Scotch_Egg2012

I'm not so sure they will end the Suzuki tie up. Mercury's vessel view displays have been Simrad units for a good few years, my Mercury vessel view unit is a Simrad GO5 with some slightly different software. My GO9 which I purchased in 2017 always had Mercury engine support. Suzuki are the choice of most commercial operators I think Brunswick would being making a mistake to alienate themselves from that market. I think it will go more like the VAG business model. Where they have definitive brand seperation pretty much like the current Simrad/Lowrance/B&G setup all aimed at different sectors of the market.

You'll be suprised how small the knot will end up.

Well done for having a go, it doesn't always go your way but will make it much sweeter when it finally does

Just going to add onto the already very good advice that your knots need to be braid friendly. Braid will slip if the incorrect knot is used or the correct knot tied poorly I use Berkeley whiplash which is one of the thinnest braids and my go to knot is a 10 turn Grinner knot. Practice tying it at home

Enjoyed the report some quality fish caught. You've done a great job training your skip. Looks like he handled the situation well Feel your pain with other water users. Surprising how many don't know the rules of the road.

They are seriously good images, might have to look at the active imaging upgrade

Can I ask where at St Caths you fish I also have a mark there that you might be better off trying Will pm you the Sandown numbers

Glad you managed to have a go, marina looked quite busy when we got back in on Saturday, saw Jersey girl and Scorchio in ready. I'd say as long as you didn't hit any one else's boat or damage yours it was a successful first go. Fair play on heading to St Catherines. Nice to see the Bream still showing. I can give you a set of numbers for the reef we've been fishing if you want, between mine and Ray's boat we have caught over 200 on this reef in the last month and a half.

32 miles out for this one, bit closer than the last trip thankfully as it was proper rough coming back in

Trip out with Ray and Mark Jennings again today, headed out after some Bass and then onto a wreck. Didn't locate many Mackerel so it would plastics for the Bass which sadly didn't read the script and none showed on the chosen mark. As the tide eased it was time to move out to the wreck. Second drop down and I located a Pollock that did its best to make it back down but to no avail. Good scrap from it before it was boated and weighed. Happy with that as the scales swung round to a touch over 14lb. Had another much smaller one and a couple of Pout, good to see Ray hit into a nice 13lb'er too. Wind had hit up early afternoon so we called it a day not a fish fest but some nice size Pollock.

I tied it round the base of my pulpit rail.

That's exactly how I did it, thanks for your tips on it

Dab is also another good bait for the Tope but getting hold off them is like trying to source hens teeth

A plan made it a lot easier, thanks for the tips you gave they all helped.

Crikey we don't see numbers like that in the solent

Luckily as it was a weekday marina was pretty quiet. I put her on the holding pontoon. They were retrieving 3 boats so I just stuck her in front of them, hosed off and flushed the engine. They lifted her straight after. I got everything (warps etc) in place before I pulled the anchor so it was all to hand when I came alongside. One tip Ray gave me as he does a lot of solo trips was to have a rope on a centre cleat ready so when you pull on it the whole boat comes in parallel to the pontoon rather than fighting with a bow and stern rope. I used one today and it worked a treat, I stepped off and tied that rope off whilst I sorted the bow and stern. Bumblefish has a nasty habit of sitting with the stern moving away from the pontoon when alongside I have to use a spring to keep her parallel but the centre rope sorted that. As mentioned on the other post I came in very slow with a short burst of power when needed. Couldn't have done it better to be honest no need for the boat hook just stepped off.

