Andy135

Thanks for the good company and plenty of giggles and fish Andy. It's great to go out on a boat and catch fish again!! 👍🏻

Havnt posted in a while so a quick recap.
Great few days out of Milford Haven, weather was kind and the range had a few days off so could venture to new areas.
The bass fishing was phenomenal with birds hitting the water all over the place and bass busting out!
The pollack was also great when you could find them, along with huss to 14lb tope estimated around 40lb, gurnards dabs weavers and dogs.
Also some nice lobsters and spider crabs In my pot 🙂

Makes the tiddlers feel bigger if you hold the rod underneath the reel 😉

No, no, perfectly normal, unlike the flids from the solent 🙄🤣😇

Unfortunately I had changed some settings and inadvertently gone into loop mode, so the Cod footage was recorded over, however, here is a vid of one of the smaller pout (but still large), that tried to take a whole mack flapper and was cleanly hooked on an O'Shaughnessy 9/0
 

Well that sounds like a very decent session. Good work 💪

Can't remember the last time I fished from my own boat, it's been that long
Decided on a short trip West to target the Smoothhounds
In the 7.30 lock was just ourselves and another (ex) CBYC boat, they were heading further West to Nash and we were staying closer to home just West of Barry
We got the pick down by about 8.15 and waited, I was first in with a small blonde after 30 mins or so, closely followed by a dog
That was pretty much it for the first 90 mins, so we moved out wider. A small tide meant we could fish and anchor comfortably in just over 50ft at slack low
I was first in again with a small hound of around 6/7lb, with crewman will boating its sibling pretty much straight after
This was the story for the next few hours, with hounds coming in 3's and 4's of similar size periodically, and the odd few just making double figures
We also had quite a few dogs and Rays (Blonde and Thornies) which were mostly juvenile and pretty unexciting
We moved when the anchor starting slipping in 70 odd ft and had the last hour on the Coral, near Penarth
On a plus note, my bit of stainless tacked to the "prong" on the windlass, worked a treat
Had my normal "windlass man" up front on first anchor retrieval just in case, and he wasn't needed
The 2nd and 3rd retrievals were both done from the cabin
Also both the new temp guage and new oil pressure switch work spot on
No pictures of inferior fish today, but did get a couple of this old girl on the way in, parked up on the end of Penarth pier
 
The Waverley, doing a bit of a tour around parts of Britain 

Congratulations! A lovely first tope (and a new/first PB?!). Top dangling 👍

Annual trip was written off due to weather conditions but my friends kindly twisted my arm into going over the weekend on the proviso that they got me to the airport or home before my flight to Spain. 
First day was choppy at times and finished flat, but we managed to get some mackerel, scad and launce to bolster our few frozen baits and ended up with a topelet, a similar size smooth, a mid sized huss and a mid sized TBR.
Day two and we headed off for tide and depth. First off was a huss of around 90cm but as the tide strengthened we headed to another spot just to the side of a drop off, the anchor kept pulling out and then stopping us, so a slow drift really. 
On one of the stops my friend had a knock and a slow run so we thought Huss, but on striking it went bananas! It was great to see a good bend in the rod and eventually the fish obliged and headed to the boat and then towards the warp!!!! It was expertly handled back towards us and netted and tailed in one swift move. 

151cm iirc.
Short while later I had a couple of sharp pulls and then a run, I gave it a count of 3 and tightened and she was off! I thought I would lose her as the tide was raging and she was using it to good effect, however I managed to get some line back before a couple of short runs, and started to pump her back in towards the boat but she wasn't heading up just keeping deep until under the boat and then she headed up...
Then well before we saw the leader she saw the boat and I just held on as she shot off downtide, when she slowed I turned her and started again. She surfaced 15m downtide and managed to turn and run a few yards and then wrap herself on the leader! However after really testing the tackle she came alongside and unwound and was lifted in by my friends!

mid 150's in French inches. 
I was cream crackered on the plane after 2 eight hour days in choppy conditions and just 2 hours kip but I have recovered sufficiently and am off to the pool to wallow and slumber! 
HAPPY DAYS!

Another morning solo trip as I had to do the school run in the afternoon.
Launched at 7:45 into a flat sea, so I decided to head out to the same bunch of wrecks as my last trip.
At 15 - 20 miles out it was mirror flat, I decided to stay on one largish wreck, and my drift was along the wreck which is unusual.
It was pout city on both spj and lures, but I did manage 2 small Cod of about 4lb each. 

