GPSguru

19 hours ago, Malc said:

We have always had a few in and around the estuary mouths in the NE, however this year they are plague proportions! Coming in on just about every drop and making mackerel fishing a right faff, even coming up in double shots. 

I even saw this on the BBC... 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c785wpnnlzpo.amp

 

Are you seeing more than the usual numbers where you are?

We get both here. The common lesser weever and the much larger greater weever.

I got stung on the skerries a  couple of years ago, unpleasant for an hour or two, but not too bad. I didn't have any hot water, so poured hot coffee on it from the flask.

The number seem to stay fairly constant, however, we are seeing a lot more dragonets this year.

17 minutes ago, Dicky said:

Hi Ian

It's A1822, i don't think it has it as i think it is WiFi only not cellular

 

thanks 

Yep, that is a 2017 5th generation ipad with the 9.7 screen, and wifi only.

you need to get a bluetooth gps puck, plenty on amazon. No need to go to the sort of price that bad elf want, unless you find a cheap used ( probably £40 ish). 
 

some of the chinky clones work just fine. 
 

On 8/12/2024 at 9:48 PM, Dicky said:

Hi all 

can anyone help, I have Navionics on my phone and IPad  but when at sea my IPad doesn’t connect to gps but works fine when at home. I even hot spotted to my phone to give it internet but made no difference. My phone always works at sea. I did used to use a smaller IPad with no issues but as can only now have 2 devices on the same account  I took that on off. Could it be that my iPad doesn’t have gps ?

any help appreciated, thanks 

Generally, only iPads that have a cellular connection have built in GPS, so if your iPad doesn't connect to the network, then it probably does not have an inbuilt gps receiver.

Easy to fix, just get a bluetooth GPS device and connect it to the ipad. Usually the branded names work well, like Garmin, and Bad Elf.

If you post the model number (it is on the back of the case), it is easy enough to look up.

35 minutes ago, MegaByte said:

Hi Neil

Not giving up fishing or PBSBAC (you can't get rid of me thet easy 🙂

He was try to ‘bags’ your rods 🤣🤣🤣🤣

1 hour ago, Dicky said:

We’re inland from La Rochelle in a little village by Fontenay le Comte 

Yes, I know that area well. You are very close to the Marais Pontevin, locally known as little Venice.

I have fished the Niortaise, and there are some exceptional river carp in there, mostly fully scaled commons with a good number of 50lb plus fish.

A nice long lazy day is hiring a boat and making your way slowly along the tranquil tree canopied canals, stopping at canal side restaurants for lunch etc.

We didn't go this year due to other 'stuff' getting in the way.

1 hour ago, Malc said:

Updated photo, I presume blue means tub?

Yes, definitely a tub, but I couldn't see that in the original pic, although it looked like a tub.

Tub and Grey are most common, followed closely by the Red, much less common is the streaked.

3 hours ago, Dicky said:

I'm in the Vendee now, bloody hot out here 

Excellent, what part ? , le Sables, or st Gilles ?

maybe in little Venice ( the canals near Rochelle).

we go there  a lot because the vendee is renowned for its temperate micro climate, snd it can get very hot there.

Actually, you are not far off the money, as mid August is spider bonanza time.

Look for a big male, they had much bigger claws and more meat.

1 hour ago, Andy135 said:

Maybe, but with this one reckon I got at least 30% of the total meat from the body - much more than I was expecting.

And it tasted amazing 🤤

Yes, it really is the best tasting crab, but not popular here in the uk as compared to browns, spiders are hard work to process.

The frogs and the Portuguese love them.

A meal we used to have regular in the Vendee was langoustine with a spider salad (french dressed).

13 hours ago, Malc said:

We get grey Gurnard up here in the NE in the summer and I am grateful for being corrected when I posted a picture up that I originally thought was a red. However our species competition has had a couple of Gurnard and I'm not sure whether they are both grey or not? 

Many thanks 

I think they are both grey.

The top is deffo a grey, but the bottom looks more like a tub, but I see no blue outline on the pecks, so I will go with grey.

We catch a lot of grunters here, with tubs going to 4lb.

48 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

I'll tell you when I've finished his legs and done his body... 😮‍💨

Very much worth all the hard work, as the meat is beautifully soft and sweet, my favourite crab meat TBH

Not much in the body, 90% is in the legs and claws

1 hour ago, RogB said:

Glad you found some. "Thin on the ground" is an understatement! I was beginning to think it was just me..

