Adam F

Kam, I agree with Duncan. 2 batteries should be more than adiquate - I think 3 will further complicate things, aslos you run the risk of more things to go wrong. The 85ah batts you have at the moment may be a bit small, even together. With my old engine I had a 85 and a 110 - the 85 struggled on its own. Id go for either 1x 85ah and 1x110 or a pair of 110 AH batts, these should provide all the power you need. Adam

I agree with Steve - I wouldnt want to be tied off to the anchor. A small football sized bout is enough. I also like to have too much warp in the boat. I have never even come clsoe to using 3/4 of my warp - this also gives you a safety margin when letting warp out, and allows me to adjust the amount of warp out easily without worrying about running out. I think I have about 400 mtrs.

I cant fish the 30th is the ONLY mandatory day of the year when ALL staff must work, NO exceptions. So while you lot are cod fishing ill be driving up north to do a stocktake audit!

I use about 4 forecasts, but I have known all of them to be wrong when out at sea. Tides, depth of water and swell can all effect how the sea behaves. This is mainly learnt through experiance and in many cases - the hard way. Last Friday we fished from Weymouth. Out at Porland Race the wind was barely a F1, yet 6 knots of tide pushing 140ft water into 30ft of water created a HUGE swell and breakers than only the largest charters could drift though - the smaller boats (23ft) had to sit it out or drift the slacker water. My solution to abandonment is now as follows: ALL crew wear a lifejacket at ALL times. I have a grab bag ready to go. In here is a full set of Offshore flares, a set of waterproof personel flares and soon to come - a submersable VHF. On a small boat (under 25ft) what more can you reasonably do? As Charlie says the committee have been in discussions over this issue, and a few recent incidences have caused us to consider our position. Adam F

There are a few rope specialists on ebay - Paul D and I bought some cracking, decent quality rope a few months back for a real bargin - ill try and see if it is still on my history. Failing that, a local chap sells pot rope on Poole Quay at certian times of the month for cheap as chips!

Sorry to hear you had a bad day Kam. Sometimes, no matter what you do you have days / trips like that! Just take it in your stride and concerntrate on getting it right next time. A few commenst though, that arnt meant to sound like teaching egg sucking or damage pride, so dont take them that way! 1.) I have been away fro 2 days, but I know the forecast wasnt too good, could it have been a better decision to have postponed the trip? Waves tipping the boat over aint fun! I should know!! If it was that bad, you should have stayed up the Solent?? 2.) Have you got the anchor rigged right? In the 3 years we have had a boat we have never lost an anchor...come close a few times (stuck in the side of pots etc) but have either managed to pull it up by hand or motor it out. Changing the amount of rope, angle of pull etc can all help the alderney rind method work. Finally - if you had tied it off to the bouy, a club member who is also a diver has offered to retreave lost anchors for a beer or two. If you would like any more hands on help only too happy to come out with you again! Adam

Hi K2 - why dont you register on the board?? Just looked at the photos!! - WOW!! Very, v,v,v,v jealous! A common Skate is one of the few fish I havent caught in either the sea or freshwater in the UK. A few of us looked at trailering up to Oban to have a bash, but havent got any further than pipe dreams at the moment! Adam F

Jack, dont be too put off by my experiance - loads of people buy second hand packages and have no problrms at all - I was just unlucky. Yes, I did have a qualified Mariner engineer look over the engine, but he didnt do a full survey - how far do you go? Keep looking - you WILL find what youre after. PS: Did you know that 2 types of Alaska are available?? The older Shetland Hull and the new (preferable?) SeaHog Hull. Bob F has one - field any Q's to him. AF

I had a nightmare looking for a Warrior 165 about 8 months ago - everything I saw advertised either was sold, a real state or out of my price range - in the end luck stepped in and I found one not being 'commercially' advertised at a brokers in Portsmouth. Hang in there - it only takes one boat! BTW - whats your budget? In hindsight I wish that I had gone new from the outset....4 months after buying my 165, the 5 year old engine went bang and it cost me

Sean, Cracking boat! - Bet you cant wait......gunna be an extra special xmas this year!

