Geoff

Well….. most remarkable thing was the sunshine…. And flat seas…. 😮
3 trips in 3 days, 38 blues to 120lb, many over a ton, happy customers, thresher seen in slick but didn’t take the bait 😭😭😭 Tuna numbers increasing, looks like it coujd be a good autumn…
Todays trip blown off but such is life! 

Amazon have Grapplers, but to be fair, they are well out of budget at nearly £300. For the amount of fishing you do, then fair enough, but I don't get to do enough to justify that sort of expence. I just bought 2 beastmasters for just over a smidgen over half of that and they should last me many years to come. Cheers for the input tho Jon 👍

Made by Mercedes Benz, always going flat out and are difficult to overtake! Geoff.😉

Is that the ringless tip technique?
 

*EDIT *
 
 

Good luck Malc - fingers x'd, but sounds very +ve. Geoff.

Cheers @Andy135 they are capped at 25% . I read the bumph but it seemed like a pro forma they send to everyone as it covers everything from NW-NF to warning that if we lose their rates are £450/hr which is frightening! 
I don't believe for a second we could lose as we were hit in the rear when stationary at a ped x-ing and we have front and rear cameras and I didn't sling the anchors out it was gradual braking. 
I have done some reading and apparently some law firms pay up to £800 to insurance companies for clients! Also we are probably going to get an offer from the other insurers instead of going into litigation if the internet is correct. 

24th, 25th 28th and 29h August all roll into one a bit so heres a round up.
had the in laws down so I took a week off and we spent the first half deep in @GPSguru territory with a trip west to Torquay - taking in Brixham, paignton, torquay, Teignmouth and sidmouth - family trip so no fishing - but lovely sight seeing and plenty of good food an dbeeer.
 
we were back in weymouth on the 24th that saw me and phil (in law) take pugwash out - calm day no winds but with a few showers about proved interesting. 
we went for mackerel first for bait and in and out of showers managed a few - including 2 bigguns reserved for tea.

We then went out to anchor up on a known mixed species mark. flat calm almost eery conditions. soon after anchoring the rain came - we were lucky it was slack as we could shelter inthe wheelhouse without too many fish to deal with - the rain intensified an then the rumbles came. Thunder wasnt ofrecats for us but i could see it was moving up the channel - we were on the fringe of the storm and could track it on 'real time lightening tracker' - it was 50/50 if we shoudl stay or go as we could see forks of lightening hitting the horizon - clearly tot he north was clear, but the channel was getting it - bout outside us gave some comfort as they didnt move. soon enough the storm passed and made way for sunshine and rainbows. 
the fishing was slow - but we managed bream, congers = one was Phil's PB and a monster - 30lb easy. we also had dogs. but no rays. i managed a belter of asmooth houd which dam near took my rod over the side - i caught the rod butt as the reel was level with the gunwhales!





Friday 25th was better for rain but with wind forecast from lunch we decided to stay inshore and drift portland harbour walls and inshore reefs. 
Phil got a lovely Tub gurnard - his first and we both managed wrasse, pollock, and gurnards.

Sunday 27th the in laws had gone and new fishing friend arrived - we met at portland bill to watch the Cowes Torquay Cowes power baots come past - they come increadibly close at full speed - i expected quite the spectacle but sadly on 5 started, only 4 passed the bill, one returned in limp mode, one broke both gearboxes in torquay and so only 2 finished. the 2 big ones at full throttle (silverline and Good Boy Vodka) sounded epic though!
as a child in the 90s i used to be fascinated watching them arrive on the IOW slanted on low loaders and seeing the start was awesome!
Bank holiday Monday i took shane out on pugwash - we went for bait first in the usual places and only managed 2 mackerel in the 2 hours - sadly we listened in on channel 16 on a huge search and rescue operation by weymouth lifeboat, S&R helicopters and many local and passing charters and private boats looking for an overdue diver from a wreck trip a couple of miles off of Portland bill - the search went on for hours and sadly didnt end well. Thoughts to the diver and his family. 
we headed out to anchor up - we had gurnards, dogs, eels, and shane had a baby smoothie. Wind picked up a bit fresher and earlier than expected so we called it rather than be uncomfortable - shane took his Bream for tea.


