mike farrants

i recently bought a couple of 2nd hand rods - one an ugly stick, the other a penn uptider, i matched them with a Diawa Slosh 20 and a 30 - bullet proof reels im told. at the time of choosing i was also looking at Penn warfare, squall and fathom, and Shimano TLD or charter. I went with the slosh as they are solid fo rthe money - i loaded them with berkley whiplash braid. (backed with mono of course)

lovely fish that! nice one!

i was down the boat last night and the mullet were thick - im going to try for them from the boat some evenings - there were others there float fishing with peas? i'll try bread on the surface first.

we spent an hour feathering, the entrances with nothing - then suddenly hit a drop off and found them hiding formthe Ebb tide - in 10 mins we had about 15 or so - all mackies taken on sabikis - thats whats working at the moment. the daylights got nothing!

got given an 8lb turbot - 4 huge fillets - pan fried with garlic salt, pepper, olive oil and butter - served with herby new potatoes, roasted vine tomato's and a mango salsa! washed down with an ice cold Marlborough! delicious!

estimate 40+lbs - taken on mackerel strip off the banks tot he west of portland bill 05/05/21

cheers Andy! absolutely buzzing! all fish were on fresh mackerel!

jasons smoothie

Tims spur

Tims Turbo

My spurdog

went out on my friends boat on Saturday, great chance to try my new 30lb Ugly stick and Slosh 30. Tims boat can get us out to other marks quicker than pugwash and its nice to share the trips! We started feathering for mackerel in portland harbour entrance and soon had a good 15 or so! as it was neap tides we thought we'd try some banks around portland bill having heard of double figure blondes from there. the day pretty much started out the same as last week - with me not having a bite for hours - while the others pulled in decent fish. Jason lost a double figure blonde at the boat as his leader snapped, Tim also lost a rig. but then the fish came...... Tim with an 18lb Spurdog, followed by a bigger one (guess 20+lb), then a nice 8lb Turbot Jason with a smoothound it then went quiet over slack water except for the odd dog - i was still getting nothing. as the flood started we swung round and found ourselves in deeper water off the edge of the bank. finally my rod banged over and I pulled up a 16lb Spurdog - the biggest fish i've ever caught and a first for me - i was absolutely buzzing... but that was just the warm up....... I then hooked into something big - at first I thought it was a ray hanging in the tide, but then came the headshakes, and it started running - taking line back every time i reeled in, it made a dart for France...... after about 10min fight we saw colour - a huge Tope! - my first Tope and far bigger than the landing net! we had it alongside the boat for ages trying to figure out how to get it aboard - eventually we got a rope around its tail and hauled it in! too big to weigh without harming it, as we had nothing big enough to put it in - I could barely lift it on my own for the photo, we have to estimate its weight based on the other fish caught that day - this Tope was clearly 40+lbs, maybe even pushing 50lb - a fish of lifetime for me, and I am still buzzing! fish went back safely, and we went home after that knackering ordeal! Tim gave me the turbot too as he was staying the night on his boat and it would spoil - win win!

I was fine after a cuppa thanks! 🤪

it was curled up like a pup for 5 mins - it went back unharmed!

kept this one in a bucket for you......... he was a bit stressed

welcome! looking forward to seeing the fish you bring aboard!

nice looking vessel! welcome!

we have the opposite in weymouth - 2 lows - it rises slightly between them giving a false high but is essentially low for up to 5 hours!