Oli

Thanks Rich, very helpful. To be honest I almost always consider them a Ballan (unless it's a Cuckoo which as you say are easy to spot) so definitely need to do some revision! Good to see you out there Mike - wish we'd found some bream. We were heading round to Dancing Ledge originally but chose the nice flat option instead! Oli

Oops not corkwing then! Maybe I meant baillon's- are they similar? Thanks for confirming. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quick trip yesterday looking for some bream, no joy there unfortunately but did have a 12lb3oz Thornback Ray on the uptider which was nice and a few decent wrasse. This one went 3lb15oz which was good fun on a super light rod but is it a Ballan or a Corkwing? Oli

Have sent you a PM Kam

19 1/2 lb! Now that is a serious fish!

Thanks guys, Martin we're keen to get over there again but it would most likely be a 1 nighter so we'd leave at the crack of dawn Saturday, straight to the banks for a full day there then do some wrecking on the way home. It would be great to buddy up

At about 3:30 we called it a day and made our way back to the island through the infamous Swinge with the conditions still stunning, alongside a rather smart boat too! After showers and food we got together with the Reel Magic guys for drinks and some amusing fishy talk in the Divers. I was staying on board as was Craig on RM so we left to catch the water taxi, both leaving out a freelined live sandeel on the off chance of a hungry bass (no joy!). After an excellent night's sleep we were greeted with another stunning day so back to the banks it was. The weather changed after a couple of hours and was overcast, but the fishing was even better with larger fish, many in the 7-9lb bracket, with one to Dibs at 9lb5oz, a bonus brill to me and our first herring on feathers to Duncan. Both boats stopped near the island to look for tope, Dad had one at 27lb which was excellent fun on a 12lb Kenzaki and Reel Magic found some bull huss too. Back to the island for more drinks with Dave and crew before Craig and I left them and my lot chatting up the rather interesting bar maid! We had to wait a little while the next morning until there was enough water to fuel up but at Alderney prices it was worth the wait! We then steamed straight off to the first wreck where we found Kev with his rod bent into a cod. By that time the tide was building and the fishing was slowing so we did a few more miles on to the next wreck where we found cod, pollack and a very welcome red gurnard for the species hunt. From there it was around 25 miles back to Poole and we were back on the pontoon at about 4:30pm. It was a brilliant trip, we lost count of the number of turbot landed and were pleased so many of them swam back strongly for another day. A huge thank you to Dave, Craig and Kev for making the trip such good fun, it's great to have another boat out there no matter the conditions - even better when the crew have had a few! Let's hope the next one is more like 6 weeks away rather than 6 years...

We still have very clear memories of refuelling the Arvor 230 mid channel in a F5, diesel spilling everywhere wondering whose crazy idea it was to make the trip across to the Alderney but for some reason they are fond memories and we've been desperate to make it back ever since. It had been a long time coming due to various weddings, births and mainly bad weather but 6 whole years after our last visit we finally returned to the island, and what a trip it was! Having checked the forecast 10-20 times a day for the week leading up to the departure, the weather was looking great and we were on. Having sat in traffic for just over 3 hours from London to Poole we met the others and went to the marina on Friday evening to load the boat with gear, ice and food ready for an early start the next morning. An early night and back down to the boat for around 6am, a quick team photo: And we were off bang on 6:20am. The plan was to get in to Braye harbour as quickly as possible, reserve a mooring as it was a bank holiday weekend and head straight to the banks to search for some flatties. We were greeted with a lovely flat Poole Harbour which continued past Swanage: and all the way to Braye Harbour: Arriving at 8:45am - wish our journey the night before had been that quick! Mooring of choice reserved, we made coffee and headed straight over to the banks where we found Dave, Kev and Craig on Reel Magic, having already caught some decent fish only half an hour in. Launce, Mackerel and a Weever on feathers on the first drop, plenty more to follow and the bait tank was full in double quick time. Just a couple of minutes after setting the first drift and Dad feels a knock, gives it plenty of line and bang! 1st drift, 1st turbot followed by another shortly after! And that's how it carried on for most of the day, often with multiple fish per drift - absolutely fantastic.

Not for the faint-hearted:

Good idea Sam - have added half a dozen, if you have some other good ones feel free to add them to that gallery or send them my way and I will. Thanks Oli

Thanks for the input so far everyone. Chris - if you could let me know when you've checked the laptop it would be much appreciated Neal - I like the idea of that, We are going to be condensing the front page Welcome text with the aim of lifting the recent catch photos higher up the page. This new welcome text will link to a page that Brian is writing the content for with things like membership info, links to join, club constitution etc so maybe that page would be a good place for these testimonials? I should explain how the front page recent catch bit works. If you go into the site's gallery, you'll see a new album "Front Page Gallery". Any member can upload here but each photo has to be approved by a moderator - this is to make sure they're the right orientation, decent quality, not of Rob's private areas etc. So if anyone wants a photo on the front page, just add it to this gallery. We will also be picking decent ones from recent catch reports to add there too. It displays the most recently added first, so should be a nice simple way of regularly updating the front page. Open to all and any ideas anyone may have.

Would love to say I had but no - haven't touched it Pete. Will keep an eye on it, thanks for flagging it Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Strange about the forward and back buttons on the latest catches on the front page - working fine here. What device/browser are you using? Anyone else having the same issue?

I was waiting for someone to notice that! Sorted now