Mal Thomas

Amazing

Welcome back you kept that stunning holiday under wraps. I hope it was as stunning as i imagine it was. Specially the bird life and nature in general. Would you swap UK for Canada?

Aah you big softy, you've got to watch out being so in touch with your emotions, you will end up as bad as me. Teary eyed at anything remotely touching😏

I was hoping for better conditions, I was down on the boat for 5.15am to be greeted with a heavy Southerly breeze which was enough to put me off a sand bar crossing in the dark, so I went back to bed for a few hours and had another go at 10.0am when the tide had risen back up. It was snotty out there on the ledge and a 10 knot trip to the end of the ledge was enough of that. The thought of the planned crossing over the bay was out of the question in a 4ft swell with the occasional 6 footer on the nose, disappointing. I did take some video, not reviewed it yet. Nearly flat calm on the way in. I was followed out by another boat who didn't seem to no where he wanted to go as he zig zagged across my route. Anchoring in a 4ft swell was interesting and I paid out a lot more rope than usual for the rise and fall of the boat and stayed on station with a secure hold, not a big tide it has to be said but 76ft of water is testing. Bites from the off, bream and doggies kept me busy feeding them off till the congers turned up. Then a very strong run with the reel screaming line, lifted the rod out with the clutch released to allow me to get the rod out of the holder and it was gone. Two hooks and a whole squid returned and untouched, what was that, probably a Tope or was it. More congers, bream and doggies and no rays. The Sea was crystal clear, nothing on the fish finder, no mackerel seen. I heard a few boats from PBSBAC but was so busy I forgot to make time for a message. Early finish to get back for the Ryder Cup, what a final day spoilt by the New Yorkers so called fans, they have no etiquette and foul mouths, they should be ashamed of there behaviour which very nearly changed the result such was the impact from the crowd or so called sporting fans. They soon left in their droves with their tails between their legs as the Cup was retained and then won. The governing bodies needs to get a grip, bringing in Police too late and evicting a good number of the crowd was not enough the damage to the event was done.

I have read your report again and note that a Pan Pan was used, so after questioning they are assuming you are safe and anchored. They upgrade to a RNLI callout when darkness has fallen and no tow has recovered you. What a frustrating and long day, when things go wrong at sea they seem to take much longer than anywhere else.

Bob the timings are wild, glad your safe.

Thanks Terry, good to hear you out there with the PBSBAC presence filling the airwaves.

What a day, after all the wind it was so nice to get out. Christchurch has a remarked channel today, but again the wind looks heavy for another week. it was so nice to be on the radio with so many PBSBAC members listening in on channel 6 and having a brief check of who is doing what. Great club chat and some fish, what more can you ask for. Thanks to Martin for the invite and thanks to everyone out there today contributing, loved it. I managed a Ray yippee.

If Brad wants content I am sure he can film plenty of trips and I would like a lesson on using my camera.

Can someone pick you up?

With the Holiday season drawing to a close, we hope to have a good turn out at this meeting. We have Steve Morgan from the Angling Trust to answer questions. Can I suggest you give some thought to your questions to receive good replies. We very much want to engage more with the AT and hope they recognise us as a good size Fishing Club who works hard for it's members and has a burning desire to keep the Sea fish stocks as healthy as possible. Please make the effort to come along and show our support and interest in our Recreational Stakeholder Participation of Boat Sea Fishing. Chris will be doing the raffle, the more come the bigger the prizes. See you there Tuesday 2nd September Oakdale Club Darby's Lane, gather 7.30pm for an 8.0clock start.

To make the Day a little less lonely give members a shout on CH6, I am always listening and we were out there. See it as a security blanket that you used whilst your arm was in a sling.😊

I think he had 006 on his cabin.

There was also a huge green modern Tug / Trawler looking boat out there, he was waiting for the Rnli at one point, then restarted trawling something behind him 100yrds or so I heard on the radio, I couldn't tell what he was doing, it may be a modern form of dredging hopefully rather than fishing. If he was fishing were in real trouble. From the front it looked like a Jeremy Clarkson posh tractor, I can't recall seeing it before. He was working South side of the Fairway Buoy close to the Needles approaches. He left for Saint Catherine's point later in the afternoon South of the Island.

