GPSguru

That's a productive day ! well done both
No Cod, but they're getting like blue moons these days        
 

@Saintly Fish and I hit the Solent yesterday I the search for an early season cod. A very early 4.30am wake up for me saw us depart the marina not long after 6am and out into a flat calm river and a lovely sunrise.

We'd heard a tip from Neil's pet rumour-monger that a mile-long flock of seabirds had been seen working the Solent for baitfish recently, so our plan was to feather for fresh bait if we spotted any birds.
The Solent was pretty flat as we left the river, but scanning the water for birds was disappointing - nothing doing. We headed towards our mark and made good time. Nearing out mark we saw some fish on the sounder and dangled some feathers, more in hope than expectation, but Neil comes up trumpa with the first Solent mackerel we've seen in ages!

Marv the Mackerel was kept in a bucket as livebait, just in case.
On to the mark and down goes the anchor. Strap conger and smoothounds, but no cod.

The tide was ripping as we fished, requiring 1.5lb of lead to hold bottom. After a while it became clear that no cod were at home, so we headed to a new spot to see if that made a difference to the tide and made fishing any easier.
In short, no. One more strap conger, lots of beam-on rolly wash and an anchor tangle later we headed off to a flock of seabirds that Neil had spotted in the distance.
As we neared the birds the sounder cam alive with fish arches.

Feathers down and they were hit by large scad, mackerel and school bass. Many strings later we had a bucket of baitfish for the winter. A mix of mackerel and scad. A productive way to end the session.

Brief report
Myself and 2 others made the journey to Weymouth for a days Bream/Bass fishing
2 others onboard that were camping locally for a few days down from oop Norf 
Tried for Mackerel in one of the Portland entrances, but nothing for us there, though one of the other charters seemed to be bringing a few up
Went on around the Bill to see if we could pick some up on route to our first mark
We found plenty, but not many sizeable ones, mainly 5/6 inches long
Anyway, first mark didn't produce and the second only threw up a few pout and 1 solitary Bream
We were stuck here for a while trying to retrieve the anchor.....unsuccessfully
Skipper cut it free and buoyed it off, hoping to get it recovered by an obliging diver at some point
The next few marks were better, I didn't have many drops without a fish, my 2 mates were catching fairly regularly and the 2 other lads struggled, only managing a few between them
I put it down to my choice of rig, a yellow and red pop up bead just in front of the hook, only one other was using beads and he also did OK
The weather forecast was about right, pissed down form about 10 ish all day
Didn't take any pics as it was too wet
We finished up with a dozen around 2-2.5lb mark that were kept and we returned probably 3 times as many
A good day with crap weather
 
 

700-800lb…. Better pics to follow, 18 hour day, got to get to work for 8am tomorrow…. The power of skittles and red bull keeping me going at the moment 😂

 
(all released as in the water next to boat as I didn’t have the phone number for John Smith and I don’t think his cans were big enough 😂) 

Had Gary ( @thejollysinker) out for a trip yesterday. He was on holiday locally and dropped a line for a trip. By chance had space so he joined us for an expedition to the deeps. 
 
What an all round nice guy 🙂 was great to have him aboard! Sadly I didn’t find him a blue whiting for the species hunt was a fast drift, and a bit lumpy… (LOTS of pot holes and speed bumps in the sea on way out and back in again, but cat bashed her way through) 
Gary did manage one blue…. Took a while to get it in. I did learn some new colloquial phrases from Devon that apparently aren’t safe for social media… but I can’t blame him when this little smiler popped up next to the boat after a heavy 35 min scrap 🙂 
Top work that man, expertly played, tagged and released… 🙂 
Another 5 finished off the day nicely 🙂 
 
 

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. 
 

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.

The settings on my Ipad seem to match my Iphone
 

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 

Solo trip and early start due to a major rowing race taking place and all the gigs use the slipway 🙄
Absolutely flat sea and arrived on the skerries at 08:00. Straight down with my Plaice bait, and I also put down tinsels for snake / mack, and a large fish bait for Turbot.
The first away was the mack tinsels, with a steady stream of single fish, but a good size.
The  next bit is for @jonnyswamp who was told the fish were small. I fished from 08:00 to 13:30 and had 9 plaice, with 3 keepers. The MLS is 27cm, but I don't keep under 35cm. I measured all the fish (just out of interest) and the keepers were just over 35, the rest were 27 - 30.  I don't use worm, only fish baits, usually whole king prawn tipped with squid, or mack strip tipped with squid. I was getting a lot of bites that didn't connect, and that could have been postage stamp fish as I tend to use a 1/0 instead of the size 2 that a lot of folk use.
Also in the mix was loads of finger sized pout on the tinsels, and 4 good sized grey gurnard on the plaice rod.
My Turbot baits went untouched all day, not even a dog.
Got back onto the slip at 1:45 pm, a loverly day, not a cloud in the sky and quite warm., but the sea was great so an easy 50 miles.
We had the plaice for evening meal, and it was excellent.

Just one pic, coz we have all seen plaice before 🙄

 
 

He was try to ‘bags’ your rods 🤣🤣🤣🤣

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.
 
