duncan

no Mike - that's Sod's 1st.

small pout live bait is the best 'cos

1. cheap

2. reliable

3. fishes well

4. can produce very favorable bycatches

mackerel

squid

cuttle

whiting (?)

etc will all take fish

This is probably the first time we have agreed on anything

nah - that's why we are going to Alderney..............

plaice are around - harbour, southborne/bournemouth in tight, swash if poor weather and th eboat brigade give it a miss or even a run to the shambles...........

smoothhound in the solent adn odd ones in Poole Bay - crab baits rule

pollack and possibly some cod on the mid channel wrecks

rays will start feeding hard on the inshore banks - undulates and blondes particularily round to the West

conger everywhere as usual (except on Jack's hook of course)

bream..........may or may not be showing. normally start on the outer patches or ballard - never know where they will appear first. look on here or other sites like deepsea fishy notice board to get the first news on their arrival.

Alderney for turbot an' brill of course................maybe tope too.

Wrasse will be feeding in the gulley's of the purbcks

Packs of Spurdogs will be running the rough ground areas around 8 miles off - slates/gulleys etc

mullet may well reappear in the harbours as well depending on the weather

probably best to give it a miss really though..................wait for it to liven up in the summer.

I just enjoy playing around with mine - wouldn't be without it.

have to agree with Tom 100%

I'm similar toerag - bow line looped, mid boat to rear pontoon spring looped then poontoon back to rear boat cleat made off as required.

then there are the chains and padlocks..............

being in a disagreeing mood I will conntinue with Tom....

it could be argued that you shouldn't actually make a line off to shore but run it back to the boat to be slipped on departure.............if you are coming alongside another boat, or shore, you will normally have the loop attached toyour boat and pass the bitter end over to the other boat. Admittedly this is going to depend heavily on how many crew involved on which boat!

small cleats with a fixed base are only suitable for lines to be made off to rather than a loop being placed over them! nice 6/8mm lines matching them nicely!

and Charlie - yes, well spotted. HOwever there are principles at stake here!!!!!

goin' to have to disagree Mike

any loop that goes one way over a cleat can go the other way and is not therefore 'safe' for anything but a temporary hold.

loop should be of a reasonably long length - around 10/12 inches should do - and will be passed throught the base of the cleat and back over the top to secure.

mca news desk here

reading this I am still uncertain whether they located a man or a body..........

good for bass - bad for flaties!

we are all afflicted man......................

thinking this through a bit better, and with apologies to Mike for my less than subtle wit in the previous post, how about using a downrigger to slow the drift and have it fully rigged with a rod - etc and a large mackerel bait................?

If I was just out there for the pot Mike it would be a possibility but why not go the whole hog and lay a long line between two weights whilst drifting then go back and collect the fish afterwards?

Even better use a small trawl? We have had plaice in the sandeel trawl so a turbot should fit OK..............oh hell why not go the whole hog and get a trawler?

after discussion it appears it's the 10 I would benefit from so I am 'dropping out' - the deals there for anyone else!

apologies for commenting on this issue without reference to those bass.......

fantastic fish and I suspect a great angling story behind thier capture.

re the reasons for leaders raised here - absolutely; and the article raises all of them very well. I am certainly not advocating braid straight through (although I do fish it that way for most of my downtiding with running ledgers...and you already have a built in weak spot with the braid to swivel connection (even with a doubled grinner and a lot of care!)).

Very interesting that no one has commented on the weights article - I would really love to know more about the use of the various shapes. I use bopedo for dropping back as there shape allows me to lift and drop back in the tide, bombs to chuck out to the side and roll back in the tide (or other times I am hapy for a bit of movement) , balls to drift andI was using watch leads for their grip(but apparantly that's wrong........... ) For drifting sand and shingle and kicking up a bit I have used uptide leads with the 4 long wire only slightly bent out behind the lead as this seems to (1) ride the ridges better without registering every one as a possible bite (joking) and (2) 2 of the wires will drag into the substrate and 'kick up' nicely but without risk of catching at all. Anyone else do this?

Kam,

Specifically re bream and braid (and to a degree many uses of braid) it's the rod that does the cushioning - as I think you yourself said in a thread about rod tapers earlier in the year!).

Fast taper (or heavy action as some are called in the US) rods with braid will cause problems, even with light drag settings. Adding a nylon leader isn't going to make a difference until you add so much that you are effectively fishing with nylon!

Alun is that the baby one?

If so then I am sure we can do a deal - please pm me or whatever

Duncan

This months mag contained articles on 1. leaders, 2, weights and 3. star v lever drag reels.

Let me start with the good bit - no 3 - good article on an interesting topic. Wide ranging from technical to practical, examples etc; everything such an article should be!

The article on leaders was, to my mind obviously, spoilt by the continued reference to the use of a nylon leader as a 'shock absorber' citing bream fishing as benefiting..........and further recomending 15ft of 20lb test ("it's thin diameter........)

Now whilst I accept that in some (specific) places bream are fished in deeper water with bigger gear

a. if I was using a 15ft leader I might as well be using nylon straight through

b. if the nylons going to stretch then why have I paid out for braid

c. 20lb nylon is several orders of magnitude thicker than the 14lb braid I would use for bream

d. it's going to reduce the sensitivity of the gear

in practice I don't actually thnk it's going stretch a whole lot in use anyway but that just makes it even less relevant!

not arguing with the rest of the points but this one ..............

then the weights article - great subject, really wanted to get some info but it just never got going.........3 pages and the only actual reference to which leads for when related to watch leads for drifting.............this was hugely frustrating and a real wasted opportunity. Given that there was an article on two guys making leads earlier in the mag, and reference to their special 'cannon balls being in high demand (WHY?????)' . This article would even struggle to get many marks in 'Introduction to boat fishing magazine for beginers' mag.

Articles like these are the reason I buy mags so it was great to see them in there - shame about the end results.

I will get back off my soapbox now..........sorry

not sure about all the fun but in this case my normal approach of 'out of Poole Harbour and turn right for 45mins' isn't going to work as I am unable to get out and the boats a long way from being ready yet either.............

be nice to see halibut appear on the clubs record lists!

amazes me how you lot can own and run your boats and still afford to go on such trips!

what you are really lloking for is the size of buoy thet will keep you anchor and chain on the surface once it has lifted them clear so........

work on 1kg/m for 6 mm (generous but safe) chain or 1.5 kg/m for 8mm chain then add your anchor weight and you have the weight you need to support. For 9m / 6mm and a 5kg anchor this would be 14kg.

now you know you need a buoy of at least 14l volume ('cos 1l displace 1l water = 1kg water) and preferably more like 18/20l.

finally a 20l buoy will either have "20l best cooking oil/soy sauce/whatever" convienently stamped on it or, if spherical, have a diameter of ........cube root, .......pie..........number I first thought of............ 172cms (maybe) (probably best to get a child to do the maths just in case............

most peole are glad when they manage to sell their boat............

all the best with the build

it is common practice to believe whichever best supports your ambitions...........

ie if you simply don't want to go when it's cold but will only actually wimp out because of wind pick the windy one!

personally I would take the Theyr one giving W 2-3 on launching going S2 for recovery. The sea state however will be a bit choppy on the ebb because of residual seas from the current W5/6

hope you all have a great time

now you tell us Mike!

will admit I have never seen it there but will look more closely next time!

nope it's a couple of large traps with a lot of netting guides to funnel the signals to the traps from what I saw