Adam F

Thanks for the report Dave, great piccies too. Well done on popping your Alderney cherry!

Great to have you along Peter, like the others I too was very impressed by the way Free Boys handled the conditions - nice one on the fishing front too. A very, very big feat in a 6m boat - well done! Hope to see you out there soon.

Great minds (skippers!) think alike mate - my plans and thoughts exactly. All we need now is the weather!

Tides look good mate - slightly smaller than we had this weekend, with HW in Braye on Fri of 1430 - so good for re-fuelling. The trip shouldnt need that much more planning that the usual 3 day 2nd Alderney trip we have done the past 3 years - instead of going to Braye on the 2nd eve we go East. The plan certianly suits fishing Speedy in the afternoon and then catching the tide East. In not going in a F4/5 this time though!

Time to start looking at plans for the 48hr Comp? Whilst chatting in Alderney this weekend, I had several comments that doing another Alderney trip in June and then Cherbourg in July wasnt going to be possible for many boats - busy diarys, cost of trip, crew availability etc... So, I'm looking at combining the two trips over the weekend of the 48hr comp. My rough plan would be to cross to Alderney on Friday, fish eother mid channel or around the island on Firday, overnight in Braye, Sat fish around the island / banks, then head over to Cherbourg onb Sat afternoon, overnight in Cherbourg with a meal in town and then head out Sun morning to fish the eastern wrecks on the return leg? Anyone up for this?

Jonny, It's a really hard one to answer with so many varibles, even tougher if you dont know the area! Where are you wanting / planning to fish? What boat do you have? How experianced are you? What is the effect of the tide? etc, etc In a northerly wind generally you'll find shelter close in as the land will give a bit of protection, however once a mile or so out this will be less. Certianly inside the harbour is more protected. Looking at your boat in your profile a 15' Bonwitco I'd say you'll want pretty calm conditions. Tide effects the sea state, we have strong spring tides this week/end. When the tide runs against even a gentle breeze it can kick the sea up - when it runs against a F5 it can get really nasty - headlands with a strong tidal race can be very dangerous. As a rule of thumb with your boat I'd be looking for no more than F3 with sea state slight. Hope that helps. Adam

That is a very good point Craig - it's one of the few times extra weight can help - JV is always heavy on these trips, and whilst it was slow yesterday a few extra tonnes helps keep the boat planted. Anyway - great to have you along, we on JV really enjoyed listening to the Abode banter! The frech lessons were something else!

Well I was going to do my own report but as Rob has started this one, and done such a good job I'll just tag on. Well - what a trip in more ways than one - but again, always a pleasure! We fished hard, very hard - love the name for the new boat rob - 'First & Last'... The flattie fishing was the best Ive ever experianced, a true testiment to the larger increased 45cm limit most of us have been fishing to the last few years, great to see such numbers of fish, and again to see so many go back - we had 28 brill and turbot on JV and the majority of these went back with just a few each taken for the table. Once again the banter was fierce, but all good hearted! If Rob tells you about a 'Scoreboard' on the boat and me having a tantrum due to tangled rods - it's all lies! We had quite a musical theme on JV this year with mine and Rob's Ipod/Ipone onboard - I'm not too sure Al enjoyed all the music though! My favourite memory was fishing the Nannels for Pollock on Friday evening at about 7pm - the sun was dropping in the sky, the sea was smooth, cold Stella's in hand - we were fishing in about 50' of water with 15gm spinning rods and rubber lures and it was a pollock a chuck - superb sport, all the while we had the stereo turned up pretty loud in the wheelhouse - amazing! Once again JV did us proud - Ive had her out in some pretty serious weather, but this trip pushed those boundaries yet again - and not once did I feel nervous at the helm - Rob's video shows it pretty well, but you had to be there to see some of the conditions. Fuel consumption was up on previous trips but with the weather we had to push around hardly surprising! Al with the first fish of the trip - just love the sky in the background on this photo A lovely marked and marbled brill Best Turbot of the trip 10lb 5oz - shame about the body behind the fish! 1 drift = 3 fish!! Back in Braye Not the biggest fish, but pristine condition and they fight like fury in the shallow water Wight Magic over the infamous Blanchard Rock - on a good day!