Tuesday 29th after work we went out for a short shore spinning session with light gear in a known mackerel mark so Shane could get his daughter fishing - on arrival at dusk we saw fish jumping - being dusk i though school bass but it was actually Scad - almost a hit a cast on the Seadra aqua bullet (thanks @JonC for the tip off- they really are great casting jigs)- great fun either scad on the surface or small pollock on deeper retrieves. Shanes daughter was getting the hang of casting and managed a decent Scad - shane found a schoolie and pout amongst the scad on his rag baited flapper too! - we did the same the following evening.

they're here for the weekend so i hope to bring more reports soon!
 
 
 
 

i will see you down there then Geff 

Don't worry Jon, it is just a cartoon showing Pete meeting Gabriel at heavens door and telling him that he can't get in as he has he should have gone down the steps and not up. Geoff. 😉

Don't worry Jon, it is just a cartoon showing Pete meeting Gabriel at heavens door and telling him that he can't get in as he has he should have gone down the steps and not up. Geoff. 😉

She's using light bait caster outfits flicking very light lures but surprisingly she quoted around a 2 minute fight. Even though the outfits are light to be able to cast hour after hour, the line class is 40lb braid and 80lb leaders. Due to snags and structure most barramundi anglers fish almost full drags to try and control them as quickly as possible.

Another highlight was a barking owl flew into the room they were staying at as they were eating pizza. This is commonly known as a barking owl.
Shes now around 5500km from home, still fishing on the Fitzroy River the opposite side of the country.
 

My daughter has been away for week trying to get herself a big barramundi. Six days of flicking lures from 2hrs before sunrise to 2hrs 14hr days  and she's finally nailed a big fish of a lifetime in terms of Barramundi. 
The thing in her hand is a scale.

 

 

Marina competition and just two of us instead of three on the boat, booked in and off we go into pretty much flat calm. As we were nearing the wreck we had wanted to fish we saw a commercial on it so went to a 2nd option. 
Plenty of snags and 2 whiting, on 8/0's and baited muppets, later we changed our plan and tried inshore and again it was pretty clear that the fish weren't interested in what we had to offer, soft plastic lures, muppets, fine slithers of fresh mackerel...
We too and froed and picked up a trio of fair sized codling and returned a few tiddlers and I even had problems getting 4" sandeel slugs through the mackerel at times so it wasn't easy, even the commercial and pleasure anglers were moving about a lot. 
We returned earlier than expected and were told we were the only ones weighing in so far with 40 minutes to the end of the competition. Things were looking good as the last competition we didn't weigh in 3 fair pollock and a sub 2lb ling won (all gutted weight) which was gutting for us.
5 minutes to go and there was no boats in the lock or the pontoon so we had it, grand slam!
Bottle of beer to celebrate, £100 voucher for marina work and I think £75 cash so it all goes back into the boat!
Played for and got 🍾🎣

After driving for nine hours back from France yesterday I had to head south today for another three hour drive to pick up the dog from my parents. It would have been rude not to take some lure gear with me so this evening I managed a short session at a favourite rock mark of mine.

With good weather and crystal water clarity I had high hopes. A couple of missed bites, including one that took the tail clean off my Fiiish Black Minnow, told me the fish were present but would I get a hook-up?
Well, it took until the literal "last cast" before I had a bend in the rod. A lovely ballan wrasse for my efforts.

Not the biggest but definitely welcome.

Drawing is about right...

George lives in Bournemouth. He was sick of the world, sick of COVID, Trump, BBC News,  Russia, China, global warming, street crime, Inflation, illegal immigrants, racial tensions & the rest of the disturbing stories that occupy media headlines.
George drove his car into his garage & then sealed every doorway & window as best he could. He got back into his car, wound all the windows up, selected his favorite radio station, started the car & revved it to a slow idle.
Five (5) days later, a worried neighbour peered through his garage window & saw him in the car. She notified the emergency services. They broke in & pulled George from the car. A little sip of water &, surprisingly, he was in perfect condition. However, his Tesla had a dead battery.

it is sad news.Sorry for your loss.