Another time

Early starts are getting harder as I get older, on the boat for 6.30am with a good weather window for the day and small tides. The birds were working off the NCI station, so I had a quick detour to pick up some hopefully easy fresh bait. I tracked them down and a Bass, only for a brand new set of feathers bottom knot failure, lost slow jig and Bass, Ouch. Bait acquired in short time and then decisions to make, spurred on by fresh baits, I decided to go off shore in 100ft of water. With slow flows I anchored it well and was in prime position and excited for what was instore. A big Blonde was my target, I managed to hook one and got it close to the boat and on the surface for yet another tackle failure. The fish was just a double. I had a Shark rig out all day just in case I had a visitor of the big toothy variety, no luck, but nice to see the big reel out. The bites were not developing as I expected with a good bait trail of fresh Mackerel, what's going on, everything is perfect but no fish. Then a few small bass to 4lb on the baits and a small spotted ray. No Congers pestering me, only a few dogfish and the bait was lasting far too long with 3 rods out and know need to get the frozen out, slow, slow and even slower. I dropped another 75 ft of rope back to change my area to just behind another bank, a few bites but no fish. What is going on, Am I imagining it or I have I experienced slow Augusts before? I could have caught Bass all day and likely filled my freezer with Mackerel but that is not my Quarry, I would rather have one big specimen that I have planned and fished for. Unfortunately I did spot two Trawlers working, one off shore covering outside the lines the other Trawler normally works and further in but now in Christchurch bay SM75 working the Sole areas and dodging the netters gear close in, dam that boat it is so disheartening. A lovely day at sea with no incidents and a beautiful day, just a disappointing result.

Drop me a pm or reply, I am going out from Christchurch 7.30 ish.

Soon we will have a printed record of fish caught over the years, I think we will all clearly see the trends. Very worrying.

A long standing retired member Nigel Allen excepted an invite out on Kingfisher whilst on holiday from work. We set out from Cobbs on Sunday for a mixed fishing day. Mal got their a little early as most of you will know and set up Kingfisher for the trip, kettle on and raring to go. The day started looking for the elusive Mackerel, which I think ended up as 2 individually caught by NA and one joey later by MT. Many hours with 2 rods and lazy lines over the side, how ridiculous. As you can imagine that started the I remember when stories, you only had to go outside Swanage and drop some feathers and you had bait for the day. Those days are long gone along with other species. With big tides we managed our time in deeper waters, after a few bream and one small undulate we made our move out towards some banks for a drift. Bass first drop and then 3 on a line of feathers with a slow jig, only two made it into the net. Good size for eating so we took some for the plate and returned the rest for another day. The banter was wicked as always, nothing was missed and everything got a cheeky comment followed by a chuckle which often ends in a coughing session with us old gits. Just enough fish to keep us entertained, later in the afternoon the white tops made a show beam on and bumpy, as always Kingfisher just keeps pushing on through it and is so reassuring. By the afternoon a beer was calling before we needed a knap before bedtime. Great day with old buddies, such a joy to have Niggle the "Cod father" back out fishing.

These trips are a real bonus and help warrant having a boat in a short season harbour like Christchurch, this is only the second or third I have managed this year 😔. Knowing the wind was likely to rise later I decided it would be a following sea for the trip in. So with thoughts of fresh mackerel and frozen offerings I set out in calm seas and choose to anchor off the end of the ledge, I managed a couple of full strings of Mackerel but very little else, so a move was in order for the flood. Anchored on the Western side this time with some confidence it was a decent area. After the fresh scent trail was established, I had a conger of 20lb, followed by a few smaller ones. For some reason I was still upbeat something else would turn up and It did. A plump 6lb Bass who gave a good scrap, It was returned. Then a rare Thorney turned up which was welcome, shortly followed by a Bull Huss of a similar weight. Another 2 full strings of mackerel, then the wind was building and thoughts of a wash down and good tidy up was entering my mind, whilst the body and mind were weakening. Strong tide and large waves on the way in had me dodging loads of semi submerged net or pot buoys. As often happens once in the wind dropped off and a clean up followed. A good decision to go out, my spirits and thoughts of the boat and the costs with very little use has been weighing on my mind, also with the threat of a large increase in mooring fees in Ribs pond. The engine went well and sounded much better than recent past trips following the new injectors being fitted.

Our logos go well on the Hi Vis

Baiter???

That is a positive response, so we will make it a date, please list below your choice of venue that you believe needs our attention. A beach area the Council does not clean, an area where the tide deposits flotsam or fisherman leave there litter behind, all would be suitable. Please list below an area that always disappoints you, where you see too much litter. Bring along the family and the dog, we will cook up some food for your efforts. What better way than a litter pick to mix with the public and advertise PBSBAC, Our logo's will be worn on the HI Vis and displayed on our banners.

I requested a litter picking pack from them months ago and it arrived today. I will bring them along to the meeting, could we do a walk along the beach and a pop up BBQ for bacon rolls?

I hope the "watch this space nod" I got at the latest meeting was more than this, albeit great news overall for the fish stocks bycatch and seabed. I was hoping for something local to our Bay.