BigMac

Cheers Tom, nice one

Rich, where could I purchase said bearings for a 975? Mine sounds like a bag of spanners at the moment after 3 years of abuse Al

First time out since the beginning of the year and the 3 of us (Rupe, Arran and myself) had broad grins on our faces as we headed down the harbour at 7.30. The run has changed dramatically and you now turn south just after the fish stall. The fish finder showed a good depth of water and we were quickly on the plane heading for the ledge. We had choice of spots and it didn't take too long to get the hook down. The wind had as much west as north in it causing a fair chop that had us pitching a fair bit but it was managable. We all baited a rod each and got 'em over the side. The wind was keeping us,at times,45 degrees to the anchor and we decided against the use of the Berley Bomber. My bait had only been in the water for 15 minutes when I felt the tell tale rattle of a bream, a quick flick of the tip and my barbel rod hoops over to the unmistakable fight of a bream. It takes a few seconds to get it away from the reef and a further couple of minutes to get it so that Rupe can slide the net under our first bream of the year On the scales she goes 2lb 12oz. What a great start!!! 20 minutes later and Rupes rod takes on itsfamaliar bend and a great scrap see's another in the net. 2lb 15 oz and this time a male. A wonderful start...... and unfortunately the end of todays breaming. Slack water was horrible,the tide began to ebb and we still sat swinging on the rope, the wind picked up in speed and despite Arran pulling up a succession of lesser species we decided to call it a day at 1 o'clock and headed for home, having not had another bream bite All in all a great morning with the first couple of bream of the season boated. Al

Was Peter Noone from Hermans Hermits a role model Fred? Really brightened up an otherwise boring saturday.....priceless Cheers mate!!

Don't forget to leave the tag ends at least a couple of inches long so that th e knot slides through the rings easier Al

love it !!

What a truly awsome fish!!!!!! Well done Alun. Congratulations Al

I was crewing for Rob yesterday when we spotted an upturned hull in the water. There was also a life presever in the water nearby picked up by Les on "Due South". Rob called the coastguard and gave them a description of the boat and our position. Within 10 minutes the lifeboat had arrived to tow it in. They towed it to Hurst and emptied it of water, the engine was in gear and had no kill cord attached. They radioed later in the day to tell us that the owner had been found at home and had not been out on the boat so Coastguard was presumng that the boat had been either ripped or cut from its mooring and been set adrift. Lets hope thats all it was!!!! Al

Carls 5lb 2oz plaice

Our third day on the trot fishing was as guests aboard Terry Fuggles boat "Searcher" out of Fountain Lake Angling Clubs Marina in Portsmouth. The plan was to fish for plaice but the ground we would be fishing could throw up a few different species. On board were crew for the day, Terrys 16 year old son Carl, friends, Eddie and Paul and me and Rupe. We set out through the harbour and headed for Terrys chosen mark of the day. The journey passed quickly talking about the fishing we had been doing since the last time we had a trip together at the end of May. We arrived at the mark and setup all manner of flashing beaded rigs for the first drift. A hundred yards in and Terry hooks the first flattie of the day, a nice fish of about 2 and 1/2 pounds. The rest of us landed either bream or wrasse. The next drift produced a plaice for Eddie and another one to me both of a similar size to the first. Ace! We carried on on the same line of drift and the flatties came at one or two a drift, from a pound to two pound and the wrasse and bream kept coming with an occaisional pout. The tide was gathering in strength and Terry reeled in a codling of 2lb. "Thats the first one of them I've ever had here and, blow me if Rupe didn't have another, a pound bigger, within half an hour. As the flow got stronger we anchored for an hour to let it ease. The fish kept coming but it was only wrasse, bream, pout a couple of dogfish and then Eddie (a good match angler) landed a dragonet. Rupe had a bite and wound in a red mullet, not as big as yesterdays but the species count was rising. We started on the drift again as soon as we could and I had a good bite 5 minutes later. It felt like a plaice to start with and really pulled hard, It came to the surface and Rupert shouted "its a trigger!!" My first of the species and I was made Up About 2 and 1/2 I reckon The plaice were still coming in sporadic bursts of 2 or 3 fish with some beween 2 and 3 pounds. Terry had a garfish on a spoon rig right on the bottom and Eddie wound in a a miniscule fish, that scrutinised under the microscope turned out to be a goby. Paul was quietly playing a fish when we noticed him and that turned out to be an undulate ray of about 12lb. Lovely fish 20 minutes later I hook what seems to be a right good plaice that ends up being a blonde ray of 4lb Our time was running out but we had a flurry of fish towards the end which ended with Terrys son Carl hooking what turns out to be the biggest fish of the day by a fair margin 5lb 2oz when weighed on the clubhouse scales 3 hours after capture. Excellent!!! A marvellous day out with Terry and friends as always, and our species total was 14...... Pout, dogfish, wrasse, bream, mackerel, garfish, an undulate, a blonde, a red mullet, a triggerfish, a dragonet, a goby, 2 codling and 29 plaice up to 5lb 2oz. What a magnificent days fishing in the best company..........cant wait to do it again Cheers Terry!! Al

