Newboy

When I did ground bait for bream last year, I minced up some prawn, some squids, some intrails of cuttlefish, some blood from the beef we get and any old meaty kitchen scrape I found in the kitchen, add some rice and pour it into 2 4litre milk containers and freeze them. On the Ledge, I used a 4mm nylon and tied it to the milk bottle (with several 10p szie hole cut into the side) with a 5 lb weigh and sunk it directly under the boat. It took about an hour for it to melt away. Then we put down the second bottle, and this one got tangled with some of the line when the tide turned. We did well with the first bottle and not so well with the second one. This year I think I might try using flour to bond the mixture together before freezing it, only problem is squeezing the doul into the bottle.

If halibut is as big as they were in Hooked on Fishing with Paul Young, you defintely need big gear.

If as Adam said you had it onto 17knots when you first got it, and you haven't added much weigh to the boat and presume you haven't piled on the kgs, it's still the same prop, same trim angle and same boat, the preformance should on paper be very similar. Have your mech clean the carb on the Honda, I'm sure I've read it somewhere they are prone to being clogged making it sluggish.

How much does the orkney weigh including engine? On my Sheltie, it was 350kg, plus 50kg for the Johnson 30, 2 adults-150kg, enough food+beer for a day 20kg, fishing gear 30kg, cooler+radio+equipments 20kg. With the Johnson being an old engine, it probably has less than 25hp and that wouldn't push the sheltie onto the plane, max was 14mph. You want at least 1 hp per 40lb and optimally 1 hp per 25lb of boat.

Try the Friday ads, there's a boat section with a few boat each week. It's generally used be people with no net access and don't know what their stuffs are worth. Ring up, turn up and start haggling.

Paul if I was you I would take everything non essential off the boat with just enough gas to run for an hour or so. Start with no trim, no fin, but a bag of sand. Try different trim angle with the bag of sand at different position on the boat, record each speed and position of setting. Now try it with the fin and do the same. What you want is the prop being perpendicular to the water and enough hull in the water for a settle ride, to much weigh at the front, hull line increases and prop pushing along as well as into the sea. Too little weigh at the front and your boat points skyward and your boat will be bouncing with its arse on the water.

Paul, not being funny, but shouldn't the dealer who sold you the package sort this out? After all if your Orkney should plane with a 30hp and it doesn't, something is wrong, either the engine is not producing enough oomph to push it on the plane or the boat is at fault.

There were lots of it around the castle on Sunday.

Sam, it would probably take 2 blokes to hand launch the sort of boat Paul has, and you ain't one of them, not yet anyway. We were on Maverick just off the Swanage (?) lifeboat house and thee was this little boy, early teen on a 10/12 max dingy with an outboard whizzing round/out to the rough water just outside. Sam, for the type of fishing you want, you don't need a big boat, unless you are planning to go tope or conger fishing then I would say the the boat is a little too small. I have seen people fishing on a rowing boat in the Solent and apparently there's a craze call Kayat fishing, fishing on a bloody kayat, if he can do it, you can do it too in a small boat.

The sort of boat Sam wants, is a little big for launch trolley, even if he choosees something a little smaller, he still needs to store it which will costs him unless he's in a club with their own ground.

Martin, don't supposed you or Dean had lost one of these? (Not the phone!!!) Only when the missus emptied my green racsack, it popped out and she's sure it wasn't in there to start with......

The legend continues....... I haven't done terribly well either, 3 fishes all day while Martin and Dean kept pulling in fish after fish.

Paul, can I suggest you take a look at the Tohatsu 40hp TLDi. Yes it's a 2 stroke, but a new typed 2 stroke with direct fuel injection, is less polluting than some 4 strokes. As quiet as some 4 strokes. Go to www.iboats.com, enter forum and search for Tohatsu tldi. Lots of threads on this line. In a powerboat mag in the us, they did a trail. The new Evinrude Etec comes 1 st, Tohatsu comes second, and in the process beating the like of Yammy, Mercury and Honda. Both the Rude and Tohatsu are 2 strokes while the other 3 are 4 strokes. Plus it's a 2 stroke, so a fair bit lighter than your Honda.

You should take me out sometime, I always managed to catch less than anyone else on board .....

Lovely day, blue sky (most of the time), good company, what more could I have asked for? Some fish would be nice 1 bream and 2 doggies. Martin and Dean had done a lot better, plenty of different ones. (They had the better side of the boat.... )

Sam, there are lots of thing you gave to consider owning a boat. Where is it going to be kept? On trailer? You can't drive which mean you 'd have to badger Charlie to to it. On Mooring? even if you get the fee pretty low, there are still expenses for a moored boat, like antifouling. Can you get insurance? If not, Charlie will have to insure it and let you use it. Only after you have answer all these questions then you can start looking for a boat. There are plenty of small boat with/without cuddy, Dejon is one, nice little starter boat.

He's only a doggie, but he got mentioned twice and I bet he's chuff to bits......

Isn't there one in the club?

Thank you Martin for a lovely trip. Excellent catch, bream, bass, spotted rays, pout, conger, wrasse,..... I reckon we must be at the top of the league........

Just call him/her Stir Crazy

Well done Mike, a brand new boat, WOW! Excellent engine. Tohatsu is well regarded by commercial fisherman. They may not have the top technologies at the front as the rest of the competitors, but you can be assured whatever they bring out will be well and truely tested. Steady eddy is the name. Did you know Tohatsu is the ONLY manufacturer never issued a recall on any of their products? This statement alone says something. Kam (green with envy ) How about a ride in your new boat when it's ready?! PS What name have you in mind? Mayday Mayday Mayday ......

If you don't mind, I would like to crew for you Martin, it doesn't look I will get a crew. Thank you. I'll pm you for details.

Don't get it, can you spell it out for me please.....

I didn't say anything, cos I was one of the idiots when I recently sold my Mercury 100

If I do end up crewing for you Martin, can you get me some worm please? If I bring the cuttle fish down with me in the morning, is there somewhere I can dump it before the comp? Who wants brake disc for drift weigh?