Adam F

With the small tides - had thought about giving the Tope a bash round to the West - anyone know if they are still around? I had considered the island but the tides look very small - and in previous experinace the small tides needs live eels to catch? Martin, I still may come along - if you havent used Wick before it may be helpful to have a familar boat to follow out. Ill have a look at the weather on Friday and then make a decision. AF

Should I carry a spare anchor?? - probably. To be honest it is the one thing that I couldnt store away, is big and bulky and heavy. I have an emergancy anchor which came with the boat - it has about 50 feet of rope a small amount of chain and a small bottle anchor - my guess is that this wouldnt do too much to hold BW anyway, so I never carry it. I have only been close to loosing my anchor once in 2 years (touch wood) and if I had have done - would have just come in - or drift fished the rest of the day. I suppose if I lost my engine useage, then lost my anchor it would be helpful - but you would have to be extremely unlucky and where does one draw the line? Ideally, space and weight permitting I would carry an exact replacement for the main gear, but until this time arrises I personally feel that my stance on this is OK? I am probably wrong and would be interested to hear others comments though!

Slack tide on Sunday - hot fresh tea and bacon rolls! Mmmm!! Got the idea from Martin. I have a gas cooker with a big footprint that stops it falling over - its ideal in anything but a really angry sea - then you have to hold the kettle on the stove!

Have a look in last months BFM.

Good thread Dave - Im sure all of us are guilty of this! If I emptied BW from full after a fishing trip, this is what I would have. I have looked at the long and hard - and only take what I consider a balance between essential and handy. The Warriors ahve a fair bit of space, but not loads and I have managed to optimise this by fitting most of this kit into lockers or corners. 1 x anchor and warp, 2 x mooring warps - both stored in the front anchor well. 1 x throw line, 1 x bailer, 1 x diving knife, 2 x 1st Aid Kits, cable ties, wd40, basic tool kit in a tool roll (takes us less space) spares (fuses, bulbs, wire, tape etc) 1 pair of H/D rigger gloves - this all fits in the front locker under the port berth. Spare battery, butt pad, tbars, big scissors, cap, glasses, suncream, Admiralty charts in tube, grab bag with offshore flares - all go in instrument locker. Electronics, cooker, gas, lifejackets and spare clothing go in a holdall on the starboard berth bench. As does a cool box with food and cooking implements. I carry 2 x 5 gallon tanks both of which sit neatly in the bilge well - on long trips I have another same sized tank which sits under the starboard transom, but in 2 years of owning the boat I have only done this twice - on the Ripps trip. 50 ltrs gives me about 60 miles range. I carry a round fish box which sits on the deck - inside this is another tub holding my adlerney buoy, spare chopping board. On the top of the fish box is a round ply lid - my cutting board, table and seat! Net, gaff, boat hook and deck brush all store on a rack on the port gunwhale. Leads - I keep at home and have 3 buckets - 1 with uptide grip leads, 1 with 2-10oz leads and another with 12-2lb leads. Depending on where/what Im fishing I chop and change to keep the weight down. Fenders - I only take when I need to moor the boat after launching - ie. Weymouth. Fianlly I now have a transom rail with 4 rod holders to keep spare rods off the deck. Quite a bit of gear also - but takes up very little room, and seldom do I wish for anything extra whilst alfloat. AF

Another...

The first two bass on Sunday. Best went 6lb. All very fat fish as you can see - all stuffed to the gills on Sea Anenomeous(?) Every fish I have had from Portland this year has been like this, never seen it anywhere before?

The first Weymouth trail away of the year went well Im pleased to report. We had five club boats turn in which was reasonable considering the time of year, holidays and other commitments etc.. Maverick with Dean and Mark B, Dawn Raider with Rich Jaw, Blue Warrior with Paul J, Neo with Sam C and Fat Chance with Terry and Tony. We met at 7am and the weather looked to be spot on - with the huge tides expectations were high for the bass to feed. With us all launched we headed out in convoy - alas we couldnt make contact with Eddy the Eel, and the tide was already running which meant we couldnt feather any - plan C was to head around the back of the Bill to feather some joeys. The tides today were as fierce as I have ever seen them - I think most of the boats used twice as much fuel as normal! At one point just of the Bill I was sat at 3500rpm just to keep the boat stationary in the 7 knot tide! Drifts happened in a blink of the eye and we used 12oz of lead most of the day to keep on the bottom! We were all expecting to fish the race, but when we arrived a veritable car park had formed on the West Buoy - charter boats, commercial rod and line bass boats and pleasure craft all crowded the drift line. The fish seemed to be everywhere as every boat you looked at seemed to netting a fish. BW took just 2 drifts to snag the first fish - the best of the day at 6lb. It was hard work though and just when you though you had it sussed you would draw a few blank drifts. As the tide slackend the boats began to disperse to ther marks and to find tide in the eddy that creates here. The first tide of the morning had been hard work to say the least but a respectable amount of Bass had been taken and the majority returned alive. The slack was very brief due to the tide size - barely enough time to have lunch and clean the catch and we were back off again. BW tried the race but it was serious stuff - too much for us, so we headed back to the first mark. Maverick had managed to buy about 50 eels from eddy and martin very kindly donated a handful to BW - this seemed to do the trick with a fish every drift - although noticable was the size of the bass on the eels - pretty small. Whilst the joeys to fewer fish - they were a much better stamp. We called it a day at about 4pm and headed back to the slip for a wash down and a quick pint in the Spyglass. All in all another enjoyable day in Weymouth. Adam

