TomBettle

Now now Mike, it's a "Merry Fisher" not a Gay Angler!!!

Gutted! The one and only comp I truly wanted to fish all year and I have gone and double booked a holiday away. Don't tell Abbie, but I would far rather be getting squid guts all over the boat than sitting on a beach in the Red Sea

Sorry to hear your news Bob. I can't possibly imagin how you feel, but myself and I am sure every other person that knows you or any of your family will be thinking of you. Tom

Give Coastwatch a call on 01929439220. These are the guys that sit in the little look out above St Alban's race. They have all the details of firing etc.

I'll be at Weymouth on Sunday. Sadly not fishing, but working We have our Weymouth office Open Weekend if anyone fancies a trip that way. Amongst a good selection of boats to view on the charter skippers berths (we have codially invited them to move for the day and they have oblidged), Mike at Weymouth has the best bacon butties on the South Coast. Tom

Terry If the boat is out of action and being repaired, stick with it on here and give some of your usual sound help and advice and I feel sure that one of our fellow competitors will makes space on their boat for you. Tom

Hi Terry A Very Warm Welcome to PBSBAC. Nice to see you over here at last. ...they may not seem it, but most of the guys are really alright and many of them welcome a bit of banter and competition. Share your kowledge with us and you'll find that the guys here are only too happy to share their's with you. All the best Tom

... never buy the cheap stuff at the boat jumble. Chances are, this will be well past it's sell by date.

Shropshire You are better doing it shortly before launching. I don't know why, but a boat that was antifouled, say 6 months previously, will not stand up to weed etc anything like one that was done the day before. Tom

Hi All Salterns is the venue for our post Southampton Boat Show Open Weekend. Both Saturday and Sunday 10:00am to 4:00pm we'll have a great selection of boats from our range, fishers, cruisers, luxury, all open to have a good old nose around. Tea, Coffee, Wine, Beer, Snacks will all be available along with a general natter about the fishing (or lack of it) and putting the world to rights in general. All are welcome so pop along for gander with the family. We should have: Merry Fisher 585 (if it arrives from the factory today... 50/50) Merry Fisher 625 Merry Fisher 655 Marlin Merry Fisher 805 Limited Edition Merry Fisher 925 Flybridge Cap Camarat 545 Limited Edition Cap Camarat 625 Walk Around Cap Camarat 755 Walk Around Leader 805 (If it makes it round with the weather... poss during Saturday) Prestige 32 Prestige 34 Sports Open Prestige 36 (If it makes it round with the weather... poss during Saturday) Prestige 42 If you are at a loose end as it is too rough to go fishing and you fancy looking around the boats then please come down to say hi. Tom PS: I may be able to let you know more about the prize we are putting in for the Open Comp by then too...

....those that don't ask, don't get. ...eeeh Rich, Mark, Andy....?

Hi Adam I will be venturing over again on Quest II and would be very happy (VERY happy) to share the extra spaces and costs at the Armoury assuming the dates can all tie up. ...that is, of course if you don't mind. Tom

Both my boats are with Denovo Underwriting. http://www.insure-my-boat.com They aren't so good with the smaller boats, but the guys with boats of value's over about

Always gets rinsed after use Mike and at my age (I am older than my boyish good looks suggest), it often needs regular lubrication....

Not sure about beautiful, but I keep telling Abbie the rest and she simply rolls her eyes at me

Just wanted to say "Hi" to the chaps on Overdraft today. I was the one madly waving at them as they headed up the Wareham Channel. I don't think they knew that the oddball in the speed boat was me and seemed a little bemused by my cheeky grin and thumbs up. ...not officially working today, but manically busy trying to get everything done for before the boat show I was kindly granted permission by "Harbour Control" to scream up and down the water ski area at 50mph to give a new boat it's sea trial and performance indication for the customer. Normally we do this out in Poole Bay or Southampton Water and within the main channel during "closed season", but the stong SE winds made the bay "interesting" and prevented running flat out to get any form of true top speed reading. So a simple hello to the crew of Overdraft and a big TY to the Harbour Control, what nice guys they are! Tom

Duncan I believe there is a single engine option and I would guess headroom will be at least 6'6" as almost all our boats have tremendous headroom or so all the tall lanky bean poles that have been onboard our range have said so! Shropshire, The Beneteau's tend to share our hulls on some of the boats so it will without doubt be a good sea boat, however, we tend to put some slightly more clever design features into our boats and have less sharp edges to the lines (ours tend to be more rounded). I can only guess the model you are talking about is akin to our 655. The 655 is available in either pure fishing or peche promenade (cruising) version. .... incidentally, we have both in stock!

