BigMac

I think you should post one of those shots with people in it, to show her true size Fred

She's looking good mate, those "E" series look faaantastic!!!!

as opposed to advection fog............eh Fred?

Jason, I would try to have a day out on as many boats of different models, that appeal to you, as I possibly could. Between all of us in the club we must have most makes and combinations of hull and engine. 20-25k can buy a lot of boat, and you need to make sure that it suits you and the type of fishing you expect to do!!! I personally like an "Aquafish 23" with a 200hp Mercruiser in it, I might be a bit biased though. Its one of the quickest boats of its size, its ridiculously economical and has performed brilliantly in any sea that we've taken it out in (should have stayed at home some of those days). More importantly, it fills all the needs that we require to fish the way we do, whether it is mid channel wrecking, a winter anchored for cod or a summer on the bass, it does it all. Good luck on your search, Regards Al

Fingers crossed it wont be all week then. Was it put back because of weather or not being finished yet Tom. Did they say?

Great!!! A week of driving round the harbour to Studland

You need to get out more Dan

Anyone know when the chain ferry is going to be operational? Al

Cheers Trev, you're all heart mate

Many of you will have heard of Langstone skipper Spike Spears and his boat "Bessie V" and of his having to give up work because of serious illness. Some members of the Professional Boatmans Association agreed to take out anglers and donate their takings on those dates to Spike. Over 20 skippers, from Brighton in the east to Exmouth in the west, are taking part in this fund raiser this week. We've had a couple of excellent trips with Spike in the past fishing for smoothies and tope so when Rob Thompson of "Shogun" asked us if we would like to fish, we jumped at the chance. The forecast for today on the net said that the wind would be from the north west and between 15 and 20 mph. No problem in a 38ft catamaran.....probably! A day sat at anchor, waiting for a cod, was the plan and we met Rob at the boat at 7.00 for a 7.30 start. As we left the river and got nearer to Hurst, you could see that the forecasters had got it totally wrong again!! They ought to have a look out the window from time to time!!!! We arrived at the good old Needles cod grounds with only an hour and a half of the flood left and the sea was running about 8 to 10 feet with the odd 15 footer coming through. The wind was blowing about 40mph and holding us at 90 degrees to the anchor warp and beam on to the sea. about as uncomfortable as possible. All 8 of us eventually got baits on the bottom and we were fishing. Today, everyone wanted cod so it was big baits or bust. The tide died and we had only a couple of doggies to show for our efforts. The tide turned an hour before the boat did and Plug lost a heavy fish as we swung around on the rope. It moved uptide and seemed like the target species had to be a cod, surely? The boat swung round and the sea flattened off a bit and you could actually stand up without clamping fingers around the nearest grab rail. Rupe had a proper bite and was attached to somethjng that pulled back. It fooled him for a couple of minutes and then did the first spin that deckared it a conger. A few minutes later and Rob T barred off a conger that we all guessed at 40-45lb. I was next, 10 minutes later with another eel of about 30lb, before Paul latched into a fish that took 30 or 40 metres of line on its first run on his uptideing gear. Ten minutes later, a conger of 45-50lb is released at the side of the boat. The wind picked up a bit more and the sea started to build again. The quick flurry of action is followed by a long lull and a couple of straps keep our interest up until we unanimously decide to knock it on the head at 4:00pm and get the hell out of the wind and sea for a pint!! A great day,in difficult conditions, in good company, with much urine extraction and mirth making and all in a very good cause! All the best Spike Al

Nice one Dan, Good luck in her!!! Al

Sorry it took so long. Happy bunny Wedger with PB 10lb 8oz!!!

Rupe wants to know if mackerel count...........cause we could weigh in 2 species

If the weather allows us to get out on sunday, Me and Rupe would like to register please, Charlie

Trying to sort photos but cant get the Usb cable to go in the camera. Dont want to force it so it means going back to Comet when I aint fishing or working. I'll see if I can sort it asap. Sorry mate Al

Wedger, that was an old 2lb test curve rod you used on saturday, and after the abuse I gave it in the early 90's carp fishing, its probably more like a 1lb and 3/4 now. Anything between 1lb and 3/4 and 2 and 1/4 will do you. A stiffer rod will bounce fish off and cause line breakages because of the stiff rod being unable to respond quick enough to those sudden lunges. Al

