Mike Fox

France has had a very active lure angling culture for bass for many years. The range of soft plastics, plugs, and metal lures in every tackle shop over there is truly staggering (as are some of the prices!). The French bass anglers I've met are verging on fanatical, and artificials are at the heart of their angling, from boat as well as shore. There's a chance that British anglers will go the same way - if supported by the more adventurous tackle shops, and if the bass stocks warrant the investment by individual anglers. Gone are the days of Redgills or nothing.

I saw my first swallow of Spring today. This might not be monumental news, but it's one of my personal signs that the mackerel and bream aren't too far off now... Roll on Summer! Mike

Do they visit Cobbs?

Hi Steve, I've scraped 2 boats...and the weapon of choice is a 3/4 inch wood chisel, to be used just after going ashore, when the antifoul is all crumbly still. If you wait, it still works, but is much harder work. The technique to use is to make one long straight clean strip on one side of your chosen area, then using half the width of the chisel blade, take off new rows, so your cleaned area gets progressively wider. Make sure each strip is clean, and then there's no bumps to make the chisel jump. Once the whole required area is clean, thinners and rags will remove the rest. I'd then cut the hole needed, then use an orbital sander to key the gel coat, ready for primer. Typically, you'll remove an area slightly larger than the transducer you're fitting, and make good with underwater epoxy and suitable sealants. The bare gel will need priming, before applying antifoul to the hull again. There's some specialist antifouls out there now specially for transducers, but they come in small pots and are incredibly expensive. Mike

We'll be ashore in a couple of weeks. I have last year's new Bowthruster instalation to check out, blades to remove and antifoul, anodes to check, etc. We also fitted a galvanic isolator last year, which should have stopped any electrical "leakage" and stopped eating my anodes so fast. Results will be interesting. When we bought the boat (gosh, nearly 2 years ago), the top-loading cool box had cooling plates that didn't work. Following a recent survey, I know I have a blockage and all of this needs to be ripped out, and replaced, else it will remain an inert cool box. I'm looking at a complete Isotherm system that's keel-cooled, as a long-term best fix. Have one more project ashore, more details to follow, when I have more clarity. Otherwise, scrubbing bottoms, polishing, greasing my sea cocks (ooeerr Rob) and fixing a few gel coat "dings" the previous owner left me.

Horrifying.... https://www.express.co.uk/travel/articles/906397/Viral-video-watch-fishermen-Oregon-boat-crash-save-life Mike

I have strong webbing tapes secured to strong points on both side decks. My lifejacket has an integral harness, and I use a safety line to clip onto the webbing line when leaving the safety of the cockpit in boisterous conditions and moving forwards. The clip on the lifeline slides along smoothly, and doesn't restrict my movement. I have a diesel engine, use autopilot a lot, and have no kill cord. If I was out solo with this arrangement, there is a risk I'd be dragged along until something (or someone) stopped the boat, but I'd still be attached to the boat. If I was with crew, I'd be spotted as missing, and I'd be attached to the vessel for the first stage of MOB recovery. I consider it safer than watching the vessel disappear without me.

Hope you're having a great one!   Mike

There's no need to climb on the front of the boat with the Alderney Ring. You have your anchor warp attached there, yes. However, by means of a separate short rope (a lazy line) that goes round the anchor warp in a loop, you can actually retrieve the anchor amidships from the cockpit, and stow it in a bin etc.   Raymond, you really need to talk with Charlie, he really does know his stuff. As well as that, why not pop out as crew with a few members to see how they do it.   Mike

Take care with the join of the extra 75m  to your current 50m.   The proposed combined length is probably fine, if you can guarantee that the splice won't jam in your windlass / lifting arrangement   You don't want to be dangling over the sharp end trying to free it, if the wind picks up.   Charlie (Great White above) can anchor almost anywhere in the English Channel with his arrangement, and does. If you have the space for 200m+, a drum of rope sourced online could be as cheap as 75m bought locally. That would leave your existing 50m as a useful spare for an inshore kedge.   Mike

Hi Mick, Eberspacher supplier at Ringwood, Kruger (?), used to stock this as well. Worth a call. Mike

Well done Stuie, and Kev for putting him on the fish!

I'm available to help crew, contribute to fuel etc. Am keen to defend my title from last year! Mike

Devastating to hear how your mako fishing was wrecked by the arrival of so much in the way of by-catch. Keep at it, and am sure you'll get one soon! Mike

Think Stainless Steve is Lymington based, and he can probably knock it up for you at a sensible price..... Else your'e looking at high speed drills, grinders, and specialist welding gear....

Charlie, I'm looking for a boat for the cod comp to join as crew....I think mine will be too restrictive. Cheers, Mike

Thanks Alun

I was undecided about the 48 hour comp, but picked up some bait today, and might be out inshore tomorrow. Anyone have any recent advice as to what's in, and worth going for? Mackerel? Flatties? Bream? Pollack? any early Whiting?

A scary number Allan, hope you have a fabulous day. Mike

The implication here is that you really like the boat design, but want the convenience of diesel. My gut feel is that it would be significantly cheaper to sell, and buy the same (or similar) boat with diesel already, and low engine hours. We spent several years investigating options to replace or upgrade our previous boat, and it finally came down to a brutal assessment of incremental benefit and potential, "want v need", and cost v budget. Sometimes waiting for the right boat pays dividends Good luck!

The Feisty crew are currently in Roscoff, also weather watching. Looks like Monday might be fit for us to cross, but we need to attend a family event in Torbay. Brixham is 107 miles from here, about 16 hours in fair conditions. I can't comment on Cherbourg, but we encountered NW and W swells to 3m at times yesterday on our trip from L'Abervrach, and have gales forecast for today on the Shipping Forecast. This end of the channel looks unfishable for a few days. Hope something settles down soon, this unsettled weather has plagued us for the last few weeks.

I just hope after Brexit that inshoe fish will be measured in feet instead of centimetres...

Remember Cobbs boats get free berthing for 2 nights if you have your passeport Escales card, and register that you're going..

Just curious, were there plenty of Launce and mackerel? Currently on passage, and zero mackerel. Even the French are complaining this year! Mike