GPSguru

You will be fine, but you need to have a good memory for light sequences at night, and that is where a lot of folk come unstuck. I don't know whether they still use paper charts for passage planning etc, if it is now done on the plotter then tidal streams, dead reckoning and passage leeway are right out of the window. The killer was always the nightime buoy's and lighthouse flashes, however, if it is all done on a plotter then that would be out as well because you just need to refer to the plotter and then look in the correct direction for the light, hell, you don't even need a compass 🙄

Well maybe........... so yours is £44k for the boat and £10k for the carpets and curtains ? 🙄

Birchell Marine, in Torquay, right opposite the harbour slipway.

Yes, agreed, we get wreck Pollock that are a silvery green colour, and we also get kelp Pollock that can sometimes almost be orange in colour.

Yesterday I took the boat in for the engine annual service (300 hrs – 3 years). The place that I have been going to for years has changed hands and the grease monkey that always serviced my engines rang me to say he is going on his own, but cant do warranty work, however, he highly recommended another main dealer close to me. I gave them a call about a month ago, and TBH the phone conversation gave me quite a warm feeling, so I was Ok with the change. I dropped the boat off at 9:30am, but told them I would struggle to be back at 6:00pm, but would call when I was on my way. The Service Manager said he could stay until about 7:00pm if it helped, which was very much appreciated. Also, I was greeted by one of the Grease monkey’s that used to work at the previous service place, so in my mind, all was good. I eventually arrived back at 6:10pm and the service manager took me through what they had done. A full service, including water pump, new thermostat, all new fuel filters and also flushed through the cooling system with a Mercury corrosion inhibitor, and sprayed the engine with Mercury Corrosion guard. In addition to the above, under warranty, also changed the trim/tilt pump (because the case was rusty) and they also found the water pressure sensor to be faulty (5psi out) , so replaced it. The water pressure sensor on mine engine is an optional extra, but it is connected to the CanBus to detect either no pressure (pump not working) or over pressure (cooling blockage). He also said there was something I would need to watch as I had thrown a code, but a good code, I had triggered the rev limiter! (but only once). He said to do that, in that boat you must have been moving quite fast. Apparently on my engine the rev limiter is set at 5400. I am pretty sure that we did that on the way back from the last skerries trip as the water was flat calm when we crossed St Mary’s Bay, I remember giving full throttle and I remember glancing at the plotter and seeing 41knts, but we slowed down pretty quick as we came onto Berry Head. Anyway, whilst at the dealers, I checked the plotter (it doesn’t reset max speed on the trip) and it was showing 44.7knts. At least it confirms that the boat is correctly propped ! The price was about what I expected to pay, and the service seems to be exceptionally good. I explained to the service Manager (Antony) that I am engine fussy, because I do long trips and don’t carry an Aux. He went on to say that the Mercury 150 is a very robust engine and mine is barely run in, one of the commercials he looks after in Torquay Marina has 3000hrs on it and runs like a dream. So, just the trailer to service in October (I do that) and then I am ready for the winter season. As a bonus, the Jeep, now 19 years old, passed its MOT, with no problems or advisories.

Looks like a very dark coloured Blond ............

RIP Coolio (Artis Leon Ivey Jr) .............

It's a shame that her monitory policies are highly incompetent, it sort of goes with blond hair and big norks. The money markets are rarely wrong, and they gave it a big thumbs down, also the BoE referred to the budget as unwise and incompetent, however, we will wait and see. Sorry Admin, I know we don't do politics here, but it just had to be said ! ........... a lot of folk will suffer as interest rates rise against a mega weak pound. Probably won't affect me though 😇🤷‍♂️

It is probably the pump motor, Yams and Merc are very weak in that department. You might be able to strip the motor and free up the bearings. My Merc 150 is 3 years old a goes in for it annual service tomorrow, I have asked them to change the PTT motor under warranty as the housing has gone very rusty. It is trailered and washed off after every outing, so it should look like new.

Also called Mahi Mahi, Dorado, and if you are posh, a Dolphin fish. I have caught loads over the years, and in most places they are called Mahi Mahi, I think the ozzies call them Dorado. I like the colour of them, but as a fish they are ugly.

It has been like it for months. The flagged Dhann on the right looks like a net buoy. The rest are probably pot buoys, but will have a ton of rope on them. Last time I was there (July) I gently went between the buoys, but there were a lot of semi floating ropes, so I had to be very careful. Not exactly what I would call relaxed fishing. To leave that gear there all summer, they but be catching a lot of Lobster & Crab.

Lots of options, 3 Marina's in Plymouth, 2 in Dartmouth, one in Brixham, one in Torquay, and visitors moorings are usually available in Salcombe. There are fuel barges in Plymouth, Dartmouth, and I think there is still one in Brixham.

I wonder if it will be a better cod run this year. Here in Lyme Bay I am getting early reports of cod/codling on the wrecks, lets hope they stay for a while.

