Adam F

Alan - Gunna need to be home by 4pm as I have to pick Rach up from work. This will mean leaving the fishing grounds about 2.30....but if we have an early start should be no problem. It will also allow you to miss the traffic. Do you have crew? I suggest that Rich and Dave Mayne crew for Domino and BW??

Paul - The netrance isnt over by the cafe - the flood waters have just moved the bouys thats all. This time of year when the water is coloured and fishing big baits for cod - you dont know what will turn up - so I always fish 150lb trace to be on the safe side. Billy - Thanks for the advice on the circles. What size do you use, and do you fish them pennel?

Catch report from Blue Warrior: (Charlie, Ill email you the score sheets later) After a nice lay in after the clocks went back, we launched at 8.00am from Wick headed for the Needles cod grounds. A flat calm sea and blanket sea mist meant the plotter was invaluable. 22 knots all the way and 20 mins later we are sat anchored 3 miles south of the lighthouse. As the mist rose, other boats joined the cod hunt, and at 11am we counted over 40 boats within eyeshot!!!! We started well, with run after run from conger - unfortunatly we couldnt connect and after 7 runs on my rods and 4 to james, we finally hooked one - a small strap of about 15lb. I then connected with a decent fish, which put up a decent scrap and gave a very dogged and nodded fight - sureley the 1st cod of the year?...no, my 1st ever Spurdog though! - Not a monster but at 7lb I was well chuffed, never even seen one before. Pout, doggies and whiting were no problem to the smaller rods, but the beast elluded us today - even with the National Boat Champion aboard! Had a lovely run home in a flat sea the run in engine purring away and the sun setting over bmth

Sounds like you had a cracking day in the sub tropical waters of Weymouth!...strange init, we spent the day in our floatation suits fishing 2lb of lead loaded with 8 squid on 8/0 pennels!, not a wrasse or mackerel in sight! Well done mate, good result, I suspect not many of the boats will have bagged that many species today.

Brilliant!!!! My feedback rating is 99% dont you know, and most of my gear comes from their!!!! Oopps, may have said too much!

The weather and tides are good for Tues at the moment.... Plan will be to launch from Wick (christchurch) at around 7ish (to miss the rush hour traffic) and then head out just south of the needles to anchor for cod and conger. We were out there today and a few cod were caught, along with a stack of eels. We will then come in fairly early as nights are now drawing in, and it will give Alan a chance to get back home and me to wash BW down. How does that sound?

STOP PRESS**.....early reports suggest that James Parker has won the 2004 National BFM Boat League.....Reports say fishing was very hard....only several small bass caught....More news later from the man himself!!

Rich - watch the weather chap - if we get a window me you and BW have a date! Im pretty free all week, and need to take a few days holiday. Adam

Best of luck tomorrow Jumbo - We will all be rooting for you, oh and if you wanna come second, Im OK with that...I think I deserve a holiday for skippering you to the top 10!! The weather for the comp sunday is starting to look like one of them lovely high pressure winter days, F1-2 NNE! Bring on the cod!

Good to see you back Mike, hope you had a good one. Look forward to hearing the full report when youve had some sleep!

Can you ever have enough!!...onyl when you find one that gives F3's all the time Here are two sites form a link on the Weymouth Charter Boat - Lady Go Diver I think thay are pretty interesting if not for our own bay. Well worth a look at though. http://www.digital-reality.co.uk/weather/liveData.htm and http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=62103 Adam

At the risk ouf tempting bad weather.....the forecast for the comp Sunday looks OK...might be able to get out to the banks for some proper fishing!

Suppose its a bit like drifting for conger? And as the other guys stated the winter cod will be feeding by smeel more than sight. That said I cant see why drifting using a pennel loaded with 4/5 squid would work if the drifit was slow enough. Hard work though, cod fishing is slow enough, so using 2/3 rods and putting them in the rests while you have a hot cuppa and a bacon roll seems a better idea than sitting on the gunnel holding a single rod! Anyway, dont matter at the moment unless you like sitting on the Slates in a F8!!!

Glad to hear you had a good day! I would have loved to have gone out today but instead I decided to get up at 4am drive to Bolton sit in meetings all day and get home at 7pm...the cook dinner, wash up and fianlly read new posts, only to find that Alun has been out fishing and caught a bag full of plump whiting!!!!!!

