mike farrants

i saw you got some frozen hermits - but they were still in the shell though? - do you have to fully defrost them to remove them? is there a technique or tool?

and i can absolutely hook you up with Doris from Portland - shes keen......... and gets her teeth back next week

you're welcome!

looks like an epic trip! nice one - thanks for sharing!

good luck - have fun!

sounds like a good day out!

18th June Weymouth Saturday looked like the last good day out before the wind came in - it was forecast to pick up N/E to 30mph gusts from tea time, so we thought we would have a good day. We met at 6.30am on Sea dog for an early start and i'm glad we did - the forecasted wind came early and we were back in the marina by about 1pm. but still had a cracking morning We fancied try some new tactics - targeting smaller fish - namely Wrasse around the portland harbour wall. and i fancied trying my New Nomura Kanji 30-70g rod and Kanji FS reel. first we tried feathering up some mackerel in the 1st entrance - the first drift pushed us very close the wall and highlighted a lump down the side full of fish - we quickly repositioned and bang into pollock - loads of them taking the daylight feathers. Tim switched to a slow jig and caught his first fish on a jig. I only manged to lose my new brand new slow jig to the kelp! and lost my fish skin sabikis! but great fun! after enough small pollock we drifted the middle of the entrance and soon had about 6 mackerel, amazing fun on light gear and we were treated to a wonderful display from the resident dolphins. Tim also manages a Bass on the daylights - not keeper size, but lovely to see! Next up was the wrasse - we nosed as close into the rocks on the leeward side as we could - you could almost step off the bow but we still had 40ft water under us. Rag worm on a 2 hook flapper - i was straight into a Ballan, had a about 4 of them and they were great fun on the light gear - but then to my delight i landed my first ever Cuckoo wrasse a lovely male - i was made up! happy days - stunning fish! we had a visit from the Harbour master to ask if we had paid our harbour dues as he couldn't see the sticker - it told him id forgotten to bring it to the boat, he rolled his eyes and asked me my name, looked me up on the system and he seemed mightily surprised that I actually had a permit ! must be loads who don't bother! he didn't seem concerned that we were almost on top of the wall..... there's meant to be an exclusion after enough wrasse we went to anchor on the spoils - about 2 miles out, but by the time we got there we decided it was too lumpy to be comfortable, so headed inshore to the lee of Bowleaze/Ringstead bay and anchored in 45ft over shingle. With a big bait on the bottom on one rod and a 2 hook flapper on the light gear - on the 1st cast on the flapper a giant mackerel took the squid on the way down - awesome fight on the light gear. we had a few dogs, but not much else. the wind really picked up much earlier than forecast and so we lifted anchor and headed home - It was so snotty out there we lost a wiper blade to one wave that came crashing over the bow! we heard later that a number of people were rescued on a paddle board from ringstead beach - and one from an inflatable kayak at Kimmeridge madness that people were out on inflatables in a forecasted strengthening offshore wind. Cracking morning and what fun on light gear! I took the moster mack home and had Cajun baked mackerel with dauphinoise potatoes and salad!

oh no - i cant help you then...... unless you were just calibrating your fishing gear?

top marks to the skipper for putting them on the fish - thats what really matters......... (it was you right?)

Nice one!

I’m away in Le Mans for a week so you can all try to catch up with the catches if you like! 🤙🏻😆

all done!

gloves pic added no PNs either - we had Taste the difference scotch eggs instead!

no wouldn't let me add further down either - says i'm over the limit

Armed with fresh mackerel from Friday, loads of squid, ragworm, etc we met at my mates boat Seadog at 7am. the comp is a species hunt, max 10 of each species, catch record and release - points per species only known on the day - with a bonus species also announced on the day - smoothound. 5 boats from weymouth were jostling for position at the harbour entrance for the 8am start - with fishing to start at 9am. great fun us all blasting out across the bay. Seas were still quite heavy from the overnight easterlies but forcast to flatten off by lunch we all headed towards lulworth to bag up the bream - Tim managed his quota of 10 - i managed 1 - not sure how i was so poor - but they must have liked his side of the boat! Tim also got a cuckoo wrasse, phil had dogs, jason had a conger. we upped anchor and moved to the adamant - in search of high scoring rays - i completed my 10 LSDs as did tim, i also bagged 2x spotted rays and tim had a tope. Phil had a big blonde and Jason had a kip! we had to stop fishing at 3.30pm and return to the club to register our points by 5pm - i was way off the points - but Tim had a shout with 200 points - however the win went to someone else on 260 - no one caught a smoothie so that pot rolls over. cracking day and my 1st boat comp - different tactics next month i think.

cant put any more pics up as it wont allow

in laws down so me and phil went out on pugwash - Friday looked like a good day for it - and we weren't disappointed. we targeted the Red band fish first - wanting to catch my first and get phil on them too - he went with fish skin sabikis - i went with tinsly ones - on the 1st drift - he looks round at me with a grin "i think ive got something" he says - the grin turned into a huge smile as he landed his first Red band - shortly followed by another = i'll have to keep wiating for mine. after an hour trying them we moved into portlands entrance to try for mackerel on the same sabikis and it wasnt long before we were bringing them up in 2s and 3s - some decent sized ones too - i was surprised to catch a couple of Launce, especially as its a muddy bottom? but happy with the additional bait! once we had half a bucket (15 of them) full we moved off to the mark to anchor - a cracking day, but slow on the fish - plenty of dogs, but otherwise Phil had a couple of thornies - biggest to 13lb, and i had a smoothie. cracking day afloat!

nice one! deffo going to have a jig off portland soon!

i've seen it - but its a bit of a stretch..... @Andy135 easy mistake to make - either that or they're bending the rules......

these 2 were possibly 30cm, but just seemed too small to take so i didn't measure- we want them to come back bigger - 4lb and over!

delicious too - shame these weren't keepers!

challenge accepted......

An early start saw me at the marina for 5.30am - with an all day session on sea dog planned - plenty of time for multiple locations. We intended to do the morning on lulworth ledge for the bream, and the afternoon on the adamant shoal for the big stuff. we got over to lulworth and anchored our usual spot - i had one rod for the bream and one for something bigger - Tim went all out for the bream on both rods (he used an LRF rod with 1oz weight - great fun!) I had a run of dogs, but coudn't connect to the bream bites - i was using the tenticles from one of the squid i caught in the winter - and they seemed to like them, but i couldnt connect. Tim had a couple of nice red gurnards and a couple of decent bream. at slack water i put the squid head down (minus its tenticles) and hooked into a nice thornie which gave a good fight. we upped anchor as it went quiet and headed for the adamant - no one else there so we tried a couple of drifts over it hoping for a turbot (usually too busy to drift) - nothing doing but such a nice day we decided to motor on to the shambles - we set up a nice drift along the length of the bank, with some sabikis over the side for any launce, towards the end of the drift i thought i had a tap but wasnt sure - reeled in a lovely little Turbot - target achieved. 2nd drift produced another small turbot for me and 2 sandeels for Tim 3rd drift the tide had almost stopped and the wind pushed us off the bank - but not before i had bagged 2 big launce - my first ever! I'm starting to like this turbot fishing! on the way back we tried for some mackerel in portlands entrances but nothing happening. getting back to the marina at 5.30 meant a long 12 hr session - but it was lovely! Bonus was Tim gave me his bream for tea!

nice one! i'll have to try the jigs off the rocks at portland bill!

will do - i've left the floorboard up so I can check it every hour through the night (not quite but i will be paranoid!) i'll check later and in the morning,