duncan

I'll third that - excellent and continually developing..........

following the posts in preparation for Jimbob's challenge which were discussing rigs, and being a sad old git who's main modification to his end tackle is 'how long and what's on the end'; I was wondering if we might not produce a section on the site of boat fishing rigs? Looking around I haven't found any comprehensive sections on other sites - although a few show patternoster, flying collar and sliding ledger there is little beyond that. Inclusion of more details on hooks would probably go down well right now given the sudden explosion in styles and shapes - it wasn't long ago I only had BLN261's(?) in the box from 6 - 8/0; now i have Gamahatsu Octopus Circles, Owner Livebaits, Eagleclaws..........and am now hearing about a new wonder hook for bream that I must rush out and buy before May 2005! Thoughts?

I believe it is critical to give both the general area and the numbers for 2 reasons - 1. Other boats - many will perk up their ears on a mayday but are less likely to plot your position or imediatley understand their ability to help if you only quote the numbers. 2. It enables the CG to ratify, or clarify, the numbers you give them. A few miles of Swanage / can see the Nab - Needles are all it takes. Even 'we came out of Poole Harbour' this morning.....' If you don't have the numbers then try and be accurate on distance and bearing but as already said don't guess.

without question adding even a minor incident can create havock with our abiility to think straight. Rich's point about habit is spot on but fortunately we don't get too much practice with real life drama. As an example I will share an additional element from the Sunday before last's incident....... Phaeton is disabled in the area of the Spoils off Poole (fuel blockage of the electromagnetic solenoid it eventually transpired) it's getting dark, chop is increasing and everyone else has gone home Early call to Greatwhite who is busy hanging a small conger froma hook on the fuel barge in Poole Harbour while we try to establish what's up - we know it's fuel but not what. GW and Shelia Marie offer to come and get us - we get it started then it dies again a couple of times, have a go at filters, bleeding etc but aren't making huge progress. As it's dark now I push the button on the radio to switch on the backlight before responding to a call from GW, and he starts to have difficulty hearing us SM can't hear us either but we can hear them. Phones are utilised and tow established but it's not until we are almost in that I get round to thinking properly about the radio, retracec last actions and establish that the light button has 2 functions and 1 of them seems to cut the transmit capability.......a quick 1/2 and we are transmitting properly again However that's not all - clearing out the boat that night I pick up the electronics bag (everthing gets stripped everytrip) and move the HH over to get the main back in........! Now when PaulJ had joind the boat we ran through the safety briefing as he hadn't been aboard before and included was "the HH is charged and stored in the yellow bag here ->". When the radio 'transmission failure' occured not one out of the 4 seasoned mariners at the helm station thought to get the spare radio! I hesitate to suggest that had our primary issue been communication we would have remembered it

seems fair if the charts are reasonably wide and fully cover your intended area of use. Only 5 years ago it would have been an 800 quid unit and charts were around 200 a pop for the large ones I find it a good unit and better than the colour 225 for fishing (you lose the contour lines against the dark blue sea colour). On the down side the land and sea look the same on the b/w unit with only the 2m contour line being highlighted at all. One small point to chaeck - look at the plug on the power cable - if it is showing green copper corrosion on one 'socket' that indicates that the power leads remained live in an open environment in the cockpit and the power has shorted to the earth via the salt in the air making it an electrolyte - ie he didn't have a battery isolation switch but removed the unit from the boat each trip. This will result in a poor connection and eventual failure as the copper sleves making up the 'socket' are pretty thin (and inaccesable). If that's corroded negotiate around a new cable - pretty standard Garmin part but around 25 or more squid.

I like it - have a 215 and 225 both with differential. You will struggle to get more charts - ie it's a once off purchase and it is no longer supported by Garmin from, I believe, the end of the year. That doesn't rule out being able to get it fixed but their superb out of warantee service ceases when it goes 'out of support'. How much are they asking?

