mike farrants

did the black bream last night - Backed in foil with cajun seasoning, garlic salt and chilli flakes - served with roasted new potatoes and mango salsa

nah just big worms round here! haha i am right handed and reel with my right hand - i swap all my FS reel handles over always have done - maybe as i started with a multiplier?

im right handed but - i hold my worm with both hands........

not the best presentation and im no fishmonger - but taste makes up for it all!

1 gilt head, one black pan fried in olive oil with garlic salt, pepper, and chilli flakes, served with herby buttered new potatoes, and a mango, red onion, pepper and chilli salsa. delicious - better than Bass in my opinion (and easier to catch!)

Went out on my own boat solo on saturday - feathering for mackerel in the entrances to portland harbour - nothing doing but good to build confidence! went out on sunday on a mates boat and was treated to glass like conditions - tried the cruise ships first to see if the dolphins were there and we weren't disappointed, they played for about 20 mins - then we headed off to Lulworth ledges - anchored just off Durdle Door. Not much going on - one dog on baited feathers - then Tim got a good rattle - lovely gilt head bream, no sooner dealt with that his other rod rattles and its a smaller black bream - then nothing for an hour or so. we headed over to the Adamant bank and we had a spotted ray, some dogs eels and a small late whiting. Tim doesn't eat fish so I took home the 2 bream for dinner and it was delicious!

ok i was looking for a 25 - but not many do a size in between 20 and 30 fathom seems £150-£200 where as the squall is nearer £80-£100

im teaming it up with an ugly stick 20-30lb btw

been looking at a penn warfare - amazing value for money, but no where seems to have stock of the RH, penn squall seems good? any ideas? suggestions. i've ordered a SL02SH for mu uptide rod

no apology needed - this is really good info for those wanting to learn!

Saturday had a very successful first trip out - just drifted the entrances to portland harbour feathering for mackerel for a few hours - got myself familiarised with the boat a bit more - no fish - but it wasnt really about that! sunday i went out on a mates boat - a few doggies for me but he had dogs, eels, whiting and a lovely gilt head and a slightly smaller black bream - he doesn teat fish - iso i still went away happy.......

hope not!

yeah it was vertically - 1st time we had already hauled the rope in and the chain slipped back through the alderney ring as the chain was knotted or too heavy, 2nd time was with the bucket handle as a makeshift alderney ring. to be honest I dont think poor pugwash had the guts to pull 30kg through the ring! either that or my mate is bad luck (he was wearing green both times)

oh i'll be sending pics of the dogfish - more so if i'm alone - no shame then! yes I think I need to go for it - i'm out of a marina, so easy off and return, its a nice stable boat and good forecast and if i don't like it or get spooked i'm just giving her a run out right! I will wear a life jacket all day, do my radio check, and of course stay well away form the foredeck. my only concern is we have had 2x anchor related issues - both resulted in us hand hauling the anchor up - something i couldn't have done alone - i have since replaced the anchor and chain as it was too heavy - old anchor was 11kg with 20kg of chain New anchor 6kg with 11kg chain & 150m nylon rode so new anchor shouldn't be an issue to either lift with an A2 buoy or even if i did have to hand haul right?

I'm new to boat owning, and been out a few times with a friend, but he cant make tomorrow morning and im keen to make the most of the good weather, and build some experience so thinking about going out alone, maybe just drifting weymouth bay for mackerel, but will anchor up if I'm feeling comfortable. I have to take the plunge and go alone sometime, what are peoples thoughts? recommendations advice etc?

wondering if a radar reflector is required or sensible - if i'm anchoring always in daylight in weymouth bay - no more than 4-5 miles offshore? I've seen they re pretty affordable - the pole kind, worth it or not? thanks!

deffo out saturday and possibly sunday - they were giving strong winds for Monday but that's improved over the last 48hrs - so who knows. Saturday could be Shambles for turbot - but with strong tides it might be a no-go - if not it'll be mackerel on the way out and rays on the banks. maybe the odd doggie or two...... heres hoping 😆!

I bought some bunting to put up to scare the seagulls away - not only have them been making a mess, but theyve been pecking the waterproof flashing i put round the wheelhouse roof and ripped some of it off! bunting should do the job - but this looks a lot less "regatta" then the bunting will.....

ok got it - i have some bigguns from Sea-Glo - to avoid the crabs.....

i've also heard that yellow is the colour - and will be targetting the bream this year too - but what do the pop ups do? lift the bait? eg are they floating beads? looking forward to hitting the bream between Ringstead and lulworth -and in portland harbour!

So 3 of us went out over the 17th and 18th April from weymouth one day on my boat one day on tims, we also had a buddy boat with us - mixed results and a very important lesson learned! Sat 17th - Out on my boat pugwash - a 9am start as we needed to fuel up both boats first - headed out to portland harbour entrances to feather up some mackerel - sadly nothing on either entrance, or over the Hood - the tide was now starting to race out over the hood and holding the boat steady while the others feathered was good practice for me handling the boat. sadly no mackerel. so we headed to a mark between Checkers and White Nothe around 4m off. Mixed results - i had couple of Dogs, an small eel and a small spotted ray. Tim had dogs and surprisingly a mackerel off the bottom on squid (fresh bait for sunday shambles trip), his son had a baby smoothound. halfway through the day while sat at anchor i suddenly noticed my anchor bouy alongside the boat - i thought we had simply drifted up on the anchor, but before i had processed the thoughts the bouy was away - shackle visibly undone - bouy was just out of reach, and so was the landing net - one failed cast over it and it was disappearing with wind and tide - bit of head scratching and 1st thought was let it go, we will try to lift the anchor by hand, or use our buddy boat to recover it for us when we are done. 2nd thought was to attach our fenders to the anchor rope, leave it, go retrieve the anchor bouy and return to the fenders and re attach to the anchor - part one went without a hitch - collected the bouy, located the fenders and re attached to the anchor. we still had an issue though - the bouy was in the boat - the alderney ring was 70ft down on the anchor by now - so part 2 was a moment of genious - we fashioned a new alderney ring out of a bucket handle - held with a shackle and cable ties - when it came to lift anchor we attached the bucket handle & bouy and hoped for the best - and it mostly did the job - we didn't get the chain through it, but managed to handball that up. problem solved, all gear retrieved. On the sunday we headed out on Tims boat to the shambes to drift for turbot - no joy after 2 drifts and it was very lumpy, so we went and anchored on the adamant shoal - i had 5 doggies and a bigger spotted ray on my last drop, tim had doggies and whiting, and his son improved on his smoothound with fish of the weekend. on the other boat they had thornies, spotted rays, dogs and spider crabs. lesson - check all your shackles are tight and probably best to cable tie them - and always buy decent buckets.

only time I felt queezy was at anchor on a yacht for lunch - the problem was i was looking down at my plate and eating - but i caught it in time and never had it since. it could of course just have been a dodgy pork pie..... or too much sunshine. I carry extra strong mints as i think they help, but i've heard stick to the middle of the boat and focus on the horizon, lying down not a good idea. other tips include drink orange juice & lemonade - it tastes the same both ways - and hold onto your teeth - my granny lost hers in the Irish sea on a ferry crossing!

yes will do mate - i also have a story about a bit of ingenuity with a bucket handle........