Scotch_Egg2012

Good news Neil, nothing worse than the waiting to see the extent of the damage.

Cracking fish to catch, we do have pockets of them in Hampshire and West Sussex, not big mind up to around 3lb. Not forgetting there are some lumps in Portland Harbour. I wish we would see the bigger ones round here because boy do they scrap

Just to be sure this is the mark we know as the French Bank, it can mean different marks to different people

Yep and live joeys and one of our favourites is live Scad, they are very underrated

We usually fish it on the way to or from some of the wrecks as we virtually drive over the top of it. It is a long way to go and if you were looking to go solely for Bass there are closer marks that fish just as well. As Suzook mentioned it is frequented by commercials. Don't know many that anchor it.

It's a great Bass spot, I've only fished it a couple of times. Normally fished on the drift with live baits.

For me in no particular order Tope - Uptiding Conger - For the fight Blondes rays - They can put up a good show on the right gear Bream on light gear Not a particular fan of Cod fishing I'm hoping the growing numbers of Spurdogs are going to allow me to concentrate on them in the future rather than chasing Unicorns

I keep my handheld in a grab bag just inside my wheelhouse door and the PLB attached to me. Not sure if anyone is aware but the Rnli offer a free service where they will come to your boat and give advice on what safety items to carry and also talk you through certain situations you may not have thought about. I had them out 2yrs ago took them about 3/4 hour but was worth it's weight in gold

Pretty sure most radar doesn't just look forward, mine gives a 360 view around me. I mounted my radar deflector above the radar

That's why you have a backup handheld radio, PLB etc

It's whatever works for you.

Sometimes a bit more than a lob is required though, especially if casting up towards the anchor.

I think with diameter or poundage you need to find out what works best for you, the reason I use 25 and not 30 is on spots like the spoils it's 80ft and the tide can run hard 30 is a bugger to keep the weight dug in I like Berkeley 25 as that holds well, I haven't dropped to 20 because of the amount of weed we can come across especially Selsey area. The 25 gives me a bit more confidence to lean into it and get the gear back. The reason I use mono is I find braid is an ass to cast on a multiplier and it's easier to get the weight dug in with mono as it catches more tide, again though it's all what works for you

Same here Jon no leader for me, I may try 20lb although some of the spots I fish have horrendous weed and the 25lb helps get the balls in

I have heard of it but I prefer mono as it catches more tide and helps pull the weight into the seabed. I use 25lb mono which is a nice balance used to use 30lb but it's much more of a bugger to hold in bigger tide runs

Around the solent it looks exactly like you are down tiding, I out enough line so that it will be trailing as if downtiding, I rarely need above 8oz. How you cast in relation to the tide also influences how well it holds, i.e. When the tide is running hard I will be casting up towards the anchor rope a letting a big bow out, as the tide eases you can bring the cast further down to around 90 degrees from the side of the boat. Picture was taken last year down by Selsey (quite a tide run) I had cast up towards the anchor and this shows where my line ended up

I fish Nab, Needles and Solent, I was at East Lepe a few weeks back on a fair sized tide uptiding on an 8oz weight whilst the downtider on braid had nearly a pound to hold. As others have pointed out the design of the weight and more importantly how much line you put out in the bow is the difference between holding bottom or not.

Beach rod is too long, usual uptidersare around 9 - 10 ft have a different action to make it easier to load up for casting as you have limited room. Depending where you fish and the depth you may end up with as much as 10oz to get it to hold.

That's good, does sound like you had an air pocket.

This is a good example of what it looks like, this one is pink as that is the colour of the coolant mix

Atleast you know it's done ready to run when you get back down there

It shouldn't matter too much if you leave it but me being me I'd do the complete job in one. That way there is no room for forgetting anything. Most of the oil in an engine would have drained into the sump after that period of time you'll only be left with the galleries or other pockets that won't drain down.if you are going to leave it empty it would be good practice to crank the engine to get the oil round the engine before letting it fire, best way is to remove the wires from the stop solenoid so it cannot inject fuel, crank it in 20sec bursts so you don't overheat the starter. it's something I have always done after rebuilding an engine and ensures when it fires up it is not running with little oil pressure or flow whilst it pulls it up from the sump.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/jsp-powercap-active-universal-plug-8hr-respiratory-protection-li-ion/71038 A lot cheaper, not sure what you are looking at budget wise

Air fed would bethe ultimate solution Arco do them made by a company called Sundstrom, you wear the pump as a belt with the filters on it.

I carry a teak tiller that I will lash to the engine (there are a couple of nice eyes on my engine) with the cover off.