jerry.shutter

Happy birthday Terry, i hope you have had a day as good as you can, tough times.

Well done Graham, it was a lovely fish, is your grandson a member? Sure that would of won him FOM!! Jim you could well be right however its probably the chance of a get together and blow the cob webs away being more important!!

That's a cracking flounder, if Rob has seen a picture of one, that's ok, there must be another one!!!

A trip out on Wednesday with my mate Rob Rennie having not caught up with him for 2-3 years proved pretty slow to say the least. Rob catches huge numbers of sharks in the Celtic Deeps and i wanted him to approve my set up and rigs etc as the few times we have dabbled with little success. I know some chaps who fish our area sharking a lot, with great success with Threshers and Porgies, but the numbers just are not in our waters so more time and effort needed. Well i was glad everything i was doing was right, except again no sharks around yesterday!!! 0-3mph wind forecast, however it was a horrible lumpy chop 18 miles off with a lazy swell mixed in somehow. We drifted 6 wrecks which we felt all had nets on as we left over a dozen shads on to our annoyance with not even a Pout to show for our troubles. Slack water approaching and not a fish on the deck i decided to anchor a wreck in 140ft, well first attempt spot on, except the anchor dragged straight into the wreck after 10mins!!! Not happy i played the dart board game and luckily after 15mins we got everything back and the anchor hadn't even tripped. I decided some banks close to the wrecks a better option. Rods out and a really good chum trail nothing was happening except the usual congers to 25lbs and only 2 Pout!. The tide swung round and after a bit of knitting with shark rods we settled for a couple of hours on the flood. Not the best anchoring while sharking but at least we had a chance to bottom fish whilst a toothy bait was out. Getting close to pulling stumps Dogfish had a nice Huss just over 10lbs followed by second next drop 14lbs a pb for him so at least we had achieved something. Real last knockings i had a bite which proved to be a 6lbs Bass. Homeward bound we had a nice but choppy dry day, put the world right about 100 times, bacon butties, crab sandwiches, about 50 cups of tea, very few fish. I think i will wait for the Whiting to come before my next trip out, unless the weathers right!!!!!

Happy belated!

Very frightening Steve, so glad you made it out. Its easy for me to say but that's the most important thing, that you and the family are all still one, vehicles and tools can be replaced. Good luck.

Have a good evening!

Jim you have been iffy for years!!!! Sure Charlie or someone else will drag you out again soon. Probably dodgy cake got to you!

Lovely fish, when will the season change??? Whiting??

Great report Martin, not always about catching, sounds like a great day.

Only just got there!! Hope you have had a great day (fishing i hope!)

As one of the dominant species in our area i will be very interested to the hear the report. Unfortunately i am unable to attend.

Have a great day, not too many red wines but a few wont hurt!!

Happy belated, need some pictures of the new boat so we can spot you out there! Hope you had a good one.

Thanks Rob, Jim was going to post, hopefully sort changing HEIF to JPEG VERY soon, i can do it with individual pictures but want to do it for all.

