Adam F

Thought id share this with you - it made me laugh!! ' So I get back home from the Shambles last night - tired and weary - but before I go inside for a glass of wine - I must hose the salt water and grime of my new pride and joy. Go and get the hose and proceed said duty. Outside done, flush the engine - now just the rag worm juice to get off the deck. So in I get hose and full blast. Now - the bench seats and lockers are also filthly so do I hose them down?? - 'they must be water tight I tell my self - their on a boat??' so I proceed to give the inside of the cabin a good hose down. Finishing the job, I put down the hose when I hear this loud - SHHHHHHHHHHHHH noise. What the hell is that I think??? - Then out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of something moving --- my locker hatch!!! - Its opening all by itself!! SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH on goes the noise - then .....BANG! the locker hatch slams open and all my kit pops out!!!!! The Bloody Lifejacket has been inflated by the water seeping through the locker!!! For a second I was gutted - a new re-arm kit, then releved as it wasnt somehting more serious - then I burst out laughing!!! It needsed testing anyway!! I leave you with one image! - The episode of Only Fools and Horses - where the dummies goes off in the back of the van - SHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Adam

Bob F and I were very kindly lent a pair of these by Weymouth Angling Centre yesterday - for a tackle test on our Shambles trip. For those of you that arent familier with them - these are a new concept to Sea Angling. Approx 7' long - they have a backbone of about a 12lb class rod, but the tip is similat to the 'nibble' tips they use in Austrailia - (Rex Hunt uses a similar job) This gives you superb bit indication, but enough backbone to use up to 12oz of lead and land the bigger brutes when they turn up. They retail for about 40-50 quid. MY OPINION: Not really for me. A cracking rod, but very specialised. Drifting the Shambles was great, with 2oz of lead, but as the tide increased the tiny tip struggled with 8oz and became redundant. The build quality was average. Whippings we basic and thin. The reel seat and duplon handles we average - increasing both the aspects would greatly help the rod. As for the action - it had numerous 'flat spots' as you would expect when joining a 12oz tip to a 12lb blank! But it wasnt all bad! - drifting the wreck at the end of the day for small pollock and wrasse - it was a real joy! - I'd suggest it would make a superb bream tool also. Personally - Ill stick to my 6-12lb Abu Conolon - or my spinning rod. RATINGS: Looks - 4/10 Quality - 4/10 Fitness for Purpose - 6/10 Value for money - 5/10 OVERALL - 5/10

Ahhh! - It feels good to be back in this forum posting catch reports again! We had our first proper trail-a-way yesterday, when 5 club boats ventured West to Weymouth. Loyal Royal, Maverick, Neo, Enticer and Blue Warrior all made the trip, laiden with at least 2 crew per boat. The weather was kind (makes a change!) and light northly winds and overcast conditions made for a flat sea and warmish climate. We met at 7am and had all the boats in and off to the mark by 8pm. On arriving at the Shambles we joined approx. 15 other boats - a mixture of charter and small / medium private boats - all after 1 thing - PLAICE!! I wont post catch deatils as I dont know them for definate and Im sure the others will want to do this - but for Blue Warrior (her Maiden Voyage!!! ) we had 2 Plaice, 6 Pollock and 4 Wrasse. The fishing begun well with my crew catching plaice 1st drop - but quickly became hard as the tide increased to about 5 knots. We finished the day by having an hour drifting the HMS Hood in the South Harbour for Pollcok and Wrasse - a nice change as not something us smaller boats get to do very often. The fishing was pretty good overall with several nice Plaice and Turbot being taken - personally I needed a bit more experinace fishing the venue for rigs and methods. For me the trip was fantastic. Great Venue, Great Company, Reasonable fishing, and over the moon with my new boat. Here's to many more trips in 2004! Adam

Little too black and white for me. - But Id say that the majority of the time Id return it to fight another day. But depends on what fish, when etc. Good idea for the poll though. I think we should see a definate trend. Maybe we should have more polls on the site? (Should we do a poll on that!?? ) Adam

Aint got a clue what PSI mine are at the moment. Could do with a little ait methinks, but havent got a pump, and dont know if BW will fit into the garage - (more like I dont know if I could tow ther in there!) Adam

Ambrose trailers - best place to try. Bargates - Xchurch.

Cant wait!!!! Been looking forward to this for ages!!! And my maiden launch!

