Sailfish

Looks like a lovely day out, fish too

Having spent the last weekends doing boat and trailer jobs, we made our first 2024 trip into the Solent. Aiming to launch from Elmore I noticed the height restricting barrier in time and reversed back onto the road and onto GAFIRS. Weather was damp, it was a Bank Holiday after all but the wind was light and the fish came out to play with hounds and rays to 12lb all on hardback crab. Only saw one other boat fishing and a pleasant lack of yachties

Mentioned above that 30hp is a huge ask for a 16ft boat with the weights you mention. The Strikeliner is a.semi displacement hull that was rated for 25hp. Many owners put a 30hp Tohatsu 2 stroke on. However your 30hp 4 stroke will be quite a lot heavier than the recommended 25hp 2 stroke. In a favourable sea and very lightly loaded my 25 gave my Strikeliner a top speed of 17 knots. It was a fantastic boat

Does anyone mark their anchor rope? I normally let out 10 metres of rope for every 10 feet of water. I mark my rope in binary using insulation tape every 10 metres with yellow=1 and black=0 Redone today, it lasts about 5 seasons. Interested in other ideas

The Mustangs (Adam Norsworthy) at the Bird in Hand. The Pout won me the point a fish point a species competition. We used to catch loads of them but they currently seem to be thin on the ground, perhaps the Congers have thinned them out

A day of walking rugby Saturday and then out to see a band resulted in a late start Sunday. We were greeted on the slip at 1130 by a stronger Westerly breeze than forecast so aborted the planned Bullocks/Pullar Hole and went to the East of the Island which was a good call as the wind peaked at 20 knots. We had the choice of marks as nobody was on Princesa, Culver nor Sandown Bay; maybe we were in the wrong spot? Caught the sun and plenty of fish: mackerel, spotted ray, congers, dogfish, some good bream and my biggest pout of the year. The wind dropped by 6 for the journey back.

Hope the RNLI lifeguards involved receive any counselling they need, some are only young lads and lasses

Changed my oil and filter on Friday ready for the first trip of the year on Saturday, taking out my eldest and his first time fishing friend. Target was smoothounds so we headed up to the west end of Lee. A small tide and a bit of breeze had us anchored back to front. After an hour we had the first fish on, running down tide towards the anchor! Another smaller fish followed. The tide started to pick up which I thought would bring the fish on but it didn't. The wind picked up too, at one stage the boat pointed the right way and then blew back over the anchor, we got most lines in before the boat did a 360 spin. We packed in when the second 360 occured. Think I might make a drogue. Still the boat and lines were wetted and the first 2023 fish brought on board. Caught the sun too 🌞🌞

West Ryde Middle.

Looks like the whiting were down the Cowes end of the Solent then whereas the dogfish were more in the middle,,......... Where we were.

@JonC Predator 165 called "High Hopes"

We came out about 12.30 and anchored in "The Browndown Hole" to fish the West Run because there was a blue boat in my spot. We had several whiting mostly small in the first hour and then it went dead when the tide started running. I then moved very close to shore where the whiting were biting and we finished up with 4 keepers.

I have seen that before and assumed it was a sewage outfall. Happy to be wrong.

We were at the fingers on Friday afternoon (Predator 165 "High Hopes"), I saw a blue boat go past so think you might have anchored uptide of us. We had a short burst of good whiting, straps, a blonde ray on a live bait and a few dogfish, one of which was also on a live bait