I know what Martin means - cream crackered! A TOUGH return leg for all boats today F4/5 NW in the channel all day - not nice, but all boats back safe and sound. Plenty of wind, plenty of waves... and plenty of FISH!! Photo's and full trip report to follow tomorrow

Morning! Wish I hadnt checked the weather this morning - Sat is giving NW 5-6.... See you all in 4/5 days!

Can anyone help me work out how the tides in Alderney (Braye) correlate with Dover and Poole? I think I managed to Google that Braye is Dover -4hrs, so how does that correlate against Poole?

Latest forecast gives a fair dollop of wind on Sat... after the way it's changed over the past 5 days I'm sure we'll face something different again over the weekend. On the plus side, Fri looks stonking!

Thanks Rob - took me about 3 mins and cost

1.) Frisky Fox - with Carol, George and Mike This is going to be an easy one to win at the moment Mike! Forecast is now looking reasonable for Sun - Bob F will post on Sat morning to confirm if the comp is on. Good luck guys!

Well JV is fully loaded with all the really important things... beer, wine, food etc She's sat tied alongside in the marina awaiting me at 6am! Cant wait.....

Me too - up at 6 to check! I'll make and confirm my final call at lunchtime, but amn hopeful of going. My crew are meetign at 6am and we aim to be leaving the mooring around 6.30am for an RV around the fuel barge with Alfresco, Abode and WM. If those who cant get goign early want a weather report from the channel just shout us up on ch6.

Ditto here Charlie - count JV in too. Just need the weather to hold.

Not looking too good is it? The best I can see at the moment is Thurs, Fri, come home Sat - fish bream comp Sun! Same here, decision to be made tomorrow afternoon. Basically I'm happy to fish Thurs and Fri as long as I can get a window for the weather home on Sat / Sun / Mon. Its as simple as that for me, if I cant, I'll try again in 2 weeks. Off to have a scotch to calm my nerves!

It's an option if we couldnt get out... or add a species or three to the species list in the harbour - or a mini species comp.... plenty to do! I too am fed up with checking, Ive been in the office all day today and have met office, metcheck, windguru x 2, windfinder, XC weather and the synpotpic charts all open... desperatly looking for somthing to make this an easy decision! It doesnt help that the forecast for today in Poole is OK, yet it's blowing hard up here in Wallisdown!

This Sunday is our Bream Comp usual rules apply - best specimen per angler. There are plenty around at the moment so we should see some good fish recorded. Book in here please if you intend to fish. At the moment the weather for Sunday is looking pretty breezy - if we do go to Alderney Ive asked Bob Fuller to make the call on whether the comp goes ahead, if I dont go then I'll be around to make a call - we will try and make this decision by Sat morning latest. Sunday is also the Poole SAC Bream comp - this comp has prizes so you may want to fish both! 1.) Adam F - JV (only if Alderney is cancelled!)

Now if that High over the Bay of Biscay could move North a few miles we'd be in business!

All this discussion is only a good things and helps to keep the issues at the front of people's minds. As Pete says it's down to each individual to make the call, there is no 'right' number of fish to take - which is better / worse - the angler who goes fishing 3 times a week and takes 3 fish everytime or the angler that goes once a month and takes a dozen fish. Whilst we are all thinking about this issue and putting it into practise we all stand a chance of having fish to catch in years to come.

Looks marginally better this morning. Thurs and Friday OK with a bit of wind on Sat and Sun - dropping again Monday. It still remains 50/50, last night I was on the verge of no, this morning it's swung me back the other way! If it stays as is (fat chance of that!) I'll be looking to leave Poole early on Thurs, run the 80 odd miles straight down to the Shoale Bank for the day, same again on Fri and then see what Sat and Sun bring - if I have to play hide and seek with a bit of wind at least I'll have had a few days on the banks. As it seems not that many can make the next date in 2 weeks time I'll do my damndest to get over this week Lets see what the forecast brings today.... just need to concerntrate enough at work not to keep looking at the forecast every 30 mins!