Paul D

Dan - you have a PM

Dan, If you are heading out Sunday then we can show you where we fish from ( near the coastguard hut ) - Paul J caught a few bass there and we had two on Neo before Paul caught the rest of them ! - but anchored. I have caught drifting the shingles near Hurst ( SW of there ) which wasnt too rough. Also try around the run - we saw a guy catch using smelt as livebait.

In this months Which? they surveyed ISP providers and NTL was bottom by a large margin.......

Bob, $1131.00 from Boatfix ( who I can recommend - I got a radio from them ).

You can overlay satellite imagery onto Google Earth as well - looking better by the minute !

For those that have not found it yet and who have broadband.... Google Earth has some awesome satellite images. Download the client from the link at the top rhs of the page and enjoy. ( Christchurch is good and check out the Eiffel tower / pyramids in Egypt / Grand Canyon etc. ) Google Earth

Dan, If you decide on a handheld GPS to store marks in, I have just the thing for you ! I have a Garmin GPS12 which I was about to put on e-bay. However, I would recommend getting a fixed unit, since a handheld is all very well but eats batteries and you will wish you had the larger screen of a fixed unit.

Mike, That is a thin lipped mullet from Christchurch harbour. Definitely mullet as we know them ( and Christchurch harbour from the background as I know it ! ).

Kam, I have had the pleasure of being on the boat when James was "flying". Take it from me it is not a smooth calming experience sitting on your tackle box and holding on for dear life !! ( Sorry James ) My money is on the bigger boats slowing up because the ride was rather bumpy - such matters don't seem to worry James

Tis forecast to be windy I am afraid However, it is also forecast to swing around to a northerly and die down a bit, so might be lucky. Will have to see..... and you know the worst part ( which you will like Adam ! ) is ............... From Metcheck Franklin's Friday Added : Wed 3 Aug : 02:30:39 PM The first of the seasons ex-tropical storms to make it across the Atlantic, is set to affect the Southern half of the UK on Friday. Yes, Tropical Storm Franklin, which danced erratically around the Eastern coast of the US for eight days and nights from July 21, has managed to hitch a ride on a frontal wave and will reach the UK during the early hours of Friday. To view the forecast track and wind speeds CLICK HERE using our 3d model. Of course, when these systems reach our shores they are mere shadows of their former selves, however some strong winds (up to 35mph) could affect the Channel for a time during Friday morning.

Takes me over an hour to steam there and that is from Weymouth ( only kidding - slow but not that slow ! ) Sam, you are welcome to crew on Neo as I have no crew for this trip.

Will, The Honda definitely has an exhaust outlet at the top of the leg ( the rectangular shaped hole ). You do get visible exhaust gases coming out of it as well ( at least I do on mine ). The Honda also has an overheat indicator on the throttle control box as well, so you should see if it were overheating. However, you shouldnt be seeing blue smoke - which I assume you aren;t ( unless you put 2 stroke oil in your fuel ). I suspect you are being paranoid

Adam, It is indeed the solid-c rod. I ( well Helen ) has the smallest size in the range ( something like 10-20 lb ). I will try to remember to bring it along on Thursday.

Nice report Rich and I am beginning to wish I had taken a note of the numbers for the mark when Bob did the chart plotter demo I still have yet to catch a decent sized tope, so that will be my next target. ( apart from more bass fishing this week hopefully

Will, Glad you had fun - will have to have a go myself as sounds superb sport. I hope the engine is OK ( They do have an exhaust outlet half way up the leg but not pointing towards the transom ! )

Must get a bigger rod

Coming Up ...

Going down again ...

Coming Up

PJ fighting one of the scad

Had a great days fishing. Nice late start ( I am not one for these 6AM starts, especially after being out the night before ) and off from Wick at 10 AM. First stop around the corner to show Paul J that I have really learnt how to catch the mullet ( Gordon has taught me well ). Two mullet later and two near misses we decided to head out for some mackeral. Surprisingly choppy out but not unfishable, so headed out over the ledge and drifted for some mackeral. Plenty of Scad ( Horse Mackeral ) and a few strings of mackeral later we headed off for a mark I like to call "X-Ray + ", since I actually catch rays at this mark as opposed to my lack of fish at X-Ray. Anchored up whilst there was a very slight ebb still and started fishing with a mackeral fillet on two rods. A few dogfish later I decided to try a strip of squid on the Solid-C rod in search of possible bream. Instead the rod bent double as I thought it was stuck on the bottom , but this was a fish - some 10-15 mins later up came an 8lb 2oz Small Eyed Ray - beautiful fish and a real struggle on a small rod. Not sure the order of teh next fish but Paul J had a bass on a live scad he was fishing, so I decided that would be a good idea to try fishing a live scad. Mine caught a bass as well but it had swum back towards the boat and around all the lines. Still bass on such small tides was a surprise. Then caught a lovely spotted ray on my Conolon ( squid again ). Re-tackled up and caught another spotted ray almost straight away. Then had a rattling bite on the live mackeral I was then fishing ( on the "toy" rod ) - reeled in and had half a mackeral left. Replaced the fish and same thing happened again but this time PJ hooked into the "culprit" - a pack tope. So all in all a most pleasant day out and good fishing on what looked to be a hard day to fish.

The week of the bigger ( Bass ) tides - is this a co-incidence I wonder I will be trying to get some time off and would def. like to go back to try for some bass at "the" spot

Tide Times for Weymouth on the Sunday Sunday 2005-08-21 Sunrise 6:06 AM GMTST, Sunset 8:17 PM GMTST Moonset 8:07 AM GMTST, Moonrise 9:15 PM GMTST Low Tide: 1:32 AM GMTST 0.2 High Tide: 2:28 AM GMTST 0.3 Low Tide: 4:27 AM GMTST -0.1 High Tide: 9:20 AM GMTST 2.3 Low Tide: 1:40 PM GMTST 0.3 High Tide: 3:00 PM GMTST 0.5 Low Tide: 4:47 PM GMTST 0.2 High Tide: 9:25 PM GMTST 2.6 Note : As accurate as I can determine.

My friend at work showed me this page of info on fishing for bass with stormies. Looks really useful - so I am off to read it now. Fishing for Bass with Storm Shads

Adam, WXTide says .... The big tides are on Sunday 21st August At Portland HW is at 9:24 AM BST LW at 14:10 HW at 21:50 ( Give or take an hour as I am not sure the times are quite correct ! ) So I guess the usual 7-7:30 start would mean getting to Shambles at HW slack and fishing the ebb until something like 2PM and then some of the flood. Sound good ?