Malc

I buy cheaper ones because they get lost or broken and I prefer to spend my dosh on other things, but I have a dark pair from Argos, Dunlop sports wrap arounds which were about £20-30 and a lighter coloured pair from Amazon also wrap around £35 ish so I have a pair for bright sun and darker days. Although they are cheap I can't fault them and I have them on a lanyard that loops into my hat band so less likely to lose if I fall off my kayak or lean over the side of the boat. 
I'm too tight to buy glasses that cost in the hundreds unless they are for reading. 

It's been horrendous for fishing from boat and kayak and eventually the shore delights of whiting and dab fades, but as we are near the sea we get to wander the tide lines. My wife collects glass and I pick up lost line etc to bin but with occasional benefits of beads and line clips and even a multi one time and a diawa rod. I sometimes pick up interesting bits of driftwood including my fireplace beam.
Yesterday we met up with family, the tiddler has measles, and in amongst the wood and weed we found a big crumpled sheet of metal and were just about to pick it up and bin it when I realised it was copper! It was too big for my boot so my daughters fiance took it in his to his works unit nearby and it will go off to the scrap dealer soon. 
However it occurred to me as we were driving off that the top was ripped off the lighthouse at the end of the pier in late October, could it be a part of it?
However I checked and it was painted red and white and the copper was bare, so we will get a few bob for it 👍

I like them either fried or baked in foil with lemon. 

i occasionally go down to chesil cove to see waht washes up after a storm - mostly dead birds fenders and old crab pots - heaps of driftwood too.
i can usually find the odd rig or two!

if we eat them, they're  usualy cold smoked and made into kippers 

Mmmm, herring my favourite eating fish. Thanks for sharing your trip out. 

Funky money is great if you want go crest your own using their fonts. 
 
My better half designed mine and I got funky monkey to use her artwork. 
 
There is also Art and Sea based in Scotland who are very good, they do kayak decals too, maybe worth looking at 

Light winds and big tides meant another trip out - met at the marina at 7am and immediately found a problem - the marina are doing work on the wall near my mates boat and they left a dingy in our way and a floating pontoon half blocking our exit -

quick rant at the harbour master (who assured we would have unrestricted access throughout the works) and they come and move it - but that took nearly an hour and with the big tide flooding rapidly to high at 9am that left us very little room under the bridge - which wasn't lifting until 10am. we chanced it and squeaked under with 6 inches to spare at the highest point!  
the day didn't get much better for me despite big tides - only managing pout and a dog. Luckily I caught more than a weekends worth last weekend - and still had fresh fish in the freezer!
Tim did better with pout, poor cod, Thornie, spotted ray, a strap and a decent +30lb eel. 
freezing cold all day - but stunning skies. 

 
(tip if you didn't know - if you suffer from cold hands wear a pair of surgical gloves under your neoprene fishing gloves - works wonders for warmth.)
 

looking to get out of milford haven over weekend. Still learning the area and tides so will have a tentative look outside of the haven and if doable see what we can find.
 

I use a 10'000 size Ultegra Ci4 from Shimano. Faultless 

Fin nor offshore FS are great reels, yes a bit clunky but extremely robust and a top notch drag.

Thanks for the replies guys, had a good look at the ugly sticks but am veering towards the Daiwa Tournaments.
 

Don’t think you can go far wrong with ugly stick gx2s and Diawa slosh reels.
I have leeda icon m rods and slosh reels.

I do use a spinning set up from the boat with a fs, for the small stuff and a bit of fun but prefer multis for most stuff! 

Another vote for ugly stick, they are decent budget rods. 

Hi all, used to be a very keen boat angler from light rod fishing for plaice to wrecking for large cod, conger etc. Many moons ago I had all my tackle stolen and although eventually got back into fishing it was mainly coarse and some shore fishing. However I recently went afloat where we caught bream, bass, pollack and some tope, all the tackle being provided by the skipper. Managed to get the bug again, and now in the market for some decent gear myself. 
Looking for advice, I think I'm edging to a couple of 6-12 lb, and 12-20 lb class rods. Past boat fishing I only used multipliers but it looks as if current trends now also include fixed spools. What would you recommend for both rod and reel combinations? My fishing will probably be limited to inshore with no wrecking, targetting all flatties, bass, bream,  cod etc.
Thanks for any info
Rog

wow what a day - non stop action from the first drop to the last........
Forecast weather window for the weekend had northerly 15mph on Saturday - northerly is off the land so 15mph is just about do-able.  Small tides so expectations were low.
Met at Tims boat for 7am to get out before sunrise - no messing about trying to find bait- straight to the 5nm mark with frozen baits in case the wind strengthened. Target - Whiting on the small gear- rays on the big stuff. 

