mike farrants

yeah we were tucked in under redcliffe/ringstead so not far from you - we saw it come along the coast!

Met Tim at his boat at the usual 7.30am - off the pontoon before 8am. plans had to change due the fresh easterly as it was lumpier than expected - we went to Portlands 1st entrance in search of fresh mackerel and to try for the squid - seeing as id had some off the pier. wasnt long before we hit a shoal of scad, and as I was dealing with my scad tim spotted my squid rod going so pulled in a squid for me, few mackies on the next drift and my squid rod went again - this time a Cuttle that I lost on the surface. Tim literally mentioned we'd never had a cuttle on his boat as his rod went.... cuttle again - he managed to get the cuttle in the boat - happy days. I also manged a lovely Tub: due to the wind we chose to spend more time than usual gathering bait and ended up with 4 cuttle 2 each - (and 2 more lost on the surface), we had a squid each, a few scad, one Tub, and a bucket load of mackerel. the wind stayed up and time was pushing on so we decided to drift a couple of inshore wrecks & reefs the other side of the bay in the lee of the coast which produced a few pout to keep us entertained. not long into the afternoon the forecasted storms started to roll in from the channel - and once we saw flashes of lightening we called it a day around 2pm. soaking wet we split the proceeds - half the mackerel each and I took the cuttle for the bait freezer - Tim took the squid for his. not quite the plan, but nice to fill the bait freezer!

awesome!

amazing! well done!

yes they are very early and in numbers! being caught all along the south coast!

yeah i know the drop off - but you don't need to go that far - they can be caught right off the harbour entrances! we fish inside Portlands north entrance and get some decent size and volume! i was out sunday too and we had squid and cuttle inside. then the thunder came lol

yeah i'm with SF - this is Paul Weller tribute and MOD cuts not Oasis fans i am loving all these memes that are coming out though!

Weymouth is full of good charter skippers - Ryan on Meerkat, Luke on Snapper, Jamie on offshore rebel, Dave on Annalil etc etc bit further to drive but you get good turbot and bream fishing here, plus plenty of wrecks

new packs of feathers on the card backing are the worst - i attach a small lead to keep it taut, then undo one hook at a time - if someone takes all the hooks off at the same time that's their problem! i find winders are good for multi hook rigs, and use them on the boat but tend to use a wallet from the shore as you say malc, due to space in the tackle box

So i've seen quite a few reports of the squid being in early across the south coast - and despite failing form the boat on Tuesday, Thursday evening looked good for a spot of squidding form the shore. I got back from the office around 6.30 and was on the pier by 7pm - i was the only squidder amongst lost of other fisher men mostly targeting mackerel and it was very quiet for the 1st hour. I was using one jig under a float drifting in the breeze and a variety of casting jigs, switching colours every 20 mins or so. i use a variety of £15 yamashitas, mid range DTD, and cheap Chinese 50p jigs - all work equally on their day. as the sun set the pier started to empty so i moved to the end where the rock changes to sand and seagrass and the water gets a bit deeper - I spotted a couple of ink stains on the pier next to me ..... i was more hopeful now wasn't long before the float started moving against the wind - a tell tale sign - as Squid don't pull the float down - and bang - first squid of the season landed. on a mid range DTD Jig. i cast straight back out and let the float drift - on retrieving, i saw a quid on the surface following the lure so i stopped my retrieve and watched the squid attack the lure on the drop - bang off the float went back out.... bang 2nd squid in. despite trying again that was it - 2 squid within 5 mins during the 2hrs i was there and both were just as the sun dipped. A young lad next to me just lost a mackerel and a lure, then had a squid chase his 2nd lure, so I donated a squid jig to him to have a go - i have no idea if he got one or not as i left him with it. fingers crossed he got one! Home at 9.30pm and pan on for fresh squid rings! the other one in the bait freezer! a lovely evening!