We slipped off the mooring,quietly, at 4.00am, Rupe at the helm, me on the spotlight (spottiing channel markers for Rupe) and Wedger as guest crew. It was black as pitch as we accelerated out of the run and all eyes were peeled for the dreaded pot buoys. It was more in hope than expectation that we lowered the feathers over the side in the inky darkness but the sky was starting to lighten in the east and it would only be 15 or 20 minutes before it was light enough. As always, maybe a tad enthusiastic on our start time. Just as we finished filling the livebait tank, Adam and Gordon arrived and we waved them a "good morning" as we left for the mark. At 5.18 we started the first drift, at 5.21 Wdgers hooked to a solid fish. Every lunge or shake of the fishes head, brought an "ooh" or an "ahh" from Trev that had us smiling and Rupe mentioned that he sounded like the soundtrack from a german porn movie Perhaps a lucrative sideline there for you Trev Rupe does the business with the net and an 8lb fish is in the bag. Unhooked quickly and Trev gets time to put another bait in before the end of the drift. a minute later he's in again and a 3lber comes to the boat. The second drift begins with a 4lber and then another straight away of 3lb, both to my rod. 5.34 and already 4 fish landed. Not a bad start!! As we motor up for the 3rd drift, I ask Wedger what his pb is? "Bout the same as that one in the fishbox" he says with a grin. Halfway through the third drift, Trevs in again. The fish goes crazy at the boat, but Rupe picks his moment and scoops it into the landing net at the first attempt. "That'll be a new pb then,mate" says Rupe. Sure enough 9lb exactly on the scales. Result "Blue Warrior" with Adam and Gordon arrive as we start our 4th drift. Wedger notices that the handle on the reel that he's using is on the wrong side for a cack handed person like himself and swaps it over. Damn, sussed out the ploy to slow him up! 4th drift, I have a ballistic 5lber before Trev is into another good fish. He's into the swing of things and quickly brings his next monster to the waiting net. "better weigh that on too" 9lb 8oz and his grin is threatening to swallow his ears 5th drift. Rupe seems to be using bass repellant mackerel and hasn't had a touch, I take a 6lber at the start of the drift and Trev hooks another proper un. This one brings longer and slower "oohs" and "ahhs" but she comes to the boat and I hit her straight on the nose with the rim of the landing net!!! "Oops, sorry Trev" I get her second attempt, turn to Rupe, " I'll get the scales and camera then." 10lb 8oz!!!!!!!! His third pb of the morning and its only 6.15!! Sadly, by 6.40 the feeding spell has died for us along with the best of the flood tide. We carry on, but its a struggle. The ebb fails to live up to expectations, we're still getting takes but failing to connect with 90% and reason that their full and only half hearted about eating anything else, leading to tentative takes. We call a halt at 12.30 and head home, the total for today being 15 fish. Congratulations on your 3 pbs and your first double Trev!! Glad you caught it on "Aquafresh" I'm sure I speak on behalf of Rupe as well, it was a total pleasure to have you on board and share those captures with you. That grin on your face holding that double, should remind us all why we go fishing. Al Ps. having trouble with camera, will post photos asap.

Echo Rupes suggestion!! Somewhere shallow............ish.

Great report Tom, keep trying mate, you'll have em!!!!! Ps, Owe you one for my phone , took me half an hour this morning to sort it. Look forward to ypur next day out with us Al

Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry to preach but I only want everyone to catch more fish!! If your fishing a bigger tide and fishing in, lets say 10metres of water, your float will travel further from the boat and quicker from the the boat, than you would really like. In these circumstances you could set your float depth at 12 or even 13 metres deep and then just feather the line until the bait is far enough away from the boat so that the towing effect that you have on your float, and therefore your bait, will keep your bait in the "zone" for a longer time. Another tip is to keep your eye on the fish finder, so that when you go over the hotspot you can open the bail arm of the reel or the freespool on your multiplier and leave your float and bait over the hotspot for a longer period of time, increasing your chances of a take. We've also found, that even on a particular mark, it pays to search around that mark, because those fish may have moved only 100 metres, but if you aint on em you cant catch em. We've also seen fellow club members leave the area that we've been fishing, 10 minutes before the fish come on the feed. We have belief in what we're doing and can suffer the couple of hours without fish because we know that they swim about using up energy and want to replace that energy loss with the minimum of effort, therefore they have to eat at some stage to replace it. When your fishing this method properly you can feel your bait getting excited, you can feel that first strike of the bait as the bass headbutts (with flared gills) the mackerel (freespool, leave it where it is) and then the heavy thump of the, mouth wide open, inhalation of a 10 inch mackerel. Bloody magic!!!!!!!!!!! We find it hard to fish for any other species when the bass are in, but we make no apologies because, IMHO, they are a fantastic species of "game" fish. Al