I took Leo and his older cousin Harry out yesterday in search of some early season codling. Unfortunately we were unlucky on that front, but we did catch many fish. A half decent hound, some dogs, a couple of straps a pout and tonnes of bream. Biggest being a touch under 2lb. 
Our baits were being destroyed within seconds of touching down. The culprits were a swarm of tiny bream. Good for future stocks I suppose. 

The early start wasn't what Harry was used to...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Starting at the safety side which will make your trip far more comfortable. Seasick pills in case. full head buff for sun protection. Wide hat with a cord so it doesn't blow away when racing about in the small boats. Full arm and leg sun protection, either from the loose light shirts which dry quickly or the stretchy black out arm and led sleeves. Ear plugs, not kidding a night of listening to your buddy snore all night can seriously stuff a days fishing. Electrolytes to add to your drinker water, these will greatly help you keep your fluids up and hydrated. All of these are available from here without any issue.

Tackle. First to come to mind is halco which is an Aussie company that make good value lures. Halco hard body diving lures are very dependable lures with the red head white body being one of the best all round trolling lures you can get. With most of my lures I tend to choose shallower styles over deep lures, I figure having them closer to the prop wash works for inquisitive fish. Shallow lures also work out a bit cheaper than loosing deep divers into sudden shallow reef. 



A hard body which has been working extremely well for me is the samaki pacemaker in yellowfin colour. I haven't gotten around to trying the other colours as the yellowfin has been catching fish so well, though I do have the red and white to try soon. The action from these lures is so life like when you drop them over the side, just like a live mackerel. If I had to choose just one I would pick the smaller size in shallow diver, though my friends have been doing well on both yellowfin and bluefin tuna with the deeper version. 

I have a variety of Nomad lures but have found them to not be very effective compared to the above lures. 

Shimano waxwings aren't available here but are another very effective lure for me so I buy them from the USA.

Repala Xrap lures are ok but I find the fish destroy them but I still use them regardless.



Halco do a small twisty lure from 5g up which northern bluefin will take, personally these in the 30g -40g allow me to cast light line class into the schools of these smaller tuna when they are feeding at the surface. Any small metal whitebait looking lure should work on these tuna and other small pelagic's.
You may want some jigs but ask the company what weights or what depths you may be jigging in before we go down that path as deeper water will obviously require bigger jigs and if dogtooth tuna are around you will be looking at seriously heavy tackle.

Plastics (soft). For me these are the best lures for saving money as they don't cost to much and tropical fish love them. They can also be worked relatively slowly in a far more relaxed style of angling. Again white is a stand out favourite but a few colours you like the look of are worth taking too, one being pink which is another many species seem to love. On my last trip up north I found the 5inch was the best for better hookup rates, where the bigger plastics were getting tails bitten off to much. The Curley tail or paddle tail are my pick as they give such good action with very little angler effort. Better off saving that effort for when you hook up as you will need it. Jig heads need to be up to the task too, so heavy gauge hooks are the go to for the fish up there.



 
Mono for traces may vary from 20lb on the bluefin up to 150lb + on some of the bottom species of cods and grouper. On my plastics Im using 50-80lb and heavy drag settings to try and get fish away from reef.

Rods and reels is species dependant. Where you are heading you have the option of very large marlin species and sharks of 1000lb if thats what you like. For me I like the smaller species bellow the 50kg size.  Tackle will also come down to the depths you are fishing. so obviously if you're dropping jigs 80m to dogtooth you will need big outfits. Personally I like the 4000, 5000, 6000, 8000 sized spin reels. With a 8000 Shimano saragossa there's very little I can't take on when I head up that way. I can load 400m of 40lb braid and fish drag settings at full depending on the rod I have the reel on. With the small boats you will be using, chasing down things like sailfish on light line and a 4000 spin reel are a fun way to catch such fish. Even a 4000 spin reel can handle drag settings over 10kg and the lighter line used on these allows for casting smaller lighter lures.


