jonnyswamp

Just a solo morning session and the weather liars were forecasting a good sea and wind conditions. Launched at 07:30 into a flat, calm sea, but that didn't last long 🙄
I had decided to go to a wreck, and then inshore for some Mackerel, and this was a 'food' trip, I had my instructions, Bass, Cod or Ling, and a Mack or two for the granddaughter. My lot are not keen on Pollock !
My destination wreck was the 'Meatboat' and I am pretty sure @Dickyasked about that wreck some time ago. It is in 190ft and about a 15mile steam. The flat sea was great, and nice to be cruising at 30kts, but once I got to about 6 miles out the NW wind picked up and was producing quite a significant swell with a short sea (1.8secs !). By the time I got to the wreck, I was down to 18kts and the wind was causing a lot of spray from the waves. Drifting the wreck was not easy as there were 2 crab pots on the outer edge of the wreck, but I found a drift line that worked.
First drops on the wreck were with SPJ and that was producing a Pout on every drop, decent sized, but hey, they are still Pout. Last time I fished this wreck I remembered sidewinders were effective, so I went down with a Skerries eel, After a few plucks down on the wreck (pout) at 31 turns up I had a decent take and knew it would be a bass. Sure enough a bass it was, not huge but a keeper of 50cm (3lb or so). The next drop produced the same result, so I was happy with a bag limit of 2 keepers and decided that the washing machine sea was getting worse, so time to head inshore.
The first 5 miles coming off the wreck I was down to 16 - 18kt into a NW very short head sea, luckily the RIB is a dry boat and I didn't take any waves over the bow. Once I got to the 6 mile from land, I picked up speed as the sea was much better being in the lee of the land.
Next stop was the Orestone, where I struggled for Mack, but managed to find a decent whopper Mack in amongst the continual Scad and Gurnards. So, at 12:00 midday, with the shopping basket full, it was time to head in ready for the school run.
Apart from the weather liars, it was good to be out there, with a trip distance of 38nm, 2 keeper bass, a decent Mack, plus a load of other dross like Pout (lost count), Scad, and small Grey Gurnard.
We had the Bass for evening meal and the granddaughter munched on the mackerel (she doesn't like spiky)
I had the DJI Action 4 camera on, so I could take off stills, but the cam is reasonable, so a little vid instead. I didn't bother with the Pout footage !
 
 
 
 

A boost gauge is an invaluable piece of equipment in such cases.

Update, had it all apart and everything seems to be working on that score
I think I am expecting too much in the way of acceleration 
I'll have to have a go in another boat like mine to compare, put my mind at rest

Solent Rescue Lifeboat
  ·  Callout - Friday 31 May 2024 Solent Rescue were paged by Solent Coastguard on Friday afternoon to assist a 38 foot sailing vessel with a broken rudder, adrift. Our volunteer crew launched our D-Class lifeboat, Solent Rescue 2, and located the casualty vessel with two occupants in the central Solent before towing them to the safety of the River Hamble. The lifeboat was then recovered back to the boathouse at Lepe Beach to be washed down and re-fuelled ready for the next tasking. Solent Rescue is an independent lifeboat, run entirely by volunteers. Www.Solent-Rescue.org.uk | info@solent-rescue.org.uk | Charity No: 267039

Try experimenting with rudder position when at anchor, full lock one way or the other (depending on wind direction) can sometimes counteract the wind and help keep the boat steady

Try experimenting with rudder position when at anchor, full lock one way or the other (depending on wind direction) can sometimes counteract the wind and help keep the boat steady

Try experimenting with rudder position when at anchor, full lock one way or the other (depending on wind direction) can sometimes counteract the wind and help keep the boat steady

Dog walks into a bar and orders a pint and a packet of crisps." Wow" says the barman, "You should be in a Circus"
 
Dog, "Why"  "Are they looking for Electricians"

Nice Mike, I'll have to get something booked out of Weymouth soon
Have had some great weekends down there
The social side being just as good as the fishing 😁

Dog walks into a bar and orders a pint and a packet of crisps." Wow" says the barman, "You should be in a Circus"
 
Dog, "Why"  "Are they looking for Electricians"

Dog walks into a bar and orders a pint and a packet of crisps." Wow" says the barman, "You should be in a Circus"
 
Dog, "Why"  "Are they looking for Electricians"

So no pics, no fish ?

