Adam F

This Sunday is our annual Bass comp. Format is best specimen, trophy for both biggest Bass and best Bass catch and release. All other usual comp rules apply. At the moment the forecast is looking windy but with a reasonable weather window on Sunday until 4pm. However with 3 days still to go I'm going to keep and eye on this and make a call hopefully on Friday afternoon. With the Spring tides and the areas we tend to fish for bass I really want a half decent forecast. The back-up date will be the 28th Aug if need be. Book in here please: 1)

Its an age old argument, one that has many pros and cons each way. However I think that if your using the boat for long range stuff you very quickly recover the extra servicing costs. Comparing JV to WM I use about

Yes but on outdrives? Goes to show how much more efficiant they are even when running a pair of them.

Yeah - sorry for the fishy story Tom and Charlie - just couldnt resist it after all the Tuna talk etc!!

Yep - Ive just logged it now. A once in a lifetime moment!?!

Yep - Sunfish (Mola Mola) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_sunfish Seems they are very rare and that this one was just a baby! Aparently they run to 3500lb!! http://oceansunfish.org/ Makes interesting reading.

A very interesting morning out on JV today... and a new club record to boot! Ive been exploring local bass marks to avoid having to steam miles and miles and my recent activities have seen a small amount of success on Peveril Ledge. A decent attack was needed so I assembled a crack team of bass experts...OK well Rob F and Charlie A - and with a plan more cunning than a fox we met at a grey and damp marina at first light - 6am to have a short morning session - everything looked perfect. Baits were easy and within 10 mins I had a livewell on JV full of bristling mackeral. The plan was to fish the last of the flood and the start of the ebb - I was expecting a decent tide with some nice turbulent water - which I had on Thurs and managed a couple of fish.... however this never really got going and we fished a frustratingly slow 3 hours of pathetic flood and very slow ebb.... ... with little to show by 10am I was grateful for the banter to keep the mood light, a coolbox full of baitfish and a couple of small pollock were all we had taken and I was begining to think of heading home when Rob and Charlie spotted some strange fins poking out of the water about 30' away.... DOLPHINS - was the first shout, but these wernt moving....TOPE shouts Rob....??!?! What the hell were these things? With all the talk of Pelagic Game fish and Tuna our minds were on overdrive and I shouted at the guys to get the lines in. Without a second thought I gunned the engine back towards the fish - they were right in the slop of a new strong ebb tide race - not a great place to be - but sure as eggs are eggs - their they still were - almost 'boiling' on the surface... Now - I'd love to tell you that Rob reacted quick as a flash as Charlie stood and watched - he whipped off the leads on the two bottom rods and lip hooked a pair of lively joeys - signalaling though the wheelhouse door he dropped them astearn and run them some 30 yds back whilst I began a slow troll over the tailing fish. To be honest we werent expecting anything and still thought we hadnt really seen what we had - but bugger me - not 2 mins into the troll Robs rod nealy goes over the side. 'its in the bottom' I shout - we all seemed to agree but on picking up the rod all hell broke loose and an amazing 25 min scrap ensued. The fish stayed deep but what a strange fight - very jagged - was how rob described it.... we still had no idea what we had hooked and to be honest all 3 of us where just as excited! Finally the beast broke the surface - 'what the %$&~ is THAT!!' we all shouted - with a dip of the net, this weird beast lay on the deck.... Quickly weighed she went 12lb 6oz - we slipped her back in and she swam away strongly. WOW!! --------- However I cant tell you that and the above was true apart from the trolling bit - we did spot the fish tailing in the rough water, but with a bit of careful boat handling Rob managed to net one as I came alongside!! Awesome to see such a rare fish in our waters. We handled her very carefully - quickly weighed her in a wet sling - all of us paused for a quick photo and then we slipped her back. So all in all - a slow day with a magic twist!!

Paul, I didnt have one listed on my records, but thats not to say they are correct. If the database has this one listed then this is my oversight. Sorry George. Still a nice catch and a memorable one at that.

