Paul D

I have often thought that the line between success and failure is exremely small and one fish can make all the difference. Friday proved to be the case. Launched out of Wick spotting Mad Mike and Terry comoing back in and also Les on Manatee. It was like a Christchurch section club meeting out there ! Beautiful evening and flat calm sea. We started plugging for bass and no joy for me but my crew for the day, Phil Vivien, caught a bass of a couple of pounds on a plug while the sea around us was boiling with baitfish. Then headed for some mackeral before the sun set. Plenty of mackeral over Christchurch way. Had enough for the planned ray and eel fishing so headed over to XRay where we met up withg Stargaser who had been catching doggies. Joined in on the doggy action and no rays making an appearance today. After dark we steamed over to the ledge to join Stargazer ( who had left 30 mins earlier ) again. This time we were targeting the conger. Had a good bite on my Conolon rod but reeled in to find just the head of my mackeral left. Rebaited and got a call from Gordon seeing how we were doing. As I am on the phone my other rod starts going. Terminated call and next thing I know I am attached to an eel which is heading westwards. This eel felt quite big and after some 10-15 mins of battling it made an appearance by the side of the boat. It looked huge and then decided it didnt like the light form the boat so headed back to the depths. Got the eel back up again and after a couple of attempts we netted him and Phil lifted him onboard. A couple of photos taken ( Call me a chicken but I wasn't going to hold this one up as when we pulled the hook out it was not very happy - but calmer than the 20lb one I had with Dan ) Weighed the eel using my 20lb spring scales and needed something bigger. I could christen my new 50lb scales These were also nearly not big enough.4 weights taken and ranged from 42lb ( when we realised I had not lifted the eel off the floor ) to 49lb. Smallest reading of 47lb was taken. Well happy but also realised afterwards that if it had gone another pound I could have caught up with Septs biggest specimen so far - oh well. Photos to come - ( on Phil's camera )

Looking to fish Friday evening and into the night as the weather looks promising and I have permission. Probably be rays to start then a go at the bass followed by conger on the ledge if not too tired. All I need is crew ( and a buddy boat would not go amiss as well ). Anyone interested I will be at the meeting this evening or call me on 07887 875964. First to call gets the place.

They have to be jpg files - Try "Save as" JPG

Yes - I had same pleasure when buying my prop from them. I mentioned the club and wasd told - "Ah club member you can get discount if you have a card". Showed card and got discount. Well recommended.

I wish you could post them as there are plenty of horrendous examples of poor Health and Safety within some foreign competitor sites and I know where I would rather be working !

The people you want are Propellor Revolutions on Cobbs Quay. Their web site address is here :- Propellor Revolutions Mention the fishing club as well please.

To clarify the maximum of two hooks, My understanding is that you can fish a pennel rig on each rod provided both hooks are in the same bait ( ie. A pennel rig counts as one hook )

NFSA Sepcimen List is hidden away on their website under Teams and Competitions -> Competitions and Festivals -> Match Pack A direct link is below and we fishg to Area D sizes :- Specimen Sizes

Amusing that the google ads to the left gave mean advert for a Lamp Curry Recipe -

However, Neo wont be fishing as I am fishing on Nipper, so Nipper will be the safety boat in place of Neo. ( Although wondering what the "safety boat" involves ).

1.) NO FISHING outside of the competition times. 2.) Two rods per angler, maximum of TWO hooks. 3.) Entrance fee -

Charlie ( or anyone else for that matter ), Give it a try now. Should all be OK now. ( It was broken due to the upgrade to PHP5 and the web site code needed a small change ).

Right click and then select "properties". The URL is then the bit that says "address (URL) You can highlight this and then select "copy" using the right mouse button. You then paste this in to the requested image URL using the right mouse button and then selecting paste. How about a web site demo one club meeting ?