Stunning!

lol @ Tom! I wasn't going to go to the show but a 30ft Hard top is tempting - can you let me have a heads up on spec etc via pm or whatever? Might change my mind. Ta Ooops, now edited, guess where you may also see the invite? P30? I haven't got a spec or brochure yet myself, however.... alegedly, probably, possibly, maybe: Twin D3 190Hp DP diesels Hard top or soft top from

Southampton Boat Show is on from 15th to 24th September and muggins will be on the stand throughout. If any PBSBAC members are coming down, please come and say "Hi" as it is nice to put a face to the names. Of course you will find me on the Jeanneau stand on berths 33 to 38 and anyone will be welcome for a chat about fishing, boats, boats and fishing etc etc. I will do my best to restrain any sales pitch, honest , so please come and say hello. We use the boat show to wave the banner of our flagship range which is the "Prestige" range. We will have the world debut of our new 30' and also the UK debut of the 50' too, so if you simply like boats it will be well worth a peak. On display, and you can have a gander at any with absolutely no pressure from me, again honest , will be: Prestige 50 (UK Debut) Prestige 46 Prestige 42 Prestige 34 Hard Top Prestig 32 Prestige 30 Hard Top (World Debut) Merry Fisher 925 Merry Fisher 805 Merry Fisher 655 Cruising Merry Fisher 625 Legend Cap Camarat 755WA The fishing boat line-up is limited so sorry about that, we have 30+ boats in the range and only 11 spaces, but if you like boats, you will certainly like the display. 8 miles away at our head office on the river Hamble you will see others from the range and this should include the Merry Fisher 695, Merry Fisher 655 Marlin, Merry Fisher 585 (brand new model and subject to it arriving in time), Merry Fisher 580 and Merry Fisher 530. You could make a day of it and pop along to our offices as well as visit the show. Please come and take a look and, unless you specifically want me to, there will be no sales pitch involved!!! All the best Tom

Good joke I was actually told that one by a Nigerian business man when I was working a bar in Oxford back in the early 90's. Still think it is the best "racist" joke yet. Pretty true when you think about it! Tom

For float fishing either a "6000" size baitrunner or palm sized multiplier like an Abu 5500 or 6000. If using the recognised method on here then you need: 1) Load with 30lb braid mainline 2) Top off with 25lb mono leader cut to just over the depth you are fishing 3) Use a 12lb to 20lb flurocarbon hook length of 3 or 4 feet 4) Use a 6/0 fine wire single if you intend to release the fish or a 2 to 1/0 treble if you are after maximum hook ups and plan to keep the fish 5) Set up with a float that will take 3/0z and as you would any normal sliding float rig with the power gum stop knot set about 1 foot under depth.

My word what a lot of top secret, can't tell anyone else, nobodies heard of them marks coming out (only being slightly facecious based on recent events )! My best bet for a quick fix and where you may well find me over the next few days thrashing the water to a frenzy with my new fly set-up would be at the chain ferry. There is a guy here at the marina who fishes there a lot and he reckons: 1) Fish the start of the flood tide as there is less weed going in the harbour than comes out on the ebb. 2) Fish uptide of the ferry, so on a flood tide stand on the seaward side. 3) He uses a drilled bullet, bead, swivel to a 4 foot flurocarbon trace and a redgill (or similar rubber lure). 4) As the ferry comes in cast up the side of it towards the far end, let your bait go underneath the ferry in the current and then just hold the rod tight. Apparently the Bass hang around under the ferry in the turbulence created by it and the tide. He does very well there and usually comes back successful. Don't discount casting around the groins on the beach side of Sandbanks. No good during a busy day, but early in the morning is well worth a try. Good Luck Tom

Ideally have a fixed unit as your main unit and then a hand held purely for emergency back-up. When buying fixed there are many brands on the market and all do a reasonable job, however make sure you have a large and easy to ready screen and knobs / buttons which are easy to work when bouncing around on the briney. The primary purpose of your VHF is to call help in an emergency. Buying a "cheap" VHF to save a few pounds realy is false economy if you can't read the display or use the functions easily when yuo most need it to work.

I believe the Blue Chart system is exclusively for Garmin plotters and will not interchange with any other brand. I am sure someone else will put me right if that is wrong. I am not 100% familiar with Blue Chart, but actively use both C-Map NT + and Navionics Gold. Both are excellent, clear and intuitive, but I reckon that Navionics Gold just has the edge in it's cartography. C-Map and Navionicas charts are more widely used by manufacturers and so you may find that if you ever changed again in the future, your existing (new) card would transfer into your next plotter. Tom