Short video here chaps:

Sorry for the poor quality - some numpty (me!) took the video upside down and had to use a convertor to flip it - thus loosing all the quality! Anyway here are the highlights from this year's trip to Cherbourg, mid channel wrecking en-route, JV and Wight Magic....

Cant keep a good man down! Following on from his double figure bass this week, young George Fox has claimed yet another club record with a 1lb 3oz John Dory reported today. We didnt have a record for John Dory until this, so it is a new record. Well done George!

Nice report, looks great fun, and well done!

Carteret has a marina now Tom, a lovely modern one, I'd guess it berths around 200 boats. It has a tidal cill ensuring water always but only access for around 6 hours over HW. I'm quite keen on taking JV out there next year for a week, it's a lovely place.

What are thoughts on best tides? From that I can look at dates. However I'll go when the weather works, even if that means a weekday.

Well done George!! Cracking fish. Love Carteret - was there with the family a couple of weeks ago.

Come on them Tom! Did you get one? Any hook ups? Any takes?? We are all waiting in suspense!

So - for the 6th year running Im going to try and get out after a Porgie sometime during Aug / Sept. As usual (and the past 5 years the weather has scuppered plans) dates will be around weather and tides. I'm going regardless, but I'll be after a crewman and many boats that want to join in the drift line. Rough plan is to head 15-25 miles out set up a drift with a load of chum and drift with the ebb and back with the flood. Anyone fancy it?

Ironic really Charlie that you used to get that from Great White, and we now have bigger faster boats capable of 30 knots plus yet the speeds above are typical of what I have had to cross the channel at the last 2 trips!! On a more serous note Graham whislt JV tops out at 32 knots Ive never used it other than for a smile factor once a year up the harbour in winter! The serious side is that having the extra HP allows me to run a 3600rpm WOT at just 2800rpm and cruise at 18 knots.

@ Rob - yes 12lb Kenzaki's used for 90% of the fishing. Avets performed flawelessly - between us both we now have enough to full JV's rod rack! I found the 12lb Kenzaki great for playing fish but a little lacking when I really had to lift a fish hard out of the wrecks, and a couple of times I was simply out-gunned and we lost a few quality fish back into the wreck. On comparison my 12lb conolons would lift a tank, but lack the finesse so it's swings and see-saws... @ James - well I'd love to tell you I skillfully angled the monster bream on a delicate rig loaded with squid dropped with precision behind the wreck but alas the beast had eyes biggeer than it's belly and slammed a 300gm pirk!!

Only you can make the call Graham - Coddy is right, you always want bigger... but it isnt always best! Your current boat will do and go 95% of the places I'd take mine, so you do need to weigh up the costs etc. I went bigger after a Warrior 165 and 175 because I wanted to cross the channel and sleep on board. However as a balance I now rarely fish inshore and miss alot of fishing as a result, many of my trips now cost upwards of