Oh well, yet another thing to fix

Re: Fuel consumption, it would depend on what engine was fitted. If it was a 4 stroke or new generation 2 stroke ( ie. E-Tec, Optimax, DFI ) you should be able to achieve that comfortably ( I run a 520 which is the same as the 17ft Strikeliner with a 40 HP E-Tec and get around 1 1/2 NM per litre ) The boat does give a bumpy ride if the sea is slightly lumpy and you try to go at speed ( so simply slow down ). Upside is when the sea is really lumpy you can make comfortable progress by running the boat at a slower displacement speed. Economy will then be much better than a similar sized planing boat. The boat is very light so easy to tow and retrieve. Freeboard is pretty low on the 520 ( being double skinned ) so rails are essential. ( Not sure what the freeboard on a fastliner is like ). As with all boats it is a series of compromises. BTW: Make sure that the boat has been sitting on a trailer with support along the keel as you can damage the subframe on an Orkney if this is not the case. If you want to see what the ride is like and the handling will be like you are more than welcome to come out for a trip on my 520.

My braked trailer which will take up to around 19ft boat and weighs in at 350 KG. The payload is up to 950 KG so overall weight can be up to 1300 KG which just so happens to be the max towing capacity for my Honda Civic ( although I wouldnt fancy trying to pull a boat this size up a slipway with the Civic ) Ford Mondeo can tow up to 1800 KG but I would suggest that traction will be the issue with pulling a boat up a slipway. Trailer Law A very detailed guide can be found here :- NTTA

Not offended at all. I was just mentioning that you were in a somewhat small boat as well ( as it is easy to forget how small the boat is that you are in sometimes. ) Glad you all got back OK

Daz, Will be at the meeting Thursday, so you should recognise me as the "little white boat" man from Sunday

Can't speak for Alun, but personally I would try changing hook size down and maybe changing trace length first.

The little white boat was me Daz. Thought it might be you out there and worth mentioning that it looked like it would rough up. I suspect that your "blonde ray" was probably a spotted ray or small eyed ray as I have never caught a Blonde on that mark. The conditions were not best for that mark, you want to try when the tides are smaller and the weather a bit better. PS: "Small white boat" is 1 ft longer than the Raider you were in

Dan, We were out today and fishing was really slow to say the least. No bass found today. Had a couple take some interest but nothing caught. Mackeral were hard to find, had 3 all day. Dogfish were no problem and had just the one small small eyed ray ( est. 3 lb ) before deciding to up anchor before the tide turned to be wind against tide. ( Was around F3 to F4 and the tide was a big one, so looked to be getting quite lumpy ). Ah well, as Rich JAW once said to me, if it was that easy it would be called "catching" as opposed to fishing

Andy, Agree that flushing at slipway is best option, but what if there is no water available ? Surely flushing out the salt is better than nothing at all ??? One other important thing I found out the hard way was to make sure you pull the trailer forwards before leaving. ( I reverse my trailer up the drive and then twist into its resting place. If I do not pull the trailer forwards first then the brake can jam on taking a lot of effort to free it ) PS: One big advantage of launching from Wick on occasion is the freshwater clean of the braking system

What a beautiful bass, Carol looks well chuffed with her catch.

Enjoyed my first foray plugging with Paul J that much I decided I would get myself a spinning rod. Bought a Mike Ladle 4piece spinning rod and put it to its test on Friday evening. Got home from work early as I knew it would be a squeeze getting out the run. Paul Rowcliffe was crew for the day, so off to Wick at speed and a quick launch saw us heading up the harbour on a rapidly falling tide. Got through the run just about ( PJ turned up a couple of hours later and got through somehow ). LW seemed to be an hour earlier than expected. Off to the first bass mark, cast out and straight into a fish of around 1lb. Paul R is impressed with my fish location skills at this point Then make numerous drifts of various marks ( even managing to touch bottom a fair way out, the tide was that low ) for the next 2 hours with not a single take. Paul R hooked into a Pollock and then we decided to try another spot. This one was much better. I hooked into a better fish which put a beautiful bend in the rod and headed for the weed - this weighed in at 3lb 4oz - not massive but a nice fish to christen the rod's first outing

Full marks to Honda and look forward to seeing OOTB back on the water soon.