9hrs afloat July for the Teignmouth airshow, 2 of us fishing quite inshore out of the wind for 2 gurnards. Last weekend 4hrs out on the kayaks for 6 on sat, 3 hrs on the boat out a mile or two for 1 scad (from the sewer buoy "reef" 🤮) on sunday over HW. Even the mackerel boat followed us 3 times, as if we knew best😂

Shore fishing the Ness beach was much more productive for a few evenings but that soon dried up. Anyway the ones we did have were good sized.

Keep up the reports, I was inspired by your short videos and managed to shoot the typhoon at the airshow from the back of our tub but need to work out how to YouTube it.

Cheers, Roger

 

The sewer buoy, correctly known as the 'special purpose buoy' was one of the marks that failed miserably, the mack came from the Orestone, Outer Livermeads, Long Quarry, and the Parson & Clerk.

2 hours ago, jonnyswamp said:

Do you find certain areas hold better fish, with others just mainly smaller/juvenile fish ?

Definitely, if you ever want that info then just drop me a pm 👍

16 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

Nice Ian, looks nice out there. But I do see clouds ! Unless that's a stolen picture from  another trip!!!

Yes, a few clouds but they were very high, and generally over the land mass.

Yes, small bait fish, but the one toward the top of the screen could be mack, they have a habit as showing as small bait fish.

Not keen on your colour profile. I prefer a white background.

2 hours ago, jonnyswamp said:

Was booked for a Skerries trip tomorrow on "Spot on" out of Brixham, but crap weather etc decided otherwise

Just read a report from a guy who was on the Skerries today and he had 10 Plaice with only 2 keepers, 12 various Rays to 13lb, Gurnard, mackerel and a Spide crab

I'll maybe leave it a few more weeks so they can fatten up a bit

May try and get out on my own boat Sunday 🤞

 

If the weather holds, I will be going there on Sunday.

Usually the keepers vs returns works out at about 70 /30 for us, but we don't keep anything under 35cm

Those that use worm and small baits tend to get the smaller fish, we use large cocktail fish baits

13 hours ago, JDP said:

Did your outfit come with the 4 blade prop or did you experiment with props to end with that particular one. They do often help improve several things with many boats. I've pretty much always ended up changing to 4 blade props on all the boats Ive owned, currently running a 4 blade stainless mercury spitfire on my Yamaha which has to be one of the best props Ive ever used. 

When the boat was built in 2019, Ribcraft sea trialled it and found the 3 blade prop supplied by Mercury made it 'under propped'.

Ribcraft normally supply Suzuki engines, but I had specified a mercury 150, and, Mercury (Barrus in the Uk) were keen to do more business with Ribcraft so they sent down an engineer to the sea trials, and he suggested 19 pitch 4 blade Revolution, which they fitted and found it to be OK. As you know, it is basically a racing prop with exhaust vents that can be opened or closed to fine tune it.

I have found the grip the prop gives to be outstanding, with no noticeable slip on a 30kt 'J' turn, and the hole shot is very impressive.

The best thing of all, is the prop cost me no extra on the package, however, I tend to look after it as it would be around £800 to replace.

The only change I have had to make is I had to upgrade the prop hub to an almost solid hub (I believe it is bushed but has titanium rods running through it) as I was getting some 'prop rattle' (due to its weight and grip) at idle and low revs, the new hub was £150 ish

7 hours ago, daio web said:

that new heatshrink stuff is good with the extra glue 

If you cant get glued heatshrink of the right size, then cover the joint with hot melt glue, then immediately shrink on the heatshrink.

1 hour ago, Saintly Fish said:

Glad you managed to get the net off without serious incident Ian. But, it doesn't look that old, I'd expect to see more slime and/or some growth on it if it had been trapped on the sea bed for a while. 
Scads a whooper!

The net was probably 5 or more square metres, way too heavy for me to lift. The bit I kept is the bit that I cut off to free the prop. It is a very heavy duty nylon net.

On the boat, I have a divers knife on my belt, so always to hand. It is SS non pointy, locks into its sheath, and has both flat and saw tooth edges, not cheap, but it does the job quickly.