Well done Rob, love that last photo!!!

Close up

On deck

try again

Length and girth ratio tables give it as 300lb, cant seem to get photos to upload at the moment.

First glimpse,

Bare with me. It's gonna be a long un Friday: We met Greg at the boat (Southern Star) at 5:00am for what would probably be our last go for a shark this year. The crew for the day was Rupe, 2 friends Darren and Damon and myself. Rupe had been round and perloined 2 5 gallon drums of "Sea Magnet" and we had a bag of frozen mackerel in case of mackerel shortage. I was the first to arrive at the boat and Greg had bran soaking and was cutting up mackerel when I got there. Rupe, Damon and Darren got there 5 minutes later and we were under way by 5 past 5. The conversation was only about 1 thing and during the near 4 hours it took us to get to our chosen spot, there wasn't anything about porbeagles that we didn,t talk about. Greg has had 5 porgies in the last 6 weeks and his knowledge of our quarry was enlightening to say the least. This was to be our 7th day in the last 2 months in search of the fish me and Rupe, with help and advice from Rob T (Shogun) and Greg, had been searching for. Except for a close encounter 5 weeks ago aboard Shogun when we had a dropped run and then an inquisitive porgie come up and nose a balloon, then spook off at a hundred miles an hour, we had been unsuccessful in our quest We arrived just before 9 and immediately deployed a barrel of "sea magnet" and a nice fresh mackerel/ bran/ fish oil bag. The mackerel were thin on the ground and it took us an hour to get 20 or so. I took charge of the knot tying and Rupe took charge of rod deployment. We chose to fish just 3 rods with a rotatation of rod times. Rupe generously chose not to have rod time due to the trip being his treat, so that left the 3 of us with 20 minutes per hour on the rods. Darren had the top of the hour, Damon had the middle 20 minutes and I had the last 20 minutes of each hour. We amused ourselves by catching what ever was under the boat and a succession of pout, bream, red gurnard,and cuckoo wrasse were brought to the boat. The tide eased as it got to lunch time and Greg quietly said "nows the time for a run" At 3 minutes to 1 Rupe shouts "whose on". Its my time and he passes me a rod with trickling off the spool. The spool quickens as the fish moves off 60 or 70 yards and then the line goes slack. As we look at the line entering the water it starts to move uptide and we realise that its changed direction. A few turns of the handle gets the slack back and with the fish moving up and acrss the tide, I push the lever to strike and let the full weight of the fish start to bend the rod before I set the the hook. "Fish on!!!" The first run strips 50 yards yards of line off the reel and the it turns and heads back towards the boat. I manage to keep pressure on it and with in 5 minutes I manage to get the leader to the tip ring. "There she is!!!" we all shout in unison and with that she goes off at a rate of knots. It looked a good fish and we all managed to get a brief glimpse of her. It runs shallow 80 or 90 yards which then takes me 5 minutes to get it back under the boat. It seems to like the shadow of the hull and keeps on going from port to starboard and back again. 5 or 6 times this happens with the fish just plodding up and down and i can feel head shaking through the rod tip. Getting fed up with this the shark starts to move uptide to port and 20 minutes after hooking it, the hook drops out "Still time for another chance" says Greg. We're all a bit despondant but excited having caught a brief glimpse. At 2 minutes past 2 "Who's on??" shouts Rupe. Darren quickly has the rod passed to him as the fish moves off at a rate of knots. Eventually it stops and the lever is pushed forward on the reel in anticipation of it moving off again. The line rises in the water and the rod bends as the full weight of the fish sets the hook, "fish on!!!" Darren takes the strain and the fish moves away on a steady run of 70/80 yards It heads up to the front of the boat and we all follow shouting words of encouragement The rod is passsed under the anchor rope and straight back to Darren, by now the hat is off and Rupe points out that Darrens head is almost the same colour as his hair 30 minutes in and the fish has done 5 laps of the boat and seems to be tiring at about the same rate as Darren. Rupe still offring offering words of encouragement After 40 minutes we get our first glimpse of the fish as it hits the surface Another 5 minutes and we have the fish alongside the door. Greg holds it on the leader as I try to slip the tailer on it. The tail keeps sinking but Damon comes to the rescue and uses the crook of the gaff to lift the tail to allow me to slip it on to the wrist of the tail. Darren has a rest as we slide the fish in the door to have a good look at it. Its bloody huge!!!!! The snapshots are taken quickly, and the fish is slipped back out of the door in to the water. We swim it for 2 or 3 minutes, it kicks its tail and then slowly swims off back to the depths. Hand shakes all around, pats on the back and big smiles tel the story of success. We sit in the wheelhouse drinking tea for an hour recounting every second of the fight, all of us in a state of euphoria. An English shark at last!!! One of my top 10 days fishing ever, without doubt. Thanks Greg!! Thanks Rupe!! Well done Darren!! AWESOME Al

