suzook12

Correct, this time of the year I use a 2 jig rig. 30lb mono with a blood loop 3” above the lead for the cuttle jig, and another blood loop about 3ft from the lead for the squid. We always get cuttle on the bottom jig and squid on the top jig, so it works a treat.

Sunday was forecast for light winds off the the land, so had to get out - took the other half out on pugwash in search of some squid.
She really doesn't like fish or fishing, but was willing to spend a few hours afloat as long as she didn't have to do anything!
11am start and we were off out the harbour in glorious sunshine, as we approached Portland's north entrance i chucked the Squid jigs down feeling hopeful, 
being restless the mackerel feathers soon went over the side too  - i had an old set that were busted up and now only 2 hooks remained, but i thought with the Mrs on board that would mean less 'flapping' - wasnt long before i was into a 'full string' of 2. happy blank saved.
I switched to a slow jig while we drifted near the wall hoping for a bass/pollock/wrasse but nothing. 
moving slightly inside portland harbour i suddenly saw movement on the squid rod - bang first squid landed - only a small one - but target achieved
  
Almost immediately the feathers went - Tub Gurnard - happy days!


then i had another larger squid, 

the next drift we had company - the guy that runs Chesil bait and tackle was out in his boat - saw him land a few cuttle and i saw him get an inky shot right in the kisser (haha)
I soon was into another squid which was followed right up to the surface by a cuttle - i couldn't get him with the net though. I sent the jigs straight back down and was immediately into another - I thought it might be the cuttle taking them on the drop - but it was a 4th squid.

wasn't long before 2.30pm came around and we headed in as i wanted to watch the rugby at 4pm. 
a great few hours afloat bait freezer topped up (and an excellent game of rugby!)

we get plagued with 30lb cod this time of year. They make a nice shark bait
 

So me and the wife have flown across the pond to see an old school friend who lives in Tallahassee Florida via New Orleans. He’s also a keen angler so he organised a fishing trip.  We’ve travelled from Tallahassee to a small town called Apalachicola for a few days and yesterday we went out with captain John Layne from JB charters and fished the St.Vincent sound targeting red drum  It was a bit overcast but flat Calm, fishing was a bit slow so we tried a few different marks caching small red drum, pin fish and cat fish Tim catching most of them,  fishing in about 2 ft of water using light tackle. Then Tim caught a lively 10lb red drum which gave an hell of a fight and went back as it was a breeding size fish. I still continued with the small fish. The time to pack up came and went as John wanted me to catch a decent fish. Then on my last cast my reel screened off and after a very tiring 15 minute battle (these fish fight hard) John netted a 30lb red drum.  
when we came back John took us back to his house where he prepped the fish and which we could keep and we took to a local resteraunt. 
  He also run us back to the hotel in his rock crawler 4wd, these Americans like their toys. 
 The boat was pretty awesome, a centre console design powered by a 250 Yamaha which did over 60 knots. What was interesting is that it didn’t have an anchor, on the bow is an electric trolling motor which keeps the boat in position by gps, on the aft they have “power poles”which in shallow water are deployed by a motor and extend down into the mud to hold the boat. 
  Fantastic days fishing with an old mate that I don’t see enough of and a brilliant skipper. 
 

 
 

After much clambering around yesterday a venue for the evenings festivities had been agreed, an outing to Milford.. a venue put forward by our friendly bait supplier.
The desired target was sole, the brief was simple ish..  a venue with easy access on proven sole ground, milford seemed to tick the boxes,. However, upon arrival the beach is undergoing works and the step down was not achievable so back in the car.. Google maps, Barton I called out!? Nope, the old fella doesn't agree with the slope leading to the beach.. wonderful! After 5 minutes he pipes up.. 'Lee'?!!.. an hour later, we had arrived on a mark 5 minutes from my front door.. 😭
My buddy just enjoys being out with a line in the drink, catching for him is truly a bonus.. though I like to think my outlook mirrors that of my bud, in all honesty, I'd sooner blank being in the 'right place' than blank somewhere convenient not likely to throw anything up.. last night, we ended up on a convenient mark. 
Big tide, patchy skies, warm with intermittent bright moon appearances. First cast mate had a great bite but failed to stick it, then that was his lot till the last cast with a tiny hound pup..
I fished one at range - 6/o pully, squid and blank lug.. 30 year old Bass rod fished in close with size 4's, tiny black lug tipped squid.
While the big baits remained untouched all night, first cast on the bass gear I had a smut pup. Just before wrapping up I had a cracking bite and upon picking the rod up I felt something pulling back! Happy days, moments later.. up popped a Codling. My mate insisted on weighing and it went 4lb 12. Sadly with it gut hook, it ended up coming home. 
Safe to say, the Sole were no where to be seen. A match last week on Hillhead that's widely regarded as the local hotspot had a turn out of 18, not a single Sole was caught.. another fish with changing habits?
In other fishing its been kinda slow, had a decent Bass Friday around 7lb, stalked which made it quite satisfying. Even squeezed a Mullet session in a week ago on floating bread. In an hour I had 2 Bass and 1 Mullet.. nothing big but pulled the string nevertheless. 

I was lucky enough to be able to jump aboard "Madness" today, a very tidy and capable Rodman 870 owned by the one and only @Maverick. The plan was to set off for a bank around 6 mikes outside of Poole harbour, and I was told that the possibility of tope, bass and rays was very real. And so it was. I will allow Martin to finish the rest as and when he can, but to list my catch in size up order.... 
black bream
dog fish
5.5lb bass
15lb bull huss
27lb tope. 
 
pics to prove the biggest here ⬇️
 

 

 

 
Thanks to Martin for a great day afloat!! 👍🏻

He's fed up of being sea-sick. I keep telling him that it will only happen if he insists on bringing his Switch and staring at the screen all the time.
Unsurprisingly Em didn't bring any screens and wasn't sea-sick whatsoever...

