Matt

I don't think there is a universal rule for Salmon. Some rivers are Catch and release only.(I believe the Hampshire Avon is catch and release) I think its was only aceptable to take your First ever Salmon from the river I fished in Scotland but as I only caught 1 the question never arose if I could keep a second!

Like others I would consider an annual one based on trust and possibly a seperate scheme for charter boats. However there are pratical concerns, such as deep water wreck fishing where most Pollack which wont come up alive, deep hooked fish - I'd hate it if we ended up discarding such fish cos we end uo fined if we brought it in to port Plus how on earth could you inforce it? I can also see it causing a lot of resentment- certainly when some of the Commercial Bass Boates which fish Portland race (Fair play to them in a way I wouldn't go there in the tiny boats they use ) probably take more Bass in a day than I will in my entire fishing career. ''If I am fishing alongside one of them why should what I can take be limited when they can pull fish in all day?'' However we do have to be sensible with what we take and whenI think the way the Bream Marks get hammered is a bit irresponsible at times(especialy when they are there to spawn) I don't know what its like out of poole but when we used to fish out of portsmouth you could pretty much walk from boat to boat on the favoured Marks. It would also be nice if certain fish had a zero bag limit (smoothies tope etc)

You need a rod liscence to fish freashwater fish even if the the water there swimming is slightly salty- christchurch harbour used to be a quite famous roach mark. One for the day will cost

Sorry random last sentence wont let me delete it on my ipod

Well we anchored up for tope, wind was blowing- kicked up a little slop but nothing too uncomfortable even wind over tide this afternoon. The doggys turned up but the mackys were elusive despite our strenouous efforts to get some(well i slung a set of feathers over the side and ignored them) eventually a few scad rocked up so we could get off the frozen stuff(a few mackys turned up late on to replenish supplys) Dad hit some small pack tope early on, not big but they fell to very light gear so were good fun anyway. Nothing happeningbon my rods (i was most unfairly fishing uptide of dads baits as the wind was holding us off the tide a bit). Eventualy i got a doggy then dad missed a proper tope run- stripped a load of line then just dropped it- that was the only proper run but suffered all day with hugely positive bites that connected to nothing, probably from small ones. Then i had a decent bite and latched into a decent fish, went bloody well, crash dived twice I was thinking 10lb ish(i've done 40lb ones and under no ilusion i'd be stopping anything bigger on the gear i was using- not the rod id set for tope the one i was hoping for bream on) Got it up and one very narked of tope prob between4-6lb hooked in the bum(i think proving they were grabbing baits and dropping them) hook fell out in net so popped him back. Had two more much smaller and a fair few doggys So the tuna... Well we were washing down in the marina when we had a chat with a bloke we vaguely know who had been freelining a macky in the race when it was hit by something completely unstopable, stripped all the line of his reel before it broke. So could have been a tuna although porbeagles are reputed to hang around the back of race on ocasions or a big tope-i wouldnt have thought even a big bass would have that kind of constant power and acceleration Speaking to a guy in portland marina this evening, he was fishing portland race yesterday and

Could probably do better in me bath tub!

Nice fish indeed. well done Although did you use oils or felt tips for the spots! Having fished weymouth for years and not catching one i simplybdont believe in them anymore...

I would say the rate of water replqcement is key- we had a huge barrel live bait tank on our old boat and a relively small tank on free boys but had no probs keeping bait alive in either( in fact we had a small schoal of bream happy for awhile last weekend What i would say us keep water going in and make sure it circulates

Well I have just discovered that ccurrently the UK has no Bluefin quota and so it is illegal to target them which means that from now on I will be mainly fishing for Bass when using 9" plugs or livebaits on downriggers... As a recreational Sea Angler on a non registered private boat how are you affected by quota's? In theory we are all held to ransom as the UK has zero quota for Bluefin both for commercial and recreational FISHERMEN. This means that Recreational FISHERMEN cannot target Bluefin in the UK and overseas they can only do it if following the rules and guidelines and if issued with a permit to do so. We have no permit as we have no quota! Now the observant amongst you may have noticed I have written FISHERMEN. There is a clear and understood difference between recreational fishing and recreational angling. Fishing is the use of any method to catch your fish, either for the purpose of sale or as food for yourself. On the continent many recreational fishermen do just this and use nets, traps and so on in order to catch several different species, often being sold to local restaurants and often being used for food. Those of us who dive for scallops or drop a few lobster pots for example would be classed as recreational fishermen. Recreational anglers are those of us who use rod and line for the purpose of sport, sometimes to catch fish for our own consumption, but never to sell on. These definitions are known, but do get blurred. I think it's time to keep these distinctions very clear. Given the different authorities involved you could catch 20 tons before anyone noticed and die of old age before anything was decided

