toerag

Adam - I want ot support my local shop so the greys is out. I've also heard that it's a bit stiff. Duncan - everything I read about the TDXU rates it as 2-8 or 4-10 depending on model. Newboy - apparently the Daiwa is a better rod, but I know anglers that really rate the suveran. Cheers for the feedback guys, I've actually now been offered a daiwa powermesh uptider for a few beers, so will try that to see how it performs.

Right, I've decided to get a decent uptider to use for pirking. I've had the Suveran and Team Daiwa recommended to me, does anyone else have any ideas or experience? By the way - reasons for using an uptider - my 15lb class uglystik struggles with a 1lb pirk, yet everything I hook is landed as it's nice & soft actioned. My 30lb class uglystik handles 1.5lb pirks well, but is so stiff it rips the hooks out too often for my liking, so.....I reckon an uptider will give me enough flexibility to stop ripping hooks, and the extra length will work the pirks better. I think a 4-10oz rated rod will be best?

Propane burns hotter than butane apparently, although it may need a different regulator?? As for a crucible - I use the bottom half of an 8kg gas cylinder on an old BT lead cable jointer's stove burning butane (at the moment). I can keep enough lead to make 10x 10oz supazooms molten, any more and the lead starts to solidify around the edges. I find that after a while performance drops due to the cooling effect of taking gas out of the cylinder, so much so that in winter it starts to get frost on it. I get round this by standing the cylinder in a cat litter tray and pouring hot water from a kettle over it every so often. This seems to keep the pressure up. If you're really serious about making leads then I remember reading an article in a mag or book where the lead was being melted in an induction furnace, the sort used by shooters to make their own bullets. The lead was dispensed via a tap in the bottom, so dross was less of an issue.

According to the instructions on my new S10 VHF a shorter aerial is good because it works at steeper angles of heel, which rolling around in overfalls will give you. a 1.5M(I think) Glomar is

Brilliant, the round 10" Bomar jobby looks exactly what I want! Cheers!!

Rich, what make of plugs are they? They sound like just the job, assuming they're up to the rigours of saltwater fishing. Mike - I think smaller lures are the way to go on the paravane, although when it comes to bass the bigger the lure the better, especially for big bass!

Has anyone used paravanes? More specifically, the delta ones. We tried using one the other week and found that it would dive, then surface almost straight away. I suspect it was the big rapala on the end (CD18 magnum) putting up too much resistance and causing the paravane to trip and surface as if it had a fish on, however we didn't have any other 'bassy' lures to try, and no bait.

I need an aluminium deckhatch to replace the crappy 9" round plastic one I put in to allow me to change the sender for the fuel gauge in my boat. The plastic one would be fine if it could take being trod on, but it can't so I need something more substantial. Any ideas of any mailorder suppliers? I tried 2 chandlers without success, they sell plastic, but not ally ones. cheers, Toe

They look fast, but they're not a full-on planing hull so they need a fair bit of horsepower to go fast.

International have lots of info on their website www.yachtpaint.com . As suggested, read the instructions, they're there for a good reason!

Full power vs low power - If you're sat 2 miles out from the coastguard station calling on ch16 on high power they won't be able to hear anyone transmitting from further away, hence the reason you're not allowed to use your radio in harbours. The signal with the highest power is the one that gets received, hence the reason I often hear St. Peter Port radio replying to a vessel calling them when I can't hear the calling vessel - St. Peter Port has a higher aerial and more power. When the pressure's high I even hear Brixham and Portland coastguard sometimes.

Surely someone needs to inform the RYA that their courses aren't being taught properly??

The bad thing about weed rafts is that there's often other much nastier debris tangled up in them like bits of rope and trawl net. I avoid all the weed I see, yet I still average at least one bit of rope or net around my props every year. I've not been immobilised yet, but it wears the paint off the props which is a real pain cos they're alloy.