Just free it and clean it, oil or grease aint gonna hang around for long. If you do lube it, do it after you've been out

Just a quick report as the fishing wasn't great - Weymouth boat league comp number 3. 
We went to our usual mark and i got off to a good start - but it dropped off once the tide slackened. 
Loads of bloom in the water made the fishing really hard - I managed 5 dogfish, 4 bream, and an Eel. 
Tim had 4x bream, 4x doggies, a Red gurnard, a Cuckoo Wrasse, a mackerel and an eel.
Mid afternoon we moved spots - coming closer in to search out Wrasse, Pout and pollock on the reefs/wrecks inshore to up our tally
But only Tim managed to find one Ballan wrasse
Neither of us placed anywhere near the top.  
 
the last bream i had was a feisty one of +2lb with some awesome colours - i had already kept an earlier one for tea so he went back to help the stocks!

 
 
Classic bit of Bream juggling......

 
lovely day afloat despite the disappointing result - 
 
 

After the blank on Sunday I was focused and ready to go. Ling being caught, water clear-ish and hopeful as weather forecast was good. 
Nasty chop and a good breeze greeted us outside the piers but first drop over hard ground and two of us are in, both small keeper codling that were returned, mine after a quick picture for the species competition. Yes, it took until the 5th month of the year to catch a Cod UP HERE!!! Anyhoo I kept on with a flying collar rig as I needed a pollock and coalie too but just codling. Change to baited yellow/green muppets for a while just interested the small bait thieves. I noticed gulls wheeling and gannets diving in a couple of places, a certain sign of sandeel at this time of year, and eventually changed to a shrimp rig with a small 32gm on the point and had to cast downwind to get it down deep enough and eventually got a double hook up of lesser sandeel and a few casts later a very spirited coalie. 



Eventually we got to that point, *last hour so what do we do?*
I suggest that we try inshore over sand for flats, my friends had hit dabs but I hadn't had any flatfish at all. Fully blinged up and a half shrimp on the 1/0 hook we started the drift and I soon had a rattle, probably a dab but even leaving the line slack rather than dragging didn't get it to swallow the hook. Bait gone, rebait and back down, repeat, repeat and then I added a mackerel sliver and eventually I pulled gently and got the nod! Dab in the bag!

4 fish towards the species hunt and back home to bask in the sunshine, happy bunny. 
Nothing huge but played for and got some of the fish we were after. 

Having spent the last weekends doing boat and trailer jobs, we made our first 2024 trip into the Solent.  Aiming to launch from Elmore I noticed the height restricting barrier in time and reversed back onto the road and onto GAFIRS.
Weather was damp, it was a Bank Holiday after all but the wind was light and the fish came out to play with hounds and rays to 12lb all on hardback crab.  Only saw one other boat fishing and a pleasant lack of yachties 
 

back out on Saturday, loadsa fish, pollack, mackerel wrasse, gurnard, launce, weever coalfish… lovely day on the water 🙂 
 
 

PROPer job 🙂 back on the water…. Wish this rain would bugger off… whole of the haven is starting to look like Cardiff coloured water there is so much run off 🫣

Well….the weather played ball but the Bream marks were stuffed with Bass 

That's what I have mate 👍

it will be cut to suit and yes, any sharp edges will be softened
I will be on dragons den before you know it

I got a nice discount from the supplier, fair dos they have been great… but I think they’ll be glad to not see for a few days as I think I’m on their speed dial 😂

No neither is mine, I was just expanding on what @daio web was suggesting. 

I've just seen the price of octoplait, anything between £400 and nearly £600 for 100M !
As for your last sentence, that's exactly what I'll do
I have to redo the splice, so will turn the rope around as it's a bit chaffed at the anchor end
BTW, I've patented my design so if it works, this time next year I'll be a millionaire
If it fails miserably, I will of course deny all knowledge

3 blade bronze 19" prop, was given to me by a friend who found it while diving off the south coast somewhere 
Tapered shaft approx 35mm at widest, 28mm at narrowest 
Will need a refurb, a small area of pitting that I can see
£50