Geoff

Solent Rescue Lifeboat is with ABP Southampton - Port of Southampton and 
3 others . 1h  ·      Solent Rescue respond to casualty in the water. This weekends routine training was interrupted on Saturday afternoon when Solent Rescue volunteer crew responded to reports of an unconscious casualty face down in the water near Southampton's Town Quay. The local Red Funnel Isle of Wight Ferry launched a rescue boat and were able to recover the casualty, along with another person who had also entered the water to assist. Within a few minutes Solent Rescue arrived to provide vital medical aid and transfer the casualty to a waiting South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, our friends at Hamble Lifeboat also met us at Town Quay. The incident was co-ordinated by Maritime and Coastguard Agency and ABP Southampton - Port of Southampton, and comes less than 48 hours after Solent Rescue featured on the BBC programme ‘Saving Lives at Sea’ which showed the recovery of an unconscious casualty from the water last year. The episode is available on BBC iPlayer, Season 8, Episode 1. Media Notes: Solent Rescue is an independent lifeboat charity that relies on donations, and is run and operated entirely by volunteers. Please contact info@solent-rescue.org.uk for further information.     Solent Rescue Lifeboat

Not sure what the day would bring as we move into autumn, so bait and lures were on the cards.


First drift over a drop off with lures for pollock and codling but the drift hadn't really started to push so we were struggling to get a couple of small codling and a coalfish. Then we tried an inshore reef where we have had good pollock before and the visibility was great as we could see the lures down to 15ft or more but apart from a few more codling, including a kelpy codling, nothing of size. 

the water quality went downhill as we got closer to the river, an ebbing tide, and eventually we returned to the marina and saw the dredger was hard at work turning the Tyne the colour I remember it was 50 years ago!

Nice day picking away but nothing of size and just a mackerel coming home to get smoked and turned into pate.

I do hope its not the anchoring experience that's put you off - as it does get easier with practice and experience!
 

heard reports of squid showing up so thought we would do a dawn raid.....
5am alarm and down on Tims boat for 5.30 - His new spot lights were great for lighting up his foredeck and rails - not so good for spotting pot bouys (😜)  - so we used the plotter to take a wide berth out of the harbour - no issues and we were on the mark before first light  - glowing squid jigs went down and after an hour we only managed the one - still target acquired - guessing the water is still very dirty from the storms earlier in the week.
off out to anchor up and due to the massive tides and strong SSW wind we opted for an inshore mark - 3Nm off on mixed ground known to show up allsorts. we weren't disappointed!
between us we had a steady stream of fish all day.... 
Mackerel, Loads of red gurnards, loads of black bream, conger, dogfish, smoothounds, Scad, Tope, 

I do love a red gurnard!

Feisty tope was a surprise!
brought home one squid and 2x black bream for the table, plus a couple of mackerel for the bait freezer. 
a long but cracking day - and still in shorts in Oct!
 

After much clambering around yesterday a venue for the evenings festivities had been agreed, an outing to Milford.. a venue put forward by our friendly bait supplier.
The desired target was sole, the brief was simple ish..  a venue with easy access on proven sole ground, milford seemed to tick the boxes,. However, upon arrival the beach is undergoing works and the step down was not achievable so back in the car.. Google maps, Barton I called out!? Nope, the old fella doesn't agree with the slope leading to the beach.. wonderful! After 5 minutes he pipes up.. 'Lee'?!!.. an hour later, we had arrived on a mark 5 minutes from my front door.. 😭
My buddy just enjoys being out with a line in the drink, catching for him is truly a bonus.. though I like to think my outlook mirrors that of my bud, in all honesty, I'd sooner blank being in the 'right place' than blank somewhere convenient not likely to throw anything up.. last night, we ended up on a convenient mark. 
Big tide, patchy skies, warm with intermittent bright moon appearances. First cast mate had a great bite but failed to stick it, then that was his lot till the last cast with a tiny hound pup..
I fished one at range - 6/o pully, squid and blank lug.. 30 year old Bass rod fished in close with size 4's, tiny black lug tipped squid.
While the big baits remained untouched all night, first cast on the bass gear I had a smut pup. Just before wrapping up I had a cracking bite and upon picking the rod up I felt something pulling back! Happy days, moments later.. up popped a Codling. My mate insisted on weighing and it went 4lb 12. Sadly with it gut hook, it ended up coming home. 
Safe to say, the Sole were no where to be seen. A match last week on Hillhead that's widely regarded as the local hotspot had a turn out of 18, not a single Sole was caught.. another fish with changing habits?
In other fishing its been kinda slow, had a decent Bass Friday around 7lb, stalked which made it quite satisfying. Even squeezed a Mullet session in a week ago on floating bread. In an hour I had 2 Bass and 1 Mullet.. nothing big but pulled the string nevertheless. 

