crazy fred

Man up I've got La Rochelle next week for five days haven't got a clue what's going down there !!!!!

Don't blame him it was fast and furious fishing not often I run out of puff !!

It was Monday I was there Dave !! No other boats there

Well I've been under house arrest with the dog for the last two weeks but at last house work and learning how a washing machine works are a thing of the past the ice queen is back from Alaska . So it's Mon morning and I've decided to fish the evening tide at dancing ledge . So armed with only a box of squid , there are no salmon eggs , rice or hallibut pellets as this is a fishing report not a cooking program Mr Lynes. Ropes off 3-30 to catch the last 2 hours of the ebb , it takes 30 mins from stakes to dancing ledge weather and tide perfect for a fast trip. After 5-10 mins looking around and a drift to see how the boat will lay I stick the galvanized lump in and with the rattle of chain and then the rope flying out with a knot that looked as if the dog had tied it . Oops I'd forgotten to splice it up from the spieces hunt when we had to cut and leave it on poole patch . This is when you think do I haul it in and risk it coming undone or sod it lets get fishing , sod it lets get fishing . I decide to fish two rods as the boat is laying straight in the tide but by the time I start baiting the second rod "fish on " a nice bream about a pound and a half . Then for the next hour constant fish but no fish over 2 lb but good sport . The tide slackened off and so did the fish so coffee time and wait for the flood to start. With the first trickle of flood I decided to pull up and re anchor . The anchor came up easily with a knot the size of your fist fighting to get through the bow roller but once on board I admired it and decided it worked once so back it went for another go. It was slow for the first 30 min but then it was as though somebody threw the switch , fishing two rods became impossible so it was down to one and the fish just kept coming . By 8-00 I'd had enough my arms were on fire and my wrist's were starting to complain as the tide pushed hard and I was trotting an 8oz weight . The best fish landed weighed in at 2-12 but I'd lost a much bigger fish in the tide . So smiling to myself at a good plan and result I decided to pull up the anchor and head for home with the flood remembering this time to leave the knot outside the anchor locker so as not to forget to put a nice tidy splice in it. The tally of fish was "I wasn't counting " but kept 8 for friends . I cleaned up on the way back as the sea was now like a billiard table which made things easy and I even made coffee at 23 knts you have to have trust in them radar alarms and auto pilots they don't call me crazy for nothing!! It was worth two weeks of no fishing under house arrest for that fantastic evening session HAPPY DAY'S

Rice salmon eggs and hallibut pellets is not something I would want to dine on either !!

Here's a thought. If you had purchased £1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you would have £49.00 today. If you had purchased £1,000 of shares in AIG insurance company one year ago, you would have £33.00 today. If you had purchased £1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers five years ago, you would have nothing today. If you had purchased £1,000 of shares in Northern Rock three years ago, you would have nothing today But, if you had purchased £1,000 worth of beer one year ago at Tesco's, drunk all the beer, then taken the aluminium cans to the scrap metal dealer, you would have received £214.00. Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. A recent study found that the average Briton walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Britons drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means that, on average, Britons get about 41 miles to the gallon! Be British invest in your drinking !!!!

Pete's already opted for the floor makes me feel unwanted

Yea but Norway soon then you can write the reports

Busman's Holliday fish and chips with a bit of bass fishing thrown in and free beer can't be bad.

