Bob F

Well, I think I've finally made up my mind which Plotter/FF combo unit I will get. Having said that, I haven't seen a demo of the unit yet, so I might change my mind. Surprisingly, it's going to be an Eagle SeaChamp 2000C DF. Why? 1 - From what I have read and have seen, Eagle is a rebranding of the same Lowrance models. They either despec an existing Lowrance model, or repackage an older Lowrance model. So, with Eagle you have the same Lowrance quality. 2 - The Lowrance equivalent to the Eagle SeaChamp 2000C is the LCX-25C. Both have the same spec (7" colour VGA screens, 480x640) except for the following: - Lowrance sonar power is 8,000W vs 4,000W on the Eagle. In terms of max depth, this equates to 3,000ft and 1,500ft respectively. 4,000W is more than enough for our waters. - Lowrance has the new NMEA 2000 interface vs NMEA 0183 on Eagle. So, what? NMEA 2000 will only be useful if you want to add something like a Radar. I will not be adding a Radar, so NMEA 0183 will be fine for things like sending GPS numbers to/from your computer. - Both units are able to record GPS and Sonar data. - With the Lowrance LCX-25C, duel Freq Sonar is an optional extra. The SeaChamp is dual freq as standard. [note, I wouldn't normally bother with dual Freq but the company where I am buying it are doing the DF for the same price as the single freq, so why not have it?] - Price!!! The LCX-25C is $1,489 (200KHz only). The SeaChamp 2000C DF is $1,169 (200KHz & 50KHz). So, I save $300, which is the price of an XL3 Navionics Gold chart. We'll see how it goes when I see the units in real life. I could still be swayed by the Lowrance LCX-25C, or the Navman 6600, or Garmin 3006C. Cheers Bob F

Dan, I will have a Garmin GPS/FF unit for sale in the next couple of weeks. The FF is fairly basic but the GPS is good. It finds all my marks anyway. I will probably only want

The 7" 480x640 Lowrance LCX-25C can be bought for $1,489. (200KHz) The 6.4" 480x640 Garmin 3006C (200KHz & 50KHz) costs $1,670 + $255 for the FF box + $150 for a transducer, so $1,975 total. Both have the same display quality both the Lowrance is slightly larger at 7". With Lowrance you have the option of single or dual frequency. With the 3006C you do not. Remember, the 50KHz is not needed unless you frequently fish in greater than 300ft of water. Lowrance sounder power is 8,000W compared to the 3006C which is 4,000W. Lowrance sonar and GPS data is recordable togeather. On the 3006C you can only record GPS tracks. The 3006C can be connected to Radar using it's 10Mbps data cable. The 3006C has more waypoint storage with 4,000. Lowrance is 1,000. Both more than I will ever need. Both have dual cartridge slots (one for your map, and one for storing data). Garmin probably have the better functions on the GPS Navigation pages. Lowrance probably have the better sonar. Both have very good charts. Garmin use their own BlueChart maps. Lowrance use Navionics Gold. Horses for courses, I say. Take your pick. BF

Took little Rob out to the same mark yesterday. Set out at about 2:45 and arrived on the mark at 3:15. Drifted the mark for mackerel and we were immediately into them. Literally a couple of minutes and we have more than enough bait, including some nice live joey's. Anchored up and within 5 mins Robert was into his first fish. A very small pack tope, but a nice gentle start for him, I thought. But that was it, really. Had another couple of small pack tope, but none of the beast bites that we had had the previous day (think we may have got there a bit too late). Then just as we were about to leave, Robert was into something a little heavier. Turned out to be a nice 7lb small-eyed ray. So that's another species for this mark. BF

Very nice. BF

Happy Birthday, Matt. BF

I can't make this trip, so good luck lads. BF

Great result on the fly, Will. Must've been fun. BF

Still married, and even been given a pass to take little Rob out to find the Tope again this afternoon. BF

Garmin don't do a Combo unit with a screen bigger than 5", however, I've just noticed that you can buy a larger screen Chartplotter and add a separate black box sounder unit. Very pricy, though. BF

Have you ever left for a fishing trip early in the morning, tip toeing out of the bedroom to avoid waking the wife, and then just as you're closing the bedroom door you hear the heartstopping words, "HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, DEAR" Holy Mackerel!! I'd only gone and forgotten our 22nd Wedding Anniversary. A few grovelling apologies and thoughts of passing through my head, I left the house with my tail between my legs. But what a terrific day it turned out to be, as elequently described by Rich. Duncan, if you're reading this, the mark from my little black book was that great looking peak that showed on your Sonar recording. For the record, we were fishing it between 2hrs and 5hrs after low water at Poole on small tides. It was a real pleasure hooking into some real heavy weights, even though we didn't manage to boat any. Just feeling that power at the end of your line is awesome! BF

