jonnyswamp

Yes he does, he lives and breathes fishing, if he isn't on the boat he's off the beach/rocks We had some trips booked out of Dale this year, but fell out with the skipper over deposit, so cancelled them all Managed to book Rob Rennie for a wreck/reef trip (what ever is fishing the best at the time of trip) in June What boat does he have now Luke, does he fish 10 or 8 ?

7 of us made the near 4hr trek down to Penzance on the Friday lunch time arriving at the digs (pub) around 6pm, just in time for some beer Early to bed (bloody pub shut at 10pm) and up for 6.30 for a breakfast in a little cafe near the train station, just a 2 min stroll to the boat Too early for me to eat a full English so settled on some jam on toast 7 full bellies boarded Lo-Ki around 7.30 and we were soon out through the harbour with the skipper telling us that everywhere was literally crammed full of bait fish, Sardines, Anchovies, small Mackerel etc and that maybe we wouldn't have such a productive day First drift was off lands end and gave us a couple of Wrasse, as did the second Moved a bit inshore and hit a nice shoal of Bass, did this drift once more and had the same sort of result albeit with a couple of wrasse thrown in as well Another move and the odd Pollock was coming up with some small Coalies that went back and that was the story for the rest of the morning, although there were a few Codling coming up now and again The sounder was black with bait fish wherever we went so we just had to persevere, the skipper did pull up a nice Coalie that looked to be around a double but it wasn't weighed and after a quick picture, it went back In fact, everything went back except the insize Codling, a few Pollock and 3 Coalies All my fish fell to a 150 gm Sardine slow jig, which took a bit of a battering especially off the Wrasse, but certainly out fished the other jigs I tried The rest of the afternoon was spent at anchor catching some half decent Whiting and the odd dog. With the forecast for Sunday being a bit lumpy, skipper said we would be at anchor for most of the day as it wouldn't be suitable to go around to the reefs off Lands End so wasn't looking forward to that at all He took us to some different reefs from Saturday that were fishable with lures, but the wind pushed us along a bit too briskly for the slow jigs to be effective I had a nightmare, loosing 4 sets of gear (including leader) one after the other, so spent a lot of the morning tackling back up We picked up a steady stream of Pollock to around 4/5lb and a few Codling that were a bit smaller with all fish falling to 4" sidewinder type lures, the 6" weren't getting touched The biggest of the weekend was a surprise 14.5lb Ling which took a 4" green lure After my nightmare morning, I had a very good hour or so picking up 3 Pollock and a sizable Codling We headed in for 3pm followed by pods of Porpoise and Dolphins. There were loads about, no doubt gorging on the Sardines etc So that was our weekend, not a disaster, but not what was expected (I even emptied my fish freezer in anticipation of filling it back up with fresh stuff and I promised a load of people fish for the Monday)

Nice one Mike, but are they them squeaky beans on that plate They're only silent if they're fresh, squeak like fuck if cooked from frozen Or is that just Mrs Swamps cooking methods ?

A very adequate day ! I've had a few panic stricken moments trying to unwrap mainline from the tip while spj'ing Luckily I haven't been hit by a fish whilst being wrapped

Sounds like a great day Just a tip regarding the food, less salad, more butter on the spud Apart from that it looks tasty

After what felt like 4 months of rain and high winds, he weekend forecast was good, cold but good Should have been around 5mph Easterly Got the 7am lock out and as the tide was fairly big, decided to anchor up on the inner coral to wait for it to ease enough to get out a bit wider It's only a short dap from the locks and the anchor was down within 15 mins and we started to bait up whilst the boat settled However, the anchor had other ideas and we were dragging at 1.5 knots I went up front and retrieved the anchor to find a boulder which fitted exactly between the 3 flukes (15kg Bruce, is that what the pointy things are called ?) so now wonder it didn't hold No pics of that as I was hanging over the bow getting the said stone out of it's holder and didn't want to chance getting my phone out and it following the same route as the stone back to the sea bed Anyway, re positioned the boat and dropped anchor for the second time and we were holding in quite a strong tide considering where we were 4 of us on board today with the usual baits of dirty squid, rag, lug and Shuff had some Mackerel Not a sniff for the first hour or 2, then whilst I was making some hot beverages, I noticed my line kiting I was using 8 oz Gemini extended grip wires and hoped that it had been pulled out by a fish, rather than a lump of weed, so started my retrieve with a bit of hopeful anticipation First Codling of the day at 2 3/4 lb, so although not big it was a keeper Another or so hour went by with very little movement on any of our rods, until Nipper had quite a big nod on his He lifted into it and quite quickly brought in a slightly smaller Codling of just over 2lb After hearing what the other boats were catching (or not as the case was) we decided to stay until low, then move Just before low we made the short move up Channel to just inside the Cardiff mid buoy, was going to fish one of the holes off the foreshore but not enough water to get in to them on low, sounder was showing 5 ft and getting shallower so I erred on the side of caution and went out a bit wider Did I mention the biting Easterly ? It was fine on the ebb as we had shelter from the cabin (shed, wheelhouse, greenhouse, outhouse or whatever you want to call it) When we turned on the flood the wind was straight onto the back of the boat and by christ it was cold, but we had a bit more rod twitching up here and Llewelyn was soon into a good scrap which put a hell of a bend in his new rod. A Savage Gear 12-20lb class I think he said, This was soon on the deck and was almost a twin to mine from earlier in the morning Just a couple of bites followed this with Llewelyn dropping what was thought to be a Ray. He was only using 18lb traces and that just aint enough to deal with the teeth on a Ray, or any other part of a Ray come to that I made an executive decision to get the 15.15 lock back in, which due to the temp and lack of any more fish was very much welcomed. We had the anchor up by 10 to 3 and we made the short journey back to Cardiff There were 4 other boats in the lock and after chatting to them it seemed that we didn't fare too badly at all, with only 3 Codling between them and a few dogs That put my mind to rest as the boats that went down the channel to Barry/Aberthaw areas hadn't done very good (that was my plan A for yesterday, but thankfully decided to stay local and save a bit of fuel) If the weather holds we have a couple of days fishing out of Penzance this coming weekend 🤞 Just the one group photo