Well after getting a great result on Saturday which I would definitely put down to practice and it wasn't all down trying to catch species but chasing tide flows as we already know where the spieces are most of the time. So now we are being thrown in at the deep end, no practice and no idea about La Rochelle except it's in Spain !! . You can't use your own tackle they supply all the tackle the day before which is going to be like doing the Tour de France with a wooden leg and solid tyres it's going be difficult . The fishing is all lure fishing for bass now that's the one thing in our favor as we've caught a few over the years so it is not all doom and gloom just got to practice throwing them back which will be mentally challenging . Our team is Richard Herbert ,Jim whiplash , Pete the diver , and Crazy Fred . Jim is the skipper don't know how long that will be in force will see how good his boat skills are on the drift !! I will be a hard taskmaster . Then we have Jim Whiplash as press officer taking photos of me and Pete hauling in sea bass trying to make a decent story for his new magazine. ITINERY May 31st flights from Southampton at 14.35 direct to La Rochelle Staying at the Hotel ibis La Rochelle Centre Historique. Fred & Pete sharing a room I am afraid. Just hope it's a twin room or somebody's head will roll Accommodation booked from 31st May to 5th June Flights back to Southampton 16.15 on Sunday 5th June I will have a better idea of schedule for the event closer to the time but guidelines as follows. June 1st: 12.00 onwards registration and issue of boat and fishing gear. 19.30 drinks party June 2nd: 7am briefing. Group A fish 8-12 12.30 lunch at Barracuda club Group B fish 2-6pm 18.30 drinks and results 20.00 Meal for crews June 3rd 7am briefing. Group B fish 8-12 12.30 lunch Group A fish 2-6pm 18.30 drinks and results. Free evening June 4th 8am Briefing Final round SILVER 9-1 Final round GOLD 2-6 19.30 drinks 20.30 prize giving and closing dinner Will keep you all updated as we go along and hopefully we hold our own it's a bit like blind date!!!!!!

Dorset dive is where I did my time and they do weekly pool sessions in poole to keep you up to speed good bunch of lads

😈

I'll wait till we win the next time and then We can offer a twin set up

Suzuki df2.5s outboard for sale boxed unused £400

Anchor has now been retrieved and I must remember to splice it back together again before the next episode or I'm going to look rather silly . So a big thanks to Pete for diving the anchor which took him all of 5 min as the chain was hooked just under the lip of a rock and the anchor was free and for helping me scrub the boat to death on Sunday morning which took 3.5 hours in total

Well the day had come , it was the day of the baracruder challenge. Up at 4.00 am as the taxi for the wife was arriving at 5-00am to whisk her off to Alaska , "bliss" for two weeks just me the dog and a pot plant so if somebody is going to die the pot plant gets it first . So as soon as sue is whisked off in the taxi lee and I lay all the bait on the table and make sure all is ok only one dead peeler crab result. Pete arrives at 6-30 with Lynne who was the assigned baby sitter for the dog . We we're ready for battle to commence only to find out that one of our team members thought we had cancelled so he was going carp fishing . So as not to embarrass this team member I won't mention his name "BIG AL" lol. After signing in and visiting tesco's we were off 7-40. The first fish was landed at 8-09 which was a black bream and we had totaled 5 species in the next 11 minuets not a bad start. After two day's of practicing we knew it was time to start chasing the tide so it was time for our fist move at 8-48 by which time we were up to 6 species. On the next mark within 48 min we had 4 more species a bass, small eyedray, smooth hound, and a dog fish , once again time to move . Got to the next mark but we knew we only had a 15 min window but it payed off with a blond ray up anchor and away 11 miles to go and the time is now 10-27 . Getting in the swing of this anchoring and retrieving now it's up an down like a yo yo . By 11-10 we are all on our lonesome not a boat to be seen and the tide is pushing hard still. By 11-17 we have our first fish on a nice undulate Ray which takes 10 mins to land in the tide. 11.24 conger , 11-31 mackerel , 12-09 gurnard , 12-50 tope . So this mark had produced another 5 species but we get overrun with tope some of which were over 40 lb and congers some of which were big lumps so we just cut them off . I was now starting to get a bit weary what with the early start and the fishing this is going to be a long day me thinks. Time to pull the anchor yet again but this time with a twist its hung in hard "oops" . It has grand idea's of staying there but we're having none of it , loose it and the comp is over . Out with the big buff for Pete to clip on and if it play's hard to get I've got 900 hp that say's one of us is going to loose . I win with a Big Bang and a nice crack in the the bow sprit which we will sort when out of the water but we live to fight on. Off again , this time to boscombe sewer pipe it's a long way to go from where we are but it payes off with a cuckoo wrasse and a plaice and the time is now 14-55 and so its time to move on again. We are running out of species that we are likely to catch so poole patch gets the vote for the second time today. Fishing never ceases to amaze me because at 15-42 we catch a prime turbot on poole patch "strange" next a bailians wrasse at 15-44 then a Blenny at 16-08 . At 4-30 we decide to have go in the harbour on the way home , but poole patch is fighting back because we probably took it's only turbot and we are hung in big time . Well it all resulted in cutting off and buffing the anchor which will dive on Sunday morning to retrieve it. So the day came to an abrupt end with 21 species totaling 143 points . To some up 2 days of practicing time and tides it seemed to had paid off but that anchoring has left me weary . The boat ended up with slight damage to the bow sprit but I don't think it was designed for how I'm using it but all resulted in a fine win for the team "job done" Costs Miles covered 48 Fuel 220ltr Bait £46 Entry £40 Practicing we won't count !!!!