Les, You are right to be looking for a bigger screen is you are thinking of a combo unit (as I am at the moment). For screen sizes of 6-7" you should look at: Standard Horizon CP175C - this has a 6" screen size, and a very neat quick disconnect facility for easy removal of the unit from the boat. The FF is a separate box which you have to buy. The Plotter looks good and it has a very nice joystick for moving the curser. The FF unit has only just been released to the market, so it may have teething problems and bugs. Lowrance have the LCX-20C (6" screen) and the LCX-25C (7" screen). The LCX-25C has a much better display with 480x640 pixels, compared to 240x320 on the LXC-20C. At the moment, the LCX-25C is my preferred choice and is probably the one I will buy. Not cheap at

What a wonderful skipper Adam is. He made the major contribution to catching the bait, and then did the honourable thing and allowed his crew (me) to catch all the Bass. We went out this morning on BW to fish for Bass off the IOW. My objective was to catch my first bass using live Mackerel. The mackerel played hard to get, and after 1 hr we had only caught two. We eventually found a shoal 3 miles south of the Needles, and reeled up enough to last us 3hrs of the flood tide. Back on the bass mark things started off slow with no takes, but after the tide reach 2 knts we had a short session that brought 3 bass to the boat for yours truely. Biggest was 5lb, which was returned. Adam declined to let any of the bass steal his hard caught mackerel. Quite right! I think he was also trying to make Gordon feel a little better after his blank. Neo was also out and struggled to catch any mackerel, so they resorted to Storm Shads, and perhaps surprisingly, they did the trick. Neo had 3 bass by the time we left at noon. Wonderful style of fishing. Thanks Adam for being a sport!!! Bob F

Our new club member, Kevin, used to fish the region a lot and has many marks he'd be willing to share. In exchange for some Poole marks, of course. So, yes, let's give it a crack. BF

Right on, Adam. When I was looking at boats in enquired about the Explorer and they were asking for a 50% deposit!! B@%%cks to that. So, I didn't go any farther. It's a shame if they have gone bust, though. Less competition for Warrior means higher prices for us. BF

Ooooh, nice. BF

Yes, absolutely, Ducan. Pixels are important, too. Thanks for remembering that. The new 5" Lowrance range (X102 Fish Finder, 3500C Plotter and LMS-332 combo)all have 480x480 pixels, which is great for the size of the screen. You can still buy the presvious 5" range, but their screen resolution is 320x240 which is why you see them cheaper in the mags. BF

Sheddy, I assume you will be fitting it to a 5-6 meter boat, in which case the minimum size screen you should go for is 5". Definitely go for the new colour sunlight viewable screens and try to go for a plotter rather than a standard GPS (you wont regret it). Also, go for an external antenna and not one that has an internal antenna. The Garmin 182C is extremely good. Excellent detail on the maps and good tidal information. Very, very good support from Garmin if anything goes wrong. You'll need to stretch the budget a little to

I guess it comes down to your budget, taste and your personal feel for the rod. We're all different. Personally, I like the Ugly Stick range, including the spinning rods. I've tried Daiwa, Fladen and Abu, and managed to break them all. But the Ugly Sticks seem to be able to take some stick and have a lovely tippy action. Another rod well worth looking at is the Penn Giller Thriller. This makes a really good all round rod that can be used for uptiding, downtiding, drifting, flatties, and I've even manged to bring a 40lb+ conger to the surface with it. Overall, this has become my favourite rod. None of the above rods will break the bank and will last the course. BF

Welcome Skyliner.

hee, hee, hee...

Dave, There's no overnight parking allowed in Baiter carpark. It gets locked around midnight. I think you can park on the road outside of Baiter, though. Not sure. Park in Baiter for the day (until midnight), then move the boat and trailer onto the road in the evening when everyone has gone home. There's usually plenty of spaces in the evening. They do charge for parking on the road, but not sure if this includes overnight. Someone will have to check the road signs for you. BF

Will not be fishing Weds evening. Got a PBSBAC committee meeting. cheers BF

Great stuff Adam. Nice Bass, bet you thought that was a double figure fish when it came to the surface. BF

hmm...you've tweaked my interest. Gunna depend on work. BF