 
Shimano grappler travel rods are extremely good, so good the friends I fish with have now bought each line class after being onboard when I landed my 70kg yellowfin on mine. Even the lightest in the range handled a decent 20kg+ trevaly on last years trip by one of the kids. For dropping straight under the boat those 8ft rods are obviously too long but for surface lures or plastics over shallow reef with locked up drags they are great. I use a variety of rods for dropping lures and baits bellow the boat but again the grapplers have a range to cover that. I do take a small talica 12 loaded with 65lb drag on a light saltiaga rod to try and bully up heavy fish.
This is most of the lures I’m taking but where I’m heading there will be no water depths deeper than 40m and less of the bigger species that you will have on offer. Obviously there’s the terminal tackle of hooks, swivels and sinkers that I will be taking too. 

 

well at long last   ive  got my engine up and running   ive been waiting  weeks for a  Thermostat  to arrive  and it  arrived this morning     £56  plus  £6.95  postage     while  ive been waiting  i  changed the impeller   fitted a  new  racor   water  separator / filter   flushed the inboard tank    using  60  lts of  fuel  that was  rigged up to recirculate  through the old  water separator / filter    then back into the    tank        put a  few    circles  in the clear  fuel pipe   just so  any bits of crap the filter   missed  would collect  in the bottom of the circle  (  old tick  on British  M / bikes )     well happy with everything  now    engine is running as sweet as a  nut   and pisses like a  horse   ive  now got 4 psi   water pressure  @ 1000  rpm      Tight lines  Alain  

Had a really good feeling about this one. Arrived at the quayside with 10 minutes to spare, and we were off on High Flyer 2 just after 7.30am
We headed to our first mark and mack were a bit scarce, tho we were getting plenty of sand eels. We moved on closer to the tope grounds and did some drifting again for bait. More success this time with mack a bit more prolific along with some very big ones. Once we had enough, we headed out to a wreck for a few drifts to see who was home, a couple of whiting and a pouting was about it. With tide now about to start running, we headed to the tope grounds...

First chuck, and my reel was screaming within 5 minutes. This was a big fish, and was struggling to stop it, for the 1st time, my 15-20lb rod was outclassed!! This fish just ran and ran to the point I started seeing backing appear under the braid!! Eventually got it under control and to the back of the boat. The fish had rolled a few times and was getting well wrapped around the mouth. While sorting this the braid got caught on its teeth and away it went. 50-60lb of teeth and attitude went on its way.
Took a break to let the muscles recover, and just as I was baiting up, the next tope hit. A 40lb fish finally boated. Shortly after that, I was in again, this time a 45-50lb fish boated. This is how the day progressed, with 10 tope landed and about 3 dropped runs between us, with me getting 2 and a dropped run. No deep hooked fish and all returned fighting fit.
What a day!! They started getting a bit shy towards the end, but still kept coming, even to uptide tactics. Now looking at 20-30lb rods.......

re battery, thats my thoughts on it. No idea why a 1500cc outboard would need a battery bigger than a 2.5l diesel car? Loom isn't being replaced, it works just been cut into and rejoined and don't look great but it works so it stays. One of the fuel pumps - the lift pump can be rebuilt so they are doing that, the other 2, low pressure and high pressure apparently can't be so are being replaced.
I normally do everything myself, I've rebuilt car engines etc in the past but I just want to use the boat and I don't know enough about boat engines to be confident yet, I didn't know this engine had 3 fuel pumps to go wrong for example. 
It was tempting to put the money towards a new engine on finance and give up on this one but the other money is gone and isn't coming back so its a choice of spending 2k or spending 8k minus what we'll get back on a spares or repair outboard.
 
It'll all be forgotten when we get out on the boat and have a beer and catch a few fish