Neal

I will be out with 1 other - so that makes seven! Neal

Mike, a single tentacle makes a good tip bait for the smaller species - acting as an attractor and keeping your other bait secure on your hook. Don't suggest using fine wire hooks with one of these tentacles Neal

Neal & Vernon on Court Jester

Mike, Either drifting with live a Mackerel in areas where you find bass is a great way of catching the larger specimens - you would be surprised what size of bass will take a whole mackerel. The other option is to offer a live mackerel below a float - kept down with a 1oz ball lead. You don't need a live bait well if you are catching mackerel in the same spot as the bass are feeding - but that is not usually the case - so you need some way of keeping them alive. A bucket with an aerator (and a lid!) will suffice for a short time. I simply hook the mackerel with a 4/0 - 6/0 hook in through the mouth and out of the top of its head and drop it down on a 10' - 15' flowing trace - with enough lead to get it down to the bottom. Their have been quite a few articles on this in Boat Fishing Monthly and Sea Angler in the last 6 months. The bigger problem is locating the Bass. Neal

Mike, having passed you on the way out of the harbour and suggesting fishing much the same area I finally decided to see what fishing the St Aldhelms ledge might offer. Absolutely loads showing on the fish finder at about 20ft below - but couldnt get a take, so I suggest it isn't mackerel. We caught mackerel sporadically and put them in the live bait well. Having anchored up in 100ft of water with a vertical ledge just behind the boat rising up 40ft it seemed like a likely spot. One rod down with a whole live bait - another one down with a large fresh fillet...... waited-waited and not a bite. Eventually something took the fillet and headed off up tide and just hung there - rod bent double - occasional shake of head - gain some line - loose some line - PING - leader knot parted. Probably a Tope - Big, but will never know. Tide picked up and we decided to pack it in - stopped on the way back to try something else and found woof central. So back to harbour for Gilt Head bream - only one came out to play and it was very small. Nice to be out - still experimenting with boat and marks - tomorrow off to Utopia (on a Charter Boat) hopefully will do better than the trailaway boys! Neal

Mike, Try this website http://www.keysrentalboats.com/ Boats up to 26ft with 6 people + tackle - twin outboards - looks plenty big enough to get to the local reefs and offshore fishing spots. See this months Sea Dangler for article by Roger Bayzand - looks similar to what we planned - but he had a skipper / guide all of which add a huge cost even at todays exchange rate. yes - I agree the big game option on Cape Verde is cheap - but from what I have read their is bugger all in the way of ameneties on the islands. ie hotels and restaurants. Neal

You might like to consider an alternative - Along with a group of 5 or six others I have fished in the Gambia for the last two years. We have fished the in-shore reefs and around the mouth of the river Gambia. We had a poor fishing experience in January this year because we did not check the tides, however the people the week before us and the week after us did better. Speak to Ivan Wellington - Skipper of TomKat in Weymouth about his 150lb Tarpon - although it may have grown by now! The weather was superb - 22 - 28 degrees day and night and everything is ridiculously cheap. The weeks fishing accommodation food and lots of beer cost

I'll give it another try on Court Jester Crew - TBA Neal

So - no distinguishing between species such as : Wrasse - ballan, cuckoo etc Smoothhound - starry, common Rays - Blonde, undulate etc Bream - Black, Gilthead Poor Cod? etc etc and no mini species to count at all? Neal

For us new members wanting to fish the species hunt - can you direct us to the points scoring information. Cheers Neal

I will be fishing the species hunt on friday and then the specimin comp - at least on saturday on Court Jester - probably with Vernon Allen at some point. So that makes two more Neal

Court Jester will be out - fishing both competitions, please register accordingly 2 members and two non members. See you all at the weigh in. Neal

Having caught my monster Bream - what happens next? Do we then meet up after the event and I show you mine if you show me yours and the winner gets the trophy - or do we just post something on the website stating what was caught by whom. I would assume the winning fish need to be verified in some manner. Neal

I need to do the same, as I have recently taken posession of my new boat. So if I have any problems I now know who to call for help Neal

Yes I saw the competition details - however it was not clear how to register if I was fishing the Comp on Sunday, or if there was a meeting point afterwards? Who fished, what was caught, and what were the results ? or is it less formal than that. Boats name is 'Court Jester' Yes - it looks like I need a club pennant, I will organise that shortly! Regards Neal

Thank you, I look forward to being a member of PBSBAC and the benefits that it will bring. Whilst I have been fishing locally from a boat for a number of years - the boat was quite slow and acess to a lot of offshore marks was not possible. I have recently purchased an Arvor 250 which gives me much greater range and fishing time. I went to Christchuch ledge last Sunday (15th) to try for the Bream - having read one of your postings how successful their trip was. Having no idea where to go I just tucked myself in amongst the 20 or 30 other boats and had 12 bream between 3.5lb and 4lb - I will be going back. I would have booked myself in to last Sundays Competition but I didnt know how, or where the weigh in was. Unfortunately it was not obvious (to me) from this web site.