Rob

Bloody cheek!!! Thanks Dave, it was a long shot but paid off!!!! Rob

Is this Dave L? Welcome, thanks for your support at the Open and it will mean we no longer have to take our reels to you, but just to a Club meeting result! Rob

Small but perfectly formed!

Alderney on JoJo? Now I'm thinking..........

Small boats rule OK!!! Though JV would have been more suitable for the journey back to port!!!!! Don't underestimate the tiddlers! Inc yakkers, as I think JoJo is only a foot and a bit bigger than a yak!!!

For anyone interested, I made traces with: HD shark wire (5ft) then 10ft of 500lb mono. Crimped with biggish swivels and a 9/0 circle. Rob

Next time I hope Jim!!

Well done, what a cracker!

Shark fever has struck the club. Not wanting to be left out, though one of the smallest boats in the club, I bought the gear for making some heavy traces up! I had taken my Ray fishing (now shark fishing) rods with us to Dartmouth, the intention was that these 30lb class rods would be great for sport for sharks. I had some info from Neil at Bournemouth Fishing Lodge, as he had recently been to salcome on Random Harvest. So, we has some family days on the boat, some mackereling, potting etc. Wednesday my longest friend and fishing buddy NickT came over to Dartmouth for a days sharking! We headed out, found mackerel and plenty of them. Then we started the 13mile journey to our drift site. We drifted for 5+ miles, mincing and rubby dubby scaking and making maccy soup all the way! 5 miles of drift and neary 5 hrs, choppy sea, F3 / F4 and the tide hadnt turned as I had hoped to push us back homeward. We decided to pack up and have an hour on the blondes before home. One rod in, feathers in and screaming run!!!!!! (This time it was not a gull (we had 4 or 5). Nick had picked the rod with the red ballon, and this was on the red! I set the hook and passed him the rod, after 5+ mins of screaming deep runs I saw a shape 20ft down in the clear water. It was a blue! Sat side on facing the tide, beautiful! Nick was surprised as I donned some gloves and advised it was coming onboard! The long thick trace was so easy to handle, my crimps held and we had ourselves a blue onboard after a careful tail and dorsal lift. Nick got too close and lost part of his trousers, luckily the lower end by his ankle!!! We did not have a sling onboard and we wanted to return her. We measured her, so if anyone has some size to weight tables for blues, I would be grateful. I estimated that she was 40-50lb. As they are quite slender compared to tope. And she was at least a 1/3 of the length of the boat! Nick held her tail for a good 10 mins next to the boat, she was relaxed and didn't struggle (as I put the rods out again!). He let go and she very slowly headed down with a waft of her tail, amazing! We fished on for another hour, but only a bird made us leap up with hearts pounding! The drift had headed north and then back home. Then I looked on the plotter, with the drift and the initial starting point, we had a long way to get home, 21miles and a sloppy horrible sea! In the morning I had been to the petrol station and bought 2 x 5litre cans with fuel as backup. I put the backup in the main tank (which was low) and connected the full reserve. The reserve got us 1/2 mile from the entrance of the Dart, hooked up the 12/15 litres in the main tank and we were back for 20:30 in the dark. The takeaway curry beat us by 10 mins, and was well deserved! Ah.......I thought holidays were supposed to be relaxing!

Top Man!!!!!!

Unlucky Nige, good luck with the issue. Rob

How about a floating rope between boats? Can be withdrawn when a friendly passes at sensible speed, like a police stinger!!

Make the most of it as JoJo is outside club waters!!!!

Though on the iPad, you need an external GPS source (like Bluetooth receiver) if you don't have the iPad with the SIM card/3G slot. As the 3G option also contains the GPS chip. The basic iPad guesses where you are from wifi locations near by. Rob

"Sorry for your loss" - spend some of the cash on some ear defenders for when you are on MantaRay!

No criticism felt or taken Allan! It is a shame when rays die before being weighed. I we only had one blonde that didn't go back, possibly some small eyes too. I guess it is down the individuals and the choice they make on the species they target. We dropped the Undulates as they are on the IUCN Red List as endangered: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/161425/0 Though locally common, we are lucky!! Rob

Not sure it would be 'interesting'! But please forward any ideas how to get honesty with £100's on the table with many unknown faces fishing the Open. I already calibrate the 3 sets of scales against each other and known weights as it is! Let alone measures against approximate tables! Even the well supported and made BASS tape doesn't cater for anorexic or obese fish! But it would be 90% accurate, but that isn't good enough! Rob

"All I could manage was dinner with a couple of the office girls here followed by a Thai massage, just trying to make the best of every situation you understand..." With happy birthday ending.....................

You need to add any catches at the Open to the fish recorder to qualify for a monthly prize etc. Charlie, can you or get Will to add his RG? Rob

I have an HDS5 and an LMS-520c - both dual FF & plotters. Don't need them to both be plotters but a good backup so I keep an old chart in the 520. I used to have a lowrance 3500c with the 520 which was good, map on 3500 and ff on 520. Both networked with NEMA so I could share marks / waypoints & it syncs data and things like screen brightness. Now I will have an Ethernet to both, so can get FF on either but only Structure in the HD from the broadband box. If I were you I would get a secondhand combo like a 520. Rob

Oh no it isn't!!!

Enjoy! Rob

Here is an electronic version of the harbour guide: http://www.phc.co.uk/downloads/latest/PHG2013-Low-Res.pdf

Welcome Chris! Rob

From Baiter you are in the harbour not the bay. The bay is outside the harbour and open sea. Speed limit in the main channels is 10knots, not sure but maybe 6 elsewhere. They (PHC - Poole Harbour Commissioners) have rasas and video tracking boat movements, & patrol boats and jet skis!!! Mind shallows and sandbanks from no where?, get a chart and stick to the channels!!!! You would be surprised how much mud is on show, even on a neap low!!! Rob