Geoff

7/10 Neil. I must admit that I was expecting a reply along those lines from somebody, but that is sooooo much better than your recent offerings in the humour section that I feel moved to congratulate you. Geoff.😉

Me and a couple of mates out in dinghy’s fishing, had a pb bass.

Also can be used as driveway ornaments !!

That`s a bit personal, you shouldn`t be looking.😀

So I was on the boat today, I’ve had a play with the totalscan transducer on the hull, changed position and it’s working a bit better…. I’ll see how it goes with that for now…. 🤔
Also wired up in my new tablet as second screen on deck, USB charger for customers, wireless charger on the helm, varnished insided, new rod holders…. Been a busy day 🙂 

Swells still hadn't settled so no going out of the Haven, in fact it was lumpy as hell out there
Still, plenty of the ever reliable pout, poor cod, and a ballan for my efforts.
 

Yeah, but the bloke that sells the tackle is a miserable old bad tempered bast’id. 🙄🤣😇

Shout out to Ian @GPSguru for the quick delivery/dispatch from Lyme Bay Tackle.
Ordered Sunday night, dispatched Monday, with me today and all a great price (cheapest by a long way) Big shout out! (First 50 here, the other 25 to follow 🙂 ) Eagle claw hooks are excellent, I know we all have our favourites but these are my preferred hooks for all my big fish fishing (I do use another companies hook but find not quite as sharp as these) 
Ian has got a great range of kit, well worth a look 🙂 
Now time to start making a few rigs for the summer 🙂 

Have to admit, I'm with @Geoff on this one 😬👎🤣

If Lukes post was worth 2/10, this should be in the high minuses! Geoff.

If Lukes post was worth 2/10, this should be in the high minuses! Geoff.

A man boarded an airplane and took his seat. As he settled in, he glanced up and saw the most beautiful woman boarding the plane. He soon realized She was heading straight towards his seat. As fate would have it, she took the seat right beside his:
Eager to strike up a conversation he blurted out. "Business trip or pleasure?"
She turned, smiled and said. "Business. I’m going to the Annual Nymphomaniacs of America Convention in Boston."
He swallowed hard. Here was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen Sitting next to him and she was going to a meeting of nymphomaniacs!
Struggling to maintain his composure, he calmly asked. “What’s your Business at this convention?"
“Lecturer." She responded. "I use information that I have learned from my Personal experiences to debunk some of the popular myths about sexuality."
“Really?” He said. “And what kind of myths are there?”
“Well.” She explained. “One popular myth is that African-American men are The most well-endowed of all men, when in fact it is the Native American Indian who is most likely to possess that trait. Another popular myth is That Frenchmen are the best lovers, when actually it is men of Mexican Descent who are the best. I have also discovered that the lover with Absolutely the best stamina is the Southern Redneck."
Suddenly the woman became a little uncomfortable and blushed.. "I’m Sorry." She said, “I shouldn't really be discussing all of this with you. I don’t even know your name."
"Tonto." The man said. "Tonto Gonzales, but my friends call me Bubba.

Thanks for the offer but I wouldn't bother seeing as no-one listens to you anyway 🤷‍♂️

Glamour conditions to be out there. As for the doggies, you know how it is, without pic's they didn't exist. 

FTFY Mick.
Somebody on here who shall remain nameless once said "No fish pics = no fish". Geoff.

It`s not always about the fishing, looks like nice weather and flat calm.
well done for getting out.

Getting old means getting slow (but possibly more sensible?) - don't ask how I know. Geoff.
 

It was cold, it was a lovely sunny calm day, I got a new speed record of 25.4kts. I caught 3 dogs and a small huss. The end. 
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely conditions to be afloat. Video seems good quality. 👍

After the demise of my 5 year old Gopro 7 Black, which, like most other Gopro's had been unreliable from the start, but produced excellent video, I have replaced it with a DJI Action 4, which is the main competitor to the Gopro 12.
So a short test Video that was shot in 4K30, processed over bluetooth on my phone using 'Light Cut' and the output to Youtube at 1080p. Doing this retains the sharpness a colour depth of 4K video. It was shot in Rock Steady mode, which retains the motion of the boat.
I am sat there looking like a spare part as my rods are on the A frame slightly behind the camera, and we have 60 secs of Kyle landing a Whiting whilst we are at anchor.
 

