Harnessboy

Nice one James looked like a thoroughly enjoyable time, great report as usual.

Paul.

Hi Mark

No, is the simple answer, thats not to say you can't insure it clearly . Either for it's loss or liability, i'm quite sure there are any number of companies willing to part you with your hard earned. I have two and neither is insured, i am personally through the AT. Hope that helps.

Paul.

Oy! excuse me, did you or did you not make it back to put your post up?????? as i said all along "It was fine"

Nice post ben, i know you only did it to use some more of the 146 shots you took. Thanks again for the day out mate, thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.

Paul

Having cleared up lunch we made our way to Arish Mell Gap where we had seen a nice deep drop off earlier in the day. We started to drift over the drop and immediately were into fish, each of us pulled in a couple of really decent wrasse to start with then i had something bigger, it turned out to be a decent Pollack of a couple of pound, not bad considering we were so close in at the time.

We moved on as our timings were planned pretty tight with the tides. We paddled and sailed past Lulworth down towards Durdle Door, neither of us had been west of Lulworth before on the kayaks so it was as much a sightseeing tour as a fishing one. We arrived at the door smack on low water, which gave us time to have a short play in the water rushing through the door.

We moored off on a buoy 80m off of the Door to try our luck and both again got wrasse, although they were pretty small they managed to tie us both up around rocks on the bottom which proved real fun trying to get them up. We started the trip back towards Lulworth staying quite close in as the beaches were packed and the views were FINE!!!! we reached stair hole to find some climbers free climbing the arch over the entrance, it was really interesting watching them clinging to the rocks.

Having marveled at the climbers for long enough we paddled back to the safety of the cove and there came to an end the best day on the kayak I've had in the two years I've been at it. I would like to thank Ben for the great company and plan. cheers mate. I will leave the video's of our seal launches in Mupe Bay for Ben to post as there seems to be some trouble with my photobucket login. Thanks for reading.

Paul.

What a fantastic day out we both had, Ben phoned on Friday very excited saying that the weather and tides looked good for a trip out of Lulworth on Saturday 1st oct. Ben had not been out of lulworth before so he ran what i thought was a good plan past me and we agreed on timings. He was to pick me up at 0600 with the aim of launching at sun up over Lulworth Cove, timmings were spot on as you can see.

The aim of the day was to use the tides and wind to aid an east/ west trip, taking in Pond field to the east and Durdle Door in the west. We paddled out into an ever warming sun east towards Mupe rocks. The photo's really don't do the beauty of the place justice, however you get the idea i'm sure.

It was quite simply a beautiful autumnal morning slightly misty looking east, with very little wind. We decided to start our drift fishing across the front on Mupe rocks, where we both picked up makkies almost straight away, that would be our starter for lunch in Worbarrow Bay.

Ben was having a field day with his camera in total the nutter took 146 photo's, he wanted to beach in Mupe Bay for a comfort break which turned out a good idea as we were both able to practice our seal launches.

The video's i will leave for Part two. We then trolled across the front of Arish Mel and took some time out to get some photo's of the caves in the area.

Time and tide and all that, we needed to move ourselves if we were to take the tide across Worbarrow and around Worbarrow Tout, the range walks were closed so there were very few people about which made the long paddle across the bay all the more special. As we rounded the Tout we passed into the small inlet of Pond Field, where we came across a couple of snorkelers.

I gave Ben ten minutes to run down his camera battery some more and we then both decided to drift fish across the front of the Tout and then head into Worbarrow for lunch, we managed to winkle out a couple of brightly coloured wrasse and a couple of pollack between us. It was then off into the bay for lunch, Ben suggested we land in the middle of the beach as it was completely empty, as we found out there was a very good reason for that.

The beach was very steep and had quite an undertow i think we both thought we might get caught out. We both managed to land (Just) without making fools of ourselves but had to help one another to drag the kayaks up out of reach of the waves. Lunch was fried Mackerel and then pasta with a home made tom sauce, which i'm pleased to say Ben enjoyed.

I have to say Bens plan worked a treat we had plenty of time to enjoy our lunch and then we set off with the tide and wind to make our way back toward and past Lulworth, that meant the sails went up and although the wind was light the sails really do help take some of the strain.

First stop would be trying our luck across the front of Arish Mel Gap.

Part Two to follow.

Great report and pics James thanks for sharing it all with us.

Paul

Hello all, i am looking to fish the open as crew on a (Proper Boat) for some poor soul, please bear in mind i am not an experienced boat fisherman but willing to learn, anyone who wants to babysit a novice please let me know.

Thanks Paul.

Martin don't suppose you want to swap for my Scupper good luck with the sale.

Paul

Here are yet more this time from Mark.

Hope you guys enjoy them.

Here are a couple more photo's that the system wouldn't allow first time around.

Cheers Lofty, next time we want to get out there early, i think we might launch in the Harbour and take the tide out then follow the training bank out so that we are over good fishing ground all the way, then come back into the harbour with an incoming tide, it will mean more paddling but no restrictions on getting out there at a time of our choice.

