mike farrants

Risky business - my stepdad was the sergeant on the Ashburton (solent marine police) and (grim as it sounds) most of the bodies he recovered had their flys open or trousers down..... I prefer to "Bucket & chuckit" and of course my bucket of choice is a bright orange B&Q bucket £1

I have an Imax flotation suit for both boat and shore and it is bulky - guess it has to be to be a floatation suit - but i ordered large and its huge on me. As jon says puts me off wearing it unless its really cold - having said that - it is very warm - good cuffs, great hood, high collar - loads of pockets, whistle, high vis all the things you want/need I also have a thermal smock form imax it is also large and fits well - much comfier to wear - so i put it down to the flotation element. i would advise a 2 piece though - you can mix and match then! otherwise its all or nothing!

people only call that coz they're bored - im not trained up on the land lines

Nice one Daio - the old colvics doing the business - slow and steady lol!

nice one - sounds way better than what i did - stuck behind a keyboard all day!

Awesome! thats a stonker of a cod!

if you hold a fish long enough will it cook?

Condolences - very sad - highlights the risks of going solo (assuming he was solo as the boat drifted ashore)

yeah i like the leeda icon MXs - excellent value for money - seem well built I already have 12-20lb and 20-30lb paired with Slosh20 & Slosh30 Done 2x seasons now - great rods for the money - obviously not top of the range - but for what they are they're great! the 6-12lb finished the set for me - and is nice paired with the Abu 6500 for the bream/mackerel/Gar fish - i now have a set up for all the fishing i do...... ......till another rod catches my eye!

Was I meant to pm you my order or have you got it?

yes bream are still here in the bay - don't think they left last winter either. mackerel become scarce here in early summer - they tend to disappear April-June (hence bagging up when i could!)

same as last 2 weekends - joined Tim on Seadog - with his son this time too. Left the marina at 7.30am - armed with a new 6-12 Leeda Icon MX rod and old Abu 6000 multi for the lighter stuff. Aimed for Portlands north entrance for mackerel (where we had loads 2 weeks ago) - but really struggled - only bagging the one - after a couple of drifts and no more luck between 3 of us we thought we'd try the East entrance (Chequers) as its on the way to our fishing mark. First drift produced nothing - but we spotted another boat further inside the harbour pulling in full strings - so we relocated and BANG - my god what a difference - we must have hauled over 40 mackerel in about 3 drifts! strings of 3s and 4s - they were hitting the feathers on the way down - it was the kind of madness you would expect in the summer! mixture of joeys and monsters! bait sorted and plenty to take home - im going to need a bigger freezer. We soon anchored up - one big bait and one 3 hook flapper for the whiting. it was a steady run of whiting - mostly small but Tim found some bigger fish - they were taken on mackerel or squid. The little rod and reel was good till the tide picked up - and a bream gave me some good sport My big bait saw me catch a couple of thornies - a distinct lack of Dogs with only a few coming aboard - no conger, no pout no poor cod - stark difference to last weekend. we ended up with over 30 Whiting to add to the 40+ mackerel between 3 of us. I took the bream for tea (cajun baked with cherry toms and wedges) and the big whiting got filleted and vac packed for the freezer - plus 20 of the mackerel went in the freezer too (just i had to chuck out some sausages to make space). Half way through the day a Seal popped its head up to have a look at us - he must have been there for the whiting too - or passing through - an odd sight 4 miles off shore! A selection of the bigger mackerel

Nice one - looks like a great solo mission - at least the pout kept you busy and warm!

nothing wrong with 6knots nice fish and great to get the young ones on the cod!

impressive - especially in winter with all the extra gear!

I'll have one - Large in grey please! thanks!

they were fresh (according to tesco), but still a bit Squeaky!

steam room ffs - just coz i have jazzy tiles in the kitchen 🤣

Joined Tim on his boat again - left at first light in search of mackerel - really struggled compared to last week, only managed 4 joeys - no fresh squid about either - we had frozen baits though so all good. Headed out to our mark and set about the usual - one big bait and one small 3 hook flapper for the whiting. we had a bit of a false start - tide was weaker than the wind so we ended up not anchored properly, fishing toward the bow as what tide there was took our weights downtide but not the boat - so much so that tim caught the anchor rope as we swang over it, i had to go up the bow, pull the boat to create enough slack to haul the rope in and pull the hooks out. Soon enough the tide picked up and the wind eased. we settled into the fishing - on the light gear we had a steady stream of whiting, pout and poor cod - i had all 3 at once top middle and bottom! = great fun on my Kanji spinning rod. On the big stuff i managed a couple of thornies - the big one we didnt weigh as it was bleeding - but i'll say double figures - it took a Joey flapper I also had a big Whiting take a half a frozen mackerel on a big hook. I had a couple of congers = one big one was not hooked just clamped onto a mackerel head and let go at the boat as Tim reeled in a big thornie on a strip of Garfish. Tim also had a Smoothound on Garfish bait sadly only one doggie and no bream this week. we ended up with over 30 whiting - taking the big ones for tea. Colder than last week - but i had Bovril to keep me warm! pics:

anyone out this weekend?

there's no LRF section - or any section under shore that was relevant

we actually had a butter shortage - i used too much with the bream! as for the salad ..... its just for show!

Got myself a few LRF goodies off amazon (they're much smaller than they look) - will give it a go soon!

After such a long spell of windy conditions we were keen as mustard to get out at the crack of dawn - however a high spring tide meant we had to wait till the 8am bridge lift as we wouldn't fit under - a lie in compared to usual! After defrosting Tim's boat "Seadog" we headed out into the sunshine - straight to Portlands entrance where we had heard of plenty of mackerel and we weren't disappointed - a mix of monsters and joeys, and we soon bagged up with strings of 3 or 4 coming over the gunwales! I had a lovey Tub gurnard and Tim also had a Herring and a small pollock. 4 species in the first hour! Once we had enough bait for the day and a freezer top up we moved off. off to a mark not too far out as the tides were huge - we anchored up and settled in - light breeze on the bow meant we weren't in the bitter wind all day (thankfully) with one rod on a 3 hook flapper for the whiting, and one with big baits for the rays we settled in for the day I had plenty of Whiting (some keepers) pout, poor cod and fiesty black bream on the small gear and just Doggies on the big gear Tim also had whiting, pout and bream on the small gear, and he had 3 thornies (to double figures), Conger and dogs on the bigger set up. total of 11 species Mackerel, Herring, Pollock, Tub Gurnard, whiting, pout, poor cod, bream, dogfish, thornback, conger. Nothing big - but happy to be out and getting such a mixed bag! And i had bream for dinner - baked with chilli flakes and cajun seasoning

Nice one - decent fish and i bet it was lovely to just get out after so long!