JDP

not noticed  any change in the braid i buy  as i buy it it in 2000m spools   but only   put 1000m on my   30w &  50 W  tiagras    3inch aussie   plait loop  is then  used on each   i then attach  a  wind on Nylon  top shot   if shark fishing     if  common skate fishing i just attach a  350lbs nylon  wind-on   and clip a hook traces  on    on the 80w ,s   i use 2000m of hollow core with a spliced in  nyon top shot       i use a ( Bee,s nee,s ) spooling   station with line counter     i set my reels drag using a  Bouz  drag checker  this is set at the reel  between the reel and the  first roller guide     

Do you find you always get the same braid or ever noticed the same brand changes at all ? Ive had friends buy ebay braid and been happy with, then bought from the same site and had terrible results. Ive also had friends by what they thought was genuine saltine braid in  1500m spools on obey which you could break with ease. 
Apologies on the earlier post, had a few days in and out hospital which I find frustrating. Still good to see some of your pics. If the pics are too large to post, you can take a picture of them with your phone perhaps and resize down if you have more. Its funny as we are starting to see large skate in my area now, not rays but true skate like what you posted. What's more, one of the deep water investigators recently filmed skate at 3000m deep off the coast here, which was a huge surprise to the researchers. 

Do you find you always get the same braid or ever noticed the same brand changes at all ? Ive had friends buy ebay braid and been happy with, then bought from the same site and had terrible results. Ive also had friends by what they thought was genuine saltine braid in  1500m spools on obey which you could break with ease. 
Apologies on the earlier post, had a few days in and out hospital which I find frustrating. Still good to see some of your pics. If the pics are too large to post, you can take a picture of them with your phone perhaps and resize down if you have more. Its funny as we are starting to see large skate in my area now, not rays but true skate like what you posted. What's more, one of the deep water investigators recently filmed skate at 3000m deep off the coast here, which was a huge surprise to the researchers. 

Yep another day in the hospital today, a few hassles just now, feeling a grump.

John   with his fish 
 

the pics on my old camera where too big        the pics on my new camera seem to be ok    and down load on here no problem    just tried   down loading a few old pics   from years ago      all these fish where caught in the ( sound of Jura )      the pic with the kayak lads is me towing them back in after fishing 4 miles   down the loch     ive no idea why   i can down load  pics now      but ive thousands of them     tight lines Alain 
 
 

I use Spectra braid from ebay. It is made in the same factory as Shimano power pro, it looks identical and behaves identical. 
 
also it is cheap enough to replace more frequently, which for me is every 2 years or so.
TBH, I am a lot more fussy about mono leaders, rig bodies, and snoods. Mono (co-polymer) does vary a lot and usually ‘cheap’ is rubbish.

a fool and his money soon part ways        i buy and use  what    ( Works )       if i can land a 200lbs common skate   & 4 lbs of lead  out of 650ft  of  water   using £40  braid for 2000m    then thats what ill use     if i want to fill a tiagra  80w   using  100lbs   Hollow core  that costs me  just over a £100  and  used to land a 550lbs    B F T  then ill used it until the cows come home     many a old car  racing car as beat  the works teams         having said that   im  a YORKSHIRE   MAN  we   well known for  having   long pockets  and short arms        tight lines   Alain 

Oh dear, did you get out of bed on the wrong side today Jon? I don't think Alain was turning it into a "what do you all use" thread. He was just joining in. Like I said, the sufix line is still way too expensive over here, so peeps can't afford that kind of stuff! 

For anyone who may have read any of my posts over the past few years, I've highly recommended the 131 braid. I've found it to outlast any other braid I've used, which ends up costing far less in the long term as I don't need to replace it often. In fact I've not replaced any in 4 yrs. The reels that I originally put this braid on have handled all sorts of fish, both large and small. Its only downside has been the price. This line casts very well, but like many braids, the accuracy of the strength labelling seems a bit off - expect it to break well above what the rating is.

Apparently Sufix are not making enough out of their premium line and sell far more of the cheaper 832, so are dropping the 131 from manufacture. So tackle stores this side of the pond are now selling it at well bellow the price of jbraid and other budget braids. If I hadn't recently spent so much on my boat and trailer I would be buying a little stock pile given how good the price is, however I have ordered 4 spools of 300m which should cover me well for the next few years.
 
If you have never tried it and considered it too expensive, keep an eye on prices to see if your local tackle store drop the price. Price here equates to around 20 quid for 300m of 10-20-30 and 50lb. 
 
A non related image of my boat in the background just to brighten the page !!!!!.....because I know Jon likes random pic's.

Looks very comfortable in the cab. I like the way you put the rods upside down so people don't give you a hard time about being a lefty. 3m of water sounds crazy shallow, did you burley the area to try and bring the fish to you.

Looks very comfortable in the cab. I like the way you put the rods upside down so people don't give you a hard time about being a lefty. 3m of water sounds crazy shallow, did you burley the area to try and bring the fish to you.

Looks very comfortable in the cab. I like the way you put the rods upside down so people don't give you a hard time about being a lefty. 3m of water sounds crazy shallow, did you burley the area to try and bring the fish to you.

The plan was to hit the same mark we'd had good success on a few weeks ago for stingrays and smoothounds. We had the boys along chauffeuring us to the mark.

Lovely conditions gave a smooth ride out. 

We dropped the hook in less than 3m of water, and with clear vis we could make out rocks, cables, abandoned anchors and even starfish on the sea floor.
What we could not spot however, was fish. No stingrays, no smoothounds, no nothing. Neil had a decent run, typically on a scratching rig, which snapped him off after a couple of minutes. But other than that it was a desert. We moved into slightly deeper water where we rustled up a few bream.