Rec. Retail Price

Lets start with the obvious - (1) Your own boat should be cheaper - see (3) (2) Their rib will be easier to handle (3) If anything goes wrong with their boat they will fix it / reschedule etc - if you have a problem you may end up having to rearrange but also pay out (I know someone who had a problem with their boat the day before the course and it cost them a full cancellation fee as no other boat was available (4) Their boat will be equipped to the required standard - it is wrong to see turning up in your's as a 'shortcut' to equipping it; get a sea check instead. (5) They know their boat so will spend more time training you than learning about yours. Personally I would recomend theirs in your circumstances - if you had a twin engined cruiser with outdrives and a bow thruster then things would be different! Enjoy the course (easier in someone else's boat) and enjoy applyiong your training in your own later.

nope but want one - have a Formula 15 reel which is still to be properly tested but, apart from being a bit big, is super super smooth on the drag at even light settings. Was this a buy it now or auction?

Slaved through Saturday and returning from Sainsbury's with flowers got 'what do you want?' - er, um , I was wondering, weather (looks good), if, .......oh you want to go fishing tommorrow do you? Yes please! - Calls secured boat launch at 1000h and company/bair sorted. Up early and a quick (!!!) run to Poole had the anodes replaced on the drive and a quick lube job before launch and away. Gully with Great White resulted in dogs, pout and bream! Move to the banks a bit inside found - more dogs. Tried 10 squid on a 14/0 circle - avoided dogs but nothing else showed ! Have to assume that the clarity of the water compared to last week was the reason the conger didn't party.

Well if Charlie's not telling, I suppose I shouldn't............. so unless Paul had a hand held GPS in his pocket it's pinpointed for everyone as 'off Old Harry in the general direction of the Slates'

It's moved from the origional link - slipway here

teddy - John Wilson's word not mine I'm sure Dave will replay it Thursday night if he gets along (he is suggesting he will!) and you can judge for yourself from the facts (hehehe) I agree that, as a generality, we all want to feel we are making ground and in control of any fish. In reality if we have a good hookhold and a decent amount of line we have control in open water - it just doesn't always feel like it at the time! I now fish almost exclusively with lever drag reels and set them up for the line loaded - this only leave the small matter of keeping my fingers out of the way but I am getting much better at that recently! I find that whilst you can set up star drags too I always end up confused as to resetting the settings after loosinging off when getting a fish up near the boat. I am still waiting for anything decent to give me a go on the Formula reel - really thought Sunday was going to be the day

are you kidding Bob? It was definitely a - (1) bigger brother of the 15lb bass, subsequently landed on the boat 200 yds down tide (2) a huge cod (3) a record Blonde with attitude (4) tope (big) (5) porbeagle (having taken a pout which took the bait) (6) a good conger any betting man would proabably favour (6) - however as the one that got away nothing can be ruled out and by the end of the week new facts to support 1-5 will emerge

got to embelish one of the 'lost fish' stories from Sunday - the scene - 2 dogs and a pout have arrived over the side and it's mid flood; sea is a little lively. One guys snug in the stern, PaulJ and I are tackling up our second rods.........when nod nod wham our 4th guys (let's call him Dave) rod goes ballistic. Believing (I presume) it to be a Marlin he picks up the rod and gives 3 big heaves into the fish to set the hook - you know just like they do on the big game boats! Now things get a little lively as the fish decides it will go West to Weymouth (did it hear Billy ucalling I wonder?) and Dave is insistant that it remmains in Poole waters. For whatever reason I thought this might be a long battle and looked at my watch (1046h). Now Dave has 90lb braid and a heavy wire trace to about an 8/0 O'shaunasy(?) hook so the eventual outcome seemed in little doubt at first. However, when the fish made a further serious attempt to go West Dave's response was to tighten up the drag on the real a bit; with a little prompting from others on board (come on stop playing around with it/put some pressure on it/didn't you have any wheatabix this morning etc...).....Dave's initial response was in a similar jesting vein (***** **** ** ******** *******) then he went to tighten the star drag; whilst struggling to hold the rod with the other! A distinctive 'crack' followed by a (further) series of expletives made us believe the fish was lost but one look at Dave hanging on to a bucking rod said otherwise. Another 'crack' was followed by words I hadn't heard before, mixed in with a message to the effect that the manufacturers of the reel components, namely the stars on the drag, would appear to have been a little light on their manufacturing tollerances because the dear little things were snapping off as Dave applied a gentle pressure to tighten the drag......... Crack - there went No 3 and the line is still running out against a mere 20/30lb pressure (estimated) and Dave is hanging on for all he's worth. He did recover some line, and at best guess he had the fish around half way up, but the weakest point of the gear eventually gave (believed to be the braid to nylon leader knot tied earlier by someone else on board ) after just over 11 minutes of tussle. Dave calmly stated that these things happen ( and set about tackling up again - a Penn 49 loaded with Braid being gently passed over when the air had settled. Later that night the local distributor of that particular reel was engaged in a quite rational discussion about tackle and offered to return the real to the manufacturer - when their response is obtained they will be named. Suffice to say it wasn't a 6000 class reel. Apart from a hook pull for PaulJ all the other losses were trace 'cuts' - including one new 100lb wire one (Dave again!) One thing does stand out for me - the need to balance you tackle. There are few reels out there that can do justice to 90lb braid; as to whether Dave was giving the fish too much 'teddy' - with hindsight yes but nothing the basic set up shouldn't have handled with ease. Ah well that's fishing -