 
 

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.

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

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.
 
 

Last night the wife asked about sea state and tides for today, as she decided, with it being the hottest day this summer, that it would be nice to get out.
So, I asked where she wanted to go, wrecks, Skerries, or something else, and she wanted to go Mackerel fishing, and, TBF she is bloody good at it.
I was happy with that, but warned her that we would be having to work hard for just a few, as they are a bit thin on the ground.
Due to some medical issues this was her first time out this year, we launched at 08:30 and made our way out to some of my 'banker' mackerel marks.
Soon we were beginning to catch, only ones and twos but they were very decent sized fish.
TBH, it was very hot today, calm mirror sea, almost no wind, so that made the fishing a bit harder.
I went to 5 marks, and we ended up with 34 Mackerel, so not too shabby, and she also managed a Pollock of about 3lb off a rock mark.  Most have gone in the bait freezer, but 4 were jumbo sized and are in the fridge for eating.
Came back in at 4pm, the temp here in Lyme Bay was 29C, so quite warm !
A decent trip of 25 miles, but it was great to be out there again, and I quite enjoyed our maccy bashing session. I did fit in a visit to one wreck, but it was netted 🙄
No pics, coz we all know what the average mack looks like 🙄
 
 
 
 
 

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.
 
 

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.
 
 

Agree. Mrs135 has asked for another one before we head home at the weekend. Oh, ok then 🤣

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 🤤

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

Made our way to Gorleston harbour to jump on the High Flyer 2. The previous day the sea had been flat calm and a boat record tope was caught at 70lb. They had also had a big session on schoolie bass, tho mist were undersized. The first notable thing before casting off was there was a significant breeze, NE 12-15mph, so was going to be a bit snotty to start as wind against tide, The day was also rearranged to hit the bass marks first and do some drifts rather than be at anchor, then anchor on the tope mark once tide had turned and sea flattened off.....
Mackerel, plenty of them, all bait size, but no bass. Got harpooned by a scad, and thrown about a bit, but unlike 2 of the crew who needed to rearrange their stomach contents, all good...
The time came to hit the t5ope mark, a little bit early, but weren't too bad. First rod goes flying off... My mate to my right off of the back, then it goes quiet, dropped........ Shortly after, the rod to my left goes off, this time a 20lber on uptide to scad head. Then the tide dropped away and all went quiet, the wind switched to E, and that was us done, not a thing after that on feathers, bait or tope rigs, even with a move.
Right at the death a rod goes flying off, I jokingly said it was the seal that had been watching us for the last hour....... It was!! Hook pulled, seal reappeared to give us the flipper, and that was that.
With that we headed back in. A good day out except for the fish..... Roll on the 16th

Last night the wife asked about sea state and tides for today, as she decided, with it being the hottest day this summer, that it would be nice to get out.
So, I asked where she wanted to go, wrecks, Skerries, or something else, and she wanted to go Mackerel fishing, and, TBF she is bloody good at it.
I was happy with that, but warned her that we would be having to work hard for just a few, as they are a bit thin on the ground.
Due to some medical issues this was her first time out this year, we launched at 08:30 and made our way out to some of my 'banker' mackerel marks.
Soon we were beginning to catch, only ones and twos but they were very decent sized fish.
TBH, it was very hot today, calm mirror sea, almost no wind, so that made the fishing a bit harder.
I went to 5 marks, and we ended up with 34 Mackerel, so not too shabby, and she also managed a Pollock of about 3lb off a rock mark.  Most have gone in the bait freezer, but 4 were jumbo sized and are in the fridge for eating.
Came back in at 4pm, the temp here in Lyme Bay was 29C, so quite warm !
A decent trip of 25 miles, but it was great to be out there again, and I quite enjoyed our maccy bashing session. I did fit in a visit to one wreck, but it was netted 🙄
No pics, coz we all know what the average mack looks like 🙄
 
 
 
 
 

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

Last night the wife asked about sea state and tides for today, as she decided, with it being the hottest day this summer, that it would be nice to get out.
So, I asked where she wanted to go, wrecks, Skerries, or something else, and she wanted to go Mackerel fishing, and, TBF she is bloody good at it.
I was happy with that, but warned her that we would be having to work hard for just a few, as they are a bit thin on the ground.
Due to some medical issues this was her first time out this year, we launched at 08:30 and made our way out to some of my 'banker' mackerel marks.
Soon we were beginning to catch, only ones and twos but they were very decent sized fish.
TBH, it was very hot today, calm mirror sea, almost no wind, so that made the fishing a bit harder.
I went to 5 marks, and we ended up with 34 Mackerel, so not too shabby, and she also managed a Pollock of about 3lb off a rock mark.  Most have gone in the bait freezer, but 4 were jumbo sized and are in the fridge for eating.
Came back in at 4pm, the temp here in Lyme Bay was 29C, so quite warm !
A decent trip of 25 miles, but it was great to be out there again, and I quite enjoyed our maccy bashing session. I did fit in a visit to one wreck, but it was netted 🙄
No pics, coz we all know what the average mack looks like 🙄