That area is well known for large Huss (doubles), so I would put money on a Huss being the culprit for pulling your rod over the side. Yes, I have only ever caught small thornbacks off our coast, with the biggest going about 7lb, but they are usually in the 3lb - 5lb range. Along the coast from Berry head to nimble rock, be very, very, wary of fishing close inshore as the area is very gnarly with pinacle rocks, especially the nice looking channel between Cod rock and the Mewstone, I once went through there at 20knts and almost shat myself, I could see the bottom and the rocks, and it must have been less than 18" deep !, but somebody was looking down on me that day 👍😇 The straight line that is shown on your track between Mudstone ledge and Berry head is the perfect winter drift.

You wouldn't need heating on my boat, you would be warm enough continually reeling fish in 😝

I am guessing the area known as the Tardice (7.7nm), Teignmouth side of the Boma ? A few years ago I had my PB conger from there at 92lb. Mudstone Ledge is really a winter mark, and a bit overrated, however if you can drift back toward Berry head in the deep water (155ft) with baited feathers dragging the bottom, the winter pickings can be good with decent sized whiting, Mackerel and the odd Codling. The other area you went to was between Druids Mare and Nimble rock, if you had stayed close in, this good mixed ground fishing and often a good place to pick up a sizable bream or two. Close to Nimble rock you have the wreck of the Bull steamer. As you had gone that far, you should have gone the extra 5nm to the Skerries, fishing has been good here during the early autumn. Well done on getting out, unfortunately family stuff has tied me down over most of August and early September, but from here on I think I am good to go. PM me your phone number, perhaps we can find some time to get out on my boat during the Autumn / winter and get some good fishing time in for you.

Congrats, she is making an honest man of you 😉👍

A very decent few days there Dicky. TBH, there does seem to be more Threshers this year.

Yes, pretty much all the meat is in the legs. I expect that you immediately noticed that the meat is a very sweet savoury taste, but for me the cooking smell takes some beating. TBH, I now prefer spider for eating, although browns are way more common for eating. Spider are regarded as a bycatch and often thrown back. Most of our spiders caught here end up going the France.

An excellent manoeuvre to dock, not so easy in a crowded harbour, well done. Looks like you had a really good mix of species, and all 'net worthy', the highlight for me would have been the Huss. Any double Huss is a real handful, and they fight real dirty, so top marks to Leo. Usually when you get them on the boat, they crap all over you ! Why are Mack not so common off Portsmouth ? On the Skerries, we had 60 ish (I didn't count). Kyle spent an hour catching them singly on my 40g Lure Game rod, using a 20g green stinger casting jig. I cleaned the boat tonight, it takes feck'in hours to get rid of the mack scales and shit. Did you take that spider home for the pot ? There looks to be a good enough amount of meat on those legs. They smell absolutely lush as you boil them up.

The ratio of keepers to throwbacks is about 1:1, which I guess is OK. Stick around the area that I sent to you, and you should be OK, however if you get a diagonal drift of 220 - 230 degrees (quite common) you can drift from the inside edge to the outside edge to find the fish.

No, autumn, right up to the middle of November is the best time for them as they have had all summer to fatten up.

Kyle was using mack strip tipped with squid, and I was using king prawn tipped with squid !

It is a little over a month since I have been out, but the forecast was good, so a trip to the Skerries it was. The crew for the day was Kyle, and the Skerries are probably his favourite mark. I picked up Kyle at 7:00am and the outside temperature was 7C, so quite chilly. We launched and were making our way out to sea at 7:40am. The sea was flat, so it was a very comfortable run to the mark at a steady 25knts. At 08:30 we were on the Skerries and ready to fish. I was expecting more boats to be out, but there were only a handful. I guess in some quarters, going fishing on the funeral day of our Queen would be frowned upon, however, I wasn’t exactly on her Christmas card list and TBH we have had enough of our own family despair and a funeral over the past month. The Skerries is a mark where you really need a neap tide, and that was exactly the conditions we had today. Our first drift took us diagonally across the banks at 1.2knts, 223 degrees true. Although we had plenty of frozen Mack, I dropped the tinsels to see what was about, and had a full string before the tinsels hit the bottom. Another few drops saw us with plenty of bait and enough to replenish the freezer. I was first in with a decent Plaice of 2½lb, and that was to be the stamp of the larger keepers. We were also getting a huge number of smaller Plaice that were quite plump, but we decided to release them. Kyle is the king of the postage stamp Plaice, and he had a few of those. Also in the mix were the usual hordes of Gurnards, however, Kyle caught a really decent Grey that went just over a pound, and for a Grey that is a stonking fish. Interestingly, Kyle and I were using different baits for the Plaice as an experiment, but that also had an effect on the Gurnards, he caught all Grey’s and I caught all Tub’s. By 1:30pm we had 9 keeper Plaice, and a shed load of Mack in the coolbox, so we decided to call it a day and head for home, which was an uneventful trip at 27knts. A total trip of 44nm. A decent Grey for Kyle The average stamp of the keepers To give you an idea of the Skerries banks size, that is the charter boat Gemini on the outer edge of the banks, we are almost in the middle of the banks.