Scotch_Egg2012

If it stays this way a Tope trip is what I'll be doing

One quirk that is not often mentioned is the young flood stand, most noticeable on spring tides. As it implies the tide will start to flood and then stop for a period before commencing the flood again GPS Guru's first graphic shows it. It can catch you out if you are in a tidal marina etc waiting for enough water to come in/out.

So we headed out at about 9am not before a thorough check over as the boat has not been out since January. All items working well so we pushed out. Headed to Bembridge ledge bouy to see what conditions were like, bit of swell running but manageable, next check point would be Princessa Shoal and then Culver, Plan A was to tuck in at Sandown bay. Swells started to increase at Princessa again manageable so on to Culver which was a slightly different beast, 3-4ft waves over the ledge but could see they dropped down again just after. Onwards again at a reduced speed and 15mins later crossed the ledge. Swung into the bay which was still kicking a bit but was fishable, what went in our favour was that we were pushing wind against tide for most of the voyage but heading back the forecast was dropping and would be wind with tide so were quite confident the sea state would be much better coming back. Not much to report on the fishing front, lots of straps but no Bream. Think they may have headed into deeper water to sit out the storm. Bait dropper worked perfect and I'm sure that what got the straps on the feed. Headed back in around 4pm as the predicted increase in wind turned up. Return journey much more pleasant running 20kts most of the way back

If it materialises 8-13 mph NW is the window, I'll be tucked in to the island. I live 15 mins from the marina so I will head down early have a look at the Solent and poke my nose out to plan A, if that is too lumpy I have a mark just inside that produces Bream/Hounds and I'll sit on that. It's a bit more exposed to a NW than plan A but happy just to get a few hours if I can.

There is a weather window Saturday I am keeping an eye on, I might get a few hours in

Think it was more to show the effect more than be an absolute comparison, it was something that was discussed at length when I did my RNLI Sea Survival course

If's and but's don't help if you find yourself overboard, all I'm saying is just bare these things in mind when you make your choice, we all have different risk perceptions ultimately you have to make a decision you're comfortable with

Found it

Agree 150N would be fine for that. Auto inflation & crotch straps really should be mandatory. There is a video on YouTube which I can't find of 2 guys jumping in a pool with life jackets on the one without crotch straps was near useless as it rode straight up over his head when it inflated

3 things I look for in a life jacket, auto inflation, crotch straps and bouyancy rating. 150N is going to be fine in good weather and normal clothing. It won't be sufficient in rougher weather or if you layer up for the cold / wet. I purchased my life jacket based on my worst case scenario.

It wasn't the hook length that broke, it was above the top swivel. I think we could have used industrial strength cable and still not moved it. It was like he had hooked the seabed except it lunged and took line. Tide was just too strong get it off the bottom

That's is exactly the fight he had, I said to him that is a big Ray and likely a stinger as they do come inshore on the beaches not far, our biggest on my boat came from a mark just over a mile away on exactly the same bait and rig also fishing for Tope

Took the day off work today to catch the weather window. Stopped off at Dean Tail to see if any mackerel were there, a short while later and we had 12. Enough to start of our day. Headed over to Pullar in search of Tope. All a bit quiet on our spot at the start. I was out on Ray's boat again, Ray had started making his fry up when his live bait had been picked up. Rod arched over and the fish was on the move. Quite a lengthy fight ensued with Ray making zero headway into the fish, he'd gain a bit and the fish would take it back. Certainly wasn't a Tope as it was just holding him in the tide, some 30 mins later with plenty of rest stops the leader parted. I'm calling a large Stingray, I've had a 70lb plus on my boat from not far away. Gutted we didn't see it but it would have been a monster had he landed it. Another live bait went down and shortly after a nice Tope picked it up totally different fight to the last fish much more typical of Tope. Got the fish alongside looked a good 25lb when just before landing, it bit the 200lb mono through. I had stopped fishing after the monster fish and was fighting a very bad acid stomach attack which at one stage had me thinking we'd be heading home. We decided to make a move into Sandown bay and try a new spot for Bream, I've been after a good spot in there as the bay can be fished on even the very biggest ebb or flood unlike pretty much every other Solent Bream mark. Anchored up on a nice little spot and over the next hour or so we pulled out 21 Bream between us with my pop up rig taking the honours of most fish. Glad that the mark was proven and I'm sure in the coming weeks the bigger ones will turn up. Our biggest today was 2lb with most around 1lb mark. Another nice day to be out with a new mark turning up the goods.

In comparison to an SL30SH how are they size wise, I've looked online at them but I'd like some small level wind reels just couldn't see any thing dimension wise to compare the slosh

Welcome Ron, We've spoken a few times down the marina, last time we spoke you had been round Ventnor way in the rough. Good to have you here

Apologies to the OP for hijacking your post

The crazy thing is when I occasionally take the wife out I virtually do it solo as she's not that much help coming alongside

This thread came along at the right time, I've seriously been toying with going solo. My usual mate does every other week on call. So far this year since February every weekend he is off call its blown up, this coming weekend a casing example. I've not had the confidence to go solo but surprised by the amount of people I see out there doing it. Maybe I just need to bite the bullet and do it. My main worry is coming back into a packed marina and having to berth on the nightmare spot

Well done on the Tope 2 beauts is a good days fishing. That's Ron Garett he runs a Rodman called Scorchio out of Gosport drystack. Indeed he is a very nice guy

I'm a novice as far as the wrecking goes so I've no idea, deepest wreck was just shy of 250ft shallowest around 170ft. I wondered whether the commotion caused by the hooked fish spooked the remaining fish it's something that happens with mullet, quite often the swim will die after a fish is hooked for around 45 mins even if there were quite a few fish present.

Luckily where we were is a quite a good concentration of wrecks so not too much mileage in between, it seemed that once we caught 1 or 2 on a wreck we'd get no more takes time to move on.

One of the wreck we fished showed well on Navionics relief shading, made it easy on successive drift to pinpoint different parts of the wreck. Was also good to see how accurate it was, got to say that the Sonar mirrored what we saw on Navionics

Weather gods finally came good with a forecast suitable for a wreck trip on a weekend we could all make. Headed out early on Ray's boat, a very nice and flat steam out. Plan was to fish a few wrecks on the way out and depending how the fishing was move around out there if needed. Got to the first planned wreck in just over an hour, dropped down and bang Mark was straight in Happy days we thought, a few drifts later I missed a good hit and Mark was in again, nothing big but 8lb fish give a good show. That was it for that wreck. Moved on the the next one full of expectation that sadly didn't materialise and that was the flavour for the rest of the day, wreck after wreck we ended up doing 15 wrecks in total each either giving us good takes or the odd fish. We finished up boating 11 with probably as many positive hits some diving back and coming off, best fish nudging 10lb with the rest in the 7-8lb bracket A lovely day to be out though except for the 2hr steam back and being met by pouring rain back at the marina.

We ended up 46 miles out, was a quiet day with a total of 11 Pollock coming aboard, lovely day conditions wise but sadly the fishing didn't switch on. I'll pop some pictures up in a bit

I had a piece of carbon fibre made up and fitted to cover the holes where the rpm gauge was, since I repowered I had the Mercury Vessel View fitted, which did away with RPM & Trim gauges so would have left 2 large holes