GPSguru

The absolute max I would be looking for is 14.4V at the battery. What I need right now is a Body Control Module (BCM) for the Jeep, and they are no longer available ! To add insult to injury, most of the Remanufacturers just don't list them, and it is very part number specific. The fault is intermittent, but present 75% of the time, so I might see if 'BBA Reman' can do a reflow on the circuit board for me.

Easy ............ 12 - 20 rod and multi loaded with 30lb braid. A rubbing leader that is long enough that you get about 2 turns on the reel. The leader to braid knot needs to be strong, but also the weak point if you get snagged. I use a yucatan knot which is small enough to go through the guides, strong enough (about 80 - 90%), and can be tied in seconds. The leader can be the same as the braid, i.e. 30lb Fluro is a good option. The rig will be a tube boom (also called a 'free running boom', Wrecking boom', or 'Guy's boom') of about 20 - 25cm (I use 23Cm Sakuma booms). The trace for the lure will be length dependant of tide flow, however a good rule of thumb is to use 2m (6ft). So, the rig is like this ............ slide the tube boom on the leader, then a bead and then tie on a size 4 crane swivel. The lead (usually an 8, 10, or 12oz cannon ball) connects to the link swivel on the tube boom (it is already fitted to the bend of the boom). Tie on the lure trace to the swivel and away you go. You need a controlled drop, and it is good practise to let the lure 'stream' in the tide flow before you drop (less chance of tangles). Once the rig has hit the bottom, then immediately start winding and COUNT THE TURNS). Normally the bites will be at about 5 turns up, but on a slack tide the fish may be as much as 15 - 20 turns up. Once you get to 15 turns, then drop down and do it all over again, again, again. Wreck fishing can be tackle hungry. I remember a couple of years ago, I made 5 drops and snagged the wreck 5 times !, but that is unusual.

Pretty decent weather today, so I decided a trip to the wrecks was in order. However, I was not expecting too much as Alan (mate with offshore 25) went to the 40 mile wrecks on Saturday and only ended up with 2 Pollock and one Bass after visiting 8 wrecks at between 25 – 35Nm. I thought a good plan today, was to get out to a 15 mile wreck in 150ft and stop at a 9 mile wreck on route. Again, -1C when I left home this morning and 1C on the slipway. Launched 08:30 on the Ebb and was going to time my return for the beginning of the flood. The sea was flat (0.3m @11secs) with just a small secondary wind swell from the NW (probably 0.3m). I made good time out to the 9 mile wreck and was making my first drop at 09:00. I made 3 drifts and there were no takers, not even a bait robbing Pout. I pushed onto the 15 mile wreck and the circled the wreck a few times to play with my new Garmin G3 Vision charts, which seem to work quite well. I was concerned that the high resolution relief shading would be a bit slow to update the screen, but it actually works really well, however, updating the plotter is quite a faff as you have to use ActiveCaptain, but more about that later. The wreck is very broken so I decided on a drift that took me right over the broken stern section of the wreck. Using SPJ, I was straight into a small Bass and that is pretty much the story for the rest of the morning. I needed up with 9 small Bass, 2 very small Pollock and a good number of average Pout. Not exactly an overwhelming success, but enough fish to keep me busy. I only lost one jig, which is pretty good as the wreck is a renowned tackle graveyard. I headed back in at 12:00 midday, and an uneventful 30knt return journey saw me back on the slip and loaded on the trailer by 13:00. Not much in the way of pics, but here is one to show the puny size of the Bass (which all happily swam away). A chilly but beautiful day for fishing. Not a cloud in the sky and a flat sea. Total trip distance today was 37Nm ................

Right now it looks like the settled spell is moving closer to sat & sun.

Looks like you guy's had a great day, plenty of action and some good Thornbacks. I bet @Andy135 was cussing as there were no dogs, but I guess the slimy snakes made up for them. Sea was rough here today, not at all as forecast. The forecast from windguru and MSW was 0.3m @4secs, after looking at the sea later this afternoon I checked the wavebuoy live data and the sea was 1.2m @ 3 secs ! My mate Alan will be going out to the 40 mile wrecks tomorrow, but I have declined to crew as I think the sea will still be kicking up rough.

I feed them to the seagulls ! Pout suffer badly from barotrauma and very rarely go back down, also there is no way that I would ever eat one. Pout, dogs, roker, conger, Whiting, and Wrasse are definitely not on the eating list !

When using SPJ, a good number of the fish you catch (especially Pout, Scad Mackerel, Etc) are foul hooked when they 'go' for the jig. Bigger fish like pollock and bass usually have at least one of the hooks in the mouth .

