JDP

@GPSguru, now's your chance to "Agree" to the above 👍👍🤣

You're a nob !! 🥱

Last year I had Cod to 26lbs, Ling to almost 30lbs and Coalfish ~25lbs.
Yesterday we targeted Haddock as we didn’t get an PBs last year, didn’t get a double but biggest went 9lbs.
Cod - still find it crazy that you throw back 20lbers in disappointment 😂
Need some luck with the wind today….

I took a week off and had the father in law down for a few days to get as much fishing in as possible - typically mother nature didn't want us fishing for some reason - so i have combined all 3 days onto one rather disappointing report. 
things that slowed our fishing down - Wind, Rain, Tides, Yachties, Seals, Dolphins and some dam right stubborn fish!
With the forecast showing +20mph SSW or SW winds for most of the week and neap tides we knew we had to grab our moments. 
Wednesday looked the best day - little or no wind in the morning - building to 20mph SSW from lunchtime we decided to head straight out to the Mark to anchor up as might be the only chance - taking frozen mackerel instead of wasting time trying to find fresh. 

dropped the hook before 9am in near glass conditions - and we both opted to go small baits for gurnards/bream etc - very quiet with only one dog so i upped the bait size - and found myself a few more dogs and straps. I picked up my rod to check the bait and found a heavy weight on it - no fight - I though maybe a bull huss, but turned out to be a huge lazy conger - easily over 20lb - maybe more - didn't get it in the boat for obvious reasons. 

Phil had a few congers and dogs too.
I wanted a ray so switched to a bunch of sand eels bound together and sure enough pulled up a lovely spotty ray - with an interesting black face and chunk taken out its wing. (by my right hand)

the wind soon got up around 2pm and it got uncomfortable so we pulled the anchor and headed for Portland's entrances to try for mackerel - found them easily enough to top up the bait freezer and some big enough for dinner too. total of around 20.

we tried a different area drifting with baited feathers and all i managed was a pin whiting. 
the rain came in heavy around 3pm so we called it and went to the pub to dry out. 
 Thursdays forecast was awful - wind and rain all morning - so we went to the D-Day museum in Portland instead - from there we could see the sea state wasn't too bad inside Portland harbour so decided to poke our bow out in the afternoon and find some shelter in newtons cove - visibility was improving - we couldn't see the top of Portland all day - but the cloud broke up for a bit. - got a great pic of Portland with a cloud hat on..

we drifted a small inshore reef and i managed a pollock and a Sea Scorpion


we moved to a close in wreck to try for wrasse and all i got was pout - phil blanked. Thursday is race night at Weymouth sailing club and they all decided to race around us so we called it and went to the pub. 
Fridays forecast was similar to Wed - light wind in the morning building to 20-25mph from lunch. 
plan was to target Gilt heads in Portland harbour on the drift (can also get Bass and mullet here) - didn't work out - nothing - so we moved to a new area where we were greeted with a playful dolphin - think he was slapping a dead fish with his tail for laughs. this area only produced a couple of pin Whiting for me. as all other fish had seen the dolphin carnage!
next spot we drifted was one dog and a small Ballan wrasse for me. 2 inquisitive seals scared off all the other fish & the wind picked up so we returned to the reef and I managed a corkwing wrasse - that's all -  nothing for phil all day. we went to the pub. 

Saturday was forecast 30mph so we binned it off altogether. 
not a very successful few days but way better than being at work! and i ticked off 4 more species for the hunt- whiting, Ballan, Corkwing and pollock.

Heading out tomorrow to have a look at the yellowfin, not sure if I will fish or just leave it to the others onboard. My goal if to photograph them free jumping.

It's Friday evening, that can only mean one thing.. it's care in the community time! 🤣
Anyho, having just caught on the first chuck, I thought I'd give a live report a go. A new PB.
Caught on a pennel pully with double squid mounted on 6/0's.  Hour after HW, weed pulling.
 

thanks bud i will have a look at this video now 

There are some helpful YouTube videos. I prefer doing pr knots and nearly always use leaders on all types of fishing from light spin to heavy game. In saying that I fish far lighter line class than most would be using on equal sized fish in the UK. Decent joins won't fail, it will be a knot at a swivel, hook or lure where the weak link will be.
 
 

There are some helpful YouTube videos. I prefer doing pr knots and nearly always use leaders on all types of fishing from light spin to heavy game. In saying that I fish far lighter line class than most would be using on equal sized fish in the UK. Decent joins won't fail, it will be a knot at a swivel, hook or lure where the weak link will be.
 
 

It wasn't just that, the concentration and competitiveness was incredible as there was always 2 fishing at a time. 
Yeah. 
And the next answer is no.

Notice how women will have smiles on their faces even if they don't catch fish, look at males even with great catches and they look depressed. Its the same with scuba divers, they always have crazy smiles for photos. 