Following the constant wind on my week off and the typical flat calm on my 1st day back - i though sod this - im going out after work - working from home and being 2 mins from the marina meant i can be off the pontoon shortly after 5pm. the plan was to drift the inshore sand for plaice, and tow a float for anything else as it was such a lovely evening my other half Kate wanted to join - this usually means keeping the bait and fish away from her as she 'hates' fish and just wants to bask in the peace.... however after seeing me catch a couple of mackerel on the float (it was her that spotted the float go under too) she asked if she could have a go at feathering - as long as i helped her. I was fishing 3 rods - one spinning rod for the float off the back for mackerel/gar, one plaice rig with rag in the off chance, and i chucked the squid jigs over for an even slimmer chance of an early squid in the sea grass. I had managed 2x mackerel in the first 2 drifts when Kate said she wanted a go - so i rigged up a 4th rod for her with tinsels. and bang - shortly after dropping down she reeled in a small pollock, followed by another, then a pout, then 3 mackerel, then another pollock and i think lost a pout at the surface...... (trust me she isn't holding them at arms length to make them look bigger - she did not learn that from me - that's just to get them as far away form her as possible!!!) in between unhooking her fish i was playing with a cuttle fish - it followed my jigs up so back down i went, and it was on, dropped at the surface so i grabbed the net, it then let go at the surface another 3 times before it gave up. never mind. 5 mackerel for the bait freezer, and full bragging rights to the newbee......... happy for her to overcome her fear and get to see the Buzz around landing a fish! cracking evening

this weeks been glorious now im back in the office!

Apologies for the recent winds, I took a week off work to fish - so of course it blew up. Saturday 17th August - Me, Tim and my father in law Phil out on Tim's boat - with fresh baits sorted we picked a new spot south of the shambles in 100ft of water, reportedly good for big rays, the hour long steam out was made better by the arrival of a pod of dolphins who played with us for about 5 mins. on arrival at the mark we were comforted by the fact 3 charters were there too - hopes were high! down went the fresh mackerel baits - pretty soon phil was into a run of pout - some of them pretty big, I had a big tope, which put up a good fight - it was t-barred at the side so no pics. we also had eels and dogs. pretty soon the charters moved off and we soon found out why - the tide was ripping and half pound of lead wasn't holding - so we moved too. The new mark showed up some rays, more conger and dogs, plus bream with the wind blowing 15-20mph the rest of the week we didn't have many more options other than to take my boat Pugwash out and stay close in fishing the inshore reefs wrecks and sand. we managed a few afternoon trips and had mackerel & Gurnard. plus we got papped going out under the bridge!

love finding free tackle = I was spinning the other day knee deep from the shore and spotted a free weighted sandeel type lure lying there, picked it up banged it on and gave it a go! no fish though!

Wow - what an excellent trip! amazing fish!

Welcome Matt - I too have been out with Les on White maiden, he's a great skipper - been out a few times a few years back. he took great delight in showing me how to hold a conger properly - i mean he kept on showing me...... 🤣 and it had to be those 2 fingers......

we get them here on the sand banks - like the Shambles, adamant etc - i've never caught one yet but seen them landed!!

Deffo a Grey top and Tub below! As Andy says dark spot on back of dorsal fin is the giveaway on a Grey, TUb has blue edges to pec fins, and A Red is very Red with bright orange eyes well done! I need a grey for my species hunt - have the other 2x I bloody love a gurnard - one of my fav fish!

nice one - speed trial accomplished!

Boat comp time again - i'm a serious match angler so no time for photos lol 🤣 (read: not many photo worthy fish) Max 106 points for 10 fish of each species (30, 15, 15, 40 then 1 point each for the next 6), there's also prizes for the most fish, most species and the nominated fish of the day measured on length - todays fish was Red gurnard - and as no one had won the nominated species last 2x times it was a double roll over - £180!!! Comp started at 9am and we hit the small stuff first to bag a few early points - Wrasse, pout, pollock and unclassified (other small species), Tims son drove the Boat as his target was the nominated species. I had 4 pout, 2 wrasse, Tim had his 10 pout, 10 wrasse, 4 unclassified and 4 Pollock i was on 145, Tim was off to a flyer on 412 after 2 hours. we moved off to the mixed ground mark - leaving us about 4 hours for other fish - Tim's son dropped down first and would you believe it - must have put his bait right on the nose of a red gurnard - measuring 30cm - at least he had a chance of a prize. Tim then bagged up = bream, congers, Dogs, thornies, more pout. His son also had dogs, eels and lost a 20lb tope at the boat! i had a slow day - well out of contention with just 3x bream, 2x dogs and 4x congers, we got to the club house to be me with someone with a large red gurnard - so our only hope was Tims count or the raffle! Tim didn't win most points but did win most species! A lovely day out - flat calm and sunny all day!

nice one - a successful trip!

caught my first and only plaice out of bembridge

excellent fish and sticker placement!

haha very true Daio 🤣 We both know where the fish are - but his boat gets us there and back in one day lol I don't take mine far offshore!

genuinely not - yes the turbot pic was tweaked - but not these 2 - just a good camera and a loverly day for it!