Jack - Will do. You have probably already seen it, but www.boatsandoutboards is one of the best places on the net to look. Just had a quick look and by co- insidence this one has just been advertised today: http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/PMB140/ Adam

No - never tried it, but supposed to be a good attractant for Cod and Pollock.....worth a try I suppose?

Who's fishing then? Lw at baiter is 3.45pm, so we will have to be coming in at 2pm ish I think?? Whats the harbour fishing like for flounder at the moment?

Well, with the weather holding out so well at the moment, and having done a few cod trips this year - we decided to have a crack at the unusually late bass still showing of Portland. The tides dicated that an early start was not needed, so at 9.00am we met at the slip. Billy very kindly turned up with a bucket of hermits (cheers mate!) and we headed out across a smooth sea round to the Bill. We had intended to fish another reef mark just off the main race, but as we neared the headland a plethora of boats were already drifting the race! - So we joined the que and took our chances! My day wasnt so good. It was 'one of the days' where everything that could snap, tangle, break etc - did! and with having to skipper the boat almost constantly through the turbulant waters it made fishing, very difficult. The wind was a F1-2 if that all day, but the big tides around the race produced some very dramatic water!! BW behaved impecably all day, and I was very impressed we way she handled the waves and swell, she kept up with all the bigger pro bass boats all day! Fishing was hard - drifting at 6 knots at times, with 12oz lead and you HAD to be hard on the deck. Bob was a star and produced 6 cracking fish while loosing a few others. I on the other hand had just a couple and lost most of the gear in my box!!! Storm Sandeels proved to be the tactic - fished on the Portland Rig (which really proved its worth) A surprise catch was a hoard of mackerel! (in Dec!!!!) and a garfish! - Crazy! The water temp was over 10C, while off the needles last week it was barely 8C. Sub tropical weymouth. We had a good 4 hours at the bass before we came in close to have a hot bacon roll and tea. A few decent wrasse on the hermits and it was time to head home. Not a red letter day like last Friday, but a good day non-the-less!

Squid seems to be in short supply at the moment, and this is pushing the price up somewhat.....a shop in Xhurch was reportedly selling 5lb boxes for 12 quid!! Neil at Bournemouth Fishing Lodge has just called me - he has just taken a large order of 5lb boxes - he will do them at

She'll come round to it - dont worry!!

Nuff' said!!! - Thanks Peter!

Cheers Guys - not how I thought it was tied. I was imagining more of a 'helicopter' rig. (Common rig used in carp fishing) This utilises far less swivels. Is basically a snap swivel at the bottom, a bead, a swivel, a bead and then a stopper. This enables the bait to swing 360 degs. but not up and down. Surely a 6-8' hook length would give the bit / lure all the action and freedom it requires - would all those swivels help that much?? To me they are just weak links in the set-up? Im off Bassing to Weymouth on Fri - hence to Q's, and the Portland rig has had good press this year??.......

The question is a little too general Kam. Do you mean main line to leader or main line to the hook length? If to the leader then either the SIG or the Albright knot are the best. If the main line to the hook length, as you would when tying a running ledger for example, then I use a swivel and attach using a grinner. Hope this helps

What is it? How do I rig it up? and Why is it considered better than a normal running ledger?

.....The scourage of the sea, the kennel club, the obligatory hound, - the only thing you catch when you have a 8 squid bait down for cod, but when you NEED to catch one for a comp - they vanish!... I am of course refering to scyliorhinus canicula, the lesser spotted dogfish.

The Navman VHF will connect to the Garmin - no probs. I was meant to be codding, but left for work yesterday at 4.00am and didnt get home until 9.00pm last night....little tired! Plus I have mountains of work to do today, and I'm out Friday anyway, so I took a rain check. They havent called me yet, so I guess no cod.....

Kam, I bought the Garmin 182C about 6 months ago from http://www.sportextreme.com/pz802x20281yUSD/ This was the cheapest place I could find on the net. They are based in Norway, Denamark or somewere like that. They are a cracking unit, and I would well recommend them. Check the site, but mine with ext. antena was -

Does indeed!...Interesting! - While they were catching flounder, we were hauling HUGE cod!!!!

....stream of consiousness???