Malc

Well as the weather has been so nice it was rude not to go out and bash some more fish. 
First mate LB and I left the Hamble at 8am and headed for West lepe bouy about a mile shy of lymington. 
Once I'd got the anchor set properly (it got twisted in the chain first attempt at slack water)we dropped baits down and soon realised that we had landed directly above the kennels. Dogs on the prowl jumping on baits with gay abandon before they'd even had time to settle on the bottom.
The score was 5 all before Leo had his PB (?) snake. 
 

A nice strap of about 7lb gave him some fun. It was bleeding a fair bit so it went quickly back in without a photo.
Then a few different bites started, whiting showed up as the tide eased and I landed (probably) my biggest whiting to date. It went to 2lb on the boga. 
 

After a PN break, we carried on with the whiting and dogs.

 
And Leo also managed a double hit of starfish. 
 

 
And that was pretty much it. A nice gentle day out with my favourite son, it was a bit chilly but nothing us men couldn't handle!! 💪🏻
As is now routine, Leo took us home, at WOT of course 🙄. So for a special treat I allowed him 15 mins of coming along side practice in the river, lots of boats off their mid river pontoons so it was a perfect opportunity. And I'm happy to report no damage caused!! 
 
Now just got to keep fingers crossed that next Friday stays calm. 
 
 

I think we've found the perpetrator then 🤣

Interesting!
Don't suppose many can say they go float fishing for Conger, but if you don't try you will never know.

One of the boat club locals has made a suggestion. https://www.royalmaritimeclub.co.uk/
I've not been there personally so can't vouch for it, but at least it's a start for you.

The scientific test results are in, and the findings are that muppets do not put fish off!! 
 

I use these on my shark rigs 

It was a fantastic day to be on the sea today with a clear blue sky and no wind.
 

 
Gordon and I  reached  the  whiting grounds north of Nab about 10.00 to fish the tide down.
Initially  we fished big baits - squid or half mackerel but they were just being destroyed by small fish.

 After the inevitable dogfish ( despite appearances Gordon didn't break its back) we changed tactics and scaled down. We immediately started catching Whiting - no great size , but we had over 20 with about 7 of takable size. I was fishing with hokeyes tipped with mackerel which worked best for us today.
We fished until about 2pm before heading back to Hayling Island.
With conditions like they  were today Id have been happy to have blanked!

 
 
 

Another good day for fishing, although the actual fishing was not that good !
A cold a frosty start, it was -1c when I left home for the 5 mile trek to the slip via Tesco’s for fuel, and a chilly 1C on the slipway. Launched on low tide at 08:30 and I noticed that the estuary water temp was only 6.3C, however, once out at sea the water temp was a respectable 10.4C
Windguru was forecasting a flat calm sea inshore, but was unable to forecast the wave conditions offshore, once I got out there I could see why !
I decided to go back the to wreck that has been kind to me during the late Autumn, so it was a good 30kt ride for the first 3 miles, then I started to hit very confused conditions, there were 0.5m wind driven waves from the NNE at probably 3secs and the true swell was coming from the East, also 0.5m (ish) and about 6 secs. The result of the sets of waves meeting was nasty washing machine conditions, but I still managed a bumpy 24knts out to the wreck.
First drop with my new Temple Reef Gravitate III and I was into a Pout, and that just about sums up the day, it was a real Pout fest. Once the flood had stared the drift was 1.4knts, even though it was a mid neap tide. I tried all sorts to avoid the Pout, but they grabbed everything I threw at them, 150g Slow jigs, 178mm Red Gills, and even 160g off shore shads (fished on the SPJ rod).
The sheer number of Pout suggests that the Bass have moved offshore and there probably isn’t too many Pollock in residence yet, but at least I managed to christen the new rod
The fisheries Patrol boat passed by very close (close enough to wave) but carried on and didn’t trouble me.
After numerous Pout of which 7 were of a decent size, at 12 midday I decided to call it a day and head back in as I need to do the school run in the afternoon. The return trip was uneventful at a steady 22kns.
Not the best of days, but 100% better than staying at home. The total trip was 23Nm
A couple of fixes are needed. I loaded a G3 Vision chart using Active Captain for relief shading and that just seems to have screwed my chart up, so I removed the Active Captain card and reverted back to the standard G2 Charts. I will fix this by downloading the G3 vision charts to a dedicated SD card via Garmin Express.
Also, I had a strange electrical fault on the Jeep. Every time I indicate Right, the tail gate wiper comes on and all the doors lock !  You could be fooled into thinking it was a bloody Land Rover, I will investigate this tomorrow.
Just a couple of pics off the Gopro

 

hitting the Adamant Shoal on Saturday - Target = big rays, conger, whiting, might be the occasional Spur/tope too.

Made up some muppet rigs - to try out soon
Simple one hook twisted boom just off the bottom to allow some flow but be close enough for most fish - good for wrecks and piers too

and your general running ledger trace with beads to hold the mullet up from the bait a bit (good idea blatently stolen)

100lb rig body used as i expect mostly conger on these! - will bait with mackerel head for conger, Squid flap for whiting - mackerel side for anything else!
worth a try!

