Andy135

I was out on a group of four wrecks off the SW corner of the IoW back in the summer, and I wanted to test out the new HDS Live 9 and Active Imaging transducer side scan capabilities. Below is a screen shot of the bow of the Kurland (details here: map.forgottenwrecks.org/uploads/documents/FWFWW_Site%20report_Kurland.pdf) compared with the Marine Archaeology Trust's professional sidescan view from the Forgotten Wrecks report. HDS Live Active Imaging side scan Marine Archaeology side scan Pretty good correlation between the two I think. The HDS side scan was taken at 455khz for the wider cone angle. Next time I'm there I'll try the same drift using 800khz so that I can get a better resolution image. Incidentally, the Forgotten Wrecks Map is a great resource for wreck hunting on the south coast (sadly not yet made it to Wales ). Well worth a browse for the history as well as hunting for wreck marks.

How about fitting a working turbo?

Friday will be THE DAY!! The first time out on her since the sea trial back in Jersey! Wish me luck! #itfeelslikechristmasalready!

Had a very productive day on the boat today, with huge help from Pete aka captinslow. We replaced and bled the hydraulic steering fluid, replaced the batteries with new ones, rewired the forward bilge pump to the House battery instead of the Start, installed the second HDS 9 and sealed up the hydraulic line skin fittings in the splash well.Twin HDS 9's installedColour of the 10 year old hydraulic fluid that came out of the steering system - yuk! Should be light yellow in colour, like a medium dry white wine.

Got the new deck pump installed today. Also finished tidying up the connections for the HDS9 and tested out the new bait board.

A successful night last night. Removed the HDS5, enlarged the hole in the wheelhouse and installed the HDS7 and wired it in then fired it up to test. All good. And I finished before it started to rain!The original hole with the HDS5 removed.The template marked up, showing the areas requiring removal.The finished installation.

So as with any used boat, there are a few niggles that I want to sort out on Jersey Girl. The list started off quite small, but the more time I spend working on her, the more things I find I want to do or fix.So far I've removed the Lowrance LSS-1 downscan/sidescan transducer and black box, and in its place I've installed the Active Imaging 3-in-1 transducer from Apache (the orginal Totalscan transducer has gone back on Apache). The LSS-1 kit may be available shortly - need to test that it works and assuming so I'll advertise it here.I've drained the propylene glycol from the Airmar M260 transducer tank and epoxied up a leak in the tank itself. Need to re-fill it with new fluid next.I've started to unpick the wiring loom from behind the helm - much of what is there seems to have been done well/competently, which is encouraging. There are some oddities but nothing too serious or un-fixable. For example, the deck light is not wired into a switch or power - just loose cables routed round to behind the dash. Or the fact that the existing plotters are wired into the permanent live side of the switch panel, and therefore aren't actually switched, or the fact that the stern bilge pump was wired to run off the Start battery instead of the House.I've also replaced the diaphragm on the manual bilge pump which had gone dry and cracked along the fold inside.And nipped up a small weep in the main helm hydraulic unions. Had to go and buy a 16mm spanner for that. I'll replace the hydraulic fluid with new and bleed the system shortly.Next up is to install the HDS 9 Live from Apache and remove the old HDS 8 Gen 1 from the helm, then figure out how to cover or make use of the hole that it will leaveThen replace the desk wash pump. Here's the old one. The new one is sitting on my desk waiting to be installed.Also need to remove the old HDS5 Gen 1 from the second helm station and replace it with an HDS 7 Gen 3 which I already have. This will involve enlarging the aperture in the GRP where the HDS5 was in order to flush mount the HDS 7.Two new flush-fit rod holders are on their way from Italy which will be installed in the corners of the splashwell top surface, and two new batteries are already on the boat waiting to be installed.Also need to re-wire and re-secure the forward bilge pump as I found it rolling around free in the bottom of the hull.Then replace the ground tackle with a longer length of chain and more rode. The current set-up has 6mm chain barely half the length of the hull, and only 70m-ish of rode.Then after all that is done, I can go fishing...

