duncan

Now now Tom, superheros shouldn't be loosing Quests........... If yo are struggling for suitable Quests for Quest II I am happy to set one for you............. To break the club Brill or Turbot record in 2005 with a fish equalling or exceeding 100% specimen weight. There - now you have a Quest! Up for it?

nice to see so many excellent suggestions - clearly highlighting how great Great White was/is for Charlie's boat Tom, you are of course the exception that proves the rule. Only hero's go on Quests; and true superheros have to go on more than one!

priceless...........

what same really meant was - and if you win I will have the food...........

yep it works - nice site.

re name - just stick to Great White; absolutely no need whatsoever you can't name her the same unless you are going for Pt 1 registration and there is already a Great White there - the former I doubt? just my opinion etc etc but 2, two, too, II etc always seem a bit naff...........

how the hell does that work? I thought that 1. the more people on board the less rods I get to fish, let alone the sudden lack of space for my gear.......... 2. anglers are generally heavy, and they all bring a weight bucket, so more anglers means more weight means worse fuel consumption.......

really nice lines Charlie - I am sure the boat will do everythign you are hoping and may well represent a good investment approaching it the way you indicate. personally the only reservation I have about it would be the engine - I am guessing that the boat will weigh in at around 4000kg (or more) so I would be looking at engines in the 300 / 320hp bracket running on a sterndrive. If it was semi keeled SD hull with a shaft then 240 could be geared for 18/20 knots fast cruise - and would be fine but a fully planning hull on a drive would benefit from a few more horses at that weight. however, having researched it more thoroughly, it ceartaily looks as if 240 will do the job and deliver good performance - around 26 knots cruise capability seems realistic from the numbers being banded around the manufacturers site and is certainly 'enough' ! You should be able to get a good deal on the Yanmar unit with either the BII (bullet proof) or BIII (v.efficient) drive because of the current developments and looming emmissions regs (that it won't meet!). However the retail mark up is significant so sourcing it will be key! There may be quite a few deals to be had given current developments - but they are unlikely to be direct retail ones. I suspect that ordering through the manufacturer may be a good option. I wonder if this will end up your boat - just out the moulds...........

Rich - great job m8. I very much regret that I won't be able to fish this comp, despite the fact that I haven't actually ever fished for flounder I was planning to give it a go this year........ unfortunately discussions about finding a balance to my fishing activities have resulted in that weekend being a no go - and negotiations are also a no go as is bribery, carry over etc etc etc etc I am going to have to be really lucky with the weather going forwards..............

yep - strong enough for all those applications

now now your plot cleary gives only 12ft rise to the top of the weckage........and I assume it was just on low water when you took the plot (well not an assumption really as you took it at 1500h!) just realised that you took this a week earlier........so nearer mid tide I would have thought. looks like you planned your trip with more preparation than we did!

here's the Betsy in all her glory..........

Any chance of sticking on here as a download?

use those hooks for cod, rays and conger - anything that likes a big bait I have switched to smaller baits and hooks for tope this year and had a lot more success but as discussed these are Mustard 16/0 circles and, apart from the thickness of the wire (thick!) they come up about 10/0 in the hand.

having been using full circles for 3 years now I would comment as follows (again!) - t bar - yes this is a problem. However I use a heavy set of narrow jawed moles which can always (see 1 exception below) access the shank easily and flip the fish off. Rays are bought aboard, placed on their back and unhooked easily in the same way. sizes are apparantly different - until you realise they relate primarily to the gape and aren't quite as different as they first seem! generally I use a Mustad 10/0 (heavy guage) or Gamakatsu Octupus circle (closer to a 3/4 circle) with a strip of cuttle, mackerel cutlet or half, one or two calamari or a 16/0 for a whole fish bait or a fan of calamari - takes 16 coincidentially! lip hooked cod to 22, blondes and other rays to 25, conger to 40 and the odd whiting, dog and pout despite the relationship between the lips and hook 'gap' without apparant difficulty. I have only once had the hook anywhere other than in the lips - last weekeend I had a huss in the throat somehow. I suspect I could have pulled it hard to remove but played around and unhooked it as for a J. This was the Gamaktsu and slightly open but still surprised. Only worm baits I have ever use are simply head hooked on smaller Owner circles for bass, pollack and wrasse without any problems. I will admit to having created 2 J pennels specifically for my target species last Sunday, fished with frozen sandeel. Lost both early on without success to the VERY ROUGH ground! I would probably fish a J for flats with threaded worm baits or live sandeels for bass; but would be tempted to use small light circles to lip hook them as a comparision too. Up until this week, and excepting a session where we established 3inch bream were stripping our squid baits intended for rays, I have not experienced more than the very exceptional bite without a hook up - I haven't really an answer to this but it was my first experience of huss and the mark so will keep an open mind........

