Bob F

Blimme, you wouldn't have go me out today. "and quiet , with no traffic on the water ", you've gotta be kidding!! I played golf instead. Quite amusing hitting your tee shots and watching the ball hanging in the air and landing behind you!! That wind was STRONG! Nice Flounders, Alun. Must've been fun getting the boat back on the trailer. BF

Yeh, tell us all!! BF

I wish!!

Steve, At this link there is a utility that will convert Decca to Lat/long. http://www.hydro.nl/pgs/en/decca_en.htm Not many of the GPS units will convert Decca directly, but the unit below will (sort of): http://www.mantsbrite.com/MLR%20Products/M...20412%20PRO.htm Bob F

That's a cracker!!

Hi Jamma, If you look through the Boat Talk section you will see a post by Newboy that shows a photo of the Triangle and how it should be used. November 2004 I think. cheers BF

Do you ever work Rich??? BF

Like the others said, Colin, it's coming to the quiet season in Feb and March. Best bet is some conger action. Adam and I intend going out on Saturday and will perch ourselves over a wreck somewhere. There are still rays to be picked up, but they will take some finding. The spoil grounds are probably as good a place as any, unless you can get out to some of the Blonde Ray banks (wherever they are!!). BF

Alun, yes, I'd heard of this late run, but never experienced it myself. Worth giving it a go on the cod highway that runs E-W along the back of the ledge and past X-Ray. BF

Whey Hey!!! Nice one Gary. Bob F

Very, very nice James! I have to say I'm envious... She'll be flying past Splash-Out with the same 70hp suzuki. What are the silver/grey things sticking up on the rear quarters? Can't quite make out what they are. cheers BF

Cracking day Alun. Well done, mate. BF

Still cod out there, eh? Nice one Trev. Bob F.

Nice one Coddy. BF

Tis mackerel for me, too, but Turbot are a favourite, also. BF

You could try Maplin's for various bits and bobs, or Halfords for battery cable bits, or a chandlers, I guess. http://www.maplin.co.uk/ BF

Lookfar, Yes, you're right, we forgot the Orkney Day Anglers. Very nice boats, too. But aren't they all either stern drive of outboard?? Not sure that they do inboard diesels... BF

I believe there are some family health problems. BF

Hi Wedger, nice to have you aboard. My vote would go to the Avor with the inboard 85hp Nani diesel. I think they are a beautiful looking boat and well laid out for angling. With the inboard engine the C of G is much lower giving a more stable ride at anchor. But with 85Hp don't expect to be blasting across the horizon. Slow and steady will be the name of the game, but then it isn't that often that you can cruise over 16-18knts with an outboard, anyway. The big benefit will be fuel economy, of course. I'm in a similar situation, and that's what I would buy if the Misses would let me. Would prefer the larger diesel but then you're talking more dosh. Good luck and let us know how you get on. cheers BF

A pantograph is one of those drawing instruments that's used to trace over a drawing and produce a magnified copy. A pantograph wiper is (I think) the one that has two arms going to the wiper blade which produces a flatter arc.

Another thing to be careful of... Most of the mess in my wire looms are from the cables used from the engine to the instruments. If your engine is under warranty I don't think you should mess with these. BF

Like most things, it's easy when you know how. But not easy to do properly. It's a time consuming job to do neatly, but there are ways to make it easier. If I was doing it, I'd start by drawing out a full wiring diagram, showing the locations of all your pieces of equipment, and the cable sizes needed for each piece. Once you have this, you can combine certain pieces of equipment in the same cable by purchasing multi-wire cables. The cables go to a break-out box where the wires are split out into their individual instruments or equipment. This will simplify the cable runs and make it much neater. You need to be careful about interference on data and power cables from the GPS FF and Radio, so keep them separate or use shielded cable for the data signals, and ferrites on the power cables. Tip - leave a small droop in the wire just before a vertical connection. If there is any moisture on the wire it will then collect on the bottom of the droop and drip off, rather then running into the connection. ...on second thoughts, perhaps it's best to get a quote... BF

As Rich mentioned in his trip report yesterday, I had an interesting encounter whilst out on the Pinnicle (120ft deep on the slates). I'd had a couple of very small knocks on my rod and left it to develop for a while. Nothing much happened, so I decided to reel in and rebait. But the rig was stuck in the bottom. I slackened off and hoped it would release itself. After a short wait I tried again, and it was free, but with what felt like a pouting on the end, About 10 ft up I felt something a lot bigger, and called out to Rich that I was in. A couple of seconds later and I was crying that I'd lost it. Suddenly fearing that the fish had climbed in the water I reeled in fast and about half way up I felt a heavy thump again, and shouted to Rich that I'd still got it. But within a second it had gone again. This time I could feel the weight of the lead, so I just reeled in normally. It still felt like I had a small fish on, so I looked over the side to see what was coming up. I could just make out the typical spinning of a Pout when out of nowhere a large shadow shot in and the line snapped. It all happened so fast that I wasn't really sure what I had seen. I reeled in the line to find my 70lb mono trace had been cleanly bitten off. Rich then got some knocks on his rod and reeled in to find my Pout caught on his line about 15 ft down. The barb of my hook had got caught on his braid. I simply pulled it off. The remains of my pennel rig was hanging from it's mouth, but there were no marks on the Pout at all(???). When I got home, I had a look at the other half of my rig which I'd slung in the weight box on the boat. It was then that I noticed there was only 2ft of it left. Now, I was using a 4ft rig of 70lb mono. 6ins were hanging from the Pouts mouth and 2ft was left on my line. So, what had happend to the other 18ins??!!?? Could it really have been a shark with an 18 inch gape??? And why were there no marks on the Pout? Perhaps it was a shark with poor eyesight that misjudged the its lunge at the Pout. But what were to two heavy tugs I felt whilst reeling in? If it was a shark having a go at the large Pouting, why weren't there any marks on the fish?? Tis a mystery and will just go down as another fishermans tale, I suppose. Had me spooked for a bit, though. BF

OOoooh, the Run at Mudeford. Nice one! From the way the bar is running in this picture it looks like we cut out to sea (south) a little too early. BF

Welcome Trevor. BF