iowspence

2019 Ribcraft professional offshore (19ft)

This is a pic from the factory sea trials at Portland
 


On our way down to the Skerries banks (45Nm round trip) ............

 

This February this year, fishing on the 12 mile wrecks, quite cold , i think about 3C, which is rare for us in the English Riviera

Got a few drifts over the Camswan in Sandown Bay today. Here are a couple of pics, one at 455khz, the other at 800.





The banana shape of the first and last pic is because I was trying to correct the drift half way through - doh! Still decent pics though.

She's a hungry wreck... I lost 3 rigs on her in 3 drifts. The last pic shows what look like her ribs. No wonder I was losing tackle.

Sounds good to me 🙂 
Channel Islands and Scilly isles also on my uk bucket list 🙂 

Stu/Cloudy is now known as @British Big Game Fishing on here Spence 👍

A day trip to the island is a bit like stepping back in time 20 years. The pace of life is so much slower. It’s a perfect place for a mini break. 

A Saturday banger

The Isle of Wight is a lovely place to be. I couldn’t live there (because of work) but visit regularly throughout the year. Shackling beach and the Fisherman’s cottage being the best pub ever IMO . Also chucking a lure from the rocks when the tides out is fun at night. 

Dunno.... 130idh for blue I think? Porgie was 200+ I think? 
 
more concerned with getting it back TBH and GF out of cabin and stopping panicking 🤣

Here's what I did on my Saturday afternoon... 😁


#smuglittleginge

Neighbour is having part of their roof re-tiled, and the roofers let me have some scrap lead for free!
#littlewin!

How could my mannerisms ever upset anybody ?

Hi mate, yes you are correct and I looked at the Duver on the island but couldn’t get a deal together, funny how we both ended up with boats built by Mitchell 

Hello from Chippenham,
I live in Wiltshire but the boat's in Scotland at the Isle of Whithorn.
I bought a Reiver Sportsman new in 1992 which I've just replaced with an Orkney PilotHouse 20.
Boat fishing is summer only for me, I love my shore fishing for codling in the winter.
I'll look forward to a great forum
Chris

New to the site and liking what I’ve seen so far 

Formally from the IOW where I owned around 20 boats over the years before leaving. First was when I was 12, bought from bait digging money and selling rabbits!!! Targeted most species on offer but mostly enjoyed sharking, back in a day when sharks were in very good numbers back there. Im still in contact with my old sharking buddies, some who came over here not to long ago chasing sharks. These days sharks are avoided as much as possible now that Im living in the land of oz.
Anyway finally got fed up of the cold wet weather and laying bricks and moved to the upside down land where fishing can be very different. In saying that Im just as happy cruising around in boats as I am wetting a line, being on, in or just around the water ticks my box.
No probs if being from the other side of the pond isn't accepted on here, just means I will have to stay in contact with JonC by postcard instead!!!
Jon the Pom

Yep! 24lb that one 🤣 
Xmas day 2 years ago, had an 11lb cod on my other rod at the same time 

This baby was caught right out side Cowes harbour . 

With a cod...

Yeah, season is over, I’ll leave the straps and doggies to you South coast softies 😉 

Our last trip of the year (down west) started with an uneventful 2hrs odd drive to Milford, where we were all fairly glad to find the toilet block open and free to use
Boarded Lady Gail at 8.30am and got through the lock a short while later, to the sound of Fen (skipper) asking what bait we had
Lures and feathers we happily replied, why didn't you bring bait, should've brought bait he said
With a wall of concerned expressions looking at me, I explained to Fen that his booking agent (mate on another boat, long story) assured me that we would be fishing the islands and reefs as we had the last few trips
Mutiny avoided we headed out of the Haven and with the islands in view, turned left away from them (they don't fish too good this time of year apparently)
Stopped on a reef just outside the mouth and picked up a couple of small Pollock around the 2lb mark on first drift, then nothing
Move a bit further east for similar rewards and this was pretty much how it panned out for the remainder of the day
Probably tried 8-10 different areas, doing 2/3 drifts in each, but no rich pickings today
We did have a couple of drifts where the fish were around 5lb (and I managed a couple of brace) but then seemed to disappear, leaving the smaller ones on the feed
Back through the lock and tied up around 5.15 ish and on the road by just after 5.30
A very enjoyable day with great company and plenty of piss taking (especially our mate who blanked)
If any of you fancy a trip next summer, I can't recommend this area or skipper highly enough
Not brilliant this time of year, but June to Sept it's phenomenal, absolutely non-stop
 
 

So with the break in the weather the weekend. (Sunday being the better day but Saturday being the only day I could make)
we headed out in search of a Cod!
On the water by 7.30am a little lumpy from the east For the first of the day but it did calm off by about 1pm.
nab grounds various areas and few moves but no cigars.
still we had a few smaller congers dogs pouts and a stray hound.
anyway ! The best part was the curry on the way back
thyme and chillies Restraunt as you head through Birdham. Just thought we’d try it on the off chance .. a long wait for the food . But it was with out doubt the best Indian food Iv ever had .. makes the crap in Kent look even worse than it already is.
 
 

Luckily got an invite on a friends boat Saturday,  with the massive tides we opted to have a tester at inner Nab.  There were some reports of Unicorns (cod) in the solent but we stuck to the plan expecting the solent to be weedy and a struggle with the size of tide. 
 
Quite lumpy when we got to the mark and if the tides were smaller would have run to the solent but hey ho nothing ventured nothing gained. 
 
Not much to report really a constant stream of straps, dogs and whiting with a double figure undulate showing on a live whiting being the best fish of the day. 
 
Counted over 20 boats out there with a few moving about so guessing the cod did not read the plan. Did hear of a couple appearing in the solent so maybe we made the wrong decision but thats easy to say with hindsight. 
Didn't bother with pictures mainly because I didn't want to drop the phone in the drink but more importantly we didn't get anything we deemed worthy of a picture, the Ray was released alongside so not bloated and weighed. 
Calmed nicely just after lunch with a bit of sun coming through but the bites dried up so we sacked it and headed in around 3pm 

Too many to list 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I’ve had loads of 20lbers, best went 27lb.... here’s a few pics 🙂