Tenacious !! thanks for that i will check out some history on her.

Myself and Mark (Uglystick) planned a trip out of Middle beach to Old Harry rocks in search of Bream and Bass. We launched later than planned as all but one of the car parks were shut until 9 am, having dropped the boats off at the gate we parked the car in the Bankes Arms carpark.

We then took the short walk down hill to be greeted by this.

It looked beautiful and so peaceful.

The wind was non existent and surprisingly the sun was already hot, we begun the paddle out to the old man taking the very last of the tide,

10 -15 mins later we found some promising rough ground just inside the line of the last stack and decided to drop the anchors.

We were hoping for the fish to show on the start of the flood, but things were fairly slow to begin with. We were however treated to some great views of this three mast beauty.

I think she had been moored in Poole for the last couple days perhaps someone can enlighten us as to her nomenclature.

We then started to see some fish showing, Mark started with what he was sure was a large Trigger fish, i saw it all too briefly as it spat the hook right at the side of his kayak, a real shame as neither of us had caught one before.

That was the start of a more interesting couple of hours, fishing wise, between us we managed 5 species, Wrasse (unsurprisingly) Bream, Pollack, Mackerel, Gurnard, so all in all an interesting day out.

We decided to have lunch at the base of the old lad, very pleasant setting to say the least.

Around High Water i talked Mark into going around Old Harry and having a close look at some of the other stacks, it really is a fantastic place to be in a kayak, when the water is safe (ish) thought you might like to see what we saw close up. Thanks to mark for the great company, long may i be able to visit places of such beauty and awe.

Hope you like the photo's lads.

Paul.

With alot of luck Ben we may even find that big bass that eluded us yesterday. We will be in the water just before low water and should be in position east of Old Harry in time for the flood.

Paul

The Bass took the tiniest bit of worm on the Sabiki's. It was a lovely evening to be out paddling.

Having spoken to Charlie after the last meeting about bassing around the castle, myself Ben and Mark hatched a plan to try for a long day out in the Harbour. We launched from Lake due to the horrific amount of traffic around sandbanks, and of course the truly astronomical parking charges. I digress, myself and Mark launched at midday, sadly Ben had to do something called "work" not a pleasant experience by all accounts.

It was very busy out there but the idea was to take the ebb down to the RORO basin and try for some live bait, the berths were empty so we were able to drift in close and did manage mackerel for later in the trip.

Moving on, due to CAT coming in, we crossed the harbour to the ferry No three over towards Brownsea. From there we drifted down to the fuel barge area trying for a plaice or two, we actually managed none.

We stayed in close and paddled around to the castle in the hope of getting in between the jetties. We both had baited sabiki's on but the vast number of boats coming and going made it a little dodgy. We both decided to buoy up just south east of the castle on the edge of the channel as soon as i dropped the sabiki's i was into mackies as soon as i got that in the other rod went over and another macky was on. At this point Mark was just 30m away and couldn't buy a bite, but he would get his own back later in the trip.

In total i had 5 mackerel and a single small Bass of around 35 cm, he went back of course. We decided to make our way back in stages, as we passed the cottages north of the castle we thought we would try a drop off we spotted on the fishfinders. On the first drop i managed to coax up this little fella. Meanwhile every small boat in the world was trying to get back to their berths after watching the Air Show, it was totally packed out there, thankfully we were well out of it. I did put one of the mackies down as live but had no luck, to be truthful he was a big fella, i think maybe we needed something a little smaller, next time we will get into those jetties and get some of the small stuff Charlie told us about.

The tide had turned by now so we paddled around the north of the island to within striking distance of lake but we had another two hours to wait before we could take the flood back. Mark moored up and i tied off his bow, we dropped the baits again in the hope for some more action and thats what Mark at least got, he had five bass over the next 90 mins and i got the square root of nowt.

At 2020 hrs we started the paddle back to lake, it was by now a beautiful late evening, we both thoroughly enjoyed the peace and quiet after such a manic day, we managed to make Lake at 2100 hrs. Thanks to Ben for the help in planning and Mark for the company, a great day out in a great place.

Paul

Those liverpudlians were just a tad more than mildly annoying Lofty the kids were singing their favuorite tunes over the air, wasters.

Paul.

Nice one Lofty, we had all those boats race past us all trying to beat each other back to their berths in the harbour, talk about washing machine, complete madness.

Paul.

Well done to all those who took part and particularly to Lofty for getting the win, was totally gutted not to able to join you all for the day, look forward to the next get together.

Paul

Oh! go on then see ya thursday.

Paul

Sounds like a nice trip out even without catching.

Paul

Nuff said

See, thats what looking after you for just three days does to an intelligent, balanced soul. How the hell has Claire managed for all these years, without going doo lally tap??

Martin please blame Ben for the photo size, he was the one who gave me the re-sizing dimensions.