The big difference with uptiding is, with the bow in the line, all the snoods are on the deck, same with beach fishing in these parts though not as extreme

I carry a 12 guage on mine just incase I have a similar experience with a boat 😂😂

We usually carry a small drill and a large stubby auger with us for such occasions.
Have you been down to check your boat recently?

So they work on a rolling method..... Not a sea method I'm at all familiar with. We're very much grip leads and line bow in this area
 

Went out today knowing that the wind would get up towards lunchtime so launched from South Shields yacht club ramp and headed out to the sandy muddy marks of the Tyne looking for some whiting, dabs and possibly a codling.
I didn't know that a dredger would be working there though! Gave it a bit of time and found some rough ground that must have been scoured by one of the storms that threw hundreds or thousands of tons of sand onto the prom and roads. NADA, I couldn't see my bait if it was more than 6" under the surface.
Peddling in there was a few people on the red groyne one of which were sat with a bit of rope in the water, then I heard the ILB contacting Tyne VTS to mobilize and 20 seconds later I see them head towards me from the opposite side of the river, putting 2 and 2 together I pointed to the end of the groyne and messaged Tyne VTS to inform the ILB by radio.
Another 20 seconds later and they were heading back to the station at full speed, with emergency services sirens being heard from both sides of the river. Why no one on the peir flagged me down I don't know unless it was a body retrieval?
Nothing on the local news or RNLI  yet.

Went out today knowing that the wind would get up towards lunchtime so launched from South Shields yacht club ramp and headed out to the sandy muddy marks of the Tyne looking for some whiting, dabs and possibly a codling.
I didn't know that a dredger would be working there though! Gave it a bit of time and found some rough ground that must have been scoured by one of the storms that threw hundreds or thousands of tons of sand onto the prom and roads. NADA, I couldn't see my bait if it was more than 6" under the surface.
Peddling in there was a few people on the red groyne one of which were sat with a bit of rope in the water, then I heard the ILB contacting Tyne VTS to mobilize and 20 seconds later I see them head towards me from the opposite side of the river, putting 2 and 2 together I pointed to the end of the groyne and messaged Tyne VTS to inform the ILB by radio.
Another 20 seconds later and they were heading back to the station at full speed, with emergency services sirens being heard from both sides of the river. Why no one on the peir flagged me down I don't know unless it was a body retrieval?
Nothing on the local news or RNLI  yet.

We (our club) had a wrecking trip on Sat 8th out of Weymouth cancelled, so I had a quick look around and found that "Spot on" out of Brixham was advertising spaces for the Monday
A few texts later and I managed to get 3 of us on, with the other spaces all gone to people on the skippers individual text list
Up at 3.30, met John and Kevin at 4.20 and on the road by 4.30 for a leisurely 2hrs 10min drive to Brixham harbour
On the boat for 7 ( a big new 12m cat that the skipper had built himself from the keel up, inc all fibreglassing) and out into the dark drizzly Channel
This was a comfortable 90 odd minute steam to the first wreck, as there is seating for at least 12 inside the cabin, which is separate from the wheelhouse
First drop produced nothing, but just 12/14 turns up on the second drop snagged me this 
I didn't weigh it as I didn't have any scales in my box, the skipper was untangling 3 others and I wanted to get it back quickly so couldn't really wait any longer
But Ross (skipper) said "that's a nice double" as soon as he slipped the net under it, so I'm not going to argue with his estimate and it was a right fat bastard too.....the fish
Slid it back in the water and watched it disappear like a torpedo back to where it came from
The rest of the drifts here just produced small pollock around the 3/4 lb mark
Moved on out to wreck number 2 where we all caught much the same as the first and this was repeated on wrecks 3 and 4
Got the SPJ rod out and gave that a go when tide slackened right off, had a Mackerel on a jig that was about the same size as it and a few drifts later had a Bass of around 4lb
Happy I finally had something half decent on the SPJ's and a good bit of sport it is too
I may have to get a decent left hand wind multi for it now
Next wreck stole a lot of tackle and we weren't there long, I hooked a decent Pollock on the drop back down (I was nowhere near the bottom) got it back up probably another 8/10 turns and still lost it in the wreck. That wreck is tall, the murray/moray ?
The last wreck we tried was one of the first we tried on way out, here we found some better fish with John picking up a brace of 12/14lbers on consecutive drifts
There was also some good Bass came of this one again, with Kevins going around 8lb
So a good trip for us 3 with 18/20 Pollock into double figures, 7/8 Bass into doubles and just a few Pouting 
Our first time out with Ross, but can highly recommend him and his boat. Very roomy (12m x 5) quick and seating for all inside
Sorry there aren't more pics
BTW if anyone has a trip out of Brixham in the near future, the rd from the harbour to the carpark is closed and the diversion is back out through the town and up through a housing estate, so give yourself an extra 10/15 mins
 

Here you go, including the bait. Just for you.