dropped the hook, wind and tide not quite aligned but was ok bit bumpy an swinging a bit - dropped the small rigs first while the boat settled and was straight into the fish - literally as soon as the lead touched down. 
We had so much action on the small rods it was hours before we put the big ones out - Pout, Bream, Whiting, scad, dogfish. I have never put back so many decent bream - we must have had over 20 to the boat - all decent size. Some of the pout were bigguns too - great non stop fun!



eventually we tired of that and had we already had 2 decent bream and 3 big whiting for the table - so we put out the big baits only to find the Pout, whiting and bream hitting them too - Tim had a big Bream on a 6.0 hook and mackerel fillet!! - these fish were ravenous, either stripping the mackerel baits or hooking themselves!
I put down a mackerel head hoping the bait would last long enough for something bigger and I was rewarded with a big angry double figure Bull Huss.

I also managed a Scallop on the big rod - must have taken a fancy to my muppet...... 🤣 perfect for a starter!

 
On the way home we were escorted by a pod of Dolphins - always amazing to see. 

 
Bream and Scallop for tea,

with the whiting done in chunks for sunday lunch fish wrap!!

 
a pretty special day afloat to kick start the year - I was knackered though - combination of cold and all day action on a constantly moving boat really tired me out - I must be out of practice! 😜
Lets hope this is a good sign for the year ahead!

not a time waster then

Picked up some rag on Thursday and decided that if when I got up Friday morning I felt ok, I would wet a line for a few hrs
In bed by 11pm on Thursday night, couldn't sleep due to being bunged up (nasally) so got up at 2am
Got my gear together and got to the boat about 3.45, just in time for the 4am lock out
Dark is an understatement, the lock gates opened and I gingerly made my way out into the inky blackness, with the outer perimeter walls barely visible it all felt a bit surreal
I really should've wore my glasses
Decided that I would fish the Coral as this is only a 10 min steam from the locks in the light, took me over 30
The bright lights of Penarth seafront very visable, as was the lights all over Lavernock point caravan park
Neither were any use to me
Got to my mark and breathed a sigh of relief when the anchor went down and dug in
A very small (sub 10m) tide, but quite a strong rip for approx 1.5 hrs before low water and very little wind
Dropped a whole squid on both down tide rods straight off the back and cast out an uptider either side with a few rag and a small squid on each
It was now 5am and time for a cuppa
I was just getting the stove out and noticed the first rod do a bit of a bounce, with one long stride I had it in my hand poised to strike
No need for a strike as the fish had quite obviously realised it had hooked itself  and was none to pleased
Felt a few tell tale head shakes on the way up and with the fish staying tight into the boat, I was sure it was a Cod
It's head broke the surface and I could see it wasn't a bad one either
With the net out of reach I had to hand ball it over the gunwhales and was happy to see it land on the deck
A fat little bugger that went just shy of 6.5 lbs
Sent another squid straight back out, made a cup of tea, ate a Viennese whirl and waited
And waited
Had a good pull down on the other downtide rod about 20 mins later that didn't amount to anything
Then had a small strap on the port side uptider
That was pretty much it for the last of the ebb
Slopped about a bit on slack water then swung into the tide fairly quickly to start the flood
All that happened here for 3 hrs or so, was another 4 Congers that were T barred off at the side until the tide just stopped
and the slight N Westerly swung me a full 360
Wrapped up the uptiders and just used the downtiders with the baits just bobbing along the bottom as the boat swung about
Looking about and the 12 or so boats that were around me were all doing the same sort of thing and one by one they were moving about looking to find a bit of tide 
It was now 10.45 so I packed in, pulled anchor and caught the 11.15 inbound lock
No a red letter day by any means, but got me off to a start for 2024
 
 
 

Belated new year greetings one and all. 

That's why I'll get the smaller plants and plant and trim them myself 

We got them through a landscaper but according to the tag that was left on one of the plants they were grown and supplied by Dingle Nurseries, Welshpool, Powys. 01938 552587.
The plants seem hardy enough and arrived in decent condition. Time will tell if they survive the planting and high winds.

if it is quick to grow then it will nead more maintanece. plus you may end up with the dreaded ivy invading and bindweed as well and they are a devel to sort out.
me i would look aroundfor anouther soletion

We've just put in a front hedge of root-balled cherry laurel. 5-6ft plants spaced about 1 plant per metre. They look good and should form a nice, dense hedge by the summertime. Only issue we've had so far is the root-balls act like a ball and socket joint in the planting holes and let the plants swivel over in the high winds we've had here lately. I've had to brace the plants with 2x4's to keep them upright until the roots take hold.

Among other things I had to do today I fitted my new rudder. A friend pointed out that on big following seas it was coming out and I was getting pushed down and across the face of the swell and in danger of broaching, its the same for kayaks without rudders but they can steer by bracing with the paddle but I have peddles and fins.
Its quite a lot bigger...

Belated new year greetings one and all.