Malc

Oh, I forgot, a haddock!

I've done 2 out of my 3 goals this year.
Dogfish ✅
Cod ✅
New boat : not yet. Working on a plan but there's someone I need to convince first... 🤔

Revisiting this; how is it going so far?
For me I have mostly done the "local" species, cod, coalie, pout dab, whiting, dogfish, lesser sandeel, but not ling or pollock yet. Outside of the competition we hope to get TBR, tope, huss and smooth hound when we go over to the west coast of Scotland. 

Just make sure that they don't mussel in on you and you should be fine!

Just make sure that they don't mussel in on you and you should be fine!

Just make sure that they don't mussel in on you and you should be fine!

it was a nice dream whille it lasted

I like the fwd area, good use of space, but obviously it's a compromise with having less cabin space. 
TenK, is that how much they cost?

I like the fwd area, good use of space, but obviously it's a compromise with having less cabin space. 
TenK, is that how much they cost?

yes the van engin as resin from the drive and is making a lovely noise.
tommorow i will strob it and put the fidderly bits back on. then on to the boat? yes neal i am getting my garden allerments out of the garden'

I like the fwd area, good use of space, but obviously it's a compromise with having less cabin space. 
TenK, is that how much they cost?

Fog shifted, but very confused sea, tried inshore but I blanked and my friend had two codling and we fed the crabs. Sea fret came in and we sat shivering for a couple of hours, motored half a mile into glorious sunshine so sat in the sun drinking !

Worked out what it was. Now you can only have it on 2 devices with each account. I have always had it on my phone, ipad for the boat and ipad for home but now i can only have on 2 at a time so have to switch from one to the other. 

We took both boats out the water on thursday for a quick lick of paint Pugwash and Seadog - I discovered I need a new cutlass brearing so not great news - otherwise all the painting went ok and in fact Tims boat Seadog was back in the water Friday evening. so that meant console my worries with a trip out on saturday. 
Small tides and a clean hull saw us hatch a plan to round the bill and hunt the wrasse in the morning followed by anchoring on the Kidney banks in the afternoon - last time we went the kidney bank threw up blondes to 20lb, 8lb Turbot, Spurs and Tope - including my biggest ever fish (40lb Tope). this time nothing but Dogs.
Luckily we had success on the Wrasse just off the bill. 

 Tims all went to 4lb

 

 

 

 
I have received the new Cutlass bearing from ASAP supplies and will start re-assembling this week - hoping to get back in the water next weekend.
 

Fog shifted, but very confused sea, tried inshore but I blanked and my friend had two codling and we fed the crabs. Sea fret came in and we sat shivering for a couple of hours, motored half a mile into glorious sunshine so sat in the sun drinking !

Hope to get out if the fog shifts

Hopefully first away day of the year tomorrow at West Bay in Dorset 

@Saintly Fish and I snuck out for a dangle today instead of working. Plan was SPJ's in Yarmouth Deeps and around the Needles, then drifting with squid baits over Dolphin Bank to see what was home.
A lovely morning with beautiful conditions greeted us.

The bass were at home at the Deeps. I lost a good fish at the surface while Neil was being slow with the net. He then lost another which made me feel better. Then I boated this beauty.

We tried the Needles Bridge next, but no bites, so on to the Dolphin Bank.
Neil bagged up on dogfish but also had a nice smoothound and a young tope.


I too managed a dogfish (phew!).
Back to the Deeps on the flood and as we drifted past Hurst Castle Neil hooked into a proper fish that snapped him off at the leader. Sadly we don't know what it was, probably either a bass or the Kraken.
Headed home after that as the tide picked up and made jigging too difficult. Thanks Neil for a great day on the water. Lots of giggles and hook-ups, and some decent fish to the boat.

45cm, 2 fish per day, and no keepers during February and March.

Is it a self aligning swing beam trailer (do the roller beams swing ?) and it probably only has 2 keel rollers toward the front of the trailer, and the roller sets on the beams support the weight of the boat
You should be able to adjust the lateral position of the roller sets (usually 4 or 6 pairs), the rears should sit about half way along the dead rise.
With a self aligning roller coaster trailer you can winch the boat on with the trailer wheels at the waters edge, but it is hard work, tough on the winch eye, and you need a good depth on the stern for when the bow rises.
Generally I reverse in the water, so the water is about level/ just below the hubs. This works best for me and I launch and recover the 5.85m (19ft) RIbcraft solo (it weighs a little over 1T, 1.6T all up weight on the trailer).
You can also sink the trailer and drive / float the boat on, but not easy to get right if you are in a tide flow.
I would be surprised if the aux was the issue, as you are only talking probably less than 40kg (my tackle box weigh more than that)
If it is a trailer with keel rollers and roller bunks, then the rollers sit 1/3 to 1/2 up the hull. The trailer should be in the water to at least hub depth, and the boat pulled onto the first keel roller using the painter, and then steady winch pressure applied. More care is needed with a bunked trailer as slipping off the keel rollers makes a mess of the gel coat 🙄

doesn't have to be big to be enjoyable!

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. 

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.