GPSguru

Let me know Dicky, and I can give you some numbers 👍

Those hall effect (magnetic) sensors rarely fail. First port of call will be to check the wiring, especially the dashboard end. As a point of interest, the rev counter gauge itself could be at fault, I have known plenty to fail.

Normally, with an older tractor engines , the rev counter gets the signal from the 'W' terminal of the alternator. With newer engines, they get the signal from the crankshaft sensor, or some times the camshaft sensor and use the ecu to double the reading (camshaft turns at half engine speed).

The skin is red because I cut the gills on keepers to bleed them. This keeps the meat very white. Both had been in the 'red' water of the fish box, I should have washed the fish better before I took the pic 🙄

Here you go, another pic of the 2 largest bass on the boat 'sofa'

Sunday was supposed to be a day fishing with Kyle, but he picked up the stomach bug that has been doing the rounds, so I decided to try a solo trip to the inshore (9Nm) wrecks. The sea was not as forecast, it was supposed to be 0.3m @ 10 Secs, however, once I was half a mile out the sea was more like 0.75m @3 secs, so an apt description would be on the rough side of lumpy. A steady 18 - 22knts soon had me over the wreck. I decided to go with SPJ as this is a snaggy wreck and slow jigs seem to snag less often. I didn’t take me long to work out that there were shoals of Bass about 100ft from the wreck on the downtide side. I had a steady run of Bass, with the biggest going about 3.5lb, and also the odd jumbo pout from time to time. Just before I was about to leave, I noticed 2 very large fish on the Panoptix, swimming about 50ft (midwater) above the wreck. Zooming in the panoptix showed some fantastic detail of the fish swimming and I was able to determine their length at about 10 - 12ft. My guess is that it was a couple of big Porbeagles, probably in the 400lb class. Unfortunately I couldn’t take a screen shot as I had forgotten to put the SD card in the plotter ! I had decided it would just be a morning trip and headed back in at 12 midday. The total for the session was 5 Bass and probably the same number of Pout. I kept a couple of Bass and the rest swam away to fight another day. Monday (today) was also forecast as a decent sea, so I decided to give the same wreck another SPJ session. Launched at 8:00am and again the forecast of 0.2m @ 17secs was way out, the sea was more like 0.5m @ 6 secs, so considerably flatter than Sunday. Once on the wreck, the first drop got hit instantly by a 5lb Bass, which put up a good show on the SPJ rod. A few drifts on different part of the wreck, produced the odd bite or two, but no hookups, so I decided to go back to the up tide part of the wreck where I caught the first fish. The next drop got hit on the drop, mainly because I paused the jig near the bottom to give it a fluttering motion. This was a 6lb 7oz Bass that put up a very spirited fight. Sorry for the blurred pics, there is salt spray on the lens 🙄 Fish on ! 6.5lb Bass 5lb Bass Small(ish) 3lb Pollock Next fish was a 3lb Pollock, then a couple of jumbo pout, and this was followed by a Bass a drift for the next 5 drifts. These were all decent fish, around the 4lb mark, and they all went back to fight another day. There were 2 other boats on the wreck fishing the standard tube boom rig (flying collar) and all I saw them catching were small Pout, so it was definitely SPJ that was producing the goods. The jigs I used were HTO Osoi slow jigs and I have changed the hooks for Trokar size 5/0 double assist. These are mega sharp and seem to produce more solid hookups than traditional hooks. I made my way back in at 12 midday and had quite a quick run back (30knts) with a following sea. The total for the morning was, 7 Bass to 6.5lb, 1 Pollock, and 4 jumbo pout. 2 good trips, 47Nm, 12 Bass, one Pollock, and numerous Pout ………

Well done Nick, some very nice fish there. As everything else has been late this year, I am guessing the main run of Cod will also be later. No point in targetting them here as we don't get enough to make it worthwhile, we just look at it as a bonus if we find a few on the wrecks. You certainly had a different sea to us here on the South West coast, the NE wind (F3) was pushing up a 0.75m swell at about every 2 secs, so I had a slower trip out to the wrecks ! I am going out again tomorrow, so my report will come later, but there are Bass fillets in the fridge tonight.

I have stocks and shares that are along term investment portfolio, which is very safe and gives a half decent return considering there is very little risk, but this type of investment has to be considered as very long term, mine have been growing steadily over 30 years or more. I also tend to play the money markets from time to time and TBH I do pretty well out of it, but you need time on your hands as you need to be sat watching a computer screen for hours. I have 3 PC's here, so it isn't an issue. Bitcoin has also been another good investment, and I also have a bitcoin mining PC running 24/7. To release these significant funds would incur CGT and I don't like paying tax (no, there is NOT pikey in my blood). I have decided to keep this going and the investment will go to the 4 grandchildern when I croak.

