GPSguru

About £270 or so. but if you are only trying SPJ out for a couple of days, then a spinning rod will be ok, or even a standard 12 - 20 can still fish a jig.

Yes, they look flimsy in order that you can work the jig effectively, however, most of the better rods will also deadlift about 22lb. Here .......

TBF, the Aquabell is a super fishing platform, with loads of deck space, and has excellent sea manners.

IIRC twin Ford Mermaids. Cracking engines, old tech and simple, a bit smoky, easy to fix. However, finding a decent Aquabell will be a challenge.

Yeah, but the bloke that sells the tackle is a miserable old bad tempered bast’id. 🙄🤣😇

Interestingly, the podiatrist said she has removed Golf Tee's and self tapping screws from feet and the people involved just thought they had a thorn in the sole of their foot !, so I am not the only thick bast'id in the village. 🤣 She told me I was lucky that it missed some important stuff as it went in.😲

Well, I couldn't see the wound without mirrors, but I dressed it with iodine and a very tight bandage to stop the bleeding (there was lots of blood). After a couple of days I took the bandage off and got the Mrs to look at it, and she took out a small obvious piece of glass. I would be OK in the morning, and it would get progressively more painful as the day went on, but the wound was refusing to heal, and over a month had passed since the injury. The Mrs was getting worried about infection setting in. I went for a routine blood test at the surgery and the nurse looked at it and decided I was high risk due to being immunosuppressed and mild type 2 diabetic, so she sent a message to Podiatry, who rang me within 24 hours and arranged an appointment for a couple of days later. The podiatrist quickly saw the issue and did the business, although she did offer to send me to a surgeon, I told her to get on with it. She gave me a bollocking ! , which I probably deserved. It feels heaps better now.

About 1” long and half an inch wide. my threshold of pain is very high, my daughter (who is a nurse) said I was a thicko for not realising it was in there 🙄🤣😇

I wont be leg dropping anything for a while. just before xmas I stood on a glass bauble thing whilst putting up lights in the conservatory, and sliced the heel of my left foot. Lots of blood and cursing, but up until this week it was still painful to walk on an just would not heal. So I got an appointment with the hospital podiatrist and she proceeded to dig this out from deep in the wound. It is better to walk on and should now heal.🙄

Very true, a medium Vee in a light (ish) boat is not a good combo in a chop. Quicksilvers are similar.

Sounds OK, get on with it 👍 Remember Luke, regardless of what system you go for, the technology is all the same, that is the nature of the beast. It all comes down to the way in which the GUI (graphical user interface) is presented, and ease of use, and what works for one person, might not work for another, it is mostly personal preferences and interpretation, BUT, the technology behind the screens is all the same.

RayBan Aviators. Been using them for over 20 years, but had to replace them a couple of years ago when I lost them over the side on the Skerries ! They didnt fall off, like a prat I left them hanging on the A frame and went around for another drift, and then they were gone 🙄

Well done for braving the cold. It might not be what you want, but its not a blank, which is ok in my book 👍 was that salt water ice, or did it have a fresh water content ?

On your YT account, upload the video and then tick it as ‘unlisted’ Then only folk with the link can view it, as it won’t be listed on the YT site. If anybody views your channel, the video will not been seen by them as it is effectively hidden. 🤣 @Andy135 beat me to it, for some reason I didn't see his post on my phone.🙄

The reel is fitted with a sprag (one way) bearing. Sprag bearings have been known to slip under extreme tension, but that is mainly in industrial applications, and it will probably never happen on the MA12 as the max drag is only 23lb. However, as a backup to the sprag bearing, Fin Nor fitted an anti reverse pawl, which a lot of users find the noise annoying. The pawl is easy to remove, undo the 4 torx screws and remove the case. Just under the spool you will see the pawl and spring, there is no need to remove the spool, carefully slide a small screwdriver in to remove the 'C' clip, then using a screw driver release the spring and carefully prise the pawl off the spindle. It is quite tight for space but very doable. The reel then becomes silent. All mine are done that way (5 of them) and I have never had the sprag slip.

They seem to be on special offer in most places at the moment, Glasgow Angling have the MA12 at £195 and the RRP is £349. I recently got a 2 speed MA20 from Veals for £245 and the RRP is £549

After the demise of my 5 year old Gopro 7 Black, which, like most other Gopro's had been unreliable from the start, but produced excellent video, I have replaced it with a DJI Action 4, which is the main competitor to the Gopro 12. So a short test Video that was shot in 4K30, processed over bluetooth on my phone using 'Light Cut' and the output to Youtube at 1080p. Doing this retains the sharpness a colour depth of 4K video. It was shot in Rock Steady mode, which retains the motion of the boat. I am sat there looking like a spare part as my rods are on the A frame slightly behind the camera, and we have 60 secs of Kyle landing a Whiting whilst we are at anchor.

Years ago I did some and it was very bland, but it seems a lot of folk rate it as a good eating fish. Kyle cooked his exactly the same as you and he told me he prefers it to pollock, so maybe I will try it again sometime 👍

It looks like you might need to think about an electronics rewire, as it seems to me that bits and pieces have been added ad hoc in the past and although it works, it may not have been the best way to do it.