The 2 main reasons for using braid as a mainline are: 1. The lack of stretch. 2. Nearly all braids naturally float, so you can always lift the mainline off the surface and "mend" the line directly to the top of the float therefore keeping in better contact with your bait. You dont need or indeed want stretch in your mainline, the mono leader and your barbel rod or similar soft rod will soak up any lunges the fish makes. Its true braid does bed in a bit but only when reeling in a heavy fish, so on the next drift by the time you've got your float away from the boat, you have actually unbedded any braid that the last capture caused. The best reason for not using mono as a mainline is most of them sink like a stone!!! Your float goes away from the boat beautifully at first and then you have to keep on paying out more line to keep your float at the same distance. The reason is your mono mainline has sunk in a huge bow, down in the water column and down tide and when your float goes under ( it will be your only bite indicator as there is too much slack in your mainline to feel a bite) you will find yourself winding in 30 metres of slack line before you can actually strike!!! Dump mono mainline for this method it has lots of disadvantages and no advantages. Braid with a mono leader is the way to go, Al

After Steve Porters shark and hearing that a mate of ours had a porgy swimming round his boat, on thursday, taking bream off anglers hooks, we thought today might be the day for our first shark trip of the season, but that horrible southerly wind put paid to any notion we had of getting to our preferred mark. We would have to inflict ourselves on some more bass instead We left the mooring at 4.30, myself ,Rupe and Billy, and with livebait catching done in a trice,we were set for our first drift by 5.10. The southerly wind against tide was making the overfall stand up and we nearly took one over the side on that first drift. We would wait for it to ease and come back in an hour or so. We steamed east for a few miles and settled into a nice inshore drift. In contrast to our first mark, here there was hardly tide and the wind was blowing us diagonally uptide We stuck it out for an hour but caught nothing! Back on the original mark the tide had eased a bit and it was fishable. The fish started to come slowly but surely, nothing huge, just fish between 3 and 5lb. The mackerel ran out and we motored off to replenish stocks. They kept coming sporadically, then Rupe hooked a better one that really bent his rod,at 8 3/4lb she was like a minted coin. An hour and a half later and about 400 yards further west we started to find a better stamp of fish. Most were now in the 5 to 6lb range with the odd 7 or 8 thrown in. Rupe hooks a good un' that gives him a good eorkout for 5 minutes and then the hook pulls Very next drift he hooks another that he get to the net and she goes 10-04!! Half an hour later, even further to th west, I hook one that takes 50 or 60 yards in its first run snd then snaps my hooklink. B*gger!! We then go 5 drifts, hooking a good fish every drift, landing 4 out of the 5 hooked. One of the bass about 7lb that I caught had a severly deformed belly (wish I'd photographed it now) It was'nt an illness cause beneath its skin you could cleary make out the shape of at least 4 large crabs, Full to the gills and shes still is willing to take a whole live mackerel. Rupes playing a fish carefully and I realise it must be a good one cause hes quiet and concentrating, as it gets to he side of the boat she gives us a defiant display of head shaking and tailwalking till she is in the net. On the scales shes 12lb exactly Aother brace of doubles in a day for Rupe, Well done mate!! The wind starts to swing to the east a bit more, bringing with it the first few drops of rain, and we decide to call it a day at 1.00pm. I have returned 6, Rupe returned 5 and Billy retuned 2. With the 9 Fish we have in the coolboox between us, that gives us a total of 22 bass for the morning including Rupes 2 doubles!!! Brilliant Al Rupe with 12-00

Ps. He wasn't a million miles from where Tom fished last week!! Al

Spoke to one of the guys that was on that trip yesterday, and he reckons that the fish was 90% dead by the time it was brought alongside. Not sure whether that justifies the end result, just repeating what he told me. They had also lost one previous to the capture! Al