Some of the pout were huge. I had some frozen mack to use up, so I quickly tied a blood loop wrecking rig from 150lb mono, and a 9/0 hook. I loaded the 9/0 with a mack flapper hoping for Ling, but the monster pout were shredding it, and I hooked 4 of them, bloody monsters, probably close to 3lb fish !
I will look at the camera later to see if there are any pics worth using.
Just cleaned the boat and I noted the AIS stopped working on the way back in. The AIS 800 has the ‘ready’ and ‘receive only’ lights on, which suggests it has lost its GPS signal, so I suspect the Garmin puck. I will order a new one tonight.
Total trip of 38miles and a cracking day to be out there.

RIP… 
Bit of a tune back in the day 
 
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy00dgr4yjvo

happy fathers day all the sun is shinning for us 

Fixed that Jon 👍

Lovely bass there! But what was your mate thinking trying to catch bream on a Fiiish Black Minnow? 😉

what is a little blue pill going to do for my broken lenth of wood ???

Pete, for your usage any old wood will do 👍.
If you need to get wood, perhaps you could try a little blue pill??

Pete, for your usage any old wood will do 👍.
If you need to get wood, perhaps you could try a little blue pill??

Yeah but you don't go on the water so doesn't matter . 

Axes and pick axes generally have Ash or Hickory shafts

Yes & no. 
 
RIB’ s have very little freeboard and you are always aware of that fact, however, the tubes are also very wide ( 500mm diameter). So,  much wider than the average gunnel, so you tend to fall on them rather than over them.
It is a fast boat, with a low freeboard, so the wearing of lifejackets is a given.
 

Yes, Neil, it is not so bad falling onto the tubes !
BTW you can have all of the above with a RedBay RIB, excellent sea keeping, highly regarded and made in Ireland, but you are talking £££££££££
With regard to the vid, I was using my new DJI Osmo Action 4, and TBH IMO it is streets ahead of the gopro. I was expecting to have to 'brighten up' any stills due to the position of the sun, but the actual video shot in 4k60 was fine, so I used it.
I don't know about the Solent, but here we have been plagued with a short sea, and it has been like it for 3 months now, with swell patterns of 1.7 - 3 secs, which as you well know, is mighty uncomfortable, both for travelling at speed and drifting.
But yes, it was a pleasant morning and worth taking the chance to get out 👍
 

Just a solo morning session and the weather liars were forecasting a good sea and wind conditions. Launched at 07:30 into a flat, calm sea, but that didn't last long 🙄
I had decided to go to a wreck, and then inshore for some Mackerel, and this was a 'food' trip, I had my instructions, Bass, Cod or Ling, and a Mack or two for the granddaughter. My lot are not keen on Pollock !
My destination wreck was the 'Meatboat' and I am pretty sure @Dickyasked about that wreck some time ago. It is in 190ft and about a 15mile steam. The flat sea was great, and nice to be cruising at 30kts, but once I got to about 6 miles out the NW wind picked up and was producing quite a significant swell with a short sea (1.8secs !). By the time I got to the wreck, I was down to 18kts and the wind was causing a lot of spray from the waves. Drifting the wreck was not easy as there were 2 crab pots on the outer edge of the wreck, but I found a drift line that worked.
First drops on the wreck were with SPJ and that was producing a Pout on every drop, decent sized, but hey, they are still Pout. Last time I fished this wreck I remembered sidewinders were effective, so I went down with a Skerries eel, After a few plucks down on the wreck (pout) at 31 turns up I had a decent take and knew it would be a bass. Sure enough a bass it was, not huge but a keeper of 50cm (3lb or so). The next drop produced the same result, so I was happy with a bag limit of 2 keepers and decided that the washing machine sea was getting worse, so time to head inshore.
The first 5 miles coming off the wreck I was down to 16 - 18kt into a NW very short head sea, luckily the RIB is a dry boat and I didn't take any waves over the bow. Once I got to the 6 mile from land, I picked up speed as the sea was much better being in the lee of the land.
Next stop was the Orestone, where I struggled for Mack, but managed to find a decent whopper Mack in amongst the continual Scad and Gurnards. So, at 12:00 midday, with the shopping basket full, it was time to head in ready for the school run.
Apart from the weather liars, it was good to be out there, with a trip distance of 38nm, 2 keeper bass, a decent Mack, plus a load of other dross like Pout (lost count), Scad, and small Grey Gurnard.
We had the Bass for evening meal and the granddaughter munched on the mackerel (she doesn't like spiky)
I had the DJI Action 4 camera on, so I could take off stills, but the cam is reasonable, so a little vid instead. I didn't bother with the Pout footage !
 
 
 
 

Of you go to St.Cats then!! Go do us a recky.. 

Damn Steve you beat me to it!

Hi Andy,  Yes I actually have a new engine water pump.  Cheers, Murray