I didn't go for any of the marine courses as there just isn't enough work for it IMO, so don't know what the cost would be What have you got on your boat ?

Strangely enough, I just tried to register an install and all mine ran out on 12th Jan FFS I'm now trying to book a course somewhere for next week 🤠

I'm hoping to get out Friday if work commitments allow, failing that, Saturday Haven't been out since 9th Dec 🤞

Reuben Heaton 9000 Series Digital Scale | Angling Direct Got fed up of reading reviews and settled for these Just need to catch some pissing fish to see if it works

Sounds like you speak from experience This is why I wanted the digital scales, whatever they read (after 2 identical weighs) will be recorded, unlike listening to someone arguing that they thought it was an ounce or two heavier

Right then experts (that's you jonc) what scales are you all using I'm after a set for our club as we have a heaviest fish comp that lasts until our last trip of the year (10 species in total) It's £20 per species, so not a fortune, but can mount up if you get a few lumpers We have been relying on various Chinese crap that don't always show the same weight twice, so want something a but more accurate/reliable I've just had a look at the Reuben Heaton 9000, small enough and at around £40 won't break the bank Prefer this type as these allow for a bit of pitch and roll of a boat, unlike an analogue set Has any of you got a set of these or have you got something better ? Budget is up to £50

A good morning and some nice Whiting there, we don't get them anywhere near that size up here (Bristol Channel) We did have one decent year in early nineties IIRC, quite a few 2lb plus around for a while Be interested on what your mates had off the wrecks, we were supposed to be out of Weymouth this Sunday but not looking likely now so I'll have the rest of the week off (been looking for a new car also) and take my boat out Friday if weather holds

Well done for getting out, but you and Leo will have to stop this ritual humiliation of Andy No wonder he sold his boat 😇

Does any know if Fridays tide is too big for Blue Anchor (between Minehead and Watchet) Have a few marks that are on my plotter, when I bought the boat, to try High water at Cardiff is approx 11.2m and falling at 6.30 am One for @Dicky or @Odyssey maybe

Nothing massive for me, had plenty of doubles whilst wrecking, but never out of the Bristol Channel My best Cod out of the BC at 14lb something earlier this year (Jan or Feb I think) Oh and my British record Grey Gurnard of course 😁 Caught on a blue/white Sidewinder copy this April out of Brixham EDIT Just checked and the Cod was last December 19th, so doesn't count really

Went down to the boat the day before to have see how thick the ice was, at least 25mm around my boat and out towards the main drag The forecast was 2-3 degrees overnight, so thought we would be able to break what ice would be left by my 2 crew on the front using brushes Got down at 6.30 Sat morning and it was quite obvious that it stayed well below freezing all night and the ice had thickened No chance of breaking the ice with brushes, or ploughing through without damaging the hull, so back home we came Shite weather for the foreseeable as well

Nice one, well done for putting your old man on the fish

No worries, if you change your mind I'm getting the 7am lock

What boat were you going out on I got a bit of room if you can make Saturday

Was going to go out tomorrow, but decided on Saturday as it's warmer

Interesting, I was told that these engines didn't have any glow plugs and simply rely on fuel pressure to start, even in the cold weather EDIT They certainly aint very visable either

No, old school diesel, 4.2l 230hp mercruiser, no ecu, mechanical fuel pump etc

Starter solenoid sounds better, thanks

This engine doesn't have an ecu or glow plugs, but I get your point