mike farrants

HI Ralph, welcome!

was slow for us last week too - considering the hours i put in over 3 days we only had a couple of decent fish to the boat!

no - i haven't ever - I didn't think they were much good for eating?

awesome fish! nice work!

nice one - well done!

24th, 25th 28th and 29h August all roll into one a bit so heres a round up. had the in laws down so I took a week off and we spent the first half deep in @GPSguru territory with a trip west to Torquay - taking in Brixham, paignton, torquay, Teignmouth and sidmouth - family trip so no fishing - but lovely sight seeing and plenty of good food an dbeeer. we were back in weymouth on the 24th that saw me and phil (in law) take pugwash out - calm day no winds but with a few showers about proved interesting. we went for mackerel first for bait and in and out of showers managed a few - including 2 bigguns reserved for tea. We then went out to anchor up on a known mixed species mark. flat calm almost eery conditions. soon after anchoring the rain came - we were lucky it was slack as we could shelter inthe wheelhouse without too many fish to deal with - the rain intensified an then the rumbles came. Thunder wasnt ofrecats for us but i could see it was moving up the channel - we were on the fringe of the storm and could track it on 'real time lightening tracker' - it was 50/50 if we shoudl stay or go as we could see forks of lightening hitting the horizon - clearly tot he north was clear, but the channel was getting it - bout outside us gave some comfort as they didnt move. soon enough the storm passed and made way for sunshine and rainbows. the fishing was slow - but we managed bream, congers = one was Phil's PB and a monster - 30lb easy. we also had dogs. but no rays. i managed a belter of asmooth houd which dam near took my rod over the side - i caught the rod butt as the reel was level with the gunwhales! Friday 25th was better for rain but with wind forecast from lunch we decided to stay inshore and drift portland harbour walls and inshore reefs. Phil got a lovely Tub gurnard - his first and we both managed wrasse, pollock, and gurnards. Sunday 27th the in laws had gone and new fishing friend arrived - we met at portland bill to watch the Cowes Torquay Cowes power baots come past - they come increadibly close at full speed - i expected quite the spectacle but sadly on 5 started, only 4 passed the bill, one returned in limp mode, one broke both gearboxes in torquay and so only 2 finished. the 2 big ones at full throttle (silverline and Good Boy Vodka) sounded epic though! as a child in the 90s i used to be fascinated watching them arrive on the IOW slanted on low loaders and seeing the start was awesome! Bank holiday Monday i took shane out on pugwash - we went for bait first in the usual places and only managed 2 mackerel in the 2 hours - sadly we listened in on channel 16 on a huge search and rescue operation by weymouth lifeboat, S&R helicopters and many local and passing charters and private boats looking for an overdue diver from a wreck trip a couple of miles off of Portland bill - the search went on for hours and sadly didnt end well. Thoughts to the diver and his family. we headed out to anchor up - we had gurnards, dogs, eels, and shane had a baby smoothie. Wind picked up a bit fresher and earlier than expected so we called it rather than be uncomfortable - shane took his Bream for tea. Tuesday 29th after work we went out for a short shore spinning session with light gear in a known mackerel mark so Shane could get his daughter fishing - on arrival at dusk we saw fish jumping - being dusk i though school bass but it was actually Scad - almost a hit a cast on the Seadra aqua bullet (thanks @JonC for the tip off- they really are great casting jigs)- great fun either scad on the surface or small pollock on deeper retrieves. Shanes daughter was getting the hang of casting and managed a decent Scad - shane found a schoolie and pout amongst the scad on his rag baited flapper too! - we did the same the following evening. they're here for the weekend so i hope to bring more reports soon!

nice session - love a good bream haul! loads of them still round here too!

haha - if ya know... ya know!

awesome experience - and great pics! were you at anchor at the time?

and some you don't 😜

Welcome Nick! pics of the boat please! we like pics!

cut the chips thin and no one will notice

woh woh woh !!!!! what is this nonsense? butter and cream one and butter and jam on the other? its cream and jam on both bits you absolute hooligan

nice one - love a bit of fun with the small stuff - were they on rag or lures? good result at cogden too - i should try there more often - i'm only up the road!

and deep fried in batter?

nope - the cream replaces the butter simple.

nice fish!

nice report - makes me want to get out on the kayak again - but its no good for the boat here at the moment let alone the kayak!

nice one - sounds like great fun!

I took a week off and had the father in law down for a few days to get as much fishing in as possible - typically mother nature didn't want us fishing for some reason - so i have combined all 3 days onto one rather disappointing report. things that slowed our fishing down - Wind, Rain, Tides, Yachties, Seals, Dolphins and some dam right stubborn fish! With the forecast showing +20mph SSW or SW winds for most of the week and neap tides we knew we had to grab our moments. Wednesday looked the best day - little or no wind in the morning - building to 20mph SSW from lunchtime we decided to head straight out to the Mark to anchor up as might be the only chance - taking frozen mackerel instead of wasting time trying to find fresh. dropped the hook before 9am in near glass conditions - and we both opted to go small baits for gurnards/bream etc - very quiet with only one dog so i upped the bait size - and found myself a few more dogs and straps. I picked up my rod to check the bait and found a heavy weight on it - no fight - I though maybe a bull huss, but turned out to be a huge lazy conger - easily over 20lb - maybe more - didn't get it in the boat for obvious reasons. Phil had a few congers and dogs too. I wanted a ray so switched to a bunch of sand eels bound together and sure enough pulled up a lovely spotty ray - with an interesting black face and chunk taken out its wing. (by my right hand) the wind soon got up around 2pm and it got uncomfortable so we pulled the anchor and headed for Portland's entrances to try for mackerel - found them easily enough to top up the bait freezer and some big enough for dinner too. total of around 20. we tried a different area drifting with baited feathers and all i managed was a pin whiting. the rain came in heavy around 3pm so we called it and went to the pub to dry out. Thursdays forecast was awful - wind and rain all morning - so we went to the D-Day museum in Portland instead - from there we could see the sea state wasn't too bad inside Portland harbour so decided to poke our bow out in the afternoon and find some shelter in newtons cove - visibility was improving - we couldn't see the top of Portland all day - but the cloud broke up for a bit. - got a great pic of Portland with a cloud hat on.. we drifted a small inshore reef and i managed a pollock and a Sea Scorpion we moved to a close in wreck to try for wrasse and all i got was pout - phil blanked. Thursday is race night at Weymouth sailing club and they all decided to race around us so we called it and went to the pub. Fridays forecast was similar to Wed - light wind in the morning building to 20-25mph from lunch. plan was to target Gilt heads in Portland harbour on the drift (can also get Bass and mullet here) - didn't work out - nothing - so we moved to a new area where we were greeted with a playful dolphin - think he was slapping a dead fish with his tail for laughs. this area only produced a couple of pin Whiting for me. as all other fish had seen the dolphin carnage! next spot we drifted was one dog and a small Ballan wrasse for me. 2 inquisitive seals scared off all the other fish & the wind picked up so we returned to the reef and I managed a corkwing wrasse - that's all - nothing for phil all day. we went to the pub. Saturday was forecast 30mph so we binned it off altogether. not a very successful few days but way better than being at work! and i ticked off 4 more species for the hunt- whiting, Ballan, Corkwing and pollock.

amazing pics - thanks for sharing!

nice one! sounds like a challenging but rewarding day!

not as low as his yak!!

looks like it could be a record......... 🤐

of course - i caught it on the boat!