jonnyswamp

Me, and I pictured sat in a chair on the set of "That's life" in 1979

Jeez my eyes are bad That second last photo, I thought it was a lump of metal until I saw the fish 🤓

I didn't get down Cardiff way yesterday, but was blowing a fair bit up my way Saw a post from a Portishead skipper who was out and picked a few Codling up, most of the Penarth/Cardiff charters cancelled this weekend

He's gone on walkabout and shacked up with a couple of feral goats Got kids on the way apparently

Yes, conditions nigh on perfect Not looking good for the foreseeable though, our weymouth trip won't be on if the forecast remains

Myself, Shuff and Nipper shared the 7.30 lock with just one other boat who was heading West down channel, while we turned left and headed over to Clevedon Baits in the water by around 8.30, but no real tide until well after 9 Very small tide of 9m ish meant hardly any rip and just 6oz on the downtide rods were holding ok Our first mark just inside the Clevedon bouy gave each of us a couple of Thornbacks of between 8 and 12lb, nice bend in the rod, but not the target species Stayed hear until around 11 then made a move to the middle grounds just before the top of the sand bank started to disappear More of the same here with another couple of Thornies each, a small strap Conger for myself and a tiny Whiting for Nipper, which went straight back down as livebait Decided on getting the 3.15 lock back in, so wound the rods in at 2.30 As the small whiting was only lip hooked when caught, it went back still alive and swam off quite strongly (hardy little bugger) Made our way back to Cardiff through the last of the flood and in the lock, found that we didn't do too badly compared to the boats that went West One boat only catching one whiting and another doing slightly better with 2, the charter that was in front of us (in the lock) ended the day with 6 keepers (Codling) he also went East Only one photo and this was probably one of the smallest (honest) was hoping to have a few pics of some decent Cod so didn't bother with the earlier Rays At least the conditions were good

Jamie pullen on offshore rebel, had a few trips with him and seems a decent, knowledgeable fella Not afraid to move about looking for the fish

I don't like getting thrown about at anchor (or bouncing off the cabin ceiling while underway) so wouldn't bother in anything over 17/18mph Though as jonc says, that is doable if wind is directly with the tide, but you still have to get out there and back in Nice day tomorrow, throw a sickie

If you mean the mark wide off sully Island near Aldridge shoal, then yes a smaller tide is best I have fished it on around a 11m tide IIRC, but needs to be calm Depths of around 50 ft plus, getting deeper the further you go out towards the main channel

I've got loads on my plotter, whether they're any good or not is another matter 😄 Anywhere on the coral CAN produce This is just the general area Aldridge shoal area, make sure your anchor is set to trip I lost one here a few yrs ago, but also picked up a 12lb and 18lb cod on first 2 casts (not on my rod though) Pretty much most edges of this sand bank just off the Cardiff mid bouy, also the spoil grounds North of it If you want to travel a bit further up channel, Clevedon area can be good The south side of the big sand bank (middle grounds) used to be very good Be very careful if you fish in between the sand banks just North of Sand point (they can be good though) These banks are not always where they should be ! I haven't really got many marks that need to be anchored very accurately, as long as you can get on the slope of a bank (whether front, back or side will depend on tide etc) or over a rough bit of ground, that's generally good enough All the above have produced Cod, good luck I shall be out this Friday and probably head up around Clevedon way with the flood and see what's about

I left it up to @Terry Smith in the end, asked him to send something suitable which should arrive with my new rod and reel tomorrow/Friday 😁 We have a trip out of Weymouth on Sun 20th, so it will now blow a hooly on that weekend Sorry @mike farrants

It can be, apart from when they pay with imaginary money

It is believe me, the coffee in the machines there is terrible The cappachino can be tolerable though, providing it's not a cheap brand

What 8 strand braid are people using I have some cheap 30lb stuff on my wrecking reel (which does the job) and put some 18lb J braid on the lighter gear (Plaice, Bream etc) IIRC the J braid was around £30-35 for 300M Is there any other 18lb, 8 strand I can look at ?

I can be extremely good at procrastinating, so may move a few services to next week

Get well soon GPSguru (again) I'm hoping to squeeze 3 days work into 2 and get out Friday, forecast looks promising atm 🤞 Though recent catch reports are a bit sad

Bit of an update As stated by a few, the gearbox is fine But I've had an annoying battery draw problem over the last couple of months, even with the isolators turned off the leisure battery would be down below 12v after a week I checked what was supplied before the isolator and they were all good (no arcing when fuses were taken out and put back in) so I enlisted the help of a mechanic friend yesterday morning to try and get to the bottom of it Problem solved within 30 seconds of being on board !!! I have an inverter tucked under the passenger seat, this is also where I keep my tackle box when I'm out fishing (can you see where this is heading) Seems when I slide my tackle box under the seat, I (sometimes) inadvertently switch the inverter on at the same time, hence the intermittent fault Sometimes you can dive straight in too deep, when the answer is staring you in the face Needless to say I had the piss ripped out of me, but it was worth it just to know there isn't any wiring issues

I'm moored in Cardiff Bay and fish anywhere between the bridges and down to Ilfracombe Though it's usually between Clevedon and Barry I haven't been out since mid December, this weekend is out so hopefully next weekend

Handy for the deeps, or a short trip across to Clevedon Some good grounds up around that way

Welcome, another Bristol Channel angler 👍 Are you marina based or do you trailer your boat

Nice gesture mate, thanks

Yes I was thanks (no sarcasm intended) 👍

Not moving, investing If I can get it at the right price, it'll be worth renovating and selling on, but I'll need a hefty deposit (I shouldn't have bought a new van!) It's not definite as, in all fairness, Mrs Swamp doesn't want me to sell the boat, says I'll be a miserable tw@t without one (she knows me well) I'll get the boat valued in the next couple of weeks and make a decision after that I'll be honest, it doesn't fill me with cheer knowing I may be boatless, but on the other hand, I wont have time to do much fishing if I'm renovating 3 houses this year (along side my own work) Middle daughter has bought a house that needs work (kitchen, bathroom, boiler, knocking walls through etc) and our house needs the living room completely updating (new insulated ceiling and walls, new floor, chimney breast knocked about to take a floating oak beam, replastered and then some paint) On a brighter note, if I do sell, the weather will be perfect for the rest of you

I may be putting my boat up for sale shortly (if a house purchase materialises) and would want any issues sorted before I do, so will get it sorted either way

Yes thanks, very chilled Didn't do any fishing this time as we were on our own and didn't want to leave Mrs Swamp on her own Actually I dropped a hint and is wasn't taken up, so I left it 😇