Thinking of tomorrow myself, MSW and weather forecast looks good

Made up some muppet droppers yesterday. Size 6/0 hook with three beads above on an 8-10 inch length of 100lb mono. The muppet is then slid down over the beads, leaving the hook bend closer to the end of the muppet. The plan is to use them about 5 feet off the bottom, above a pennel-rigged big bait. The eyes are luminous paint, so I'll charge them up with a torch before sending them down, and I may put a couple of long strips of squid on the hook to give off scent as well as extra movement.
I went for droppers rather than used over the big baits as the big baits will be hard on the bottom and I'm not convinced the muppets will be able to work their tentacles as effectively as if they were up in the water a little.

Latest addition, arrived today

It’s only a walk down the pontoon and sit on deck, no moving etc. just see how she reacts to water. 
 
So far it’s walks in same place, same route. All about routine… then meet a few new people slowly etc. 

Not wanting to teach anyone to suck eggs, but in the interests of helping her settle in as perfectly as possible, I'd be tempted to wait a while longer before introducing any more new, potentially unsettling changes to her. She's been through a lot of (probably unwelcome) change in her little life, so a short period of stability to get to know and trust you really solidly might be worth exploring. Then, in a few weeks time, you could take her on the boat on the mooring (engines off). Give her a chance to have a sniff and get used to a very new environment,and to make sure that if she does leap overboard you can gather her up as easily as possible! 🤣. Next time, you could try it with the engines on, and the time after that, you could try a short trip out.
Again, not intending this to be unsolicited advice or anything, just from a dogs perspective trust goes a long way, and she may find it harder to trust you in future if you take her onto the boat too soon and it freaks her out.

Managed to dig out a decent pic of my set up, as above from 2017 and my second kayak. I chose a pedalo because I lure fish a lot and being able to fish and be under power was a game changer for me, I can sit on top of or alongside a reef and not be drifted off by wind and tide too quickly. I can easily and quickly get back uptide if my rig gets snagged and if you are using lures that cost from pennies to several pounds it is very helpful. I can also stop pretty quickly by putting the fins into reverse and peddling which is handy if you spot fish on the sonar. I have a Lowrance elite 5 combo and used to shoot through on my other kayak but on this one there is a dedicated scupper with a shield so I don`t smash the TX when launching/landing or skipping over rocks. Seat is fully adjustable for height but is kept low as it gives best stability and has lumbar support for those who need it, thankfully I don`t as yet. It had a full length anchor trolley but it has been removed as I was not using it for anchoring or with a drogue.front hatch holds the trolley that gets me from car to sea and houses a 12v 7Ah battery in a sealed box, mid hatch holds all my stuff for fishing along with a small first aid kit. I usually have a small bag clipped to the rear of the seat that holds a device that can be used to help me re enter the kayak if I fall off and have difficulty getting back in or am injured. Rear hatch has usually not a lot in but may have a spare paddle in it if I am out with a group. Tankwell behind the seat usually has a small cool box in it and a bilge pump.
I usually wear a full drysuit all year round as it is breatheable, yak pfd with safety gear radio and PLB. Choice of weapons is generally a GX2 6-12/12-20 with a 6000C and a Bushwhacker 12-28/20-60gm with a shimano exage 4000.

And a gratuitous action shot...
 

Managed to dig out a decent pic of my set up, as above from 2017 and my second kayak. I chose a pedalo because I lure fish a lot and being able to fish and be under power was a game changer for me, I can sit on top of or alongside a reef and not be drifted off by wind and tide too quickly. I can easily and quickly get back uptide if my rig gets snagged and if you are using lures that cost from pennies to several pounds it is very helpful. I can also stop pretty quickly by putting the fins into reverse and peddling which is handy if you spot fish on the sonar. I have a Lowrance elite 5 combo and used to shoot through on my other kayak but on this one there is a dedicated scupper with a shield so I don`t smash the TX when launching/landing or skipping over rocks. Seat is fully adjustable for height but is kept low as it gives best stability and has lumbar support for those who need it, thankfully I don`t as yet. It had a full length anchor trolley but it has been removed as I was not using it for anchoring or with a drogue.front hatch holds the trolley that gets me from car to sea and houses a 12v 7Ah battery in a sealed box, mid hatch holds all my stuff for fishing along with a small first aid kit. I usually have a small bag clipped to the rear of the seat that holds a device that can be used to help me re enter the kayak if I fall off and have difficulty getting back in or am injured. Rear hatch has usually not a lot in but may have a spare paddle in it if I am out with a group. Tankwell behind the seat usually has a small cool box in it and a bilge pump.
I usually wear a full drysuit all year round as it is breatheable, yak pfd with safety gear radio and PLB. Choice of weapons is generally a GX2 6-12/12-20 with a 6000C and a Bushwhacker 12-28/20-60gm with a shimano exage 4000.

And a gratuitous action shot...