Steve S

Hmm, the various estimates for the proportion of the catch taken by recreational fisherman seems very high, either the commercial fisherman are crap at catching fish or the recreational fisher folk round here are pretty useless or their figures are wrong. I'm betting the latter. Coming soon, more monitoring of us. Steve

Ok, attached are snips from my Raymarine PC app using the Navionics charts one using sonarcharts the other not, last updates were about 9 months ago. 2 Fantasy holes one with X marks the spot. I see I left in 2 waypoints, no problem they are rubbish Steve

Example sonarcharts fiction: 50, 38.08 - 1, 27.53 (brook ledges area) - shows a 177ft hole with surrounding area 32ft. Wow, there got to something fishy going on there. Yep but not the right sort of fishy. Standard chart just shows a 32ft shelving to 26ft area.

Ridges.... sonarcharts makes the bottom look more interesting than it actually is, there are some pretty deep holes and ridges shown which as Chris says are just not there, particularly south of the IoW, thats even before the storms. And also some of my old marks just don't look the same anymore and that is after the storms. However some of the extra detail seems not to be made up, IMO sonarcharts are something of the work in progress, after loading the sonarcharts I marked up quite a number of points for investigation, if I am in the area of one I check it out, some are total fiction so I'm not going to waste fuel with major detours, however, not all are total fiction. Steve

Done

Glad to hear that Alfresco is afloat again Charlie and that your lads don't need Dad to tell them how to do it all the time!

More info http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/threads/boat-sinks-at-needles.2506998/ photo of the boat: http://www.pixstel.com/dulcie-t-and-osprey-ii_urlb1632.php I see one guy in the post quotes the problem as: a leaky exhaust was letting water into the hull and the pump couldn't keep up. I see from the photo the exhaust it at the waterline as per normal, a big following sea is going to push a lot of water in the open exhaust. If we really know what happened we might all be able to get some safety benefit from the disaster.

Yes indeed Tomo, we came in at 13:00 when our anchor started dragging 3 miles out as the wind got up. I was surprised how flat the Solent was then I guess the wind must have followed us in.

Glad they are all ok, a big shock for everyone. I was out going through the Solent early morning and back and didn't see any of this. It was pretty flat I assume they must have had some structural problem, disaster can strike at any time.

I could use this one myself [emoji1]

Yes i agree with your comments, certainly modern ones are battery operated, it looks old. I thought a suggestion as to how it could be used is better than none and I couldn't think of any use for the body..... except finding metal objects in it.

Sold

Possibly a metal detector, like for finding pipes/cables in walls.

It is my impression there are more around as well. We are certainly catching a fair few on my boat from many different locations. As for small ones I don't remember ever having catching any much below 10lb. Be interesting to get other members views.

Regarding French and rules, twas ever thus. I have seen huge piles of 6 to 12" bass for sale at markets as I am sure have many others.

Our area is one that has always had a reasonable population so until the ban I never realised we were lucky in that respect. Since the ban the average size has gone right up so it seems our commercials are taking notice of it.

Looks an idea worth trying. I've never tried it before.

I have one I don't need any more. It is usable now but is not smart.

Sold

Steve Scott 13lb Pollock

Looking forward to it [emoji1]

Just to add to Mikes note. Any metal box will work will protect electronic's, even one with holes in (not a open lid) just in case your don't happen to have an oven on board! Suggest turning off a phone when in a box/oven, the batteries won't last long with the phone at full chat trying to find a signal. While 1/4 of a mile radar vis is poor, for a highly manoeuvrable vessel like a motor boat it should be enough to avoid actually hitting anything, rather more problematical in a sailing boat. As well as charts my backup navigation is the Navionic's app on my phone - completely independent of boat related failures.

I live in Sway, New Forest. I do get over to Poole on occasion, like the club meets.