Andy135

Did he give you a black eye too? Or a black mark in his register? 😱

Hi Chris - Dartmouth is a lovely place to fish. Years ago I kept a small boat upriver and would fish the mouth of the Dart for bass and pollack. Never managed to venture as far as the Skerries though, which I regret now. That's an impressive beast in your profile pic. Salmon?

No excuse not to post a catch report or two then! 😉

Personally I don't, but then I don't usually fish in the Solent. My patch is the East Wight area where there's a bit less traffic. I should still get a black ball though.

Welcome Chris. Predators are great boats. Good choice. Where do you fish with her when you're not in Scotland?

To build on my post above, according to the race instructions the start/finish marshalling areas are north of Cowes/South of Bramble Bank. It will be thick with sailboats in these areas, probably throughout the day. Recommend the Outlaws avoid these areas as the potential for WAFI clusterfuckery is high. http://www.roundtheisland.org.uk/web/pubs/2021/RIR21-SailingInstructions.pdf

And also bear in mind that there will likely be lots of spectator craft on the water too following those that are racing, which will make for a very busy day on the water (more so than the Solent usually is). Keep a sharp watch and don't assume that everyone will know/see that you're anchored. That said, we'll have a great vantage point to watch the race. 👍 #stayalertstaysafe

Ouch! Sometimes it just goes like that. Bad luck.

What a change from your last report! 🤣 Quality session with good fish. Well done 👍

They were, and we'd previously turned them off over here. However they're now an integral part of the new Achievements functionality in 4.6.0 and I haven't yet found a way to turn them off in isolation, so we'll be experimenting with them for now.

We'll shortly be testing out some of the new Achievements functionality that arrived with the recent upgrade. You'll notice some additions to profiles and some automated rules for earning Badges and Ranks. All feedback welcome.

Just reflecting on your experience a bit more and when I think about all the implications of what happened I'm amazed that you made it back in one piece. 😱 Definitely a wake up call for us all.

Crikey! What a session! You lot were massively lucky to get home. Glad you made it back safely in the end.

A top day out! Well done. Shame the sharks weren't there but some good sport nonetheless. Yesssss! Get in there!! 🤣👍🐶

Very nice fish there. Top dangling 👍👍

Sorry to hear of your woes Peter. Supply chains, particularly those from Asia, are all over the place at present. It's an ongoing source of frustration when buying fishing tackle just now. Should get better with time though as the effects of Brexit/Covid19/stuck container ships get sorted out. As to your question on braid measurement, I'm not sure I have an answer for you other than to say that when filling with 100% braid, this issue doesn't arise - I just fill the spool until the braid is just below the spool lip. However, I appreciate the need for reasonable accuracy in your case to split the bulk spool evenly across six reels, so you might try getting hold of a line counter and rigging it up on the rod that holds the reel you're filling. This should give you a way to measure length of line/braid consistently. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Berkley-Clip-on-Line-Counter-Black/dp/B005OTYW2E/ref=asc_df_B005OTYW2E/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=275797872660&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13605067761123563019&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007009&hvtargid=pla-448867667493&psc=1

🤮🤣

If it's just for paint, it should be possible without the boat leaving the trailer. It should be possible to paint round the trailer rollers, then once the paint's dry, back off the trailer winch slightly and move the boat back by 6 inches or so on the rollers then touch up the spots where the rollers were. Once dry, you can winch back into position. Granted, it'll be a faff painting the hull with the boat on the trailer - only you can decide whether it's £400-worth of faff though.

Very chuckle-worthy. 8/10 👍

Good report. Must admit I'm feeling a bit envious!

That second pic is stunning! Great photography! They are lovely fish - very characterful. A red gurnard was the first ever fish I boated on Apache on our maiden voyage. As it happens, mine fell to mackerel feathers. Yours looks a much better specimen though. Good work. 👍

Nice eel Mike. Strange indeed that it came over clean ground. At this time of year they're usually tucked up in a hole or crevice somewhere snaggy. Could well be a 20lb fish. Looks a bit on the skinny side but it depends how wide it was. Either way it's a good conger - well done 👍 As for weighing them, @Saintly Fish uses a Boga grip with a built in weighing scale. Or you could keep them in the landing net and weigh both fish and net, then subtract the weight of the empty net to arrive at the weight of the fish alone.

Looking forward to hearing all about it Tony 👍

Hey Ivan. Yeah, definitely not his finest moment. What frustrates me is that he has a huge and visible following. He should be squeaky clean otherwise he'll bring all anglers into disrepute. Only takes a loonie lefty to kick up a stink and next thing we know, recreational sea angling gets banned.

Is...? Surely you mean was? 🔥🔥