You're dead right all the fuss and it was fairly straight forward. Couple of screen shots added showing the spot, I'll fish further off it next time I reckon that's where the rays will be, might be worth a shot nearer the bank showing in between the 2 yellow bouy. Very little weed 18ft deep. I was fishing really light (Bream gear) and they really put up a great scrap

After much discussion and deliberation I finally took the boat out solo today. Should of been recovering from a general anaesthetic but that didn't go ahead at the 11th hour (a story for another time) Decided to dip the toe in on an easy mark that doesn't suffer a lot of tide is fairly shallow and not to far from Port. I've got a few different marks at Hillhead but wanted to try a spot I think should throw up Hounds and Thornbacks, the Hounds showed up but sadly the rays did not. Ended the day with 14 Hounds, 13lb 4oz the biggest and lost another 5 to snags, I had picked the edge of a rougher patch which showed on the relief shading it yet again proved it was very accurate, looked like a patch of bolders on the chart and that's exactly what it felt like. Everything went according to plan except for a bank of sea fog that rolled in. It cleared up in time for me to head back, but it was quite a nice day a little bit lumpy in the afternoon as the forecast SW showed up. Headed home via a couple of spots I'd seen the gulls working on the way out but nothing on the way in. Berthing turned out a breeze.

They'll take all sorts if it is something they will come across to eat. The Weymouth mullet can be particularly cagey so good luck. Keep your gear light and keep all the hook covered in your bait, the minute they see or feel it they tend to eject the bait. If you can get them close to your boat just freeline a flake for them dispense with float etc

Before I got back into the boat fishing I spent 2013-2017 solely targetting them. A bloody harsh learning curve at the start but they have taught me alot especially patience. I don't fish for thins 🤔, I don't like using spinners. I have had 1 or 2 on float fished bread though and they don't fight anywhere near as well as Thick lips. My favourite method is taking them off the top, there is nothing like watching a bow wave head for your surface flake, slow down and then you see the mouth engulf your flake. Set the hook and wait for the fireworks. Just a shame numbers have dwindled round here, 2014 saw me catch 76 from the Hamble between March and October. Biggest was 6lb 11oz, I had 6 fish over 5lb the rest were in the 3 - 4lb range. I put the same amount of trips in 2015 & 2016. 2015 was shocking in comparison. Swims that produced before were now devoid of fish, locally numbers are still well down on 2013 & 2014. The average size is down and the number of 5lb fish caught has reduced. I am an active member of the NMC and we record all catches and report them to a recording officer the trends from lots of people inputting data are very clear, something happened to the fish on the south coast between Poole and Shoreham as everyone is reporting the same, numbers and sizes are no longer what they were pre 2015

This one fell to a legered popped up bread flake, I don't do fly they are hard enough at times I haven't enough patience for that method 😁

Caught last year off of Boulder bank 19lb 10oz Starry

Do enjoy fishing for Grey Ghosts, this one is my best so far caught at Christchurch in 2014 broke my PB twice in the same month 6lb 11oz from the Hamble then this one 7lb 8oz

Been eyeing up a new mark I've been wanting to try for Tope but wind has always prevented us getting on it on the smaller tides we need. Well Saturday we had a small window to try so decided against a sheltered Bream trip and headed to said mark. Quick stop at Dean Tail on the way out saw virtually no Mackerel, not the best start but we had some frozen as a poor backup. Luckily the trip out we were following the chop so could make good speed, it would be different coming back in as the wind would be getting up and go wind against tide. Arrived on the mark and had a couple of drifts to see exactly where and how much rope we would need to put out to sit us exactly where I wanted and we finally set the anchor. Wind had dropped nicely as predicted and the sea flattened off. First drop with a fresh Mackie and 5mins into the cast the tell tale banging of a Tope bite appeared, Good little scrap and the first of 25+ Tope was boated, nothing of great size with me bagging one of 20lb 7oz being the best. We did however get a pickup and run from a much better fish but sadly it was dropped during the fight after a couple of really good runs. We got a little longer on the mark than we thought but decided to sack it at 13:30 as the wind swung SW and was due to go F5. The run back was into a head sea but managed to get quite a smooth ride on the way back and by the time we'd were coming into the harbour the breeze had noticeably got to the F5 predicted. Very happy that the new mark produced what we'd been thinking the best bit being it would be Tope or nothing as there is very little by catch. This was the reason for trying as it gives the bait time to pick out the Tope.

I'll be heading Pullar way. Was keeping an eye to see if weather was going to be good enough to head to the Overfalls but I'm not too keen on the Easterly 16mph gusts