With a hundred freshly dug ragworm in the bucket a crack at a sole was on the cards, so taking Cam and Si as Crew we set out at 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon and went and spent an hour in front of the coastguard lookout feathering. 20 in the baitwell, we headed for the ledge. First drift Si,s float buried and he quickly landed a bass of 3 1/2lb. A couple of drifts later its Cam turn and he slowly (he likes to milk it!) lands one of 4lb. A phone call from Rob (Shogun) reports that there's been a few caught today from the bridge, including a possible 15 1/2. We head over there and try a couple of drifts, but with the tide pushing us at nearly 4 knots its not long before we head for our chosen mark off Barton for the night. Dropping the anchor in 8 feet of water leaves me with most of the chain still left in my hand, but the last of the ebb soon moves us a respectable distance from the hook. With the cloud cover, darkness comes early, about 7.30, and the first signs of life register on the rod tips. A just sizeable whiting to Si is quickley followed by a double shot of similar size fish to Cam. Cams rod nearly goes over the side resulting in a 2lb bass. I, in the meantime, was still wrestling my morning dug ragworm on to the hooks (bit big methinks). The bites continued steadily and at 9 o,clock Cam reeled in a sole of about a pound on my rod while I had a snooze. A bream on the next cast then a starry smooth hound of about 2lb. Si had a dab, Cam had a sole and I had a flounder. During another of my snoozes I hear Si whooping, he's had a 2lb codling. Only his second ever!! By 1 am the bites had dried up considerably and Cam and Si had only 1 pout and 1 bream during the 4 and a half hours that I grabbed forty winks We were too late for the tide at Christchurh by the time I wake up so it's 9 am before we return this morning. A really great session during which we caught mackerel(20), bass(7 to 4lb), sole(3 to about a pound), Bream(7 to 1 1/2lb), smooth hound(4 to 4lb), codling(2 of 2lb each), whiting(10 to about 12oz), pout(10ish), dogfish(3), a dab and a flounder 11 species of fish and all bar the mackerel and 2 of the bass caught in 8 feet of water within casting range of the beach. Amazing!!!!! Al

Done

Be good to see you back out there mate!!

