Paul D

Unfortunately, I am going to be unable to fish the competition on Sunday and not sure yet if I will be available on my mobile to collect the results. ( I will try to ensure that someone is at home if you wish to call my home number with catch reports ) Alternatively, if you could PM your catches to me then I will arrange for the results to be collated as soon as I can. cheers Paul

Cracking fishing again. Starting to get just a tad envious now

What about "sealed for life" bearings ? - I have these on my Bramber and there is nothing to apply grease to - Wonder how long the life will be ???

As Paul says, it is much improved from previous years and is even passable on a low water neap tide. ( I came in at night on a LW tide on Friday just gone and still had 1 ft of water to spare. ) I recall last year having trouble getting out on the HW tides let alone the LW ones. This year it will be no problem I think. However, make sure you get the new channel in your plotter and before the channel buoys are removed yas it has moved dramatically from last year.

Mike, I have used "Brothers Travel" in the past and they have always been on time and reliable. I am sure they were cheaper than Rob's man but it was 2 years ago !

What fantastic conditions and well impressed with the underwater shot. There is going to be some competition for the Photo comp during the dec open I think.

Fantastic Al and well deserved by the sounds of it. Reaidng that here at work at the moment and I know where I would rather be !

Cracking fishing Mike and Gordon. Unfortunately I wasn't able to fish this weekend, so good to see you made the most of the weather window we currently have.

It does say though that the allegation is not true.. Signed it just in case !

James, We had same weather wise out there last night. Fished the ebb in what must have been around a F3-4 easterly. Bit lumpy but fishable. Tried XRay to start where we bagged up on doggies before going across to the ledge. No eels or Bull Huss this time but plenty of big pout and the occasional dogfish Decided to come inshore ( flat calm in there but wind wasd a bit cold by now ) before the tide turned and went wind against tide. Tried for some triggers - do they feed at night though ? before coming back through the run at low water ( no problem with the new channel ). Back home for 3.00 AM.

Heading out of Wick around 5 PM ish to fish the evening and into the night. Plan is to go for some rays to start and then some eels again hopefully. Anyone fancy buddying up , give me a shout.

Will be discussing latest catches and club competitions ( will mention the December Open Comp ) on Radio Solent tomorrow - Julian Clegg - 6:45 AM ish

Took today off work as the forecast was looking good and indeed the forecast was spot on. It was like a millpond out there - flat as a pancake and hardly a breeze ( it was actually windier when we returned to Christchurch than when in the bay ). Crew for the day was Clive Tyler and we first tried for some bass but fish were not playing ball. Then headed over to X-Ray where it was dogfish after dogfish. Chatted to Pink Squid over at Swanage and sounded the same there. Then headed over to the ledge and was joined by Stargazer. As Stargazer arrived Clive noticed fish on the surface, so tried with the plug. As I was reeling in I noticed my other rod bending over and line running off. Threw the spinning rod to Clive and grabbed the other rod. This was no dogfish and a short scrap saw a nicely proportioned bass on the surface and deftly netted by Clive. Bass weighed in at 7lb and was deeply hooked. Managed to get the hook out after a bit of effort and then took around 10 mins of holding the bass in the water before it sailed off with a flick of its tail. Result Beautiful sunny day - nice company - nice bass and a day off work. Doesn't get much better than this. Now planning a Friday Evening/night trip.

Plans changing by the minute. Tues weather is looking less pleasant by the minute ( Where is a decent weather forecast when you want one , just when all looks OK the window closes and weather looks bad again ). Wed looks OK - Fri looks better. decisions, decisions ! Will decide this afternoon if Tue is the day or if I am going to go for Wed.

Spotted this recall on WSF and as some members have Quiksilvers reproducing on here Voluntary Recall

Got Helen a fishing setup but she doesn't know about it

Thanks everyone. Had a good birthday ( and Wedding Anniversary on same day ). Fishing Rod / reel for presents - couldn't be better.

Chris, Latest change of plan is to NOT fish Monday evening as the weather doesn't look too clever and I prefer it to be nice and calm when night fishing. My latest plan is to blag a day of work on Tuesday and fish Tues during the day, returning in time to see the Cherries fortune change ( about as much chance of that as catching something decent on Tue ). I am going to decide if Tue is On/Off when I am at work on Mon.

Not bad result Trevor. 4 mackeral for bait and endning up with a 5lb 5oz bass is a result in my book. BTW: Took a look over Otter last week when we came in. I thought she looked like she was low in the water so pulled alongside to check she wasnt full of water or something ( she wasn't - it was my imagination ).

That was exactly the issue I had with mine. One you start adding the extra battery and also, in my case, the spare 10litres of fuel plus a livebait tank with say 50 litres of fuel, this starts making the boat stern heavy. As Tom says due to the above the setup was out of balance, I could then induce porpoising over anything like 15/16 knots unless I trimmed the engine in fully ( and at that position the whole setup is not running as efficiently plus with the large prop on the e-tec you get oodles of torque steer and the boat tries to tilt badly and eject the crew - Mark B will testify ! - when the engine is fully trimmed in ). I decided to try some Smart Tabs out and they worked a treat. However, Orkney's are designed to run with the bow fairly high, so not much you can do about that I suspect. This is Neo at speed without trim tabs ( first with the E-Tec and second picture with the Honda 4 stroke ) :- I will have to get someone to take a picture with trim tabs fitted.

Nice trip Al, I have still to register my first ever sole. Maybe this year could be the one. Good to see the codling showing up as well. There have been a few reports around of codling showing.

Many thanks - I have spent today adding a moon to the website ( now how sad is that - ). Off fishing this afternoon though

Changed the latest fish pictures on the front page.

Mike, They do work well. I have a pair fitted to Neo and they certainly help to eliminate / reduce any porpoising. The size you need for a 520 are the ST980-40 tabs ( the man from Nauticus told me ). Also they should be fitted in the position as shown ( also sent by the man from Nauticus ). Just be careful when launching in shallow water as you will probably have read I managed to bend my tab in a 90degree right angle and also managed to break the actuator on the other tab ( superglued this back together and has held for past 2 years ).

I have crew already unfortunately. However, I am going on Monday night now as I forgot that there is a game on Tuesday. Chris, Is Monday evening doable to buddy up ?