I gather the monsters went 46lb James........ (although there is some suggestion that the guy on the scales had a vested interest in nothing over 60 and was holding it's tail up! I would like to add my thanks to all that helped out in the tow back Sunday night - boat's now sorted but there are a few questions about how the bug beat mighty Soltron into second place! Also a possible failure of the fuel cutoff solenoid connected to the ignition - currently bypassed pending a more thorough investigation (remove and look through it when connected to 12 v!) Paul's pollock posted in pics; shame about the 7 lost fish - and only 1 was a hook pull . Unfortuantely I wasn't good enough to hook one of them.......

why would you want the west indies when you can have weather like this in Poole at the end of October?

it's hidden here Billy - scoresheet

I find myself in the ridiculous situation where I already have enough points and stars to fish a couple of trips a months through the winter The weather forecasts have delivered the opportunity, and the continued frustration has somehow channelled itself into not just the odd ticked off item on the list but wholesale destruction of the list itself! The oldest job on the list was just over 5 years (widen the garden path) and Sunday saw 1.5 cubic m of 6:1 mixed and poured into workings preped bit by bit over the last month - job done. Ok there will be a new list in time (probably by the time I get home tonight ) but now all I need is some weather windows at weekends....... Are others in the same position? I know at least one member who is making progress as a recent call got the response "I would rather not stop him now as he has just started the painting - please call back much much later!"

as the forecast continues to detiorate the wisdom of the call is unavoidable. unfortunately I too can't make next weekend (having committed to it in order to get permission from the FPO for this Sunday!). even Monday's now showing as grade A **** - when will it end?

weathers looking reasonable for Sunday still........and Monday could be georgous! is anyone actually planning to fish the comp?

and there's me thinking Sunday may well be OK with the wind easing and going back SW from the S6 on Saturday!

sure they wern't herring? Josephine was catching them on Saturday between the 2 high tides just N of Buoy 20

My response to the poll mirrors Ed and Maverick, but when I had a small open boat (17.5ft/90hp) we wore the lifejackets more generally and didn't go out in December! Coddy - I have a 2 piece and find that I use the longlohns with a thick jumper in the sort of conditions we are now seeing (bit chilly) then move to the whole thing as it gets colder/wetter. I regret not spending out on a breathable one. Finally I also think the boat I expected to fiah on would influence me too - on a smaller craft wearing the 1 piece rathert than having a jacket and other clothes lying around with lunch, bait, weights, more lunch and 20 spare rods makes more sense! Finally I have to say I like the look of the floation Smocks and if I was going out to get gear from scratch would probably get a good breathable one piece and one of the smocks for when I didn't need that. (Still miffed Jimbob grabbed the one on the Specimin prize table earlier in the year! )

going to get busy up there..............