The sea was pretty good at the wreck site most of the time, just every so often the different swells would come together and make it difficult.

Another good day for fishing, although the actual fishing was not that good ! A cold a frosty start, it was -1c when I left home for the 5 mile trek to the slip via Tesco’s for fuel, and a chilly 1C on the slipway. Launched on low tide at 08:30 and I noticed that the estuary water temp was only 6.3C, however, once out at sea the water temp was a respectable 10.4C Windguru was forecasting a flat calm sea inshore, but was unable to forecast the wave conditions offshore, once I got out there I could see why ! I decided to go back the to wreck that has been kind to me during the late Autumn, so it was a good 30kt ride for the first 3 miles, then I started to hit very confused conditions, there were 0.5m wind driven waves from the NNE at probably 3secs and the true swell was coming from the East, also 0.5m (ish) and about 6 secs. The result of the sets of waves meeting was nasty washing machine conditions, but I still managed a bumpy 24knts out to the wreck. First drop with my new Temple Reef Gravitate III and I was into a Pout, and that just about sums up the day, it was a real Pout fest. Once the flood had stared the drift was 1.4knts, even though it was a mid neap tide. I tried all sorts to avoid the Pout, but they grabbed everything I threw at them, 150g Slow jigs, 178mm Red Gills, and even 160g off shore shads (fished on the SPJ rod). The sheer number of Pout suggests that the Bass have moved offshore and there probably isn’t too many Pollock in residence yet, but at least I managed to christen the new rod The fisheries Patrol boat passed by very close (close enough to wave) but carried on and didn’t trouble me. After numerous Pout of which 7 were of a decent size, at 12 midday I decided to call it a day and head back in as I need to do the school run in the afternoon. The return trip was uneventful at a steady 22kns. Not the best of days, but 100% better than staying at home. The total trip was 23Nm A couple of fixes are needed. I loaded a G3 Vision chart using Active Captain for relief shading and that just seems to have screwed my chart up, so I removed the Active Captain card and reverted back to the standard G2 Charts. I will fix this by downloading the G3 vision charts to a dedicated SD card via Garmin Express. Also, I had a strange electrical fault on the Jeep. Every time I indicate Right, the tail gate wiper comes on and all the doors lock ! You could be fooled into thinking it was a bloody Land Rover, I will investigate this tomorrow. Just a couple of pics off the Gopro

Here, the fog forecast has been reduced to mist, and the offshore forecast is showing good visibility, so the boat is now loaded and ready to go in the morning. As long as I can see 1/2 mile, then I am happy to go.

Now looks like Fri & Sat mornings could be iffy, Thursday looks OK

Blown out is probably not going to happen, BUT, on Weds, Thurs, and Fri, overnight fog which will be very slow to clear could be a major issue.

Sometimes i play this .............. all good boat music

FTFY Neil ...........🤣

When I am on my way out of the harbour, it is often to this tune .............

That makes me mega old, my daughter was born in 75 and my son in 79 !

As most of my fishing is lure / SPJ, I am way too lazy to make droppers, I just drop down and then wind up a couple of turns to lift the rig just off the bottom 🤣

For those that were around in 1976, this was the tune that was played everywhere. 1976, is a summer that many of my generation will always remember, a long heat wave that lasted all of June and has never been matched, it was a dry summer and in the SW we had no rain, just wall to wall sunshine for April, May, Jun, July, and most of August. It was broken by a severe thunderstorm on the Aug bank holiday.

Yes, most definitely 👍 Actually the sea forecast is very good for tomorrow, but the wind is in the South and picking up to early F4 by Midday, which will give a wind over tide situation here in Lyme Bay, so I will probably give it a miss. However, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday looks good, and as a bonus it is neap tides. If the weather holds (which is a bit of a lottery this time of year) then I will head out to the wrecks on both Thursday and Friday mornings.

In 50 years of fishing, I have yet to catch a double. Had plenty up to a fraction under 10lb, but never over.

Yes Andy, I agree it is a good reminder post, however, IMHO the policy is clearly a bow down to the EU fisheries committee, and the decision is based on some very debatable scientific data ! 🤬

Agree with this. The ZF63 has hydraulically actuated multi-disc clutches, so I would expect the prop to turn in 'N' with zero torque.

Yes, we generally use them for most of our bait fishing, and sometimes when lure fishing as well. I think it is all about the movement that makes the added attraction. Different colours seem to attract different species ........ Any colour for dogs, Reds and Greens for Pollock, Yellow and Greens for Ling, Blue and Silver for Bass, etc. It also pays to slide on a small luminous bead above the muppet.