True 🙄, although grandchildren duties and the evitable OAP health issues can sometimes put a damper on it.
I will keep you in mind as I sometimes have a spare seat in the winter months 👍 (The wife is a summer angler and Kyle is nose to the grindstone with A levels)

I've only got this one..... 

Nice one mate, at least you got out. Should have been in Fowey last week but had to cancel due to the weather and my bro breaking his wrist

Thanks Geoff. I'm 99% there are no grooves to fit and all is flat smooth. Thanks for the info. 

Sorry guys thought I put this one up had a busy few weeks since this trip.
we did 2 full days and half day 
day one we headed out 
struggled a bit for mackerel but had some in most places … 
didn’t see signs of life no birds dolphins which was off putting but ultimately needed to start a drift somewhere so picked a spot and nothingness for a few hours and I just felt like we needed to move.
So in comes the rods headed southwest and soon enough started seeing
birds yes 
dolphins yes
then washing machines of BFT which was incredible and very heart pounding.
even amongst them all we didn’t fool one .not that we were trying to ;
but lots of excitement wen had an amazing forecast after a long day we headed in for food and sleep.
Pic below tunas as they wer going thru under boat during frenzy 

 
day two was a horrible easterly that had randomly come through the night and was hanging on so we went in the harbour and tossed the lures around . 
 
we had a couple bass 
actually I had this bass pictured on day 1 on a live joey at the end of the day . But still.

 
so after some lunch we jumped back on the boat and pushed out for the afternoon with no joy . 
 

 
obscene amounts of these crest jelly fish I mean there was more of them than there was water 

 
day 3 half day to make it happen.
started about 1mile off . The worst fog Iv ever experienced. Clarity about 15m

 
Then a weird weird encounter of a pup blue shark at only 1.3mile off in about 100ft of water .

 
an achievement for the location but not what we were after .
 
be down again soon as come on weather !

I suppose it depends how long the boat is and how long the kill cord is, but in principle you make a fair point.