This was a little easier to plan than Hayling! only 3 pages - not 10! Yep, just checked the weather sites and Bob seems about right - although hopefully we will get the better side of the weather - today would have been perfect! I have bait for Bob F -

Taking orders for bait if anyone wants any? Coming from the Fishing Lodge. I have

Hang on jimbo - I swear you ate more than you put back last year?!

Dunno? 95% of my fishing is in 60' max. But I take your point - I will be venturing further afield with BW this year. So may need more than 90'. I have 40 mtrs already, was looking for another 40/50, giving me say 100mtr - or 300'. Working on 3 x depth of water that means I can anchor in probably about 150 max?? Adam

Weather - Looking at 2 forecasts. One gives 2/3 NNW the ohter gives 5/6 NE??????????? http://www.onlineweather.com/v4/uk/sailing/SF25.html http://www.weatherworld.info/harbour/town-...set&tn=Portland What the hell is on? - I reckon these guys just 'gues'' the weather. - Hopeless! Adam

Dropped Blue Warrior off on Tues night to Select Marine. Asked him for a full service and pay particular attention to the impeller and the cam belt. Phoned the guy at 3.30pm yesterday expecting it to be done - but he said he had just started, and he would ring when it was done. At 5pm - still no call so I tried ringing. No answer - gave up at 6.30pm. Anyway thought Id take a drive over anyway to see if it was finished even though he had probably gone home - when I get there he is still there! - Engine finished as well! '6.30am to 9pm 7 days a week me' he told me! - Bloody hell! Anyway - he changed the impeller and the cam, but the rest was all ok - so instead of the usual

The club safety listing says you need a second warp & anchor aboard the boat http://www.pbsbac.co.uk/safetyequip.htm The general rule for your set up sould be: Chain - length of boat, Rope - 3 x max depth of water you are likely to anchor in. My spare warp isnt that long - maybe 80 feet - but this will hold in 80% od my fishing locations should I need it. But I suppose to be on the safe side - you should have an exact copy of your main set up. Does this guy sell it in smaller quanititys than 100m?

I have just picked up a new warp for my boat. The only prob is it is only about 40 mtrs long, and I think about 80-90 mtrs will be needed. It is reasonable quality rope - proper warp I think. My question. What is the best way to join the 2 together? I want to get as smooth seamless joint as possible? Adam PS. Where would you advise me to go to get my extra warp. Being in mind I dont really want pot rope?

I'm surpised you arent booked a B&B for the night before! 5am - thats not early! - Not when your going fishing! - no time is ever too early! Adam

I got several packs of starlites FOC with my order - good service! Adam

I think at the end of the day - if they wanna nick it they will. - Regardless. The only thing we can do is try to deter. I have the hitch clamp. This stops then hitching it up and towing it away. I also have the wheel thingy, and an considering a hard point to chain it to. May concrete a big steel post into the ground and shackle it to that. My main outboard it bolted and locked into the transom, and the aux. has a wicked looking S/S barrel lockover the clamps. This has seized and I cant even do it with the key! Will be interesting to hear others views though. Adam

What PSI should i set my trailer tyres at? Rollercoaster 1 Trailer, single axle. Boat - 16.6', approx weight - 1100kg. Thanks Adam

Paul D - Caught you out!!! - I think?!! You need to go to your My Conrols, and select board settings. Then tick the BST box. Voila' - correct time! adam

Blue Warrior has my mate Stuart (likely to pull out though - young kids and under the thumb! ) I was going to have BillyBoy, but Bob has him, so maybe Ill have Mike?

Good. So: 7am at the slip - prompt. Launched by 8am At mark by 9am. Slack tide for an hour or so, gives us 5 hours of usable tide. Low is at 3pm, so good time to start to head in on the slack? Retreave boats at 4pm. Leave at 5pm Home approx 6pm. How does this sound. We have so far: Maverick - 3 Blue Warrior - 3 Splash Out - 2 Loyal Royal - 2 Others? - Enticer, Neo, ????

Yep - should have raised it at the AGM. Hmmm - see your point, but surely the older fish have 'had their day' take them and leave the smaller ones to breed and continue the population. Adam

http://www.ukho.gov.uk/tideprediction.cfm Tide times. Looks like we are launching into HW, retreaving at LW. I would therefore suggest an early start? What is the slip acces like at diff. states of tide? Adam

Best forecast I can get is to Thurs. Force 3 N / NW. Pretty good? I have 1 crew at present. Could take another. What do we suggest as timings? What are the tides again? I could do with being back in at a reasonable time. Also it is a fare track for all of us back. Im thinking return to shore about 3/4pm. Home 5.30 / 6pm?? Adam