TomBettle

Three older PBSBAC members were sat in their "easy" chairs at the last club meeting, chatting with each other... In between having to fish his false teeth out of his pint glass the first said to the other two, "Every morning I wake up at 7am on the dot, at 7.05 I step out of bed, at 7.10 I am drinking a cup of tea, at 7.20 I take a nice long dump and by 7.30 I am off down to the boat for a day's fishing" The second said to the other two, "Every morning I wake up at 7.05 on the dot, at 7.10 I step out of bed, at 7.15 I am drinking a lovely cup of tea, at 7.25 I take very relaxing dump and by 7.40 I am waiting for you two at the boat. The third, who had been listening intently and sucking on his gums a bit spoke up, "You two are sooooo lucky. Every morning I wake up at 7.10, I step out of bed at 7.20, having a nice cup of tea at 7.30, but I am never at the boat until 8 o'clock." Bemused, the other two asked, "Why are you always so late?" "Because I always take my dump at 6.55!" Happy Birthday Craig. Tom

I'd be chuffed to bits if Quest II would manage that. It is the one big downside to the semi displacement, shaft drive boat. They are very juicy in comparison. At about 16 knots in zero conditions either for or against she will run at about 1.5ltr mile.

Dean If you are worried that your boat is wearing out you would be welcome to polish mine.... I'll buy you coffee at the cafe. ...Lunch even?

Bodes very well for Summer Cod! Fingers crossed!!!

That doesn't show our sport though. We all make mistakes, some keep their catch, some release their catch, but there is one common thing that all real anglers stand by and that's a level of respect for the catch. He can do nothing but harm for the sport as he doesn't show it as a sport. This programme was first billed as a documentary and as such it should have been superb viewing. But as a documentary a decent, angling naturalist or even a general presenter who fishes would have been a far better choice. This programme shows very little of the true culture of both fishing and angling around the world. It's little more than an ego trip for him. The few times the actual culture of the area begins to emerge, the presenter shys away from it to the point of wanting to avoid it. Mr Green is not a presenter and he is not an sport angler regardless of what he likes to tell us. IMHO opinion, he may be getting lots of exciting fishing trips for himself and he may be satisfying his ego, but he isn't doing angling any good at all as a sport.

I still think the idea for the show is great, but managed all of five minutes as he realy is the most irritating, terrible angling, awful presenting, soft actor ever to be considered for any other form of tv. The programme is simply awful which is such a shame. All I can say is no third series plllllleeeeaaaasse and I am so happy that Wire in the blood has been axed too. Maybe he will begin to disappear quietly off our screens....

50/50 for Quest II Depends on a few factors, not least cash! If we go, we'll be leaving about 05:30 for four days. Crew tbc

That sounds exactly like Holger!

Happy Birthday Dan!!!

I second Tony at Select Marine.

Have a great day Dean Happy Birthday Mate

Old Git! Happy Birthday mate!

As far as we are concerned (our part of the channel), right the way across. If you wanted to leave at dawn and arrive Alderney for the slack you could get a full day working the banks or drop in this side for a spot of Bream and / or Tope sport before a relatively early finish.

Reg If you are going to eat one, as with most fish go for a small one (Chicken Halibut). Small would be one up to about 50lb. A 50lb Chicken Halibut won't be too much bother in a boat. No worse than any other lively fish.

Around 09:30 and 15:30 Charlie. I have not worked out if that is GMT yet! The 09:30 slack will have flood tide right the way through the main part of the day. This means we'll be punching it unless we leave really early or head south south east and fish marks some distance away from the nice straight line route over.

That's brilliant news! Well done to Little BIG Rob!

Arrrrrrrrrrr I was seeing the bit about taking a 23 foot boat..... At 20 feet she's lovely and heavy! Just the way an old girl should be.

Aanyway, it's completely by the by Brian as the trailer is a very nice one by the sond of it.

Are you sure it was only that Brian? That is very very light for a 23 foot boat, particularly an older one that would normally have been built heavily. As an example... My 695 is 23 feet and 1,650Kg plus the weight of the engine, plus any accessories and junk kept onboard. Mine is a modern, light, tupperware box, apparently.

Very nice trailer! Are you sure your boat sat on this legally? At a guess it would have been at 2100Kg bfore any kit or fuel was onboard. Either way, very ince trailer.

That is then where a quality reel comes in and in fairness an Abu 7000 cannot be put in that league. Good quality modern reels will have tougher gears than some of the older big reels we are familiar with. Like I said, take a look at the Avets. As far as a reel goes, you will get what you pay for.

Big welcome to both of you. Lovely spot to boat from and I feel sure you'll soon know many of us.

Adam A decent 20/30 with a medium taper will just about handle 2lb of lead for the hour of tide that it is required. If you plan to fish for Conger on a full spring when 2lb is needed right through, well that's up to you, but I'll be bassing inshore then! If you did have to fish a tide like that, then a decent 30lb class rod will cope with no hesitation. My two 30's are a Penn Graphlite 30lb class. Never ever used it as I just don't fish that heavy in the UK, but it is a nice rod with a fairly fast taper. The other may well get a session or two in the UK, it's built by Stan Massey of Alba rods. It's about 6 foot, built from Eglass and has a lovely medium taper with hge reserves of power in the bottom end. He's called it the "Tuna Tamer 30" and I am planning on using this for Yellowfin later in the week. I have no doubt that it would also handle a good Common Skate when clipped into a harness. But, this rod is heavy by UK standards and needs a big reel to balance it. I am putting a Penn Formula 10Kg on it and it looks small. My 20/30 everyday Conger rod is teamed with a TRQ 200. This reel will handle "anything" at all that swims in the UK. The next reel up is the TRQ300 and that, to be honest is massive overkill for Conger, even a big one of over 80lb. Todays world of braided lines and modern technology producing reels that develop drags akin to the BIG big game reels of yesteryear and gears to boot, all in a size to fit the palm of your hand means we can get away from the monsterous great reels we all used to use for Conger. If you like your lever drags, take a look at the Avet range. Amazing reels in pocket size, but incredible power, capable of stopping anything you will ever it in this country.

Seriously Adam That's monster hauling gear, I am surprised you still think of using kit like that. It's the sort of kit for Common Skate and Porgies, not sub 100lb Conger.

Relatively speaking, a lightish rod with a medium action will beat a big fish more easily than a heavier rod with a fast action. That's why the stupidly light speed jigging rods are being used to such great effect all over the blue water fishing world for masiive Tuna and such like. A short standup rod of "X" lb class will have far more leverage than a longer fast tapered rod of the same lb class. Fast tapers result in real hard work as all the pressure (and therefore weight) is at the tip, but you are holding the butt. My own BIG conger rod is a Penn Waveblaster 20/30. I use that when I need moe than 1.25lb of lead. If I can use less, then a lighter rod will be used. It's plenty to shift a any Conger taken away from the metal work in typical Conger tides. Next week, I am hoping for 200lb+ Yellowfin (we live in hope). The heaviest rod I'll be using is a 30lb class (longish 6') stand-up stick made from E glass, not carbon. The fight will be awesome, but achievable and the softer E glass in a lightish rod will mean I have a better than average chance of winning if I hook up.