Yep, Ugly sticks are a bit 'stick' like. I prefer a decent tip action with some grunt in the butt, so all my rods are Daiwa Kenzaki (6 -12, 6- -16, 12 -20, 20 -30, and 30-50) coupled with Fin Nor Marquesa reels

Cold, but it looked doable, so Kyle and I launched in the dark at 0700. Launching was easy on the top of the spring flood, with the water almost to the top of the slip. Temp was 2C so not too bad. One of the big issues with an open boat is that there is nowhere to hide !, so we were both wrapped up in multi layers to ensure we retained some temperature. First stop (still dark) was the Orestone for some fresh Mack. We only had about 30 mins to spare as I needed to get the correct drift pattern on the Skerries. We could see plenty of activity on the sounder but no takers, also the drifts were fast as it was the top of the spring tides. Kyle managed a couple of small whiting before we moved on. Sea was flat calm, but I kept the speed down to 26kts in order that we minimized wind chill. 30min later we were on the banks, but still needed to motor right down to Start point and the tide rips as our plan was to drift for a winter turbot. Once at the chosen mark, the tide was ripping through and the sea was quite rough in the designated tide rip / overfalls area, but at no time did we feel unsafe. Unfortunately the drift speed was way too high, so after another 45mins we decided to move back to a Plaice mark, however, Kyle did get a dogfish, which luckily was the only one of the day. 3.5Nm took us back to our Plaice mark on the inner edge of the banks, it was mirror flat and the sun was beginning to peep through, adding a little warmth. The Plaice baits went down and were almost immediately taken by Whiting, but the stamp of these fish was 1 ½ to 2lb, so good sport on Plaice gear, with the biggest going a little over 2lb. At 11:45 it was time to move to our Ray mark and drop the pin as the tide was beginning to pick up after slack. Although it was mirror flat the spring tide was racing through the banks, so I dropped the pick in 55ft and then l let out 70m (200ft), which not only made sure the pick would hold, but it also put us fishing in 90ft. For bait, we had frozen mack, frozen cuttle, squid, and Prawn. Cocktail baits went down of cuttle head and mack fillet. Within a minute or two the rods were nodding with whiting trying to demolish the baits. Kyle had the first proper bite, and it came off on the surface near the stern, and we both assumed it was a smallish smoothound. 15 minutes later and Kyle was in again and this time it came to the net OK, and was a Spurdog of about 4lb. I mentioned to Kyle that we should go to 100lb hook lengths as the Spurs will bite off, and that is exactly what happened on the next fish. That is pretty much the way it went for the rest of the session, with the pack hunting Spurs picking up the Ray baits, and we didn't lose any more with 100lb snoods. At 2:00pm it was time to pull the pick, and I could feel the strain when we motored around the pick with the strong tide bowing the warp, but it pulled OK, and we were soon motoring back. We landed back at the all tide sand slip at 3:00pm, and we didn't run aground 🤣, low tide was 2:47pm, and it was very low at 0.6m. The sand slip was muddy with the tide that low, and I had to be careful of the dropoff with the trailer. The boat loaded easily and a bunch of gig rowers were taking bets as to whether we would tow out OK, little did they know that I am Land Rover trained and also hold a BORDA off road training certificate. Kyle was well impressed as I selected 4 low in the Jeep (Select track transmission), and just tickled the auto box to pull us straight up the slip without any wheel spin from the all terrain tyres, as they moved us through 3" of soft estuary mud So, not a great day, but an OK day, with 24 Whiting to a little over 2lb and 7 Spurs to 7lb. Kyle took 4 of the whiting for eating and the rest went back. A long day, and a round trip of almost 50Nm. Kyle with one of the spurs The stamp of the Whiting, this one is about 1½ lb

Certainly a decent forecast for Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday here. On Saturday I have to take grand daughter to horse riding, but hoping to get out on Sunday, and if the forecast holds true it will be a trip to the skerries after some winter Turbot. However, it is a monster tide (top of the springs) so drifting the skerries will be challenging, also coming back into port at low tide will require some bum clenching careful maneuvering, as with 0.8m there is no room for any error. Normally I like the tide to be a minimum of 1.5m to get on the slip, but I will probably land at the all tide sand slip, but it will still be very tight

Well done Mike, excellent. Sea was a tad too rough here to go out, however, if the weather holds then a trip to the skerries is on the cards for next weekend after some winter Turbot.

I have had a look Mike, and I finished the year on 31 species, which is about average, however, I tend not to take part in competitions. My most notable and unusual species this year were a streaked Gurnard on the Skerries, and a small (mack sized) Bonito off the orestone during the early Sept heat wave. However, I still didn't get my Wreckfish (Stone Bass), perhaps 2024 will provide for me .........................

Usually a 115mm red gill, in blue/white. Fiish minnows (or a lookalike) in khaki also work, especially over rough ground as they are weedless. if it is a very bright day the maybe silver pearl, if it is a darker day then black can often work well. we also troll feathers to find the mack when thay are thin on the ground.