Unfortunately we had a rather negative experience next. Not far from our mark, what seemed like the entire Solent population of WAFI's were having their annual Teddy Bear's picnic, and decided to use Tarlach Too as a marker buoy to see which of them could pass the closest to us. We must have been buzzed by over 10 yachts at least. I lost a rig to their idiocy and several bouts of fruity language was deployed as they passed within a gnat's whisker of us. Truly disappointed by their navigational behaviour.
We decided to head back in, somewhat salvaging the day by a high speed blast back that saw the boys reliving their antics from when they were a good few years younger.



Amazing to see how much they've grown since they first met on board TT, and no matter that they're now almost "too cool for school" they still enjoy a faceful of sea spray on the way back home 😀.
Despite the lack of target fish and poor form from the yachts we still managed a good few giggles and some lively worm-related banter with the boys. Thanks as always to @Saintly Fish for hosting us 👍.

For anyone who may have read any of my posts over the past few years, I've highly recommended the 131 braid. I've found it to outlast any other braid I've used, which ends up costing far less in the long term as I don't need to replace it often. In fact I've not replaced any in 4 yrs. The reels that I originally put this braid on have handled all sorts of fish, both large and small. Its only downside has been the price. This line casts very well, but like many braids, the accuracy of the strength labelling seems a bit off - expect it to break well above what the rating is.

Apparently Sufix are not making enough out of their premium line and sell far more of the cheaper 832, so are dropping the 131 from manufacture. So tackle stores this side of the pond are now selling it at well bellow the price of jbraid and other budget braids. If I hadn't recently spent so much on my boat and trailer I would be buying a little stock pile given how good the price is, however I have ordered 4 spools of 300m which should cover me well for the next few years.
 
If you have never tried it and considered it too expensive, keep an eye on prices to see if your local tackle store drop the price. Price here equates to around 20 quid for 300m of 10-20-30 and 50lb. 
 
A non related image of my boat in the background just to brighten the page !!!!!.....because I know Jon likes random pic's.

I'm going to re spoil all mine soon so I will look out for this! Ta

@JDP I just had a quick look and prices here in the UK are running at approx £70 per 300m. Maybe it's taking a while for the news to travel this far!! 

For anyone who may have read any of my posts over the past few years, I've highly recommended the 131 braid. I've found it to outlast any other braid I've used, which ends up costing far less in the long term as I don't need to replace it often. In fact I've not replaced any in 4 yrs. The reels that I originally put this braid on have handled all sorts of fish, both large and small. Its only downside has been the price. This line casts very well, but like many braids, the accuracy of the strength labelling seems a bit off - expect it to break well above what the rating is.

Apparently Sufix are not making enough out of their premium line and sell far more of the cheaper 832, so are dropping the 131 from manufacture. So tackle stores this side of the pond are now selling it at well bellow the price of jbraid and other budget braids. If I hadn't recently spent so much on my boat and trailer I would be buying a little stock pile given how good the price is, however I have ordered 4 spools of 300m which should cover me well for the next few years.
 
If you have never tried it and considered it too expensive, keep an eye on prices to see if your local tackle store drop the price. Price here equates to around 20 quid for 300m of 10-20-30 and 50lb. 
 
A non related image of my boat in the background just to brighten the page !!!!!.....because I know Jon likes random pic's.

When you say putting money in your van, do you just stack it in the back or have it on the front seats too ?

Totally agree, luckily we don't get big seas here very often, but it felt OK to be out in a 15 -20ft (5m) swell fishing the wrecks last autumn.
We have been plagued this year with a 'short sea', meaning the time between the swells / waves is often less than 3 secs, and that just makes for uncomfortable fishing, so I give it a miss. I am generally looking for 4 secs plus, and if the big Atlantic swells are forecast, then 7 t0 10 secs.

Been off the water with a stuffed back and also my boat trailer with a stuffed back too!!!
I had planned on having my trailer repaired but after pushing my thumb through one spot and two cross members cracked, I decided a trip the dump for that one. 
So a 7hr drive each way to pick up a new aluminium trailer was the go. Did the drive over two days rather than cram it into one, given I had to go over the snowy mountains to get there. Must admit the -2’c overnight temps were a shock, which made packing the roof tent away while covered in ice not so easy. 
 
As you can see all parts of this trailer can easily be replaced by simply bolting on and off. I’ve also upgraded to a heavier max load rating allowing 250kg for carrying items in the boat.
 
Just need to replace the centre rollers and skid's to suit a fibreglass boat, then adjust heights to fit my boat and I will be back out there in a few days wetting a line. Doubt I will be able to do any trips further afield to avoid winter this year now the budgets blown, so local fishing only.
 

 

 

 

The weather has improved so a solo trip to the wrecks with Bass as the target.
launched at 7ish into a flat sea and hauled my arse out to a wreck at 15 miles in 200ft that normally holds bass. 
There was already a rod line/ potter commercial on the wreck, but also very friendly which is good. Surprisingly it was at least a fish a drift, pout, coalfish, scad, pollock, and Bass.
I had a few bass and was playing ‘change the bucket’ to keep them alive to select the biggest and I kept 2 at 53 / 54cm.
Annoyingly, I hooked and lost (after a decent fight) what I suspect to be a largish bass, experience suggests 8lb plus, but the hook pulled. The fish were only taking small 115mm lures, so small 2/0 hooks.
spent 3 hours on the wreck, then I noticed the swell was increasing and shortening, so time to come back in. 
A very pleasant morning ………..and it was nice to see a coalfish, even though only 2lb ish
couple of pics
A 53cm Bass

A tiddler Pollock

When you say putting money in your van, do you just stack it in the back or have it on the front seats too ?

When you say putting money in your van, do you just stack it in the back or have it on the front seats too ?

When you say putting money in your van, do you just stack it in the back or have it on the front seats too ?