Adam F

Nice one Charlie - Great White Too (Two) (II)????? I too have had a good look around the manufacturers site, and looks good. You must have a substantial garden to build a beast like that at home! When do you expect to start / complete her? Those trips to the ripp and channel islands will no longer been out of range! Look out club records! I look forward to watching her progress - dont want to pry too much, but would making a superb link for the site to have a 'building diary' like Chris and Pat have on Deepsea so we can watch the progress of her being built? Adam

A few of us are planning a trip to Chesil this week, probably Weds or Thurs eve. Plan is to arrive around 4pm onwards and fish the night time flood until 11pm ish... Gordon and his mate, Me and Bob F are going, so if you fancy joining us, let me know. Adam

BW may also be on the market after Xmas - the only decision left to make (and its a big one!) is whether to stay trailing or go for a mooring. Decided to leave the Souter 21 I recently saw - for the condition it just wasnt worth the money. Anyway a brand new Aquafish 23 without engine appeared this week - 9995.....swayed me the other way again! Either this or the bigger 175 Warrior...decisions, decisions!

Where's this come from then? You havent bought Enticer have you?....you could have had BW you wouldnt have had to swap the engines then!!

Youll never see me online during the day....

Was planning to do it Thursday night with aim aim to finishing it early next week. Please send any comments over - Ill include them in it. Cheers

Well said Rich. This subject was raised a few months back and makes interesting reading. Whilst contrivesal I feel that this is the only comp of the year where we require a fish to be bought to the scales - the rest of the year I feel I am extreemely conservation minded (the generally attitide int he club has taught me this) and only take fish that will be eaten FRESH, not frozen for later...anyway....I made the decision to return 20 odd eels on Sunday as they were all under 35lb...having fished previous years and listening to the banter on the radio it was clear that at least 75% was needed to figure - when the 38lber came along I made the decision to take this fish - yes it was a conger, and no I dont eat them. We tried to keep him alive, but alas he died as we got back to the harbour. Bottom line is that the fish was worth over

Nice one Charlie, You mention writing the report....I have been tasked with writing one for the Echo and BFM...is yours to be seperate? Or do you wish to do the write-up overall? Adam

Another early start saw me arriving at Baiter for 6.30am to help get set-up - it was cold, but with the mearest hint of a breeze had me hopeful for a nice day's weather. The sun soon started to appear along with the entrants - many thanks to the committe members who stayed to complete the registration. I was booked on Dawn Raider with Jimbo this year (his turn!) and the plan was to head to a wreck for an eel or two, logic being that the 40lb 100% target weight wouldnt be too hard to hit. Flying up the swash channel we were greated by even flatter conditions in Swange bay, and at 27 knots we were soon rounding the Anvil heading west. The sea got a little rougher for the last 5 miles, but no to cause any concern and we kept up a 14 knot cruise. On arriving at said mark an awkward wind over tide / diagional situation made calculating the anchor drop tricky but 2nd time we were there and the wreck showed nicely on the plotter - but would the snakes feed given the bright conditions? First cast and I'm in - but the excitement was short lived as a fat pout made its way to the surface...false alarm! But not more than 10 minutes later the the aggresive tugs of an eel were met with a pleasing bend in the rod!! Fish on!! ....and that's how it continued for 6 hours until 3pm! We had a take on each rod every cast for the whole day - we used 5 boxes of squid, 4 cuttle, a dozen mackerel and 4 fresh pout. The fishing was hard as even though the tide was neaps, it still requires 2lb of lead at max tide, and a 30lb eel in the tide is tough going - we estimated to have lost as many eels as we landed in hook pulls and breakages. Most of the fish we like peas in a pod - 20-25lb....it seemed imposible to break the 30lb mark - James did twice with a brace of 31lbers, but I struggled. We had numerous double hook-ups and twice had 4 eels on at once. But, I left it until the end of the day and 10 minutes before the end to snare by best fish, a cracker of 38lb. We calculated over 40 eels boated throughout the day. The weather stayed OK as well - we heard on the VHF conditions further east were snotty, but where we were it stayed fine - strange.... The steam home was very pleasent with the wind now dropped, and in little under an hour we pulled up at baiter to the weigh-in. The big eel looked a good bet all the way and was confimed later at the mariner when it took 3rd in the round fish comp and the biggest round fish pools money - a good days work! Thanks must go the competiton comitte for organising another superb event, and we was supported by the numbers who turned out. Some great prizes and smooth running made it a memorable day! Also thanks to James for skippering DR. Cheers Adam

I think we would all be surprised...a weymouth skipper was telling me back in the autumn that a mate of his who spear fishes regularly bring back double figure plaice from inside the shambles - the skipper has spend days fishing the exact mark without anything near that size...the same goes for what I have heard coming up in nets from Poole Bay.... I guess thats why the fish are that size! But no matter how willey the fish is - they cant avoid a bloody great beam traweller!!