Do you do it? If so, how? What bait do you use, and how do you get it down to where the fish are?I use a 2 foot length of soil pipe, perforated with 16mm holes. I made a stainless, drilled base for it, and I seal the top with a cut down pipe bung. Will post up a pic bit later. 2lb weight on the end and lower it to the sea floor on a length of cauline. However I'm thinking of swapping the cauline for 60lb braid on a spare rod & reel for this season.

Having an hour spare yesterday whilst the family was out I seized the opportunity to make up a batch of jellyworms and sandeel bodies in preparation for Fisty's Alderney trip in May. I reckon they turned out quite well. Let's hope the fish like rhubarb & custard flavour...

There's a wealth of sites and information online to help the small boat angler find marks, understand tides, weather and migratory fish patterns. I've listed below the sites I use most frequently to plan sessions. Feel free to share your own favourite resources.Navionics worldwide chartsA great way to look for new marks and undersea features from the comfort of your own desk/armchair/phone.Forgotten Wrecks MapAn interactive map with details of shipping and military losses from both World Wars. Focusses on the south coast of England. Great for finding out more about the wreck you plan to drift, and even for finding new wrecks to fish.BBC WeatherDoes what it says on the tin. I find the BBC site to be the most reliable and less prone to last-minute forecast corrections than others.Isle of Wight tidal stream video I like this video because it shows tidal strength and direction with each hour of the flood and ebb. Good for working out the general direction of drift on new marks and estimating the likelihood of lumpy wind over tide conditions.Dorset WildlifeTrust hi-res seafloor mapThis is a great resource for finding seafloor features and wrecks long the Dorset coast. The mapped area expands periodically, and at present it also covers the south, west and partial east Wight areas. I've used it for documenting the precise co-ordinates of the bows and sterns of the wrecks they show, and adding them into my plotter. This gives me a better way to line up a drift vs navigating to the wreck icon on Navionics alone.CEFAS WaveNetThis is a network of wave and temperature monitoring buoys around the UK. I use it to check on wave heights (useful before heading out on the boat) and water temps (useful before hitting the shore for bass on lures in the spring).GPS Co-ord ConverterI use this site if I need to change the format of GPS Co-ordinates when researching for new marks.Chippenham Divers Wreck Look-up and Prima Sub-aqua wreck listList of wrecks and co-ords along the south coast. Dive clubs generally are a wealth of information on wrecks and other features, and many of them freely publish the co-ordinates online. Clearly as these are available to anyone they are likely to be heavily fished/dived, but for the newbie they are a good start for finding wrecks. Search Google for dive clubs in your area and see what you can find.www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHQEguDhuBaAoVu3J9QLoPdyv7JmYFbIWPlaylist of Navionics webinars. Lots of content on how to get the best out of your Navionics charts on Lowrance gear, but should also be relevant for other makes of charts and hardware too. Mostly aimed at shallow water US bass angling, but also some good stuff on inshore and blue water chart usage. There's hours and hours of content here - makes a good alternative to Netflix to scratch the fishy itch whilst we're in lockdown.

Lovely boat.... with lovely cushions... 🙊

You're welcome any time Pete, and thank you for your help with bleeding the hydraulics and generally passing me tools when I was in the bilge or under the helm! Couldn't have got half as much done without you 👍

She's hiding...

How cute is she!! 😍

This is "Jersey Girl", which I was forced to buy from Jersey by @Saintly Fish.

I realised I haven't made an intro post yet, so here goes... Andy135; been dangling in one form or another for over 30 years. Tickled my first (and only) trout at 7 or 8 years old after reading Danny, Champion of the World. There was a stream at the bottom of our lane that had one or two resident trout in that caught my eye as a youngster and which sparked my lifelong interest in fish and fishing, and the natural world in general. Now I take every opportunity to pass on this interest to my kids. Currently billy-two-boats as @Saintly Fish made me buy a bigger one when I wasn't looking for one, didn't need one, was happy with my little boat, but he sent me an advert I couldn't refuse and the rest, as they say, is history... 😆 Also train and work my spaniel and shoot clays and game when I can. Live in rural Berkshire and love a good pint of real ale by a log fire.

Thanks Pete!

Where are the others? Come on you lot - take a look around!