It was a real fun day, so glad Emily had such a positive experience, and you now know how it feels for your kid to out fish you 🤣!! 

 

Out with @Saintly Fish, Leo and my daughter Emily this morning on Tarlach Too. This was Em's first boat fishing session and we were hopeful of a catch or two to keep her interest levels up.
Skipper delivered us to the mark and bites began from the off. Before long the first fish came to the boat, courtesy of Em's rod - a lovely late season bream.

Leo was into a fish next, a conger of reasonable proportions.

Swiftly followed by one for his dad...

Em was up next with another nice bream.

And before you ask... yes, I managed a dogfish or two on the sly in between baiting up and unhooking for her 😁
We moved out into the channel proper to practice our MOB drills with @Saintly Fish's anchor buoy when it decided that it would prefer to jump ship and bob off downtide. A sticky snap-shackle seemed to be the culprit.
The tide was pulling hard by now, but we did manage to boat a few more fish, including a nice little smoothound for Em.
Headed back home about mid-afternoon and saw a Spitfire flying over us just before we left. More drama as we retrieved anchor - the windlass was clearly straining this time and the reason why quickly became apparent. The anchor had picked up an old pot rope which gave Neil some grief until a sharp knife was found to cut it free.
All home safe and sound though and massive thanks to Neil and Leo for helping to make Em's session such a success. 👍👍

Finally got the boat out for the first time in about 5 months. Club comp with a decent turnout of 7 boats. Lovely weather though the temp did start to drop around 2pm. Loads of fish from the off but all small, thornbacks, conger and dogs and a topelet. We did have a couple of eels which would have been over the 15lb minimum size but couldn't be arsed to try and keep them alive in a tub so t-barred them off at the side of the boat. Winner had a 26lb conger released alive after the comp. No cod caught and only 1 bass hopefully we will have a decent cod run this winter. No piccys as we didn't catch anything worthy. Hopefully out again this Sunday 

Man has been, inspection complete, so hopefully V5 will be here 2-3 weeks
 

Well happy mate 👍

That's odd.
Hopefully the caps will do the trick
👍

Letter arrived today, V5 on it's way. Ordered the plate already with the new number 😁

Letter arrived today, V5 on it's way. Ordered the plate already with the new number 😁

Letter arrived today, V5 on it's way. Ordered the plate already with the new number 😁

Letter arrived today, V5 on it's way. Ordered the plate already with the new number 😁

Another day out and for once the conditions were perfect, flat sea and sunshine..... Other than a bit of fog hanging around first thing (went over Breydon bridge and  couldnt see the water at all....).
I ended up driving the boat once out of the harbour as we headed North out of Yarmouth. Once near the first mark, the skipper took over and set us up for our first set of drifts for mackerel. This mark proved to be hard work so tried 2 other marks and similar story. We managed about a dozen small mack so set up after tope, with the plan to fish til slack water then go after mack again......
Couple of taps, but nada, back to drifting for mack, and nothing, not a touch! Loads on the finder but not having any of it. New mark, and back after tope and finally, one of the lads who has never had a tope before, hooked in to one. 50lb male boated and returned. And that was it. The fog closed in very quickly so we headed back, me at the wheel again, man that makes ya twitchy, watching the plotter, watching the radar and staring through the fog and still looking for pot bouys. Obviously, the skipper was keeping a very cautious eye on proceedings taking over again once near the shipping lanes. We settled on a mark just outside the harbour, trying for a smoothie or something, but even this went fishless. Something was out of sorts today. Even saw about 3 dead sea birds float by.....
2 mack saved the blank for me, but still on 4 tope in 4 trips and managed to christen one of the new rods today......

Man has been, inspection complete, so hopefully V5 will be here 2-3 weeks
 

Its a weird process mate, 1 in 10 registration applications get subjected to random inspections. I was the lucky one lol. Basically took a few pics, inc frame and engine numbers and heard it running then left. It's now down to DVLA to decide to give me a registration, should be age related (67) and historic vehicle. This btw is the cheapest option to ULEZ, classic bikes can be bought from £1500 up and all exempt 🤣👍

Man has been, inspection complete, so hopefully V5 will be here 2-3 weeks
 

Man has been, inspection complete, so hopefully V5 will be here 2-3 weeks
 

Not updated for a little bit. Currently we are waiting for the DVLA rep to view it this Friday so we can get a registration. The headlight was replaced with an H4 fitment type. New battery fitted, charging checks done, all looking good. Once DVLA guy has gone, will pop the rear wheel back out, fit new bearings and another swing arm (or repair this one....) and put the new chain on. Then front wheel out, clean up the brakes and new wheel bearings again and will be getting close....

Yes, I'm inclined to agree. They have a very mild taste, and that's probably why the kids like them; they're not "fishy".

Not updated for a little bit. Currently we are waiting for the DVLA rep to view it this Friday so we can get a registration. The headlight was replaced with an H4 fitment type. New battery fitted, charging checks done, all looking good. Once DVLA guy has gone, will pop the rear wheel back out, fit new bearings and another swing arm (or repair this one....) and put the new chain on. Then front wheel out, clean up the brakes and new wheel bearings again and will be getting close....