Scotch_Egg2012

Typically late to this discussion, I went through this scenario a couple of years back. I got caught out in a pea souper closed in so much we couldn't see 2 boat lengths in front no radar. I ended up anchoring rather than run down Southampton Water. Decision was made to fit radar. I have it on most times but probably had to rely on it maybe 3 times in the last year, I think given the volume of commercial traffic in our area and the narrow channels we have to navigate Radar and a Radar reflector are a must, AIS a very good thing to have but bear in mind small craft don't need it so there will be boats out there without ais, radar will detect them. My profile picture was taken with us at 23kts coming back from the spoils after fog had closed in (it was clearer inshore) was sunny in the morning, we had to navigate through several anchored ships at St Helens anchorage. I have to say it was excellent to be able see everything including nav bouys. So I ended up fitting an echo max reflector, 3g radar and my VHF has an AIS receiver which overlays on my chart, all this due to being caught out once which I vowed never again. It has allowed me to go out on days I wouldn't have before. I like the 3 or 4g because it has no main bang and will pick up objects very close, I followed a yacht out of Pompey Harbour last year roughly 25 yds in front of us couldnt see him by eye but radar had him. Sorry for the essay but I would say get radar it is a game changer

We need some common skate round here, doggies a top bait for them

I thought they were a decent size until I did a trip with Ray, His Uptide baits can be nearly as big as my forearm. Still get the Dog's picking that bait up

I have them whole (they are very big), I got 20kg direct from a boat earlier this year. Vac packed and froze them straight away. For prep I do nothing except defrost, cut off a strip or use the head/guts, I like to keep it as natural as possible. Quite often use 4-6 Squid with a large strip of Cuttle wrapped half round it, Keeps a bait down even if the Whiting are nibbling away at it in the vain hope a Cod may find it. Congers love it as well

Absolutely the most important purchase, especially as we use a lot of cuttlefish this time of year and that ink is a bugger to get off when it's dry

Recent purchases hmm, A new engine, hydraulic steering and a secondary plotter for engine data and a backup earlier this year, new set of waterproofs, Oh and a new cleaning brush

Depends what i'm fishing for, I don't like to give Bream too much to tug at else they rip a squid strip off.

just so it goes over the eye to hold it in place then I slide the pop ups down just above the bait.

It works in the Western Solent on the smaller tides, but to be fair I had them work in all but the biggest springs around Nab. I don't use them to properly pop a bait up but more as an offset of the weight of the hook and line so the bait flutters enticingly

8mm for the small stuff

I read about it for the Bream somewhere that I cant remember so I tried it, the piece specifically mentioned yellow pops ups and when I went into Rover in Fareham to stock up on them Mark who used to work in there said "Making Bream rigs are we?" so I thought there must be something in it. Give them ago you maybe pleasantly suprised

The pop ups give your bait a more neutral buoyancy if set up right. I ran a side by side test of two identical rigs on the Bream one with yellow pop ups and one without. The pop up rig out-fished the other rig by a considerable margin. Usually set with 1 or 2 yellow (Seems to be the colour for Bream) pop up beads just above the hook. I have been using them on all my scratching rigs and you'd be surprised what you catch on them. I took my niece out for the Bream early this year set her up on a pop up rig, she caught a small Tope, a fair few Smoothound amongst the Bream again I was fishing a non popped rig for a test and she out-fished me massively. You'd also be surprised by the amount of Ray's I have had on it.

On my Uptider I tend to use a running leger. I have it set up on a tube boom that only allows maybe 9-10 inches of run before it butts up against another swivel and then sets the hook. I use a similar rig when I leger for Mullet and it works really well, very short hook length on a running leger with a stop maybe an inch or two above the hook link swivel. Allows the fish to pick up the bait and move off with little resistance but very quickly sets the hook. Saintly Fish, have you tried pop ups on your Bream rigs?

I saw some pics of another 20lb'er reportedly from Gilkicker area, the guy is not from the ECA so different catches?

Hi Saintly, lost track of when I last went out. I started a new job in November with a 4 on 4 off shift pattern. Think last time was 2 weeks back, did a midweeker on Ray's Osprey, went over to Lepe and then to Ryde middle, a slow day with just dogs, Conger and Whiting.

