munterhunter

Thanks charlie Were you out tuesday eve?

Went out caught mackerel of b'mouth pier then went to outer patch with 2 dozen fresh pealer, caught 3 doggies, a mackerel on the retrieve and nick had a 3lb smut and a spoon sized bream hey ho! what a load of toss first flat evening for ages and nobody told the fish! Have heard confirmed reports of bass to 8 1/4lb from a local mark and loads of 3-4lbers so maybe me and nick maybe able to give that a bash. Oh and to really make it a night to remember when got into Mitchells someone was in Nicks berth so after scouting around couldnt find anywhere free on the waiting pontoon had to tie up next to another boat, and poor nick struggled to get off the boat over the bow! pity we did not have any smelly maccy left to slide into their cabin! Also means nick has to go down today to move boat etc etc.

Nik Naks catch report, we seemed to spend more time travelling to find flat areas with no tide than fishing however here is our catch from the day Nick 4 bream, 2 doggies (19 points) Jim 4 bream, 2 doggies (19 points) Colin, 4 bream, 4 doggies, 1 smoothound, 1 wrasse (52 Points) Charlie I have emailed the details to you.

Friday night, bagged up on maccy off b'mouth pier and 2 pollack and numerous scad on feathers. Went to mark, doggies! kept on reeling in half of my livebaits (small tope taking them), scad seem to stay alive longer than joeys in bait tank? end of the evening 1 solitary small tope, no big runs, called it a night early on as was a bit lumpy.

with favourable forecasts we decided to give tuesday eve a bash and with hw@20:00 things were looking good, went to outer patch picked up enough mackerel and got down to some fishing. Doggy after doggy and a bream, tide slackens off and boat sits cross ways onto swell so head in to drift fuel barge area and have a 3lb bass and a 1 1/2lb smoothy. go home frustrated at teh weather. Me - 9 doggies, 1 bream, 1 bass Nick 2 doggies, 1 smut Never previously had much luck drifting with peeler but decided to not peel the peeler and mount on hook and crush shell slighty so juices wouldnt wash out, and mount whole onto hook, this is what had bass on. Maybe a tactic I wil repeat as may stop small bream destroying the bait?

Durlston Marine Watch reckon was most probably a basking shark as pilot whales dont come in that close.

the smoothies were falling to peeler crab and rag and rag/peeler. size 1/0 and 3/0 hooks. Will be informing durlston whale watch of what saw so maybe they can identify the species probably a basking shark or pilot whale

Fished sunday with Nick, drifted old harry for maccy then fished 200 yds of old harry/ballard was slow fishing with a couple of smuts to 6 1/2lb (great fun on spinning rod and 2oz of lead!) nothing on fish baits. Notice a black fin meandering about @150 yds from us moving downtide @1knot and coming out and going back under slowly was not a dolphin/pourpoise so asume a whale/shark(wishfull thinking, although was livebaiting a mackerel at the time). was narrowish and more rectangular than fin(triangular) shape. Then we fished evans rock a couple more smuts to 5lb 2oz and a few bream to 1 1/2lb nothing on fish baits again not even doggies! Nick wasnt 100% so we came in just as the evening was getter flatter and flatter.

Nick decided we should try a repeat of sunday after work on monday, couldnt find many maccy on the patch had a dozen after an hour over low water went to outer patch mark and was to choppy for nick had 1 drop then came back in harbour, tide was too hard so came in. Best fish was a 1lb 1oz maccy.

After postponing sun morning early start to 3pm sun afternoon for an eve session due to the weather. Set out for the inshore drift at 4ish and the sun comes out hoorah!. Passed Blue Warrior near the starting platform at Baiter and motored down to doscombe pier drifting the ebb had loads of mackerel, bream to 1 1/2lb and smoothounds to 3lb and doggies and a scad. Tide started to flood up so went to poole outer patch (first flat evening for months). Managed doggies and smuts to 5lb on worm/peeler baits. First drop on heavier gear with maccy fillet and 4oz of lead and a 8lb tope, 2nd drop and a 6lb tope 3rd drop and a 6 1/2lb tope while still banging in doggies/bream an smuts on light gear. Anyone heavy rod canes off and feels a bit more energetic and the fish surfaces about 30yds away (bass I think) and theres a bass (5 lb 14oz) with this tope estimated 15lb nipping him all the way to the boat. Land bass and there is white marks where the scales are missing and nips in his fins! Drop down again and manage a second bass of 5lb no tope following this time. Manage some more tope on heavier gear so decided to stop fishing worm on light rod and go to half a fillet and manage 2x4lb tope on 2oz lead a size 3/0 fine wire hook and a spinning rod with an abu 5000, now thats fun! Got back in before 1st high so unfortunately didnt get a chance to fish over high water for some straps! Final tally:- me 2xbass, 7 tope, 5 smoothounds, 8 bream, 15+doggies Nick:- 4 smoothounds, 6 bream and doggies Next mission:- 2oz float rig for tope/bass/conger

Decided to take monday off as weather forecast looked like a force 3 dropping but by midday was a force 4 maybe 5. Tried drifting for maccy with only 2 after an hour on the patch with a relaitively large swale. Decided to move over to ballard for some shelter picked up a pot @200 yds of old harry just before tide started to flood was on a bank from 20ft to 30ft so looked promising however 10 mins after getting baitts down 2 pot boats are heading straight at us so not to pi## them of if it is their pot, we pull our line and go on the drift I manage a 3lb 8oz wrasse and a 3lb 12oz wrasse wind slackens so head back to the patch on the drift for maccy and have baits down manage a 2lb bass on worm which nearly took my spinning rod over the boat when it hit the bait. Manage a handful of maccy and one scad on the feathers and shed loads of missed bites (small bream/small maccy?). Wind picks up so shoot in the harbour to drift for schoolies over high water I manage 1 then drifted castle for wrasse and we managed 15 or so before calling it a day. Not the day we had wished for, hopefully some "smooth" sea states will be here soon.

