duncan

the tacklebargins link on the club site lead me to some quite interesting opportunities; especially in the thicker braids area (28lb at .33 'ish). Still can't find Antares anywhere yet! btw Why would I need more than 30lb breaking strain for anything?

anyone tried the new Shimano Antares Braids? THey look very well priced and offer a 600 size which is great for 3 reels. I tend to put a 300 on intact so 'waste' quite a bit.. I suspect they are in the Fireline camp re diameter - ie a little thicker but significantly thinner than mono. I am not to worried about diameter as I don't go heavier than 35lb on the grounds that even at 80% for knots it is still stronger than the pressure I can put on it with a rod! I would love to be able to compare Fireline, Ron Thompson Dynacable, Whiplash and the Antares in 20-25lb strain, but few tackle shops seem to stock them all!

thick braid? Only joking - I know what you mean. I have some 35lb Suffix bulk braid (green coating over white braid) which is pretty thick and I don't enjoy using it anything like as much as Fireline. The Ron Thompson braid looks nice - thin, round and 'tight' but I can't find it under 30 a pop for 300. Looks like more Fireline at around 24 unless anyone has any other suggestions?

Adam - if there is one product that screams for a decent price (club disount!) it has to be bulk braid. Do you know if he has a source associated with carp / pike fishing already or if he can source at all? With all the wonderfull new reels that have been discussed on here recently others are no doubt considering the investment for the new season!

you may have to tell the plotter it's sending rather than recieving - will be a menu option somewhere. if it has seperate NMEA in and out wires then you might not.

thanks everyone - got a great picture now. final question - where to get the sandeels - anyone got an old trawl spare?

yes I say the tuna tubes and had a good laugh - I am sure they would work well with mackerel but they replenish as they fish when we tend to down anchor or drift one rod with a livebait rather than leave the livebait and fish another rod for more bait. I have got a cloche - stainless inside of a washingmachine - which I had forgotten about! Thanks for reminding me. Looks like cloche inside big tub with aeration and the occasional water change when travelling and over the side when fishing/anchored. Good aeration gear? Source?

I am fed up trying to keep mackerel and pout alive in a bucket (even a really big one strapped to the bathing platform!) and as I fully intend to get out and fish more this year I want to consider sorting something out. I don't even bother getting sandeels 'cos I don't expecct them to survive lon enough to make it worth while. How would you go about it and what pump would you use? My thought so far - I already have a water pick up in the form of the sea toilet fitting so I sort of thought I could put a Y into that rather than drill more holes in the hull . Under the helm seat is a large plumbed sink - great for use as a beer cooler with water and ice but not a lot else. Appprox 3 ft x 18inch wide and 18inches deep. Could I plumb water in through the bottom plug hole and then attach the existing drain pipe to an overflow up towards the top? This would then give constant recycling - is that enough? Would this be better than an aeration unit in a 15/20 gallon bucket?

ah well if you are going to get picky Bob - I believe it is techinically an offense to fit a non approved (CE Marked) unit to your boat.

long discussion with ICOM Europe on the www.ybw.com forums about 3-4months ago about exactly this. the channel things as above and also there is another hardware difference around the DSC as well - doesen't effect basic functionality though. Suggest a specific search on under the US reference number over all the forums for last 6 months.

personally I would take advantage of the all these people trying to lend money at low rates and get this one instead - different league and not much more money http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/AIN023 - bluntly you could flog of some of the 'extras' for around 1500 if you were pushed (but again I wouldn't) in both cases the trailer conditions could be a big factor but a decent car will tow either with care.

Sounds like an equipement weekend might be a good idea at some point. It's only when you can see the gear side by side and working in your normal envionment that you can really decide what's best for you and where you would compromise (in order to get that Calcutta reel!). Charlie has, in my view, gone for a balanced 'upper middle' value solution which will give him great performance (and lots of pretty colours!). He has also got top prices that will be hard to match. I believe that the Eagle 320 (same but cheaper than the Lowrance badge) combined sounder plotter fitted with a Navionics gold chart is the next natural step down in price, and as said before the Lowrance X51 sounder and a Garmin 128 GPS both deliver fantastic performance for their price marks.

but they aren't OSGB36 so why would you convert them like that?

What datum is the charting then? Why don't you think it is WGS84? A quick check has it a long way off OSGB36 (based on an old Imray C4 I have to hand)

Adam With your "I'm going to Alderney" hat on just look at the banks and features South of the Island, and the wrecks and deep water channels to the NW - you can spend days working out just how you would fish which bit with which tides! Beware the use of seconds in the Lat Long - if your GPS works that way fine - otherwise beware.

OK - off you go to this site that contains all the detail you could even need when looking for sea bed features etc etc You simply click on the point you are interested in (to centre map) then zoom zoom zoom http://mappe.c-marina.com/partners/ucina/portsearch.asp Moving the cursor around will also give you the Lat and Long of the cursor in the boxes shown - enter them in your little GPS and bingo - that rock or bank will appear on your sounder as if by magic when you head on out. Now how do you fish that raised bit on the end of the ledge at N50.41.11" W01.42.08"? Enjoy

what an excellent picture

Martin - assume the cheque is 'in the cod' as it were - you will get it! I only really started to enjoy my boating when I joined up with a few like minded people in Poole - I am hoping the same will be true for the fishing. Whilst I don't fish to be competitive (the fishing itself is hard enough!), and I will only ever kill a fish for the table, I look forward to the odd additional interest that species hunts etc can give.

Thanks to all who worked hard to make the day - committee et al - must be a lot of work. Three of us headed off across Poole Harbour and out into the bay on an almost mirror sea with the sun slowly rising. What a fantastic feeling! Looking for an edge, because we knew we didn't stand a chance without one , we headed off towards the Needles and anchored a few miles SSE of the light at 0835h - not bad planning we thought. Squid, mackerel, sand eel and mussel brought us dogs, pout, dogs and pout which, from the radio chat, was the same as everyone else. As the tide picked up Alan was into something better and eventually up popped a nice coddling around the 7 mark. It was to be 3 hours later before he repeated the trick with a fish just shy of 10. In between we had a spotted ray that wasn't big enough to compete as a flounder and a conger that, if disguised as a common eel, still wouldn't have frightnened the scorers . As the wind got up we hauled anchor and returned in somewhat different conditions to the trip out. Thanks again to the organises and the staff at the Marina Club.