Tom Don't crawl anywhere - walk head held high. You weren't 'defeated' as you state - your underlying views are those of the club (as I understand them)...full stop. is possible a little unrealistic and, dare I say, potentially inconsistent with the objectives too. Obvious targets would be wrasse, spurdogs, huss (doggies with dentures) and conger as well as undulates. Only the last is realistically a table fish. As things stand most target whiting, cod etc on the basis that if it isn't a specimen it's edible! Anyway - I suspect the huss I put back at 0845h would have beaten the conger you put back so nah!!!!!! - the fact that we both choose to put them back is to me more important.

personally I am out to have fun - the only real competition is on the boat (and this time I have to admit I lost ) I thought the club the real winner (again!) Now the Poole Cod comp in late Dec is a different matter................

Tom, a good point but one that I think has to sit with the skipper and crew on the day. Personally I wouldn't bring a fish to the scales that I didn't believe had a reasonable chance of a 'major' prize unless I would have taken the same fish for the table on any other occasion. The ban on sharks, including tope, taken last year indicates a serious concern over conservation by the club and committee, and the lack of anyone targetting wrasse, despite the opportunities available in our waters, is I believe indicative of a wider responsibility. It would be nice to know the estimated prize cut off percentage throughout the day but even this is flawed as the apparant discrepency on my scales showed! If the club was looking to implement a rule across the competitions fished through the year I would be more in tune with your suggestion but this is the only one fished to the scales with little evidence of people targettign inediable species over the years. Good topic for airing though.

Great Ray; glad you got into some fish. Whislt I am sure others will have another view I personally would consider general fishing on the drift in the area you did to be a waste of good fishing time. There are some great bass marks there but they are specific, fish best with live baits or shads and a good speed over the ground - neeps wind against tide late November and you would have done well to snare a Gurnard (probably the one thing you might have seen to baited hookeyes!). I will pm you some numbers in that area.

A late start for me, but that's the advantage of not having to launch - even if I was at the wrong end of the harbour! Alarm went at 7 and I had the boat ready for 0720h - although I hadn't bargined for the frost and the heater took a few minutes to warm it up enough to get the iceo f the screens. 0730h and we slip the lines and head off sticking to plan A. This was a calculated and potentially rash plan as we had never actually caught the target species before - any of us! However it seemed sound ........... the target were huss; they had the potential to deliver excellent speciemen weights and we 'knew where they were' based on Dave's experiences as a potter "a couple of years ago"............. So throttle open, trim out and off we went through the harbour.....a friendly wave to Great White (who appeared to have stopped to feather bait off Old Harry... ) plotter on goto gave us 13.5 miles of open water and winding it up to 28 knots gave us an ETA of 0825h - what a perfect day! However as we left the lee of the Purbecks a reduction to 22knots seemed prudent and we eventually arrived at our mark in snotty conditions and to find a North End of a string just North of where we had planned to fish - poetic justice or what? No great shakes as the gulley we planned to fish ran a long way E/W so a move a prudent mile E saw us drop the hook into 150ft, and conditions suggested the full 150m of chain/warp go with it.......... Thoughts of recovering that lot were quickly dispelled as the first drops resulted in instant action - there was something actually down there! A couple of missed bites and bare hooks later Dave and I were both into fish and, amazingly, both were huss! On the boat his registered just over 8lbs and mine just under 7 so we kept his and put mine back (expecting bigger!) Well, apart from a sloppy beam sea, some excellent soup from a pressure cooker, the odd drop of pussers rum in the tea.........the final tally read 2 huss and 2 conger to Dave, 4 huss and 2 conger to me; together with 1 dog and a fair few pout. The majority of the pout being contributed by Phil. Running back in the change in the conditions after the first 5 miles was absolutely amazing, and by 3 miles off the sea was as gentle as a kitten. Given the weigh in time, and the journey from Rockley by car, we eased up to 32knots from the back of Peveril right through to Rockly, dropping to 10 through the entrance as required by local byelaws! Great day out and a plan that (almost) came together - Dave thought it did anyway! His Huss weighing in over 10lb and 100%+ on the scales at baiter. Thanks to all the organising committee, who put in endless hours of effort to make the day run as smmoothly as it did. Thanks to Aidy at the Marina for the warm welcome, and of coure the sponsors who contributed so much to the event - the Icom, Lowrance and Raymarine products on the table would all have been welcomed on Phaeton.

ah now I am begining to see some light........ I haven't changed any of my winter traces since the day I made them - most are on their 3rd year. I take it this is not how I should be doing it...........

moi - the only rays I like are sunny ones

Anyone any suggestions on how to mount a 5lb box of squid - is a pennel rig recomended?

Charlie, Presume these exceptional circumstances would be more in the area of assisting the coastguard with a casualty than running out of fuel, the engine won't start or beached (al la Maverick a couple of weeks ago)? Always good to have people aware that the committee can make such decisions in exceptional circumstances. Duncan

Phaeton will be in the harbour playing with flounders with Dave and me on board........... maybe