Alas I didnt fish sunday but nick and jim managed to get out to the patch after bagging up on mackerel on the drift with feathers they fished poole outer patch and caught a smattering of small beam and wrasse and doggies. jim managed 2 4lb smuts, nick has a run on maccy and after a 20 min fight gets a conger to the boat unfortunately during pulling the beast over the gunnels jim couldnt get it more than 1/2 way out of the water due to its weight and the sea swale it bites through the line and sinks to the depths so no weighing, nick estimated the fish at 40lb but cannot confirm this. Then apparently "Alice" anchors close by @50 yds and starts feathering and they call it a day

We come back in the dark, some nights u can do it at 10 knots and others at 6 depending on vis/chop/moonlight. We make sure on the way out we follow a direct course as possible missing pots by as big a distance as achievable. We found using a spot light made things worse as your eyes dont adjust to the dark, we always take it though. It does always help having two pairs of eyes on the lookout for pots etc. Is better if going slightly slower than normal as your perception of distance goes to pot at night. We also found making sure no lights are on in the cabin (except navigation lights) improves vision and slightly covering illuminated instrument display helped.

Snuck out after work, wind dropping down and flooding tide so full of promise, couldnt find any maccy on the patch so decided to head inshore for a drift along the training bank,that was un-productive so sat of brownsea castle Nick managed 1 spoon sized bream, wind died off some more so decided to drift east looe channel had a 1 /12lb bass decided to drift the castle again and nothing went home.

Try the bournemouth end as we have found the "outer patch" to be more productive than the poole end for bream, we also struggled to find bream over the weekend and think it may of been "one of those weekends" rather than doing something wrong. If there was wrasse there I would of thought a good chance for bream. We find the bream feed at certain parts of the time in larger numbers so have a frantic couple of hours then no/less bream for a bit. Also try using peeler crab, although about pricy can have excellent results. Sometimes casting away from the boat improves the catch rate of bream and if fishing directly under the boat will find you do not catch as many.

where abouts on the bank did u catch the small tope as would like to have a go at light line tope fishing. Where there many maccy out there or should I try to catch them before heading out?

nik nak fished fri eve, sat pm and sun and it was sh*t to say the least. We fished the Patch and swanage as was too bumpy for nick. Managed to haul in plenty of maccy on fri/sat struggled on sun, however there has been a trawler in netting on the patch lobster rock then in past lightwave bouy towards b'mouth pier on fri/sat so may of affected the shoals?. we had a handfull of small bream, a 2lb smoothie caught in the harbour a 1lb8oz ballan and some smaller wrasse a 3oz cuckoo and doggies to 1lb 12oz also lost the net between old harry and the patch. Highlights of weekend was seeing WB 50ft above us in swanage bay and seeing powerboats @100yds from us motoring along, no fishing highlights.

Nik Nak will be in the comp Nick, myself and possibly/hopefully Jim will be fishing the comp

twas a charter skipper that told me trevor small I think, is it "our linda" or "mistress linda" his boat, he his skipper/owner of one of the better charter boats out of poole.

I use mustad uptide hooks or eagle claw circle hooks for the bottom hook and then use a 4/0 5/0 nickle mustad hook for the top hook on pennel rigs. After this weekend will be going circle hook or 6/0 uptide on bottom and a 4/0 uptide hook on top. For smuts using peeler and rag I use 3/0 uptide, nick prefers the fine wire hooks as better bait presentation (I think this is from all the years of beach fishing he has), however am trying to coax him towards the uptide hooks for when we are going for smuts and bass.

Please help I would love to go tope fishing for some big uns and would like to do this with as least amount of lead as poss, so drift for them I have heard mention of the 32s and some people have some vague marks but would like more specific an idea so I dont waste a good day a) trying to find somewhere sat in wrong place. Also if is a good days fishing more chance of convincing the skipper to go there again!

I have heard that the betsy anna is a known stingray mark can anyone confirm this?

Drifted for maccy on patch managed 20 or so so went at anchor on mark a 2lb bream for me and a 3lb 2oz bream for nick and a missed run on a maccy flapper (too eager to grab that screaming reel!) on first drops of the day! then manage bream all 1 1/2 to 2lb, wrasse and another run on flapper let him run and bang into him got my 20-30 pro boat and 7000c3 screaming off and after a min or so and a few surges drops it, reel in to find hook on pennel rig bent, so did a gordon ramsay impression! 30 mins later flapper rig is off again (this time with bigger hooks) really struggle to get the beast of the bottom only 6oz of lead and then the bloddy knot parts and another gordon impression, dont know if conger tope or rays . Nick lost a 2ft long squid before the net doh! carry on banging out wrasse bream and pout, decided to go for smuts and land 3 5lbers nick has a huge run on his rag/peeler cockail and his tidecutter 12-20 is bent over double clucth on his shimano is tightened up but still running and then it dops it! a bent 3/0 hook and another gordon impression! then manage 2x2lb bass so think Nicks lost fish was either a nice bass or a good smoothie. Finished of day tackling down and bagging some maccy for winter/short trips

I think you can catch squid of Weymouth pier in sept/oct time and used to know someone who did it a lot, maybe worth a bash to top up also cuttle fish maybe worth a shot we also catch a couple and have started keeping them for winter baits and using them now is tougher/thicker than squid so can be presented well. I think wessex sell cuttle also?

popped down there this morning and was told no launching till weekend, so there goes this afternoons trip up in smoke so to speak.