With Saturday due to be so flat a plan was hatched to visit a big fish mark as the tide started to ebb. We left the pontoon at 6, so that would give us 3 hours of the flood on the banker mark. As crew I had Cam a friend and good all round angler that likes to have a few trips every year and especially likes float fishing for bass. Livelies were secured in quick order on the edge of the ledge and we made our way over there. We were the first boat there and I felt confident of a fish straight away. The first drift produced a cuttle fish for Cam that I managed to get him to manoeuvre to the side of the boat so that it could squirt him before letting go of the mackerel Priceless!!! I'm sure them cuttles look for the whites of your eyes before firing A vicious take on the next drift results in a 5lber in the net and then I manage to sneak out another 5lber and a 3lb fish while Cam takes two drifts to retie a complete rig. He manages to fish a drift and hooks a 4 lb torpedo! Gives him the right run around before being scooped up in the net. Two and a half hours have passed already and the tide loses its strength giving us a longer time with baits in the hotspot, Cams float disappears and I look up at the curve of his rod, my rod's wrenched round and I've got one on too I scoop Cams fish up in the net while my fish refuses to come off the bottom, with both hands on the rod I get her up and she heads uptide at a rate of knots, a few heavy lunges followed by head shakes and she rolls into the net. 8lb 8oz of fin perfect, superbly conditioned fish that Cam failed to catch on camera due to not pressing the button on the camera A couple of other boats arrive and I know our time is limited, half a dozen drifts with just one more fish of 3lb to me and we cut and run. Heading 17 miles offshore at 29.4 knots, engine trimmed right up, a flat sea and the warm sun beating down on us, we're there in what seems like no time at all. The boils on the surface are forming nicely as the ebb increases in speed over the structure and it seems like we've timed it just right. We have a practice drift just to see what the tide is doing to us and then set up to fish. As the floats reach the hotspot , mine buries and a fish is on! The fish on this mark really like slugging it out on or near the surface (this is in 17 metres of water) and this ones no exception. The water is thrashed to a foam 30 yards astern and she comes grudgingly to boat, Cam slides the net under her and I'm sort of dissappointed to see a fish of "only" 7lb. Fought like a fish twice its size!! A couple of follows as we retrieve then a fish of 3 1/2lb keep the interest up but it would appear that the big fellas are either not here yet or have already eaten. We head closer to home and have 4 drifts on an inshore mark without success and call it a day at 2.30pm. Not too bad, 9 fish in total with a best of 8-8 on the day. Sunday saw me and Rupe head out at 7.00, the mackerel obliged but the bass not so easily. 3 hours and we have only had one each, a lovely fish of 8lb 4oz for Rupe and one of 3lb for me. The wind is increasing all the time so we decide to leave before the change of tide and that wind against tide thing Six drifts further inshore produce nothing so we move to see if theres anything on the "shallows". Shallows is relative but as this mark is only 12ft deep so its shallow to us! Four fish to me and we head for home in the increasingly brisk south westerly and Rupe feeling like he's coming down with something. Not a bad weekend all in all with a total of 15 fish on "Aquafresh" over the two days with the two 8lbers top of the list, one for Rupe and one for me, ACE!!! Al

We sometimes use a drogue. The main thing is to have a cord fixed to the pointy end to allow quick retrieval! Al

We decided not to bother having a drift on the shingles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ooops

It was 6:00 when we left the mooring and headed down the river, the wind was blowing hard but at least it was coming from the north. As we got out past the bar there was quite a big swell but more importantly no white horses Rupe at the helm we set out to catch bait and 15 minutes with the feathers and there were 40 livelies in the well. The north easterly causes us to shear across the tide on the flood tide actually allowing us to have a much longer drift, going along the feature rather than backwards and forwards across it. We both have fish on within minutes of starting, mine about 5lb and Rupes shed the hook boatside Second drift we're both in again mine of 6lb something and I slide the net under a lovely 8lber for Rupe. During the next 4 hours we only have two drifts without any sort of action, whether it be a missed take or a lost fish. We end the flood tide with a total of nine fish to me up to 8lb and 2 fish for Rupe of 6lb and 8lb. On to an inshore ebb mark we get to the end of the drift and my float sails away resulting in a fighting fit 5lber. Next drift Rupe hooks a proper 'un that stays deep until almost at the boat. It heads uptide and then decides it likes the shadow of the boat, Rupe gives it some, it hits the surface swims round in a circle straight into the waiting net!!!! 10lb 12oz and Rupes first double off of this mark!! Well done mate!! A couple of quick piccies and she swims off still full of agrression. They are magnificent fish aren't they?!!! Another couple of fish for Rupe of 6 and 7lb and one more to me of 7 1/2lb and we have to head back while theres still enough water to get up the harbour. A brilliant days fishing, 16 fish all together with a double for Rupe which just to put the icing on the cake. Rupe with 10:12