With such an aweful year weather wise it was doubful whether this trip would even go a head. Having cancelled the first date due to wind we were mega keen to get a trip to Cherbourg before the summer wrecking fizzled out, and with a perfect forecast seeming to hold last week hopes were high - however the usual pattern played out and Friday afternoon saw dozens of phone calls zooming around between skippers and crew - can we / cant we etc! However a late call on Friday at 7pm proved to be the right decision as the weather improved marginally enough to make the trip safe and it was agreed - Bon Voyage!! As is custom on these trips, a silly early start was agreed and at 5am on Sat JV with me and Alun steamed over the chains with Wight Magic with Dave, Mick (skipper of Marichelle) and Kev (skipper of Yelo) alongside us. The wind was fresh F4 but from the NW so it gave us a push south and made for a speedy trip, albeit, the sea got larger the further offshore we went. The first target wreck was some 35 miles from Poole and hopes were high, but alas all this produced were small 3-5lb pollok - not what we came for - so off another 7 miles or so to the next rusty hulk. This one has produced well for us in previous years but it was hard going with only a few fish, so again for to look at more wrecks. We spent most of the morning fishing and finding new wrecks on the french side of the channel with fairly slow results and with a target of getting back into Cherbourg to have a bit of and explore and see the culture... (Ok mountains of food and lashings of beer and wine!!) we needed to get away mid afternoon so time was pressing on. It all came good on the last 2 wrecks some 50 miles from Poole, when the flood tide kicked in. Some of the best wrecking Ive had - not just for numbers of fish but also size and variety. Both boats landed some super cod, massive pollok and quality ling. The tactic of the day was good old-school pirks, which seemed to work for all species. The best fish on JV were an 16lb cod, 16lb ling and a 13lb 8oz pollok. The suprise catches were a 3lb tub gurnard to me and the fish of the trip was a 4lb 6oz Black Bream which I took as the tide fell away. We also returned alot of fish and found that a steady slow retreave had the fish in much better shape to be returned. I think we put back around 20 pollok over the 2 days. So at 3pm, fish boxes full, the wind now down to a F2 and the sea slight, the sun was out and we cracked open a cold beer and pushed on south and into new territiores for both boats - France! New areas are always a little daunting but with plenty of help and advice from friends and local charter skippers we found the whole experiance easy and enjoyable. Chantereyne Marina was very busy and easy to work out and we were guided to raft alongside a 35' Sealine from Portsmouth for the night. Into the Captiniere's office and paid our 15/20 euros, got mugged on the fuel berth at 1.45E for Gazoil (diesel) and then left the crew to depart all of 500 yds to the hotel whilst dave and I used the marina facilities. Time was creaping on and after stocking up on a few boxes of wine from the Carrefore we finally found ourselves slumped in a little resturant alongside the marina with aching backs, leg and arms where several pints of cold larger, crisp Muscadet and plates of Moules Frites, Poission Soup, and Steak au Piovre were devoured whilst we compared notes from the days fishing. As you might have guess we all slept like the dead that night! Sunday morning greeted us bright and calm so a lovely lazy start, bacon rolls and coffee on the boat for Dave and I, and we met the crew and pushed of at around 9am. The forecast was for F4 15knots Westerly and as the sun slipped under a heavy blanket of cloud less than 3 miles out of the harbour shorts and shades were replaced by boots and jackets. Day 2 was harder going - possibly as we were a little tired from the day before, the sea was sloppy and progress a little slower but again we all managed some qualiity fish. I choose to fish a little more targetted to avoid loading up with unwanted pollok and managed a cracking ling on a drifted mackeral flapper. Kev on Wight Magic had a super cod at 19lb. Before we knew, it was 3pm and we had 35 miles to run home so a slow but steady 14 knots saw us coming back up the harbour and tied up by 5pm. What a memorable trip. Alwasy great to buddy with Dave as many of us know, and we stayed together and fished the wrecks as a buddy pair for the whole trip. It's really great to know you have assistance if required - 50 miles from Poole in the middle of the channel can be a lonely place! Throughly recommend the trip and it will definatly figure in my line up for 2012! Salute!

Cherbourg is confirmed, and whilst we have found crew for Dave on Wight Magic I now have a space on JV. Leaving Poole at 5am, hotel booked in Cherbourg, 2 days wrecking. Call me on 07957 829902 if you fancy coming. Adam

Definatly think the next boat will be called 'Fish-On' or 'Fish-Ard'

'Blush' http://www.deepsea.co.uk/boats/tiger_lily/...atest_catch.htm

Well for me anyway! Had a private trip out with Chris on Tiger Lily today - always a real treat, especially when just 4 of us had the whole boat to ourselves! We started with bassing in The Race - tough fishing, they arent really there in numbers yet, but I managed a nice brace of 6lb and 5lb respectively. Then onto the cod for an hour or so where I dropped 2 on the bounce whilst on the phone, but managed the third, a fat plump, super marked summer cod around 7/8lb. The third bream mark threw up a variety of species, red gurnard, bream etc and then it was off to the final mark of the day. First drift alonng the bank and I hooked a nice flatty that christened the new Kenzaki (12lb class) and banged the scales to 9lb 12oz! We eneded up with 12 species for the day and whilst we didnt haul, it was a steady day with a nice variety of fish and relaxed good company. Nice to have someone else drive the boat for a change!