Paul D

Will, Glad to see you are still boating, I was beginning to think you had got put off after the trip we had in a very choppy Solent when your Wilson Flyer looked like a gigantic Cheese Cutter

That's the one. Best tropical fish place I have been to. Tempted to go there next time I am up that way ( I lived in Preston for 6 years so have friends in the area ).

Rich, Would that be in the harbour to float fished bread ? PS: Garden is looking well good, I thought I had come home to the wrong house

Damon, Is that huge tropical fish place still in Bolton ? We used to go there every other weekend buying all sorts of fish.

Tidying up my e-mail and I found I had received this back in April. Still relevant and worth taking note iof if you intend to belt through Christchurch Harbour ...... 11 April 2006 Following two successful prosecutions, jet-skiers and motorboats operating in Christchurch waterways are being warned that they could be leaving fines in their wake if they don

Damon, Welcome and many thanks for the comments regarding the forum.

Image 2

Found on the server and shrunk.

Gordon, Just checked the server and I can see your failed uploads. The image you are uploading is nearly 1MB in size. What is happening is the browser is timing out before the upload completes. Make the image smaller as described and all will be OK. Any probs. e-mail me the picture at webmaster@pbsbabc.co.uk and I will sort it. Paul

The upload to the forum has changed as the max file size has been decreased. Upload to the photo album hasn't changed. I would suggest trying with a smaller image ( open in mspaint, shrink the image using stretch/skew and then save ).

Launched at 8-30 with a work colleague onboard and off to the island. Stopped en-route for some mackeral ( having given up trying to catch up with Aquafresh ! - and we were steaming along at 21 knots all the way on a flat sea ). Then off to last year's bass mark where had no success. Trip around the needles for some sightseeing and then headed back, stopping off for a bit of anchored fishing at a new mark for me. dogfish after dogfish and then tiny bream before I got a reasonablish one of 2lb 4oz. Back to the run and helped a stranded boat out on the mud before running aground myself and wearing the paint off the edge of my nice new prop

Sam, If only, I am unable to fish on the 18th June as off to Southend

There was a seal last year, sunning itself on the verandas up from Wick.

Allan, Saw you out at the "first mark". ( I was the 520 racing along trying to keep up with you ). Tried a few drifts myself but nothing showing and as I had a novice onboard headed back to an easier anchored mark to fish where managed a surprising 2lb 4oz bream ( surprising as it seemed like a good mark for rays. ) PS: At the first mark you tried we have succeeded with stormies last year when mackeral were hard to come by.

Lovely Bass ( must get out after them ) and if that had been caught during the 48 hrs would have beaten my bream, so glad you waited

J-Tides is the one I now use ( thanks to Coddy ). You need Java but works a treat ( and its free ) J Tides Home Page

and one at Wick

One at home.

Planned to fish the Friday, Sat and Sunday and target the bream for the 48 hour with a hope of getting a cuckoo wrasse and/or Bull Huss ( after all the mark I was fishing had seen all three at specimen sizes recently ). Persuaded my son to fish on Friday, so left work early and got to Wick for a 5PM launch and off to the ledge. Blue Warrior and Dawn Raider were already out hunting for mackeral for an evening conger session. We also treied to help by finding mackeral but to no avail. As I only had to aroudn 8-30 PM to fish I decided to stop the fruitless mackeral search and try for the bream. Anchored down between a charter boat and Dawn Raider and out with the baits. Dawn Raider reported a bream, so looked encouraging. Very quiet to start, then had a burst of life with 3 or 4 fish in quick succession - all females so returned them all. Had a couple of other fish ( one conveniently caught as MarineBoy passed by ) and then all went quiet again. Then my solid C rod bent right around and from the runs the fish was making, I knew this was a good fish. After a 10 min fight this superb bream was on the surface. But my net was at home ..... So lifted the fish in one motion into the boat and the hook snapped as the fish hit the deck. I could not beleive the size of the fish. Once on the scales it was reading a lower weight of over 4lb and average of 4.45lb I knew this was a potential winner, so headed back ( passing Dawn Raider on the way back ) Shallow water going back in and a dink out my new prop ( still the winnings can pay towards that ). Back at Wick re-weighed the fish onland and it read a steady 4.45 lb ( ie. 4lb 7oz ). Also checked weight on kitchen scales back at home. Fish length was a massive 20 inches from tail to head. Awesome. Saturday took Daniel Chapman out as crew and headed to the same mark to try to repeat the feat ( it wasd the same mark honest ! ), but as I had told Daniel that you don't get small bream on the ledge we proceeded to pull out 3 or 4 small ones along with pout after pout and the smallest pollock I have ever seen. On way back into teh harbour tried for some mullet and nothing doing. Sunday had a rest and sat on tenderhooks waiting to see what Mr Parker might conjure up Thanks to the organisers and all the other competitors for playing fair ( as many knew what was needed ). Finally, I think it will be some time before I catch a bream as good as that one again.

James, Save the image as a jpg file ( as opposed to a tif )

Rich / Mark, Good effort on the fishing and I was relieved to hear the Bull Huss had "shrunk" from its earlier rumoured weight of 13lb ( which would have been enough to beat my bream ). Giltheads would be a good shout I think with a specimen weight of 2lb a 2lb 8oz fish would have been enough to catch up with my bream ( easy said by someone who has never caught a cuckoo ).

James, Well impressed with the time and effort you put in and if it is any consolation I actually felt a little guilty in beating you ( but not too much ). I shall have to try to repeat the feat in the species comps now

One photo on the photo gallery. I will add a couple of others later. ( at work at moment ).

Hoipefully that is quite prophetic Kam. Popped out on Friday evening for 3 hours fishing and did quite well. Time will tell if it was well enough

Mike, I am sure the answer to that is no ( and if it isn't then it should be IMHO ). Either pay