Latest Forecast: WNW - F3/4 Bright and Sunny. As long as it doesnt get any worse it should be OK. See you all doen there at 7am. Ill post a final weather report tonight.

Is this true? I thought he just sold the company? I have also seen them advertising again - so they must be back in manufacture? DLP - The raider and the warrior are both cracking 16' boats - they both have their pros and cons, it all depends on what you want from a boat. As Maverick says you really need to get a trip on both of them. If you can make Weymouth on Sunday Ill have my 165 there so you could get a ride on both of them?? Adam

If I do a mid week trip Sam - youll be first on the list. Adam

...and finally: I installed a new skin fitting alongside the current outlet for the main bilge. It is here that the water exits the tank. The two hoses fit inside one another so when the tank is not onboard they store by sliding them together underneath the transom - keeps them out of the way. The deck wash hose fits snuggly inside the inlet hose for washing down although I am trying to find a plastic Y connector with a divertor to allow me to run both the tank and the hose and switch between them. This set up cost just under

Here is the switch.

The pump is a cheap Rule 350 GPH bilge pump coasting about

A number of people now have asked / PM'd me to see how the live well is constructed on BW. Alan Lake (Domino) had a cracking feature on his own website last year, but it isnt hosted anymore, so I though I would post a few piccies to show how I did mine for anyone interrested. To start here is the barrell. It came from here: http://www.smithsofthedean.co.uk/Miscellaneous.htm I have both the inlet and the outlet at the same level. Many choose to have the inlet lower to create better water movement, but for some reason I find this works better. Inlet is 3/4" outlet is 1 1/2" needs to be bigger to keep up with the inlet. The tap at the bottom came from a self brew shop in Ringwood for

Gordon had decided that brownie points are needed so I need crew - Paul J - do you fancy a trip out on BW?

Up at 4am this morning and launched by 5.... Lovely morning to be up again - reason for this - SW5-6...Plan was to fish until wind picked up and then come in about 10ish. Started on a different spot, but lack of tide meant we only had 0.5 knots so canned that idea and steamed to the old faithful. After several blank bass trips, it was Gordons turn today, taking three fish in quick succesion on the last of the ebb tide. We sat it out until the flood and I saved a blank by bagging a 3lber. Best fish was 4lb to Gordon. Wind got up at 11am to a good 4/5 so we headed in. Took me 2 HOURS to drive the 6 miles home to Verwood from Christchurch - rowing regattas, carnivals, Ellingham show and road works - boy, was I not happy! Anyway, thats my fix for the weekend! AF

I have always hooked them top jaw only. Tried the nostral method today, but had problems with the hook spinning, so back to the tried and tested. EVERY bass this year Ive had has hit the baits head first - therfore I would never hook one in the tail root. AF

Correct - they are Tope. Smoothies are fairly common around Poole, but not like we get up the Solent - if you caught 10, my guess would be they were Tope. AF

The long range isnt looking too hot anyway - the weekend looks to be bringing F4,5 and 6's from the SW

Currently we have 3 boats: Neo, Dawn Raider, Maverick and Blue Warrior We have 4 crew: Sheddy, Rich JAW, Sam and Mark B. I was hoping to see some different boats and names this time? If you want to come and are worried as you dont know anyone dont worry, we are a friendly bunch and will welcome you. Same goes if you havent trailed to Weymouth yet. Out of 75 club boats, surely we must have more than 4 who want to come?

Correct - you dont want to chop your hands off!

Great news! So, the system does work.

...could be - stick it into gear and see if the prop turns. Saying that - when my last engine started to do this it went bang shortly after and cost me 6k for a new one

Ill be venturing out Martin - but was going to give the islands a miss due to the small tides. I was thinking of Toping to the west. Sat is the only day I can make. AF