A contradiction terms?? I agree with the last bit, but as too its importance.... I could live with a rod I wasnt 100% happy with, line - as long as it didnt break and I could feel the bites, etc...but the reel...I personally feel this is the most imprtant part of the set up, how it loads the line, performs under pressure, the smoothness of the drag and the einching power of the gears. Having had countless dozens of reels in the past few years I ahve seen the good, the bad and the ugly... Off my soap box now!! Adam

The Infamous Dawn Raider will be out with 2004 National Boat Champion - James Parker as skipper and my good self as crew / angling. ....leaves me plenty of time to help organise in the morning and eve and more time to catch fish during the day....DR is also 5 knots quicker than BW, so well have even more fishing time....its a long way to Alderney you know!!

Id always go front drag when using it for sea fishing. The drags are more basic but stronger and more easily accesable in a rush. I'd also always go for a Shimano. Adam

Nice report Kam - well done. John sounds like the man - I know when I spoke to him during his brief stay in Poole this summer he was a top bloke. I have been tempted to take BW to Oban - it doesnt get better than catching a skate on your own boat - its a HELL of a long way to tow though. On a more serious note - I am considering changing Alderney 2007 to a Scotish skate trip after the poor take-up this year. Adam

Something Ive always wanted to do! Well done! How big? Was that on Oberon?

Glad you spelt the last word correctly, once slip to the right on the 'U' - it could have a whole new connotation otherwise!!

Rich - do you have the moulds back yet? Can I pop over one eve this week and collect my ones? Adam

Gordon and I decided to give the main comp a miss today and have another crack at the cod with the weather being so good. It was agreed an early start was needed to have a crack at the flood tide, so at 6.30 Gordon arrives - its blo%%dy freezing, at least -4c in Verwood....the boat is frozen solid, just a good job it was loaded the night before! We were on the water at 7.45am en-route to our chosen mark, and what a morning!!! The blood red sun just breaking the freezing early morning mist - who the hell wants to be in bed! 20 minutes later and we hit a think bank of freezing fog, luckily it soon lifted and we setteld on the mark. The first two hours were quite slow with the hot tea and egg and bacon rolls keeping morale high! Then, shortly after 10.30 my rod hoops over and I'm in!! This was on my 50lb class rod with a TLD20 and 65lb braid and for 5 minutes I could stop it! It just kept steaming off downtide....well, either a big blonde or a big cod as it was nodding and fighting well. After about 15 minutes we saw the leader....convinced it was a ray or a cod we were astonished when a big grey shape neared the boat! A blo%^dy big eel! Just as Gordon was about to net it his rod whacks over leaving me to solitare the beast! I slipped the gaff under his chin and heaved him aboard. As Gordon looked to have a decent fish on also I was in a rush to weigh him and get in back in, struggling to hold the fish off the deck (was longer than me - 6' 1") and also pretty heavy, I took the lowest reading from the scales - 42lb... Gordons fish however looked more like an eel, but we prayed for a golden bar....it was fighting deep leading us to think it was a cod, until it neared the boat and in typical eel fashion came high in the water....then a tail broke the surface and the cry went out - COD! To add to the mayhem, Gordy's rod then snapped just as the fish neared the net and the lead became tangled in the end it was a safe result and a superbly proportioned 17lb 10oz cod lay on the deck of BW! What a result! We moved on the ebb to a wreck 6 miles further East which produced a few modest eels to round the day off nicely! The wind dropped to nothing at 2pm and we had a glorious 15 mile run back home. Roll on next weekend!

You might like to add the size matey! 17lb 10oz Nice one!

Martin, Sorry so late - 4 boxes please. Adam

see my reply in Charlie's other post re. the Sunday comp!

James had great fun.....doggies, pout, doggies, pout....you get the picture! I have sent you a PM with info. AF

That makes me sooooo MAD!!!! Whilst we were out on Thursday the whole sodding bloody day was drowned out by the skippers from Lymington talking about everything from burning the toast to shopping....my thoughts on this are unprintable. As someone who regulary fishes the waters in and around the island I have to put up with this, as unfortuantly PBSBAC and the Lymington skippers use CH6 - I must stress this is not ALL the skippers, but a select few - you know who you are... Chatting on the radio IMHO is fine, but these guys seem to do it just for the heck of it, christ, either buy a boat together and chat, use a mobile or shut the hell up!!!! Off my soap box now... AF

Rich, Ill buzz over sunday eve. AF

Gordon's Ray, Thornback 11lb 12oz