1 minute ago, Dicky said:

Nice Scad, would make a great livebait over the next few months 😁

True, but I don't fish for the king size Mack 😉🤣

I was also out with my mate last Sunday on the 35 mile wrecks, and we found large scad on those as well, not hoards of them, but enough to keep you busy.

Went out on the boat today, a morning trip out to the 20mile wrecks.

Launched a 7:30am and couldn't see across the harbour, yet the met office were giving the visibility as medium. Once out of the nav channel the visibility was probably a little over half a mile, which I was happy with, however, I decided if it got worse I would head back in. I stopped and checked my AIS was working ok, so ships could at least detect my presence. A steady 24kts soon had me out on the chosen wreck, where I was expecting to catch bass.

Each drift kept me busy with Pout, Scad and smallish bass, The stamp of the bass were proper schoolies and I struggled to find one over 50cm, most were around 42cm. However, the scad were monsters.

At about 11:00am the mist cleared as the sun burnt through and the wreck was busy, with me and 2 commercials. At 12:00 midday I decided to come back in, but the day had been fruitful, nothing large, but 17 Pout, 9 Scad, and 8 Bass, with 2 keepers at 49 / 50cm.

The sea was flat, so 30knts cruising. At 14miles out I just caught a glimpse of something green floating below the surface off my starboard bow, I immediately throttled back, but too late, I heard the noise of the prop and the engine suddenly slow, and I was prop wrapped. I shut down and tilted the engine, the culprit was an old-discarded commercial net. I would think it had been probably snagged on the bottom and broke free. To reach the prop you have to climb on the outboard leg, or use a safety rope off the A frame, however, I was on my own so didn't want the risk of going in the drink. The easy solution was to ty-wrap my rope cutting knife to the boat hook, and I soon cut the net away. My prop hub wasn't damaged, as I use an almost solid hub due to the weight of the 4 blade Mercury Revolution prop. Once free, I had an uneventful trip back in.

Now for the next issue. It has been hot today, and I left the boat cleaning until the evening, When I went to clean the boat, I found the starboard side stern tube well deflated (not flat, just well deflated). My initial reaction was a puncture, but the tubes have over pressure valves and close inspection has suggested the valve opened when the tube got hot in the sun (24C here) and didn't close properly, I have cleaned the valve, and reinflated the tube, so will just keep an eye on it. 

Well, the tube has been fine for the last 24hrs, so I am going with an overpressure valve issue. If it happens again, they are easy enough to get replaced.

The scad were big beggars

Here is a bit of the net I cut from the prop

1 hour ago, Malc said:

A good weather window and we headed out in my friends boat to some wrecks off the mouth of the Tyne, first stop was a little bit further off the piers than normal due to the amount of fresh water coming out of the river for mackerel. I had 3 weever and the smallest whiting I have ever seen, about the length of my little finger! However the weever count for the species competition and my mate managed a few monster mackerel for bait. Pretty fish but nasty stings, and strangely well up in the water column.

First wreck was pretty quiet but it was a small tide and early in the ebb. Next was better as we were getting bites on baited muppets etc. The idea was to get the easiest species for this time of year so we don't struggle later when they are offshore, I needed pollock and ling and my friend, ling, pout and haddock. 

He got 3 decent pout, best about a pound and half possibly a bit more and then a good bend in his rod had me grabbing the net, I was sure that it was a ling but a Cod of 7+ ended up on deck.

Shortly after I had a savage take on my baited muppets and a few pumps had it away from the wreck and could reel more steadily. Turned out to be a nice eating sized ling around 6lb and another tick in the species competition box!

Looking forward to tomorrow's tea!

Well done Malc, I have been struggling to catch a ling this year. I normally run a wrecking rig ( 150lb rig body, blood looped with a 9/0) baited with either a mack or pout flapper, usually at slack water, but no takers apart from greedy jumbo pout. 
 

Sounds like you had a decent day out.

12 hours ago, JDP said:

How do you know its made from the same factory

As a tackle dealer, I am in direct contact with the wholesalers, so I get to know when a lot of 'major brand' is made, and some of it would surprise you !

An example would be 2 major hook brands in the uk come from the same factory, same batch runs. We will call them A & B. Some anglers use B because A breaks. Some anglers use B because A bends, yet they are the same hooks 🤷‍♂️