out more about the Committee: https://petition.parliament.uk/help#petitions-committee Thanks, The Petitions team UK Government and Parliament

So the Needles site has been designated. What does that actually mean?

Very smart indeed Adam. Hope it's easy to keep clean.

Now that is one nice boat, looks like it can handle bad weather as well. Just be a bit chilly for local waters, or am I going soft?

I'm planning to take Tigerfish over at least once this year. Targeting most probably early May for the first weather window. As ever small tides are prefered. I really enjoy the different sort of fishing there if we can make a trip during Alderney week that adds another dimension, this year I want to be holding a torch [emoji2]. Taking 2 or 3 crew, no names confirmed yet.

A typical Richard Little John diatribe against Europe. The minister gave in to pressure from the commercials.

Nice bit of kit Graham. Plenty of interesting weather around to really test her out.

[emoji53] [emoji37] words fail me

All the gear no idea!

1) Court Jester - Neal, Stuie & Alfie 2) Madness - Martin, Dean, Terry B 3) Kelly's Hero- John S, Allan G, Dave S. Plus non member. 4) Reel Magic Dave Kev 5) Illusion Tom Crew TBA Both non members 6) Wishin Too- Nigel & Mal 7) Marlin - Greg, Vic(Non Member) 8) Kingfisher - Chris, Lester 9) Slice of Life. Lofty 10) just chillin - rich, emma and matt (non member Had to pull Tigerfish out of the comp today, been told I have some jobs to do, apparently fishing on Friday was enough . Hope it goes well for you all.

1) Court Jester - Neal, Stuie plus TBA 2) Tigerfish Steve S, Alun J, others tba

Belated happy birthday Terry. Sounds like the food is top notch.

Greenham Regis do a good job and nice people to boot.

Nice one Steve a double from a kayak, very good.

1. Court Jester Neal, Stuie ,Tony 2. Sweet Pea Mal + Trevor 3. Alfresco Charlie Will + TBC 4. Frisky Fox - Mike and Carol 5. Kingfisher - Chris W, Dogfish Dave 6. Fisheagle- Allan Green, Dave Samuel and Mick Pike. 7. Madness - Martin + Dean + Room for one more anybody? 8. Just chillin - rich and Emma 9. Marlin - Greg and Brad (Let the Challenge begin!!) 10. Tigerfish - Steve, Diane 11.Wishin Too-Nigel,Martin Cherrett 12. JV2 - AdamF, AlunJ & RobF