Apologies its a couple of days late... Decided on a trip in the Solent on Sunday, toyed with heading outside but had a feeling it wouldn't be too pleasant, I got a call from a mate who had ventured out mid morning to the spoils and said it had quite a bit of swell. Glad I decided to stay inside. Anyway motored over towards Ryde middle but was toying with Lepe or Ryde up until I heard 23 boats were sat around Lepe, decision made Ryde middle it was. Couldn't get on my normal spot as it already had some boats on it so dropped the hook on a set of numbers I pinched from a charter for just such circumstances. Opened up my mackerel, defrosted one pack, cut it open into an awful smell, one of them I had frozen and vac packed had split it guts and I hadn't noticed, my god did it smell. Wasn't going to waste it and with Whiting in mind I poured the bait on the hooks and down it went. What followed were a steady stream of small whiting for the rest of the day, guess they didn't mind the stench. I had a second rod down with something different in mind, baited with half a small cuttle and a couple of Squid, this rod produced straps throughout the day. Think the boat anchored next to us managed a small unicorn given by the cheer that went up when they netted it. Heard of a few Cod caught but given there were nearly 60 boats inside the Solent I didn't think the success ratio was very good. Decided to sack it at around 3pm and true to form had a nice bite on the squid and cuttle. Didn't feel very big but when reeling it in gave a few small thumps and stayed straight under the boat. I started to think maybe we had finally found a small codling, but it turned out to be the biggest Pout I've had in the Solent. Took a 6/0 Pennel with ease. I didn't bother with a picture as I'm not one for pictures of Pout 😁 Starting to get bored chasing the Unicorns and hope that the Spurs really make a comeback round here as I'd rather spend a day fishing for them.

Nothing too serious for me but a freak one none the less. Travelling back from Medmerry with my old 100hp and as we passed the entrance to Chichester Harbour it was quite lumpy due to a strong ebbing tide. Right in the middle of the chop without warning the engine revs shot up and we lost speed. We hadn't struck anything so was at a complete loss as it felt like the prop was slipping. The wash from the engine also didn't look right, crept out of the chop and cut the engine. Tilted the engine up to find a cuttlefish bone wedged into the cavitation plate. Knocked it off with the boat hook dropped engine back down and got back on our way with the engine behaving normally again. What are the chances of striking an object like that as just the right angle for it to wedge. Also shows how crucial the cavitation plate is.

It's a very nice leg when it is working super smooth going in gear, Ray has a spare that he rebuilds whilst one is on the boat, it can also run in the reverse direction so if you have trouble in forward you can run a LH prop in reverse

That's Ray, very good angler and skipper. Doesn't do social media or forums though. I did point him this way 😊. The Osprey is a very good boat in the lumpy stuff just cuts through it. Only trouble with them seems to come from the Yamaha leg which needs thorough servicing and periodic rebuilding.

Friend of mine also has a 24ft Osprey, would be perfect for what you need just expensive. Lovely boats though.

Decided to try a spot on the spoils at Nab which has done us well in the past, lumpy run out which pegged us back on speed so took a little bit longer than we were hoping for. Dropped anchor started fishing and realised I'd left my bag in the car which had all my food and drink in it d'oh, too late to go back for it now. Had a very busy day with loads of fair sized whiting a couple of which were just sub 2lb, sorry no pics from my boat as my bag also had my phone in it!! Absolutely tons of smaller straps with a few better ones thrown in. Biggest of the day just under 40lb. Annoyingly nearly all of them falling to our whiting rigs not the bigger baits geared up for some something a bit better to latch on to. I had a take quite early on in the day which was going well on my scratching rig only for the hook length to let go (17lb flouro) I reeled in a Conger a couple of hours later that had my brand new hook and short section of line stuck in it's gob. I've seen eels landed that have been snapped off before but usually very close to the time of loosing it not 2 hours later. Had heard some very quiet noises that the Spurdogs were starting to show and that was the reason I ended up out there, sadly none showed today but a friend had landed a 14lber from nearby earlier in the week. Did hear of some being caught today by the chatter on the VHF so hopefully we'll be lucky and bump into one or two next time out. Our buddy boat got a nice pic of us passing the forts on the way back in the fog, radar is a godsend in those conditions.

Nice to meet you both too.

A good call I reckon. If I were unable to get out to the Nab I'd be heading down the western solent

Mainly Conger which suits me as I do enjoy catching them, not so much the straps mind but a good 30lb'er and I'd be fairly happy with a few of them and the outside chance of a Cod.

Andy I saw them launch your boat whilst I was down putting some fuel in ready for tomorrow. I'll be getting there for 0645