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

11 hours ago, Andy135 said:

Where's that then? All I can see is winds between 11 and 13mph all day?

And before anyone says it.. yes, I am a fair weather fisherman! 😱

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. 

22 hours ago, Andy135 said:

Anyone out this weekend? Weather looks too windy on the south coast (again!) so I'll be fishing vicariously through you lot if you can get out safely.

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

57 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

Yes absolutely. I’d always have a LJ with a strap. My point was that the video was probably not as balanced as it could have been

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

49 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

Again, I agree. But, if the guy who's is wearing the non crotch strap jacket had tightened up his waist strap it would not have been AS bad. freeze the video at 5 seconds and see just how loose it is.

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

26 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

Yes I agree Scott, but the difference is you use your boat a lot and go far offshore. Geoff does not and will be buying his life jacket primarily for the boat meet in July. So the one he is looking at will be just fine for what he needs. And if we are having big swells in the solent we won’t be going fishing anyhow! 

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. 

57 minutes ago, Tony smith said:

Great report Scotch

Shame about losing the fish 

Use wire mate 👍

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

11 hours ago, JonC said:

Thanks for the report again. Shame about the lost fish, it’s gutting when it happens. 
My boy played what was probably a large stinger for about twenty minutes a couple of years ago, it was like hooking into the seabed but it was moving about. He was getting tired, passed the rod to me and the line parted soon after. He still goes on about it🤣

 

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 

On 5/4/2021 at 4:18 PM, GPSguru said:

Shimano charter special 2000 size.

I have 9 of them and they will handle any general fishing that the uk has to offer. Good reliable reels, and the drag is mega smooth if you change to carbontex drag washers.

I use them for everything except sharks and tuna, for these I use Fin Nor 2 speed MA20’s or Shimano TLD 20’s
 

 

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

19 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

@Scotch_Egg2012and @Andy135. 
Practice makes perfect. But at the end of the day, if you cannot manoeuvre safely into the last spot, all you have to do is make sure your fenders are out and then come along side the boat in front or behind the space. Then just pull your boat into the space using your morning lines. Neither of you have boats too large that it’s not easily doable. 
Obviously this is a last resort. But gets you back in without scraping other people’s pride and joys. 

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

4 hours ago, JonC said:

I guess depending on how much water you are in it may spook the fish on some marks? 

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. 

1 hour ago, GPSguru said:

15 wrecks ! ........... that is a long day 👍

I used to do that, but these days I just concentrate on 3 or 4 at a time. You have found the same as us, just the odd fish here and there and about the same stamp of fish.

The Plymouth charters have been fishing the wrecks to the west of Plymouth with some quite reasonable results. The charters out of Brixham are now heading to the west and fishing the Salcombe area wrecks. They have found some decent fish in the last week, so it is only a matter of time before the wrecks to the east become populated.

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

On 4/30/2021 at 8:17 PM, Andy135 said:

How far out are you planning to head Scott?

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