OK, I understand the issue, this may help.
Once anchored, back off the warp until the buoy is about 30yards from the boat.
When you are ready to recover, clear the deck on the same side as the helm (I assume yours is starboard).
Move off at a 45 degree angle to the buoy and then watch the warp at the bow to maintain the angle, you will then be making a large arc around the buoy. The buoy will go under and the popup once the anchor has broken free.
This is the important bit .......... now the anchor has broken free, steer slightly straighter and the warp will come along side the boat. KEEP THE POWER ON, lean over the side and grab the warp (it will be almost at gunnel height), with the power still on leave the helm and run back to the stern still holding the warp and put a quick turn around the stern gunnel cleat.  Run back to the helm, and you can then watch the angle of the warp off the stern gunnel and the buoy. Open up with more throttle until the buoy is firmly being towed, then slow down to stationary and walk back to release the rope off the stern cleat. If you are not using a lazy line, then make a very low speed skid turn to point the bow at the buoy. Leave the engine on with the boat stationary and engine on idle, recover the warp and buoy. If you are using a lazy line, then just recover the warp and buoy from the stern, and then tie off the lazy line in its normal position.
Regardless of how bad the sea is, by looping onto the stern gunnel cleat, you can always see the angle of the warp. If you don't use the stern cleat, then it is easy to lose sight of the warp and run over it.
Also, you should always have your anchor set to trip, even with the slightest snag. Mine will trip about 1 in 5 times when recovering. Just replace the cable tie, and ready to go.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Took the opportunity to go out yesterday as there was a small weather window which couldn’t be ignored. Beautiful calm morning and with fresh anti fouling on the hull it was hammer down time to get over to the Ore Stone for a jigging session. 21kts achieved, got there nice and quick so thought I’d try ‘mackerel corner’ at Hope’s Nose first. 3 drifts, a suicidal tiny pollack and 2 joey macks later I headed off to Tucker Rock reef and was in straightaway with some nice sized fat mackerel 👌
I continued to do repeat drifts along the edge of the reef and bagged up with about 15kg of mackerel and scad with a solitary sardine in the mix. I really wanted a red gurnard for my species hunt group as I already had tubs and greys so fished hard on the bottom every drift and was overjoyed to get one after about an hour of trying 😅
I really wanted to anchor up on the northward flow at the back of the reef and foolishly decided to go for it knowing that the wind was going to get up a bit. Got some nice fresh baits down on 12lb class gear, 3 oz leads and away we go, dogfish🤣
It got rough very quickly and the yachties were now out in force using me as a bloody target🤷‍♂️ carried on and got a ratchet whizzing bite which gave me a hell of a fight. Took about ten minutes to get it up and wasn’t surprised to see a 20lb plus conger which I had to gaff as I was struggling to stand up let alone net the bugger 🤣
Another fresh bait sent down saw a lovely Huss of around 12lb come up, chuffed with that. Next bait saw a really gentle bite so I left it a couple of minutes then pulled into it only to get another epic battle which saw a 24lb conger come up (I weighed it best I could in the by now awful conditions).
This is where my day went downhill. I could not for the life of me use the Alderney ring technique to retrieve my anchor…. every time I tried I lost sight of the rope, couldn’t keep direction in the snotty sea and completely lost confidence in what I was doing. I even went over the bloody thing once so engine off and tilt up….. no choice but to pull by hand which was like riding a bucking bronco and I very nearly decided to cut and run. The nose of my boat nearly went under at one point and I seriously questioned my sanity. Anyway, once it finally broke free I managed to get it up and stowed it through the front hatch. I made for quieter waters and then sorted it all out.
Got back to the mooring with a sense of relief and was treated to the spectacle of about 10 mullet messing around under my tender alongside the boat in a foot or so of water and they were pretty big, 3 or 4 lbs apiece 👌
So for the first trip out on my own in 18 months it was probably the best trip I’ve had since I started boat fishing which was only tainted by the anchor incident. I’m here to tell the tale and that’s all that matters, lesson learnt 👍
8 species, mackerel, scad, sardine, pollack, red gurnard, dogfish, conger and Huss….. I very nearly landed a huge spider crab but he let go at the last minute 🤣

Letter arrived today, V5 on it's way. Ordered the plate already with the new number 😁

Mariner is still the closest that I can think of, I only said that I was no longer sure! The under chine line and the cabin lines look similar, but window shape is different. If it is not a Mariner (built by a company called Marina in Worcestershire) I do think that there may be some connection there. Whatever it is the underwater shape looks purposeful. Geoff.

6/10, but 5 of those points are for bravery. Geoff.

6/10, but 5 of those points are for bravery. Geoff.

Did you know the Norwegians and Swedes have put bar codes on the side of their naval ships? 
 
it’s so they can ScanDaNavyIn 🫣

Touché! There seems to be a theme here. @Clinker, @headlight, @GPSguru, all scared off...

I agree Jon, I think it a great pity that you scared Clinker away! Geoff.🙂

Man has been, inspection complete, so hopefully V5 will be here 2-3 weeks
 

Well its Saturday morning and Im heading out, should be on the water by next Saturday. Big drive ahead, followed by a long run offshore, looking forward to some remote offshore living for a few weeks.

Not updated for a little bit. Currently we are waiting for the DVLA rep to view it this Friday so we can get a registration. The headlight was replaced with an H4 fitment type. New battery fitted, charging checks done, all looking good. Once DVLA guy has gone, will pop the rear wheel back out, fit new bearings and another swing arm (or repair this one....) and put the new chain on. Then front wheel out, clean up the brakes and new wheel bearings again and will be getting close....