Looks like a fun session, which is what it should be about.

Notice how women will have smiles on their faces even if they don't catch fish, look at males even with great catches and they look depressed. Its the same with scuba divers, they always have crazy smiles for photos. 

Looks like a fun session, which is what it should be about.

Notice how women will have smiles on their faces even if they don't catch fish, look at males even with great catches and they look depressed. Its the same with scuba divers, they always have crazy smiles for photos. 

Looks like a fun session, which is what it should be about.

His behaviour is somewhat like William Powerfish. Possibly copycat syndrome. 
 
 

He did keep shouting “Get The Dog”🤣🤣🤣

Just a quick trip out for some fresh seafood for my wife’s dinner. Glamour conditions, though the water is getting cold now at 13’c.

His behaviour is somewhat like William Powerfish. Possibly copycat syndrome. 
 
 

Im still trying to work out what species of animal is under his shirt, it has a giant smile. Possibly a giant toad.

 

Oh theres more lol, lathe standing next to the mill.... A boat on its trailer in there, collection of welders and pedestal grinders etc etc. But yeah, sometimes it can get overwhelming and you have to learn to say no....
Everything got behind when my Mum had a stroke, 4 bikes should have been finished by now and 2 sold, this will be the first one finished... Good job I enjoy it mostly.....

Species that don't get targeted fishing or spearing don't see you as any threat, also how you interact plays a big part. Being very relaxed underwater greatly helps with breath holding but also how fish interact, even the ones we do target when hunting them. You will see tv documentaries where predatory fish swim among their pray with both hunter and prey relaxed, this can be the same when you free dive with fish. When I free dive with a speargun it doesn't seem to matter how relaxed I try to be, the fish sense Im hunting them most of the time. I can dive with cameras in housing or on poles where the fish always seem to know Im not a threat, however a pole with barbs and they keep their distance.
There's far more to their sensory lateral line in my opinion than we know about. Ive been going under water for well over 40yrs now and still feel amazed boy what I see and hear beneath the surface.

The person I took out partner has a phobia about sharks, she can't even watch them on tv (any species). So taking him out in dirty water this time of the year when both whales, seals and great whites are common sort of had me on edge a bit with him. We do see big predatory sharks while in the water but that's normally in clearer water, my kids had a great white take interest in my daughter on her last dive further offshore and a 4m+ tiger shark the trip before, again followed my daughter to the boat. Like the fish, being relaxed in the water around things that will eat you given a chance is the key to interaction with them.

A few more been as very little is being posted, well apart from @JonC BBQ. I know how much Mr.C enjoys my pictures🤩
 

 
 

A few  screen shots, so unfortunately no sound from the humpbacks. As you can see the water was a bit dirty, which isn't the greatest time to swim with seals obviously. The stingrays are very inquisitive as you can see from the underneath of the one on top of me. These common smooth stingrays can reach 4.3m in length and over 2m across the wings.

Left the rods at home to take a newbie out for a snorkel, thought I'd better practice the tour for when Mr C heads over here on his shark wrangling tour!!!!!

Mid winter water temp of 14'c again today for my part of the coast. The water has turned far dirtier than a few days ago which isn't the best conditions for snorkelling offshore among seals, it didn't help when the new fella spotted a seal on the rocks with its guts hanging out from a shark bite!!!!!...I did give him plenty of opportunities to back out of getting in which he declined.
The seals were extremely excited to join us, charging around us like torpedo's. It didn't take long for the attention of several large stingrays and small port Jackson sharks to join in with the fun. After a while I decided to move us to another spot after getting a bad feeling on this one and the amount of attention we had attracted by the marine life. 

Second spot was very similar with poor water clarity and heaps of excited seals. A pod of humpbacks must of been pretty close as we could hear several different whales singing.
Not really known by many is that we get a fair amount of green turtles here, these are considered to be more of warm water species. At one point I was down on the bottom watching a turtle graze on algae among the seals while we could hear the whales in the background.

Headed home before the sun got to low and the air temp dropped even more, still got cold feet 8hrs after the dive thanks to lending my cold water wetsuit to my guest.
 

Wow thats a serious tinkering shed, surprised you ever get time to think about wetting a line.

Bit more done today. Finished off the pile of swarf, I mean holder/box for the EI

The finished article in position

Need to put a layer of foam on this then the EI cable ties into place....
Soooo, only one thing for it! After cleaning down the mill and having a sweep up around it (for those that have never used a mill, they can throw chips far and wide!!), then start the wiring. Need to order some more wire in, I use Vehicle Wiring Products, but 12V Planet do same sort of stuff, just I find them a bit dearer in comparison. Postage is such, it's easier to get everything from one place......


So there we have it, that's it til next weekend now unless I can source some bits locally in the morning.....
I will at some point do a bit on crimps, the different types and how to do them..... Will also be using some various different sleeving etc as well....