Well done Andy. I am watching the weather like a hawk, just itching to get out to the wrecks, and as soon as a good day turns up, within hours it has gone from F2 to F7/8 and the wind in a totally different direction. In many years of weather watching, I don't think I have ever seen such variation in the models on the 3 or 6 hour updates, bloody nightmare.

That's because you were not looking on the end of the rainbow ............... Wales doesn't get rainbows, just torrential rain, thunderstorms, blizzard snow, and genrerally shite weather 🤣

I really don't think they will have enough resources in the english channel with the frogs kicking off, which isn't going the be resolved any time soon. Most of the summer when I was fishing the 12 mile wrecks, the fisheries boats (all 2 of them) were just patrolling the 12 mile line

Being retired, I can sleep all day 😉🤣😇

Here is the Tuesday remedy !

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

It is a Kyle thing, at that time he was wearing a brace for 2 years and really didn't like being photographed, but he trusted me to get it right !

RIP Astro - Terence Wilson of UB40

We catch a few of them......... Here is one that the Grandson (Kyle is my regular crew) caught on the Skerries We never over complicate rigs on Bluefin, usually a simple single hook running ledger, and add a bit of bling when drifting for Plaice. In deep water, I often add a small luminous bead, just above the hook. However, most of my time is spent out on the wrecks with slow jigs and Red Gills.

Sorry to hear that Captain. This hit me about 3 and half years ago, and the consultant is determined to try and find a solution that puts me into long term remission. I was on adalimumab (amgevita) weekly injections which is twice the recommended dose, however, after a period of 4 months it seemed to be working by relieving the symptoms by 50%, but I still had to be mega careful with my food. The blood tests I have just had showed that I had quickly developed antibodies to fight the drug, so its effectiveness was getting less and less. Extremely high levels (60mg) of corticosteroids (Prednisolone) has worked for me in the past, but the remission has been short term (6 weeks) and then it kicks off again. I am currently on Pentasa (permanently) and a 'heavy weight' dose Budesonide (a glucocorticoid) for 6 weeks, then I will be going onto Tofacitinib (Xeljanz) to see if that kicks it into touch. Right now, the Budesonide seems to be working very well indeed, in just 3 days. Yes, you are right, it is a 'shit' disease 🤣

After a month which included eye surgery and zillions of test for my Colitis, I have finally been let out again ! Right now, Monday is looking good for a morning weather window .......... @Odyssey is totally correct in the fact that Ulcerative Colitis is a shocking disease as it really affects your lifestyle in a massive way, not only do you have to be careful what you eat and drink, also running to the pan up to 30 times a day means you can't stray too far from the house. The consultant assured me that he was going to find a solution to put me in remission, and TBF he is as good as his word. The later part of October was spent doing zillions of tests. A camera showed that I was still suffering from very severe inflammation, so it was obvious that the biological drug had ceased to be effective, this was confirmed when anti bodies (which kill the drug) were found in my blood, so I guess some of my immune system still works ! So, after numerous blood tests the consultant told me that my general health was better than excellent, and he has prescribed another biological drug (tablet form this time) that is at the upper end of the immunosuppressant drugs, however, there needs to be a 6 week break before I can take it, so he prescribed what he called, 'a heavy weight corticosteroid' for the 6 weeks. TBF I am 2 days in on the steroids, and the colitis symptoms are 99.9% better, so long may it continue. The new biological drug arrived from the hospital pharmacy today, 3 months worth, there has been a slight delay as they don't keep it in stock due to it being rather expensive, almost £700 per box (one month) and if it works I will be on it for up to 3 years at a cost of about £8K per annum. Well, at least I am getting my monies worth out of the NHS ! If the weather holds, I am really looking forward to getting the boat out on Monday ........... fingers crossed.

Some words of wisdom Gary, The Bretagne is dived a lot and these days dosent fish particularly well (not like it used to 10 years ago). Next time you are there and the same thing happens, then just move 1.2Nm on a bearing of 184T, and you will be over the Peronne, on a nice day head 3.6Nm on a bearing of 088T, and you will be over the Lord Stewart.

Yes, somewhat strange for a chorus choir ................ cracking song though that WILL give you earworm.

Being agnostic, I have always liked this .............🤣