Ive been nagging for ages to do a shark trip so ill step it up and free boys will be in.( ive spent too long in weymouth- everthing you catch tastes nice BUT i dont eat fish much AND i just want to catch a big toothy something!) A freind whose dad does a lot of shark fishing in cornwall suggested getting a job lot of blood from a butcher for the scent trail- apparently it works as well as mashed up macks??

Yes there was no tuna frenzy off weymouth

After going to all that trouble whats the betting someone gets one on a set of feathers!

Well i did catch a herring this year on the shambles. Still a bit sceptical though. If i hook something i cant stop whilst bassing ill have another suspect.

Charlie i will pm you tommorrow with dad/peters number

Well it was at least 30lb! And obviously a pidgeon beats your ganet cos we enticed it on without tackel! We had an unfortunate car breakdowb on thw way back as well so we didnt get home till 11pm! Charlie if you heading our way let us know, we'd love to learn from your wrecking experience!- or just play hosts inshore

So headed down to weymouth friday boattended overnight , woken by dad reving the engine 6 am headed to the shambles I caught macs dad cooked breakast, that all done headed for first wreck( dad asleep me skippering- felt great first time I've properly skippered Free boys solo! Hit the wreck bangon had one fish but were plagued by takes that let go so moved to the next wreck lots of pollack and a probable 3lb pout- amazingly the 6 pout all swan away strongly. We anchored at slack and had one tope and one very large fish get off( was well on but shedded the hook) But back to the pigeon- landed on the boat 10am and stayed all day before it Left in the marina! So whats the club record pigeon ?

My rig is boom- swivel - trace(long for pollack, short for cod) lure, nowt complicated

I have had some good results with them, deecent cod bass and pollack. You dont need a large wait as long as drifting(varies depending on tide..) for cod i bounce them along the bottom for pollack the twenty turns on the reel rule. I prefer the orange/red ones but have caught on blues. One thing to remember though is that a poor lure in front of fish stands a better chance than a good lure in empty water!

Hi The weymouth boats were a bit spread out to day but the charters were all west of portland bill when we came in- no one realy on muscle beds or shamples at fourish today if that helps!

And totaly acurate. Leaving from weymouth on our own we nearly bottled it, the camaradrie on the first night said it all- i'd not met anyone even on the web yet i felt at home(as well as completly nackered from the crossing) the vibe when fishing the good weather day was great regular radio chat advising how to catch( we only have a cabin vhf and i nicked a turbot on his rod whilst he was on the radio) Coming back was realy what showed the club spirit- we all suited and booted together- we had an offer to cross to poole and be driven back to portland which was great- whilst free boys is great we have only had her a few months and still getting to know her so it was good to have a plan b in the end we didnt have any worrying moments at all on the way back. So yeah we've based in felixstowe, pembrokshire, portsmouth and weymouth but pbsbac is the club to join!

We could have done but it definitely looked like a she hound carrying pups so best toget her back in(besides she was bloody good at escaping the net trying to get her in!)

Congrats alan on the record. Just for fun how would a 15lb plus smoothound have faired? We had it take a shad and it rolled up the trace so we released it straight away. We have caught smoothied to 14lb before but this one was way bigger- it was lipped hooked and bleeding so we got it back in soon as pos

Getting across aint the problem... getting back is! If you do come down to portland give freeboys a shout our plan isto do some wrecks etx if we cant hit other side

Ill need to check i can have the dates off work, hapily sleep in my tent again! Just need to persuade dad to pay for fuel(thinking staying in alderney rather than go east at most to cherbour would be a massive journey home otherwise) Does depend on good weather- we've proved its safe in a 4/5 but its not much fun!

The crew will mutiny if there are any more talk of oars!