Well it looks like I'm going to miss all the fun of watching a four fingered Kentwood whisk with flashing lights terrorizing small boats and then to top it off will allso have to miss the alderney trip . I afraid I'm home alone with the puppy plus some work thrown in to the mix while the wife is away annoying the locals in Alaska don't know how I'm going to cope with the work bit !!

Well looks like it's going wonderbra

Spoke to Nigel on Thursday and decided that wrecking looked good for Sunday even though he would still have the after effects of the dinner and dance but it would be worth it. We turned up at McDonald's at 7-30 for the obligatory egg Mcmuffin breakfast and coffee . Nigel was complaining about a bad back caused by carrying all his trophies home I think he was trying to let me know he had actually won something. We boarded the boat and in a nano second we were gone only 48 miles to go. As we crossed the shipping lanes The further south we got the shipping traffic was the buisiest I'd seen in years. There were ais targets every where and they looked like swarms of star fighters sent by daft Ada . We spoke about putting our AIS on for safety but decided that Mr Lynes was probably using his AIS app under darkness in his hallway cupboard watching shippings every move so decided against it with a slight chuckle . We arrived at the chosen place after 2 hrs and first drift we were into the fish , the weather was glorious sunshine but would freeze the brass ones off a monkey. After 4 hours of pulling fish out of 250ft of water our arms felt like they had become detached and didn't work any more so time to chuck the anchor in. Within minutes we were into fish first a conger to me the a nice spur dog to Nigel then for an hour we had fish on all the time, we had 12 bullhuss 6 of which were doubles the best to me which was one of 13.2 with congers and dogs to boot. Slack water came and the three of us agreed the time had come to head for home without even saying a word to each other with are newly acquired suntans . Nigel looked as though he was ready for a boost start from a defibrillator and foxy just looked knackered from running round with his bloody go pro making us dizzy. So the day ended with 50-60 pollock and a great session at slack water with the best bullhuss fishing we'd ever had so we will return .

Sea wolf will also be making this trip and will be leaving Fri pm as not interested in polocking on the way over but will give them grief on the back Mon . Be nice to see all those happy smiling faces again.

Well the time has come for the gentlemans cruisers to have some fun

Well with a fresh Nw an bloody cold we set off at 7am headed for the island . By 10 we had frozen are gonads off and still had sod all and wondered what the hell we we're doing here playing truant from work.The along came 12 am and every thing changed the congers started the first being 63 lb to my self , not bad for starters on an uptide rod with fixed spool reel with mr lines saying yea its all of thirty after I'd been playin it for 20 mins typical reel repairer.the cod started coming with the first a fish of about 12lb to my lines and then it became my red letter day with cod of 29lb2oz - 25lb4oz- 17lb 8oz that's as good as 72 lb of fish .We ended up with 6 cod three to me 2 to mr lines and one to nobby and fifteen congers the smallest conger being 25lb so take it from me the congers have arrived happy days Crimson tide

Well im hopin it was a lump sucker or im a sucker for throwing a record fish back now that would make em smile

Well i dont think this will ever get on the endangered list. Caught today by an unimpressed groom. This fish did not try and rip the rod out of the rod rest or strip hundreds of yards ofline off the reel it just sort of floated to the top

last thing i would want is semi submersed pointy things throwing stones at me on the hook sands. Would be a great help if when you boys go out take a roll of baco foil with you so when the fog comes down you could wrap it round your heads and at least give us some sort of target on our radars instead of just hoping that we will see you bobbing around and not putting the responsibilty on other boat users or better still dont get caught in fog