Herbs73

What is the general opinion on lever drag reels. ive not owned but but am considering it as i fully inted to catch a decent tope before i die (hopefully much sooner like this year) i have a pair of original abu 7000's, penn 525 mags and penn fathoms so di really need one ?. a friend of mine services and repairs reels and he doesnt have a good opinion of them unless a lot of money is spent. i was looking at the penn 15 fathom lever drags and shimano speed master. or should i buy another rod ? TIA .

Where’s your spot ?

Morning gents, havnt posted in a while. I went out yesterday in my mates new Orkney 20 for the first time since surgery in early September. Left Brightlingsea at 7.15 and fished to 2. Lost count of the whiting, 2 decent codling which was nice, half a Dozen dogfish and 1 small bass. The wind was bitter on the flood but it dropped off after high tide. After 7 months of no fishing it was just lovely to be out on the water despite my fingers going numb.

That’s all the convincing I need

I’ve got a Pen. fathom 15 level wind which I really like but I’m thinking of getting the fathom 15, 2 speed lever drag. (Which I don’t really need) Does anybody use one and if so are they any good ?

Your welcome

Sounds like a good deal, I reckon that’s the difference between our 40 doggies and your none. we were fishing with squid and rag. Im going to ask a local commercial in Brightlingsea

Where do you get your hermits ?

Better safe than sorry

Lucky you had a wire trace on

How cute is that.

So went out today from Brightlingsea, about 6 this morning. wasn’t too sure what the conditions would be like as it was blowing a bit yesterday. as it turned out there was a bit of swell but not too bad. Fished the middle deeps off clacton, see was very clear and tried for some mackerel with no luck. Anchored up and was straight into doggies, must have had 30 between the 2 of us. Also had 6 smoothounds (biggest is in the pic, didn’t weigh it so guessing 8lb ish) 1 bass about 3lb and 1 small tope. Now sitting in may back garden with a cider. Very enjoyable day

You don’t need a complete power loss you only need the display on your plotter to to go tits up. This happened on my vhf whilst out. Being able to “manually navigate” enables you to get home without calling the coast guard.

Quite agree, I have a chart on board but my dividers etc have been at home which I’m going to rectify. if the electronics go down you know it will be foggy and low water . There’s a lot of sand banks for us to hit with not much margin for error.

My thoughts exactly, I like to be as self reliant as possible and the thought of having to call the coast guard just for lack of some basic seamanship doesn’t sit well with me.

We were fishing the south side of the Buxey. Did see a lot of charter boats but not too many privateers, which was a surprise at it was such a lovely day.

Sometime ago I loaded the navionics app on to my tablet and phone so I can plot courses etc at Home and then sync with my plotter when I’m on board, and also to have a back up incase the plotter went down. however I find myself using the iPad in conjunction with the plotter, I have each one on different views and magnification. This has made me wonder how much reliance we place on mobile devices and electronics In general. I was recently taking the piss out a youngster at work because he couldn’t use an A to Z to find his way around, but then I realised I couldn’t remember how to use dead reckoning, so I have just refreshed myself (didn’t take long) So with “use it or lose it” or mind I’m going to try and once or twice a year navigate to a mark and back without using electronics, as it will be Sod’s law that when the plotter goes down The tablet will as well. Does anybody else try and keep their basic skills up to scratch. ? I think there’s an awful lot of people who go to see and have never even looked at a paper chart.

Had a go today, weather was good, nice and flat on the flood. Wind picked up a little bit after tide turned, Had a busy day but nothing of any size. Lost count of dogfish, 6 small hounds, 2 bass, and a few whiting. just good to get out. Highlight of the day was coming back in and some knob had taken his truck down to low water mark to retrieve his jet ski and it had sunk in the mud.

I've got a transit custom, I've not noticed the hand brake being poor to be honest,

The important thing is to get the height of the hole correct so they can’t get out until they are old enough.

This is where I got the plans and info from https://www.barnowltrust.org.uk/barn-owl-nestbox/barn-owl-nestboxes/

Afternoon, owl box pics as promised,

I'm away in Guernsey till Tuesday, but I'll post some pics when I'm back. Mine is about 12ft up inside a barn.