Paul D

Adam, Potential club record there I think .... ( There doesn't seem to be any entry for Gilthead bream ). Last year the guy who collects the fees for fishing in Portland harbour was saying how they were catching Giltheads in the harbour ( can't remember the exact spot ) Presumably the whole of Portland Harbour is in club waters ?

Neo shall be attending ( with Sam as crew ) The poster is a little hard to put on the front page ( as it is word and I will need to save as html etc. I have put the details on the front page though ( as easy !)

Should have it on Wednesday but will need to fit a tow bar ( plan to do this on Saturday as it is sitting in a box at the bottom of my stairs). If I have it for the Burnham comp then will be OK for Lymington. If I haven't got it ( which will be really bad news ) then I will know at time of Burnham trip. ) Either way, if I haven't go the car with tow bar ready ( unlikely ) , I will use Helen's HR-V although Lymington is easier enough to retrieve with 2WD.

Yes - that is fine. Only down the road for me and I will be able to launch / retrieve using the new 4x4 Just need to find out if it is Sam or Rich as crew ( I presume depends if Sam can get over in time ). Kam, The Sconse buoy is just off Sconse point which is past Yarmouth opposite Hurst castle ( big buoy with bell on ). - see attached map showing Sconse point. Note : Image produced from Ordnance Survey's Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

However, reports state most areas of the Solent are full of weed ( hopefully it will have cleared a bit by then ) weed

Sam, Not too expert ( well not at all expert actually ! ) in fly fishing. However, I would suggest that the bulk of the cost should be in the rod and line and the least in the reel. ( The reel is really just used to hold the line and the rod used to play the fish ). I stand to be corrected however. You could probably make your own fly box easily enough and a net ( the small handled ones ) are pretty cheap - I will see if I can find the one I have, you are welcome to use it.

OK Game on. Helen is not keen going on that day ( as we have Elaine's friend staying around ). Provided I can get the day off work ( which shouldn't be a problem ), then Solent here we come. What time were you considering launching Adam ? Presume it is off to Sconse buoy for some macckie and then over to the smoothy spot ?

Interesting they are made in Scratchplace Lane. I work not far from there and go past a place that moulds boats ( I suspect they may do Orkney's for some reason ) along Harts Farm Way.

Adam, I will see if I can get the day off work - I have been fancying having a crack at the Smoothies in the Solent for a while now. Will see if Helen and/or Elaine wants to crew and if not then I will be looking for crew ( you can fight it out Rich and Sam ).

Dan, If it was on my fly rod, then that will the biggest fish that rod has seen

Adam, The tides are quite small from what I can tell on WXTide ( looking up Portland's ). The lowest tide appears to be on the 15th June. ( Assuming I am reading wxtide correctly ) A couple of months ago I stumbled on a site wher ethey had a downloadable list of the best tides to go channel wrecking. I am trying to remeber where I found it now ( it was well hidden away ).

Was looking through the deepsea pages and noticed that there is another "Sam the Man". Sam the Man This one, though, seems better at catching flatfish than "Our" one

Not yet but .....

I had polypropylene rope to start with but having got nylon, I would never dream of using the stuff again. I used the polyprop rope for dragging a weight along to slow my drift on the shambles. The weight I used was a folding anchor with a couple of prongs left out. Unbeknownst to me , the weight was actually spinning slowly and the polyprop rope was slowly unravelling itself a right old mess. Also the stuff deteriorates as it gets older ( at least mine seemed to ) going more "brittle/stiff" and is hard on the hands etc. etc. Considering the cost of boating in general I think the extra cost of nylon rope is money well spent.

Welcom onboard Harry.

ALderney 2005 images are available for viewing here :- Alderney 2005

Kam, Windguru forecast an 18 knot SW wind and if you were launching from Lymington, I would rather you than me Gets three stars for surfing though !!

Many thanks sean. I have worked out how to do the map now ( see above ), but yours are pretty good and I still have to decide how to open the page once selected ( ie. in new window or in a frame or some other way ). Only thing is, I can't get hold of the source of yours as it is in a frame and "view source" is not available as the browser is showing the image.

Coddy, OK - I know how it is done - I have a map that Bob F had done some time back ( but need some info on where the spots are and what can be caught there. ) First stab ( map with tool tips if hovering over Christchurch Ledge / Swash / Needles car park ) is available here :- ( very very rough though - it is work in progress and the links will not work yet ! ) But as I stated above I have hardly any knowledge of marks over to West of Poole ( and not much in the bay either ! ) - so will need some help. Fishing Map

Coddy, Well, I started ( learning how its done ). But haven't had the time at the moment. If you are offering ...( or anyone else fancies doing one ) then feel free !! I will just get the alderney photo album together first and will take another look.

I think it is that colour due to the depth it was living at ( down in the depths of a wreck ). ?

Front page now starring Tom.

another pic here

Here is the club record wrasse :-

On the site that Adam pointed out there is also a picture of it in its mating colours, where it looks much more like the other picture.