Steve S

Alderney trip postponed, sad to say but not surprised. Just seen this: On the 11 June 2021, the Civil Contingencies Authority have announced the opening of the borders with the Common Travel Area (UK, Jersey & Isle of Man), originally planned on the 1st July, is postponed to a later date due to the prevalence levels rising across the UK. https://www.visitalderney.com/inspire/coronavirus-covid-19-update/

Thanks Charlie, that what made us look for the 'good' tides after 1st July, as it happened the 2nd is a good one being as the neap tides are over a weekend. IMO we should be ok unless the Delta variant really takes off with hospital admissions rising and the islanders then get cold feet about having a tourist season this year. I think taking a lateral flow test is ok, any sort of quarantine / waiting more than a few hours to get on the island makes the trip a non starter. Their vaccine program is as advanced as ours.

Tigerfish - results Had a great day out starting with 6 good bass on lures, then Alun and I focused on the bream. Found it tough going for the bigger ones, loads of them, but many were still going to nursery school... the best went: 1-11 to Steve and 1-10 to Alun

So that will be Reel Magic and Tigerfish, two Alderney stalwarts with Charlie another regular hitching a ride on Dave's chariot. You've have done a great job with the accommodation Terry, many thanks. Personally I can't wait to get over there, it will really feel like the world is getting back to normal. I'm kinda curious what sort of reception we will get on the Island. Hopefully nearer the time all we will have to worry about is the weather!

That's great, now all you need is a decent inboard diesel jenny to charge it up!

Loobie 1V Jerry Shutter,Jerry Sumbler, Jim Tiddler!, Dave Wilson, Sunday Tigerfish, Alun, Steve - Saturday

Hopes dashed again 😪. If there is any sort of weather window open for a few hours I'm going to be out for something with fins, dogfish excepting, seems like this month we need to grab every opportunity, who knows when it will end. That poor old donkey has walked a long way this month following that carrot...

Stuie on Tigerfish with a very blue black bream. One of a great many caught on Friday.

I'll be wetting a line on Friday then, may see you out there. 😁

I've booked in my diary and holiday Friday 2nd to Monday 5th July. Fingers very much crossed. After the year we have it will be great to have a fair few boats going over and actually meet some of you again.

Well July 3/4 sounds good, if we get the all clear for then. I can do a midweek one if needs be.

Fingers crossed Alun and I will be fishing. Plenty of bream around at the moment [emoji3] There is shall we say a high degree of uncertainty in the forecasts...

There are 2 different knots both called FG. I use the single mono version ending in 7 or 8 half hitches like Charlie. It's really strong and thin. I'm pretty quick tying it now but if I was wrecking for instance and need to re- rig fast I'd use a double grinner/uni. One thing about braid to leader knots they are subject to wear on the braid and it's not always obvious, particularly when using lures. It pays to cut them off and strip back a metre or two of braid and re-tie fairly regularly. It can seem like a waste of time until that is the braid gives way under surprisingly little pressure. This particularly seems to affect whiplash, probably because it is so thin to start with.

Yippee, it looks like Guernsey and I assume Alderney are planning to open up to the UK in July. This appears to be based on widespread vaccinations in both. If that happens I will be looking go in July on a suitable tide, not checked those as yet.

I'd probably go 12kg Bruce or Delta with 15m of 8mm chain. And if in doubt 15kg.

Jerry I'll tell you which day I'm planning on going once I know the weather forecast with some certainty

Tigerfish - Steve, TBA

I see this person has a 'P' plate... Clearly not enough lessons/test not hard enough. I guess they don't include basic common sense!

Like others, I put a 5 litres or so of petrol in once before realising, I filled it up with diesel then just ran the car, I could feel the difference but it ran ok, did another diesel top up later. Car ran fine afterwards. Half a tank is a bit much. If I was you I would buy a siphon and some plastic tanks to drain the lot in. What you can't get out won't be a problem. You then have some cans of diesel/ petrol mix.

Nice ones Lofty. Your leg seem to be having a bit of a love in with the Undulate Steve, you want to be careful about that, there's laws about that you know!

I've posted this before, if I see a boat on heading towards me mentally I'm prepared to take avoiding action by starting the engine and motor forward at an angle to avoid the anchor rope. The lines in the water will just have to take care of themselves. A couple of times I've started the engines just in case. The main point is you must a plan of action in advance ready enact when it happens. Blowing a horn/shouting/radio might work but there is no substitute for taking action by moving yourself to avoid a collision. That's horrific. I thought I was close to having my anchor snagged by trawl gear, while cod fishing at the car park a few years ago. I was hovering over the rope with a knife with my sister looking at me in a very bemused fashion. Happily the danger passed by and I could carry on blanking.

That's the US model, the UK one looks rather different 😪

Hope to do a short trip Saturday too. If last weeks trip is anything to go by I'm setting my expectations very low.