The young lad who fishes with me much of the time jumped ship to fish with my daughter. Ive tried numerous was to post the short video on here without luck, so given up and just grabbed a few screen shots. Its hard to tell from these though its size, which they estimated to be around the 60-70kg which is about average on them. They are considered a pest, as like many of the ray family, put up very little action in a fight. They were chasing hounds which we eat here and managed a few of these smaller ones, however the target was to get one over 25kg.

Out searching for marlin tomorrow if the weather allows.
 


 

 

 

Starting to get go grips with the new (to me) boat.
fished a couple of reef marks looking for decent tide rips, not to difficult on the big springs.
using portland rigs and soft plastics I managed plenty of small pollack along with a codling coalfish and a decent pollack.
the finder was alive with bait fish which after downsizing the hooks proved to be herring.
also navigated the renowned Jack Sound for the first time, not as bad as I anticipated, especially with the aid of navionics relief shading. 

Cold, but it looked doable, so Kyle and I launched in the dark at 0700. Launching was easy on the top of the spring flood, with the water almost to the top of the slip. Temp was 2C so not too bad.
One of the big issues with an open boat is that there is nowhere to hide !, so we were both wrapped up in multi layers to ensure we retained some temperature.
First stop (still dark) was the Orestone for some fresh Mack. We only had about 30 mins to spare as I needed to get the correct drift pattern on the Skerries.
We could see plenty of activity on the sounder but no takers, also the drifts were fast as it was the top of the spring tides. Kyle managed a couple of small whiting before we moved on.
Sea was flat calm, but I kept the speed down to 26kts in order that we minimized wind chill.
30min later we were on the banks, but still needed to motor right down to Start point and the tide rips as our plan was to drift for a winter turbot. Once at the chosen mark, the tide was ripping through and the sea was quite rough in the designated tide rip / overfalls area, but at no time did we feel unsafe.
Unfortunately the drift speed was way too high, so after another 45mins we decided to move back to a Plaice mark, however, Kyle did get a dogfish, which luckily was the only one of the day.
3.5Nm took us back to our Plaice mark on the inner edge of the banks, it was mirror flat and the sun was beginning to peep through, adding a little warmth. The Plaice baits went down and were almost immediately taken by Whiting, but the stamp of these fish was 1 ½  to 2lb, so good sport on Plaice gear, with the biggest going a little over 2lb.
At 11:45 it was time to move to our Ray mark and drop the pin as the tide was beginning to pick up after slack. Although it was mirror flat the spring tide was racing through the banks, so I dropped the pick in 55ft and then l let out 70m (200ft), which not only made sure the pick would hold, but it also put us fishing in 90ft.
For bait, we had frozen mack, frozen cuttle, squid, and Prawn. Cocktail baits went down of cuttle head and mack fillet. Within a minute or two the rods were nodding with whiting trying to demolish the baits. Kyle had the first proper bite, and it came off on the surface near the stern, and we both assumed it was a smallish smoothound. 15 minutes later and Kyle was in again and this time it came to the net OK, and was a Spurdog of about 4lb. I mentioned to Kyle that we should go to 100lb hook lengths as the Spurs will bite off, and that is exactly what happened on the next fish. That is pretty much the way it went for the rest of the session, with the pack hunting Spurs picking up the Ray baits, and we didn't lose any more with 100lb snoods.
At 2:00pm it was time to pull the pick, and I could feel the strain when we motored around the pick with the strong tide bowing the warp, but it pulled OK, and we were soon motoring back.
We landed back at the all tide sand slip at 3:00pm, and we didn't run aground 🤣, low tide was 2:47pm, and it was very low at 0.6m. The sand slip was muddy with the tide that low, and I had to be careful of the dropoff with the trailer. The boat loaded easily and a bunch of gig rowers were taking bets as to whether we would tow out OK, little did they know that I am Land Rover trained and also hold a BORDA off road training certificate. Kyle was well impressed as I selected 4 low in the Jeep (Select track transmission), and just tickled the auto box to pull us straight up the slip without any wheel spin from the all terrain tyres, as they moved us through 3" of soft estuary mud
So, not a great day, but an OK day, with 24 Whiting to a little over 2lb and 7 Spurs to 7lb. Kyle took 4 of the whiting for eating and the rest went back. A long day, and a round trip of almost 50Nm.
Kyle with one of the spurs

 
The stamp of the Whiting, this one is about 1½ lb

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.)