Paul D

Out of Emsworth on Tuesday on my friend's boat WestRay. Hopefully it will be as good as his trip out on Saturday where he had 25 smoothies ( to each person ).

Kam, Managed to get back in over the bar at low water today... - just.

Mike, I keep getting tempted to get an electric winch as Helen finds it quite difficult winching the boat onto the trailer

Neo will be there and Helen is standby for crew - "if I can't get someone else to crew".

Glad you had a good day out. The forecast was for overcast skies and windier conditions, so having heard from Gordon that sea was flat and I could see it was sunny - persuaded Helen and Elaine that a trip out would be good. Down to Wick, quick launch stopping off en-route at Stanpit to watch a foal being born ( made Helen's day ) then a dash to Southbourne Rough just in time for teh slack water and no fish Fished the slack but Elaine wasn't feeling so well and we only had a 4 hour parking ticket, so headed back fishless. Quick drift for Mackeral on way back but they were not playing. Fishing resumed after we left.

Me too Got a reported post - took a look and too late !

Just shown the piccie to Helen. The reply was "F***g hell that is nearly as big as him !"

Nice fish all around and great to see you all had a good time out there. Fished out of Lymington for smoothies yesterday and blanked. Welcome home

Report from day 1. ============= All boats got across OK ( Quest 2, Phaeton and Tiger Lily ). Roughish halfway. Everyone caught Pollock en-route apart from Paul J. All down the pub. Brief report but I was paying for the call - Awaiting Manic Moore to post progress reported from Adam.....

Last time I looked they only had Christchurch in high res. but as you say, they now have Poole as well. Must admit, never thought of using it to describe launching to newcomers ( although worth bearing in mind that the Christchurch channel has changed since the photo was taken, but there again not that much ). off to survey Poole now

All the best Billy

Heard the mayday call ( in fact it was the coastguard that upped it to a mayday ) whilst waiting for Adam to get the trailer for Blue Warrior. Interestingly they had difficulty ascertaining their postion initially ( at least that's what it sounded like ) - I am sure I heard Brownsea island mentioned initially and then mention of launching the Weymouth inhore lifeboat.

Welcome to the forum John.

The large Halibut are Pacific Halibut - ( Hippoglossus stenolepis ) The ones caught here are Atlantic Halibut - ( Hippoglossus hippoglossus ) - although according to Fishbase they too can grow large. ( Oh the wonders of Google and Wilkipedia BTW: I presume this one is a Pacific one ?

Happy birthday to the both of you and tight lines for 2006.

It will be easy to find. Look for the cluster of charter boats and that will be your spot ( 24 boats counted yesterday ).

Never noticed that Tom. I will have to see if I can fix that ( although not going to be a priority at the moment ).

The users set their own clock settings. Select "My Controls" and then Board Settings. PS: My fishing season has started already

Went out from Wick on Sunday as well. Looking to repeat the bream catch from Saturday but this time no such success. Had some mackeral on the rough and a couple of wrasse. Counted 24 boats anchored on the rough... ( Gave Hook and Eye directions to the rough, so they could add to the numbers ). Steamed over to the Clan Mcveigh and saw jigabyte on the wreck. Stopped for 1/2 hour but nothing showing, so headed to X-Ray. Dropped hook but conditions were getting more lumpy as the tide ebbed so decided to steam back to the ledge where we were met by some huge standing waves. Steamed over to see how James was doing ( and I think I saw Pugwash there as well along with a "hookless" hook and eye ). Back up the run and retrieval at Wick, where we met up wth Manatee. Now used 22 litres of fuel and travelled 39 NM - Fuel usage was higher today but we were travelling against tide for a fair stretch.

Steve, You will know you are in the right spot..... I counted 15 boats in the immediate vicinity of us today. We will be fishing the same spot to start and then probably drop into x-ray ( for a few mackeral on the return ;-)

Steve, Will be back out again tomorrow, so look forward to seeing you out there.

Gordon, It is not often I get congratulations for letting someone know where the fish were ( esp. a boat with Alun J onboard ! ) I shan't be turning my leftover bait into a gastronomic delight, unless Alun has a recipe for 5 times frozen squid which is turning a little bluish

Mike, If your GPS is set up to display Degrees Minutes and decimal minutes ( ie. 51 30.69 ) then you would enter 51 30 690. However, I suspect your GPS may be set up to display degrees minutes seconds. In this case you wouldn't be able to enter the above value at all . You then have two options. 1) Either change the display mode of the GPS to be in Degrees Minutes and decimal minutes ( ie. ddd mmm.mm ) as opposed to ddd mmm sss 2) Convert the values from the book to be in Degrees Minutes Seconds format. ( ie. 30.69 N is 30 degrees and ( 0.69 * 60 ) seconds = 41.4 seconds HOWEVER : - I seem to recall Bob F telling me that the co-ordinates in the Dive Dorset book were in OS reference as opposed to WGS. This would mean a further conversion is needed. Bob ?

Had a good trip out with Les as crew. As Alun said, bay was flat calm so the steam over to Southbourne Rough was smooth. The water was amazingly clear as we went out the run, the bottom clearly visible ( same as last week in Weymouth ). Settled down on Southbourne Rough before beingf joined by around 12 other boats. Fishing was slow but first fish to me was a medium sized ( 1 lb ish ) bream. Returned the bream and then caught a beautifully coloured wrasse. Had a small wrasse that I suspect was a goldsinny ? ( maybe I should have weighed it ! ). Whilst I was checking next mark to steam to my other rod went ballistic and a nice bream was on board ( alas I have to admit not as big as Gordon's one but still a nice fish ). Tried adding some mackeral strip to the bait and along came the doggies and pout. Fishing died off at slack water so steamed to a couple of other marks and then to X-Ray where we caught 4 mackeral in aroudn 15 mins ( on hokkae and to ragworm ). Back to the run as I didn't want to be stranded and back to Wick. Saw Steve ( Pugwash ) in the harbour on the way back. Back out again tomorrow. PS: I wish I had fished the species comp out there. Had Dogfish, wrasse, bream, pollock, mackeral and pout..

Anyone fancy crewing on Neo tomorrow ( Saturday ) from Wick ? Leaving 7:30 ( ish ).