mike farrants

awesome - well done!

Have to avoid shellfish sadly!

Berkley Whiplash crystal on all my boat reels - although i used Hercules multi coloured stuff on my kayak set up as i didn't care about quality as its just a bit of fun!

All man SF - All man!

plus whilst holding my rod in my left hand it leaves my right hand free for scotch eggs, pouring the coffee, texting, checking the footie scores, moving the boat, havign a wazz over the side etc etc

i'm confused - all these wierdos saying you need your strong or more dextrous arm on the rod??? - it literally does nothing - i use my right arm to crank the reel, but also to feather the spool, tighten the drag, drop the weight slowly down tide, etc etc the hand that holds the rod does nothing - - put your back into it ffs i bet these people are also the ones that have the rod butt tucked in their armpit and their chin resting on the spool.... you know the ones. even on a FS i put the handle on the right.

Had the in-laws down for the BH weekend and due to the fresh easterlies only Sunday looked any good - and that was a bit iffy = Sundays forecast was 10mph NE and dropping off to nothing in the late afternoon - Got to the boat at 9am and she wouldn't start - the Battery isolator i have occasionally flicks back/off when you draw power to start the engine and you have to hold it while you crank - luckily i'd had the hindsight to order another one and had it with me - so a slight delay of 15mins and we were away with new isolator fitted. by the time we got out the harbour it felt more like 10-15mph and Easterly - which is no good for us - so it was a bit lumpy in the morning - we were hunting mackerel anyway so headed for the shelter of Portland harbours North entrance. It was glorious inside, but bumpy as we set our drift on the outside of the entrances. During our time here we heard a radio message from a boat at the 3rd entrance (south) that had engine trouble and required a tow back to weymouth - the Portland harbour master quickly radioed back saying they were on their way to assist. Fishing was slow going - I had one Tub Gurnard at the fist entrance, Phil had nothing - after an hour of this we moved up to the 2nd entrance. On our way up to the next entrance we heard a boat issue a PAN PAN, it was a boat with engine trouble requiring a tow back to weymouth (hmmm) - stating they weren't in immediate danger as they were safely moored - location just under the lighthouse at portlands east (2nd) entrance - they were literally 200yd ahead of us on what looked like a mooring bouy situated above a divers wreck - we 'steamed' over at 6knots and were the first on scene - family of 3 safely moored but no engine - apparently the Portland harbour master had dropped them there, while they rang Sea Start - apparently sea start weren't able to help as their engineer was ill or something. so they required a tow - seeing as I was on scene before they had even finished their Pan message we decided to wait it out with them to see if anyone more suitable to tow would arrive - within 5 mins 2 more boats turned up - one a large rib with twin 200s on the back - they seemed way more suited to the task so we let them tow them back and went about our day. (after getting a very enthusiastic complement about how lovely my boat is from the 3rd chap that offered assistance) we drifted the 2nd entrance and phil had a mackerel - time now getting on and the wind dropping off we made the 20 min steam out to our mark to drop the anchor - still a bit lumpy on occasion but improving all the time. It ended up a lovely afternoon at anchor - i was fishing small baits hoping for Bream for the BBQ, phil on the big stuff - phil totally out fished me - he had 2x thornies, a smooth hound and a run of dogs to keep him happy - i had just 2x spider crabs. lovely day with lots going on!

welcome!

welcome!

great fishing Ian - maybe it is a spotty that hasnt grown into its wings yet 🤣

doesn't this worry you? id be sleeping with one eye open if that was my missus lool

at least you didnt blank!

Loads of spotties round us - weymouth bay must be paved with rays - thornies, Blondes, Spotted, Small eyed and undulates - i'm still yet to get my first ever Undulate!

still better out and having fun than stuck indoors! great jumping pic!

a good mixed day by the looks of it!

nice fish! well done!

nice - looks like lovely weather!

The monthly boat comp came around quickly, and with light winds and sunshine forecast we were set for a good day afloat! However we woke up to thick fog - assuming it would lift as the sun burned through we all headed out of the harbour at 8am - to almost glassy conditions! The fog never really lifted and we never saw land all day until we got back - (we were less than 5 miles off) - quite disorientating - thank goodness for technology! The Comp is run on 4 categories - most points, most species, most fish and a species nominated on the day (largest wins) - this months was Bull Huss and was done on measurement. The points is for each species you earn 30 for the 1st, 15 for the second, 15 for the 3rd then 40 for the 4th. So variety and 4 of each is the main aim. Last month we moved location and lost time - so this time we decided to stay put all day. we'd had a good mixture of big and small fish from this location before include Bullys - so hopes were high. I drop down my 2 up 1 down rig - small baits up top for small fish and a medium fish bait on the bottom for anything else. not long in i get a bite - a heavy pull down - not much of a fight but up comes a very respectable Bull Huss - quickly measured and photographed - it went to 101.5Cm - at least i'm in the game! the fishing continued slowly all day not sure if was small tide, May bloom, or luck of the draw - we had Bream, Dogs, Eels, Rays to the boat - not one pout/wrasse/Gurnard. I had a lovely spotted ray, and very blue bream, Tim had a huge conger (t-barred off the side) could have been 40-50lb, a thornie and plenty of dogs and bream points wise we didn't do too well - as others moved marks and went to wrecks etc and got their 4 wrasse, 4 Pollock and 4 pout - putting them 300 points clear of us. but i did win the Nominated Species with my Bull Huss - so a share of the entrance money got me £58 - which i promptly gave to Tim for fuel - easy come easy go! a slow but successful day afloat!

tight lines! turbo time? or plaice?

enjoy lads! looking forward to seeing the catch report - in the right section of course!!

put the stickers on your step sons face next time! 🤣

weymouth angling club boat comp number 2 on sunday!

My other half has a sister who moved out to and now lives in Florida with her american husband and 2 kids - and they were over to the UK for a couple of weeks - 1st time fo rthe Husband Joe and their 2 kids. they came to stay with us for just 48 hours - abd being boat mad i had to get them out in the bay on pugwash! Saturday was write off with the weather and they were leaving on sunday 1pm- so it had to be sunday morning only! we got down to the boat for 7.30am with slightly fuzzy heads - i had to show Joe some English beers (a mixture of warm and flat ones and fizzy cold ones) knowing it was a short trip feathering for mackerel was the plan a) - with an hour at anchor if they didnt show as plan B) plan C was go see the Seal at Chequers and have a sight seeing. thankfully we did all 3! using small sabikis and baiting them with squid provided us the best chance and on the first drop Joe son pulled up a decent Tub gurnard, promptly followed by a 2nd. Joe then managed a small Grey gurnard - leaving it 3.0 to the americans! couple of drifts later joes son hooks up a decent sized mackerel I soon follow with one too - 4.1 to the americans We tried the 2nd entrance chequers - but the seal was in the water so after one drift we went and anchored up for half an hour very close by to cut down travel time. no sooner had i explained what a dogfish was Joe was in, quickly followed by his son and me - a few more dogs to the boat and before you knew it it was time to pull the anchor - shame no rays of conger - but at least we had plenty of fish! a total success that we managed to get out let alone catch fish - it ended something like 10 - 5 to the Americans but I wasn't counting (plus there were 2 of them!) A lovely day afloat on what was a warm day at least for me 🙂 Invite to fish off his boat secured too - (he has a four-winns sports cruiser near Tampa)

seen plenty of worms in the belly cavity of macks round our way - none in the flesh!

nice one!