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 

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2 hours ago, JonC said:

I hope you wasn’t one of the people that I caught fishing in my spot🤣

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 ? 

26 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

🤣 an old persons joke. @Geoffwill get it. 

3 minutes ago, JonC said:

This guy is Nick Boyce, he works out of Bradwell so it’s obviously a bit far for you. I asked him about live ones but he said he loses too many to be worth doing. 
And thanks for entertaining the dogfish for me, by the way🤣

Your welcome 

5 minutes ago, JonC said:

They were frozen, there’s a commercial guy lives near me that sells them in packs. He charges £5 for a pack of at least ten, though it gets cheaper if you buy more. 

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 

39 minutes ago, Herbs73 said:

How cute is that. 

Where do you get your hermits ? 

4 minutes ago, JonC said:

I always fish 200 wire straight through to the reel🤣

Better safe than sorry

Just now, JonC said:

Cute? You’ve got to be joking it was a beast that stripped 100m of line off my spool 

Lucky you had a wire trace on 

3 minutes ago, JonC said:

I struggled today. I got to the middles about 8am, it was still fairly lumpy so I went and sat in the deep water by the farm for a while. I went back on to the middles when the wind eased,  the water was a lot calmer by 9.30.I had a steady flow of hounds all taking hermit crab. Fortunately I didn’t get any spotty dogs. I also had one of the tiny tope, it seems that a lot were caught today but mine was the best🤣

How cute is that. 

20 hours ago, Andy135 said:

A total power loss would be exceedingly unlikely between my 3 batteries, but assuming the worst did occur I'd give a verbal description like they teach you in the VHF course - "My position is 1 mile south of the Needles, drifting east into Freshwater Bay with the flooding tide."

And before you ask, I would be communicating on the handheld VHF that is clipped to my lifejacket, given that the total power loss would render my fixed unit unusable.

 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.  

21 hours ago, JonC said:

I carry paper charts compass Portland plotter and a set of dividers . If the tech goes down at sea in the fog having local knowledge isn’t all that great. You need to be able to know the distance travelled in what direction to get through the channels. A hundred yards out  could see me getting stuck on sand bar or worse. 

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,

1 minute ago, Herbs73 said:

This is where I got the plans and info from

https://www.barnowltrust.org.uk/barn-owl-nestbox/barn-owl-nestboxes/

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

2 hours ago, Saintly Fish said:

any specifics needed, in the way the inside is laid out or the size of the opening etc?

This is where I got the plans and info from

https://www.barnowltrust.org.uk/barn-owl-nestbox/barn-owl-nestboxes/

On 4/17/2022 at 9:23 AM, Saintly Fish said:

We have "screecher" owls in the trees in and around our garden. They are here every year. It's so lovely to hear them in the evenings. What do owl boxes look like? Can you post a pic or two of the ones you made. I might if I get time have a go at one. 
I believe they have to go up quite high??

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.