Paul D

Some Topia

Rich, Glad the boat is raring to go. Unfortunately, mid week trips for me are difficult, what with work . Would love to take a trip out sometime though to compare notes. Grab handles on the cuddy roof are really handy I find. I am thinking of fitting one on the passenger side as well. Had the same problem with the rod holders being too big for the hand rail - solved it by cutting part of the plastic bracket. Hope you have many fish on her.

Fished the trailaway with Gordon H ( Fugazi ) and after an uneventful trail to the slipway we all launched and set off to grab some mackeral. Found mackeral ( or rather a single mackeral ! ) at the concrete barge at Dean Tail, whilst the boat alongside us was pulling up whole strings of them ! we the caught up the others who had made of to the marks which I had fished 3 weeks ago and last year. Reassured to see the charter boats around the mark we were fishing. Anchor down and into the first smoothy after around 15 mins. We then had a few smoothies up to the slack along with some medium sized Tope ( 10lb ish ). Had a good run on the mackeral flapper and made contact with the fish for a minute but it dropped the bait Slack water came and had an Undulate Ray as the tide turned. Gordin had a tope as the fishing picked up on the flood, but the wind was picking up and the thought of an 8 mile steam back against the wind made me decided to head for cover ( Wise move as it turned out ). Passed Nab tower and some nasty conditions ensued. Back to Dean Tail and then headed for Hayling Island where we fished more in hope than expectation. After bream rattles, hooked into a bass but so shocked to catch anything I rushed it and lost the fish on its second run Called it a day then and steamed back to Portsmouth, through the gap in the blocks and kept to the RHS of the channel with Enticer behind us. Got stopped by the Harbourmaster as we should be in the small boat channel. - A friendly lecture was given and we now know how to enter Portsmouth harbour . Pleased to find I had used 20 litres of fuel in total for the trip. Will be back again though as I know the fishing can be much better than this.

Simon, I fished for them with a simple sliding ledger. Not very good at saying what hook size is needed as I always find it hard to remember the sizes- I think we used 2/0 size hooks. Used around a 2-3 ft trace of 30lb BS line and used around 2 rod length of 40lb leader to braid. I started with 16lb trace but my first fish smashed me up, so increased the trace size. For tope we used a wire trace of something like 40lb BS and similar size or maybe slightly bigger size hook as for the smoothies. Squid is the bait to use for the smoothies. Mackeral for the Tope. I have some info on marks to fish ( thanks to Seamouse and Westray ) Paul J - Feel free to drop car around mine and hitch a lift up with me.

Nice one Gordon. I am sure we can drum up some crew or you can come on Neo ( as my crew is happy to drop out if a club member wants to fish ). ( I suspect that my crewman is a little apprehensive at going out to the Nab ).

Adam, Didn't Bob say he would be going with his 4x4 and Splash Out ?

Forecast for Sunday is excellent ( as of today ). Lets hope the window stays put where it is at the moment.

Goto the front page of the site ( www.pbsbac.co.uk ) and top RHS you will see a box one of the options in there is "Competition Details"

Here :-

What is the plan regarding crew. I have someone at work who wishes to crew for me ( 50% sure he will go at the moment ), however, not at the expense of someone else ( ie. another club member ) not being able to go - and then if he cant make it I will still be looking for crew. Have you got crew Alun or were you intending on crewing on Neo ( or taking Gastronaught ) ? I would like to think we should be able to take both Gastronaught and Neo and get crew for both - surely there are members who would like to crew on the trailaway ?

Yacht Sinks

- I forgot to put the "tongue in cheek" icon at the end of my post Off now to find out the cost. I am betting on

Went to check my spark plugs and wished I hadn't as I managed to break one of the engine cover clips. Still, it's only a small piece of metal so I am sure it will be quite reasonably priced .....

Nothing of the sort - just thought the information would be useful and just replying to your question with what I knew about the planned times. I will try to be less helpful next time

The tide for the day :-

Some useful info :- Langstone Harbour

Simon, Yes, weekend of the 8th. Regarding timings, I was hoping Gordon would post yesterday , I discussed with him the other night, so I think my times are accurate ( if not they are going to be pretty close ).

One thing worth mentioning ( as I am bound to forget ) is last time I went out from Emsworth, 2 weeks ago, there were many rafts of weed floating around and it is just the rights sort to block your water intakes. So bear this in mind. ( Westray - my work colleague had his 130HP Honda stop clogged with weed. - Unfortunately, he can't make the 8th July ).

Knew this question would be coming User Guide states following for Spark Plugs ( amongst other things ). Every 300 hours or 3 years(1) Note 1: When used in normal recreational use. Common sense dictates when using an Evinrude E-Tec for commercial or other heavy use that you check these items more frequently ( annual checks are recommended ). I bet Paul's engine is nearing 300 hours the amount he uses it. ( Mine is around 150-175 hours I would guess ). Off to check my spark plugs

Alun, Not a bad guess at all. HW is at 5:51AM LW is at 11:15 AM ish Neap Tide I think the plan is to be leaving Rownhams at around 6:30AM to arrive at slipway around 07:15 AM for a 7:30 AM launch.

Windguru forecasting Southerly F4/5 and wave heights of 2.8 metres. BBC forecasting rain, rain and more rain. Those synoptic charts not looking good. Not a gambling man, but I suspect I shall have a chance to fish the second BFM comp !

Similar opinions with regard to auxiliary. I used to carry one around but the engine was more unreliable than the one I had !

Chatting with Gordon and I understand the plan is to meet up at Rownhams Services East on the M27 ( handy for you there Rich ). Will leave Gordon to post exact timings on here. Directions to the slipway are as follows :- Rownhams Services ( M27 Eastbound after Junction 3 - M271 junction ) Head Eastbound on the M27 and stay on M27 all the way to the M275 Portsmouth junction. Stay on the Outer 2 lanes and head towards Chichester/Havant A27 ( ie. Do NOT take the M275 ) Filter onto the A27 ( Road works along that section with 3 narrow lanes at moment and 50 MPH limit ). Take the next sliproad off onto the A2030 Eastern Road heading South towards Southsea / Fratton ( Portsmouth football ground ) Stay on Eastern Road ( which then becomes Velder Avenue at the end ) until you reach the end of the road where Portsmouth Football Club is straight ahead and there is a main road crossing. Turn left at the traffic lights here onto Milton Road heading towards Southsea/Eastney Follow Milton Road along and it will merge into Goldsmith Road. There will then be a park on the Left hand side ( Bransbury Park ). Take the left hand turning immediately after the park onto Bransbury Road ( Not sure but I think it is signposted to marinas or the ferry ? ) Follow this road where it becomes Henderson Road and then you will reach a tight right turn in the road where you turn left onto Fort Cumberland Road ( go past Ferry Road immediately to your left ) Stay on Fort Cumberland Road which will then become Ferry Road. Go past the marina to your left hand side and the slipway is the next turning on your RHS after the marina entrance on the LHS and just before you reach Eastney Cruising Association on the RHS. ( Slipway is right next to Eastney Cruising Assoc site ).

Weather looking awful for Saturday - can only hope it carries on into the Sunday

I would suggest that 100% of the time it is sufficient for me