I hadn't had a Sole this year so a good window appeared Saturday/Sunday night, the weather looked good both days so we organised a day out Sunday to. We left Cobbs for the 5.30 bridge having had a bad run down, a huge amount of unhealthy food that could be microwaved and a good supply of Guinness zero we got to the bridges. Crew looked upset, "I've left the Guinness behind!!" hey ho. Our plan was Squid, Cuttle , and Sole Saturday night then Plaice on Sunday with Stuie. We got down the front trying for Macks but none obliged, an hour of daylight and a couple of drifts produced some Plaice but all small. Down with the hook as darkness fell only to find my anchor light had blown which left me a bit twitchy, luckily flat calm and no wind except 3-4mph SW. The fun fair raged on the pier followed by a firework display just as caught my first Squid on a jig. The Squid and Cuttle were not throwing themselves at us but a steady flow gave us nearly a bucket full. All this time we had 4 Sole rods out, every single cast single or double shots of Pout, then the Congers started, from bootlaces to feisty 15lbs EVERY SINGLE DAMN DROP!!!!! Usually taking the Pout which had just eaten the Sole bait, we had one occasion where a Pout took the worm, a conger about 3-4lbs took the Pout and a 15lbs Conger then ate the pair of them!!!! Cannabalistic Congers (could be good to thin them out!!) So we moved, the disco at Studland was that loud we could pick out the tunes and sing along, a lot of Bowie which i like. MORE Conger and Pout, another move and same again. It was about 2am now and i was getting fed up with straps and Pout so said to J2 i was going to put my head down for an hour. He was into another fish and suddenly a shout, grabbing the net i looked over to see a Turbot i thought which turned out to be a lunker of a Plaice on the first dropper, followed by a Pout on the second and b----r me a chunky Sole on the bottom dropper!!!!! My crew really do have golden goolies!!!. Obviously sleep was forgotten but only more conger, and pout and small Bream, a few squid and Cuttle followed. I did mange a great Red Mullet and a few strings of Scad as daylight broke. ALL night a trawler was working south of us around Dolphin Sands and another just East of East Looe in front of Sandbanks and Canford Cliffs really close in. We headed in to get Stuie from Cobbs on the 7.30 then out with him on 8.30. First drift in the Swash as per usual Stuie had the first Plaice, some Wrasse Giltheads and Plaice to follow. The weeds and crowds started around 10 so off down the front. A few bits and pieces but nothing exciting, around 12 j2 and me were begining to flag and the wind was getting up, so we tried the Patch, with no new speices and wind getting even more we headed in for a Gilt in the harbour before getting the 2.30 bridge. We had a great trip ticking the boxes but a shame we didnt find a few more Sole. Brilliant to have Stuie on board showing us how to do it, but i have to say the body does not like doing straights any more!!! It never used to be a problem but i certainly new it after driving back to Wiltshire. Hopefully a photo if i have sorted out my JPEG from my HEIF!!!!

Have a good one.

I have done, and happy for updates. I did however say i felt the multiple choice answers low, med, high were not well worded or helpful necessarily to the actual questions. Maybe just me.

Weather window was ok until Sunday lunchtime so J2 and i escaped Wiltshire late Saturday afternoon, rain seemed to follow us unfortunately so early bridge 6.30 helped us get out to the banks with the tide. I again got the tides wrong but luckily spoke to Charlie and Dave the day before who said they were much bigger than i thought. Fishing lures as Macks didn't show, we found Bass but not in great numbers, J2 led the way and showed me how to do it, most were in the 4-5lbs class so we had fun on really light lure rods. Lazy lines produced a few Mackerel for anchoring at slack water. We dropped the hook when the tide dropped to 2.5 knots!! Hoping for Tope and Rays J2 had a goof bite and played a really good fish on a 20-40 Century boat rod for 10-15mins, just as the fish was getting under the boat BANG, the rod broke 18 inches from the tip, he played the fish for another five minutes until it cut the braid well up the line, Tope????!!! We then started to achieve and get decent Tope to the boat with two over 30lbs, Alfresco was close by so called them up and they joined us, unfortunately everything went quiet except Congers and a Blonde Ray. Alfresco headed in and we decided we would use the last two Mackerel and then follow them, two more good Tope and a Blonde followed quickly and we headed to get the 4.30 bridge. I am still struggling to download pictures but Charlie is going to help out!!!! PS we found a Whiting in one of the Bass we kept, oh dear Autumn is coming.

Thanks Jim

Ok, this 2024 weather is really not kind, especially if your taking youngsters or people who are nervous of the sea and its rock'n'roll. However Monday and Tuesday i foolishly invited 3 ankle biter relations to visit the boat and hopefully wet a line, everything was within the harbour with up to 25mph forecast. First stop the Cockle cleaning station and a few tiny Bass but no Red Mullet but plenty of weed. The wind swung round so a move to escape the wind and weed was a good shout. First drop all three had a Gilthead, all under a pound but a great result, followed by more of the same and lots of schoolies. Nothing to write home about but they all enjoyed there day and want to come again, OMG what have i done!!!!!! Great to see smiling faces and new life experiences, nothing to put forward towards the Junior Comp but i now owe Brian £20.00. Hopefully the weather might improve in the next couple of weeks for some juniors to be taken out, but i am not holding my breath. Hopefully some pictures to follow though i think Oli has changed something so Jim is called for.

Thanks Greg, so difficult to tick all the boxes, have any of the boats which did manage to get out got a report or fish to register?

Belated birthday wishes, hope you had a good one.

Well done Kingfisher and the A team! weather looks pretty good ATM Saturday sorry i cannot be out with you. Come on guys the next Comp is hunt the Flounder! At least there is a good chance of rod bending with this one.!

A week to go before the Specimen Comp, lets hope the weather settles back down before next weekend.