OK, you boys want some feedback from a 'local'? Some intersting and well reasoned thoughts on here (unlike other forums) but here are the facts:- There is a pretty small Guernsey commercial fleet. Although you might think the place is paved with fish, the commercials are very restricted by tides and suitable locations to fish, hence the reason that they're not all driving flash cars and living in big houses. Last year at the Mike Pawson presentation on bass, comment was made by a commercial fisherman present that there was a lack of flatties, and a much lower average size. Now the stats don't tell you this, all they tell you is the total tonnage, and that is very dependent on the amount of effort put in (Ie. Bream catches have rocketed from 40-odd tonnes to 150-odd simply because the biggest 2 local trawlers have started pair trawling for them). We simply do not know the effort put in so we cannot make sense of those stats. If the catch per unit effort (CPUE) has gone down then, yes, the fishery is in trouble. What is certain, is that the visiting UK fleet has massive catching potential due to sheer weight of numbers. Even doing the sums using 1 in 3 or 4 days spent on the flatties at 2 fish per angler, 6 anglers per boat, we are talking tonnes of fish, all taken by a completely unregulated catching force. If the bag limits are a problem, then this is obviously a low estimate. 2005 spring saw lots of '30-40 flats a day' headlines on the deepsea pages, and pictures of decks paved with turbot, this year there's none of that, only 'nice flattie which was returned' type photos. If that's not the sign of guilt, then I don't know what is! If the fishery does go down the pan, then we could probably expect quotas for the commercial guys (there aren't any currently) and a complete closure of the fishery for recreational anglers. As to the proof of anglers selling their catches? Impossible to police, the anglers aren't going to sell the fish on the quayside, they're going to go back to their local pub or restaurant and sell it through the back door. The only way to reduce or stop this, is to enforce a bag limit. Why do the proposals include fish caught anywhere? Simply because it would be impossible to prove where fish were or weren't caught. As for cod & pollack - well anglers can simply catch their fill on the way back home outside the 12 mile limit. My feelings on this? Bring in bag limits for ALL unlicensed vessels, UK or local or private. If skippers don't like that then they can simply go out and buy themselves a fishing license. OK, it will cost them a packet, but licenses aren't exactly losing value are they? Besides, many were licensed years ago and sold their licenses for a fast buck. What goes around comes around as they say. [bTW, local charters are licensed as they fish commercially in winter. Jersey charterboats have to be licensed (Jersey law/regs apparently).] The bag limits on all the species are fine, you can't really say that you're a recreational angler fishing for your home freezer if 2x 5lb turbot, 2x 4lb brill, 2x 4lb bass, 2x 10lb rays, 2x 2lb bream and as much cod and pollack as you can catch isn't enough! And lets face it, it's not worth freezing fish that have been on ice for 3 or 4 days anyway. Also, if effort is displaced from one species to another due to fishery collapse or bag limits, then all the other fisheries collapse in turn. The local commercial scene is finely balanced with each boat fishing their own method for their own species in their own patch. Force someone to change and things rapidly go wrong. For instance, read the fishery stats on the conger, tope and smoothound catches. That's all caught by 2 boats that used to longline for ray, flats & bass, but don't anymore as it's no longer worth their while. We all know logbooks for all vessels should have been introduced before now, but the scene has exploded so fast from the days when we'd see Bayzand, Tett, Caines and Dukes 3 times a year (if that), to one where we're seeing boats coming from as far away as Brighton and 10-15 in port most nights for 2 months of the year! Will all the proposals become reality? I don't know, we may get some or none, or all of them, or adjusted ones. It's up to you to make sensible responses (knee-jerk ones will probably get binned) that will carry more clout with the rule makers. It's no use saying 'no we don't want bag limits' when you'd quite happily accept less stringent ones. If GSF are like my chief executive, they don't want to see problems, only solutions. It's the same "why should I do it if he doesn't have to" mentality that has scuppered the BMP and every other fishery policy in the past. I've spoken to some of the BB participants, and they all know it won't last, yet they won't stop whilst their mates don't have to. Hell, would you turn down

Reading the article properly I think the p**t involved is not the p**t we love to catch.

Just thought that I'd add that you can no longer buy the red plastic jerrycans as they're illegal or something. Well, you can still buy them, but they've stopped making them. I use 25litre chemical drums and fill 4 up at a time, but I live in the CI where we don't have health and safety.........

Oil pressure - what does the manual say? My needle reads about 1 o'clock (can't remember the pressure). As far as temp goes - mine runs at ~83 degrees with a clean leg, 90 with a dirty one, and it soon drops to 80 once pootling along at 7 knots or less. Thermostat opens at ~85 degrees, quite noticable and worth pootling at 12 knots along until it does to make sure it hasn't stuck. NB> I have the 150 turbo diesel. It burns a smidgeon of oil at high revs with weight in the boat. I never have to top it up. What economy are you getting? I reckon on about 1 mile/litre at 23 knots.

Hmmm, I am in the same situation as you, I have a dead air can and a live gascan.......

Figurehead under the bow??

Wedger - get some parallel motion wipers to replace the ones you've got on there, because believe me you'll need them. I virtually always have to give mine a rinse with the hose when I put it back on the pontoon as they do tend to ship spray and worse over the front in anything other than a calm sea. You may also find water comes inthrough the side windows if they don't drain properly.

Sounds like you had a reasonable trip. The fishing at the moment certainly isn't a patch on last year, especially on the banks. The quality is there, but the quantity isn't. Wrecking has also dropped off at the moment too, I think the early may bloom we're getting is the cause.

If my experience is anything to go by, sharks don't show up on fishfinders. Well, the one that did this didn't! :- This was also on a wreck in the deep, it ate half a cod as well. I also believe that FF are best used to showstructure, I can catch fish off a wreck all day long and not see anything on the sounder. Having said that, both my sounder transducers are mounted inside my hull, so I don't get the best out of them.

and to throw a spanner in the works, I have loops on the boat end of my permanent mooring for the springs, and a simple rope for the direct lines, ie. I have a stern and midships cleats with matching attachments on the pontoon. I moor up with the eyed lines (springs) then use the other lines to attach the boat tightly to the finger. The cleats aren't big enough for 2 cleated off ropes, so one has to have an eye. Bow mooring is done with 2 eyes, one from each side.

The secret to neat splices is to colourcode each strand with different coloured tape, and to use each one in turn in exactly the same order each time, neatening up the splice after each set of tucks. If you do more tucks with one particular colour then it all goes wrong. Having taught about 60 scouts to do eye, back and joining splices I'm pretty qualified! Oh and it also helps to not let the strands get untwisted, 'cos that's messy too.

Cheers for the suggestions guys, most appreciated. I'll let you know how I get on, but I suspect I'll go for a Saeplast and re-site the rod holders on my enginebox so it can sit in front.