Yep - Know exactly what you mean! I have nearly completed the new patio - a huge job in itself, on top of that re-tiled the en-suite, and replaced the facia on the house! I could probably go fishing for a month and still have points to spare!! Seriously, I cannot remember a worse year for fishing weather. Wind has dominated the whole summer and I can only think of 2 trips where the sea was glassy calm! I was booked in for a corporate trip from Weymouth on Tiger Lily on Weds, but Online weather now gives storm Force 12's!.... Maybe November will be one of those winter high pressure months where the sea stays flat all day!

Online weather is giving 3's at the moment - will still be a little sloppy due to the winds the past week - but may be able to sneak the 1st Cod trip of the year in!

I must say - what a brilliant article. Fantastically written, concise and easy to understand. It certianly has made me want to do BW's!! Well done Alan, really good site is coming together. When out on Thurs the harbour was so choppy in the F8 that all I could se was green water at times. I am not too sure whether to fit a wiper? I will re-do the windows and see if this helps, but BW's are not so misty that I cant see, more the water doesnt clear the screen fast enough. I have used RainEX and it has had limited use, but really needs applying every trip - too much hastle. Anyone have any thoughts on fitting a wiper to a Warrior 165 or other small boat?

As Martin rightly says. We used the same rigs that catch launce in the islands and off weymouth.

Steve, Interesting point on the self inflators something I have never thought about. The shelflife I am not too sure of. They recommend manually inflating, checking and deflating every year but not too sure on the gas cartridges...I would guestimate maybe 3/4 years? One thing that the RNLI chap mentioned on my SeaCheck is the use of a crotch strap. Apparently the air sea rescue wont lift you even if you have a lifting ring, as the jacket can then slip up and strange the casualty. They are not expensive, but I cant seem to find them for sale seperatly, locally. Imagin what I got when I scanned Ebay for a 'crotch strap!' As I mentioned it is not optional to board BW now without either a lifejacket or a floatation suit...I think it is just a case of forcing a habit.

James and I were both off work today, so at 9am we launched BW off Baiter. The plan was to practise the species hunting for the comp next Friday. We headed first off to the main channel near the Brownsea Castle to try for Herring - after 1/2 hour nothing so over to the Castle for Wrasse and Pollock - nothing! We then bashed all the way around to the Wareham channel for flounder - guess what?....nothing!, well not strictly true, we had a few fish. James has a 2oz Bass, and I had a cracker of 3lb (can you book that one Charlie?) on my light spinning rod which fought well! Back to the herring spot at 2pm, we managed about a dozen plump herring for tea! It was probably the most windy day I have ever fished - the met office gave Gale 10's - we had probably an force 8 at times!...made getting BW back on the trailer interesting! So not the best day ever - but at least we wet a line in amongst months of crap weather. Adam

Was watching the local news last night when I hear 'Wick' and 'Slipway' mentioned....I turned the TV up. Basically Mike Rhodes was on South Today saying that the area next to the Slipway at wick needs a Pontoon extension, from where the Ferry area is. Bournemouth & West Hants Water have proposed it - Christchurch County Council have opposed it, saying that it will narrow the river, look and eyesore and cause a navigation hazard for the Annual regatta. Mike Rhodes response made me laugh...cant quite remember his EXACT words but it was: ' B & WHW feel that the facilites for the boat user at Wick are severely lacking, as we are SOLEY responsible for the upkeep and development of this area we see it as essential that the pontoon extension takes place' SO: My question is now, if they are SOLEY responsible, feel the facilities are lacking and want to improve them - WHEN ARE THEY REPAIRING THE SLIPWAY!!!?? The pontoon extension is planned to cost thousands, how much would a bit of concrete use?? I will be emailing Mike tonight asking for an answer - I suggest anyone else who has a vested interest in this slip does the same.

Billy - 29th Oct

Martin - Ill organise the Wolseley

Weather permitting Ill be their all day on BW, shadowing the charter boats from afar...if anyone wants to join me they are more than welcome. Adam

James has them at the moment - lll remind him that they need returning.