ChrisE

ChrisE

Like Duncan, we used to favour mults but this year we've kitted ourselves out with 8' Rovex and Savagegear XLT rod 20-40g plus Grauvell fixed spools with 20lb braid and lighter fluoro traces. Rods more than capable of dealing with 4-5oz in a big tide, more sporting with 2oz. I have to say rather nice, the rods were

My fishing boat doesn't have an ap but my yacht does. We do a fair bit of long distance stuff and it isn't possible without one. But absolutely no excuse for not keeping a good lookout in coastal waters. The excuse of the boat yawing under ap in a sea is very poor. Knowing this the skip should have been on the wheel when there's any traffic about. Lucky bloke.

Please feel free to blame me if it all goes tits up.

Long term forecast has just switched from awful to quite benign. Fingers crossed!

Arrived on the ledge at 930 for the last of the ebb. Managed a few bits and bobs but no bream then drifted around slack water catching a few wrasse and a 3lb pollack on lures. Tried the first hour of the flood but the sea went quite snotty with wind over tide, so called a halt after an hour, went off east to try for a plaice but got weeded off after 30 mins. Tried a couple reefy bits east of the Needles with lures and caught a few more wrasse then homesky for 430. Not the greatest day but a few more fish on the boat and who would have thought a few years ago that you be seriously trying to catch wrasse on lures in the middle of April! 🐟🐟

Well done Paul, any fish?

Many thanks, guys! Btw, my average this year is 11lb! I had a 9 whilst cod fishing in January, things can only go one way

Charlie, That's a very kind offer, I'll send you the snap, once I'm on my pc again. Prob tomorrow. Chris

Nice fish, shame about the photos.....

Went out with my brother to see if there were any bream about. Martin caught two, best 2.5lb, plus some wrasse and the usual bits and bobs. Come high water slack we decided to drift, Martin using bait, me bouncing the bottom with a plastic sandeel on a lead head. After about ten mins my rod arched over and line was being dragged off at a rate of knots. Ten nail biting minutes later, this is on a two ounce spinning rod, up pops a bass. Not just any old bass either. It was the biggest we have ever seen. Some careful netting by Martin in came the clonker. It weighed 13lb dead! After a couple of snaps back she went apparently none the worse. There followed a wrasse of 4lb and couple of other smaller fish. Not a bad day's work. Snaps to follow once I can get them onto photobucket. One happy Easter bunny! Chris

Well done, Nige. If I was in the market I'd also consider a Cougar cat around 7m. Very stable and fast in conditions that kill a monohull. Just a thought....

All, I organise a group who fish Alderney with Chris Caines on Tiger Lily. It so happens that we are going the week immediately after the club's long weekend ie 14-18 May. Someone has just dropped out, if anyone fancies a week in Alderney, let me know. Accommodation is sorted out and the lads I fish with are a good crowd.

Yes, that's where we drifted fruitlessly and saw the news about the hounds, oo-ee spring is on its way! Chris

We bought a pound of rag, half a dozen peelers and a pack of squid and set out in search of an early plaice off Milford. After an hour or so of fruitless drifts we thought that we'd try somewhere where there might be a fish or two and polled off the The Ledge to try for an unreasonably early bream. First chuck the light spinning rod arched over and line begrudgingly peeled off the clutch. After a couple of mins the denizen departed unseen. I suspected that it was a good wrasse. Can't be sure but we then proceeded to catch 8 ballans up to around 3lb which put up a spirited fight on light tackle. By now it was 145 and we'd been out for about 4 hours and the YC bar shuts a 3, so it was offsky for a swifty. All in all a lovely day on the water and probably the last until Easter when hopefully the first of the bream should have arrived.

Another vote for Dave. Posted 10 reels, all in fairly manky condition on Monday evening. He phoned last night to say that they were ready and was I in as he was going to drop them round. Now I live in Lymington which is a fair stretch from where Dave lives. He duly turned up 45 mins later. Top banana!

Thanks for this, out of interest does this include the all of the wrecks on wrecksite and are the coordinates the same? Tia Chris

You are right to be concerned. There is a counter proposition doing the rounds, there is a signature sheet in the tackle shop in Ashley condemning the killing of cormorants on the grounds that next people would be asking to kill kingfishers and other protected species. Personally I support the AT campaign but others clearly do not.

In all seriousness, I'm going to be giving them a whirl for wrasse, I've a couple of marks where I've caught quite a few on plastics and bass, I think that these weenies might do the job early season when the bass are on the smallest of fry. They ought to work on black bream as well, roll on spring!

I have a feeling that you might be right

So I thought that I'd have a crack at this in the coming season and sent off for a LRF lure kit. Well I'm now the proud owner of a load of 1/32, 1/16 and 3/32 oz lead heads plus the smallest plugs and spinners I've ever seen. Not to mention a load of soft plastic lures all under 3" long. Oh well, I'll give it a go but wtf do you catch on a 1/32 oz 2" plastic, gobies?

Ooh, I'm impressed, can you make me one

I'm glad to see that you are insured through HKJ, they were the guys that paid out for me no probs. I hope that it all goes well for you. Chris

Nigel, I am sorry to hear that, I hope that the damage is not too great and that any gear will be covered by insurance. If it is of any comfort, Hilda Maud was done over a few years ago, the scroats were caught and they are still paying my excess back quarterly.. Best of luck with it. Chris

Line dancer I'm sure that you could knock one up fairly easily. What do you think?