GPSguru

Thanks for the replies guys, had a good look at the ugly sticks but am veering towards the Daiwa Tournaments.
 

Light winds and big tides meant another trip out - met at the marina at 7am and immediately found a problem - the marina are doing work on the wall near my mates boat and they left a dingy in our way and a floating pontoon half blocking our exit -

quick rant at the harbour master (who assured we would have unrestricted access throughout the works) and they come and move it - but that took nearly an hour and with the big tide flooding rapidly to high at 9am that left us very little room under the bridge - which wasn't lifting until 10am. we chanced it and squeaked under with 6 inches to spare at the highest point!  
the day didn't get much better for me despite big tides - only managing pout and a dog. Luckily I caught more than a weekends worth last weekend - and still had fresh fish in the freezer!
Tim did better with pout, poor cod, Thornie, spotted ray, a strap and a decent +30lb eel. 
freezing cold all day - but stunning skies. 

 
(tip if you didn't know - if you suffer from cold hands wear a pair of surgical gloves under your neoprene fishing gloves - works wonders for warmth.)
 

Sold it! She went Saturday and will be used by the new owner from his mooring in West Bay harbour next year after his boat got trashed in that recent storm.
Said he’d invite me up there to go out with him fishing….top bloke 👌🙂

Thanks mate, I've spoken to Luke.
quiet day jus one small codling and a few joeys
 

Tide is definitely something I'll need to consider to, as it makes for fun work trying to get back on the mooring in a ripping ebb. 

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.

wow what a day - non stop action from the first drop to the last........
Forecast weather window for the weekend had northerly 15mph on Saturday - northerly is off the land so 15mph is just about do-able.  Small tides so expectations were low.
Met at Tims boat for 7am to get out before sunrise - no messing about trying to find bait- straight to the 5nm mark with frozen baits in case the wind strengthened. Target - Whiting on the small gear- rays on the big stuff. 

dropped the hook, wind and tide not quite aligned but was ok bit bumpy an swinging a bit - dropped the small rigs first while the boat settled and was straight into the fish - literally as soon as the lead touched down. 
We had so much action on the small rods it was hours before we put the big ones out - Pout, Bream, Whiting, scad, dogfish. I have never put back so many decent bream - we must have had over 20 to the boat - all decent size. Some of the pout were bigguns too - great non stop fun!



eventually we tired of that and had we already had 2 decent bream and 3 big whiting for the table - so we put out the big baits only to find the Pout, whiting and bream hitting them too - Tim had a big Bream on a 6.0 hook and mackerel fillet!! - these fish were ravenous, either stripping the mackerel baits or hooking themselves!
I put down a mackerel head hoping the bait would last long enough for something bigger and I was rewarded with a big angry double figure Bull Huss.

I also managed a Scallop on the big rod - must have taken a fancy to my muppet...... 🤣 perfect for a starter!

 
On the way home we were escorted by a pod of Dolphins - always amazing to see. 

 
Bream and Scallop for tea,

with the whiting done in chunks for sunday lunch fish wrap!!

 
a pretty special day afloat to kick start the year - I was knackered though - combination of cold and all day action on a constantly moving boat really tired me out - I must be out of practice! 😜
Lets hope this is a good sign for the year ahead!

Picked up some rag on Thursday and decided that if when I got up Friday morning I felt ok, I would wet a line for a few hrs
In bed by 11pm on Thursday night, couldn't sleep due to being bunged up (nasally) so got up at 2am
Got my gear together and got to the boat about 3.45, just in time for the 4am lock out
Dark is an understatement, the lock gates opened and I gingerly made my way out into the inky blackness, with the outer perimeter walls barely visible it all felt a bit surreal
I really should've wore my glasses
Decided that I would fish the Coral as this is only a 10 min steam from the locks in the light, took me over 30
The bright lights of Penarth seafront very visable, as was the lights all over Lavernock point caravan park
Neither were any use to me
Got to my mark and breathed a sigh of relief when the anchor went down and dug in
A very small (sub 10m) tide, but quite a strong rip for approx 1.5 hrs before low water and very little wind
Dropped a whole squid on both down tide rods straight off the back and cast out an uptider either side with a few rag and a small squid on each
It was now 5am and time for a cuppa
I was just getting the stove out and noticed the first rod do a bit of a bounce, with one long stride I had it in my hand poised to strike
No need for a strike as the fish had quite obviously realised it had hooked itself  and was none to pleased
Felt a few tell tale head shakes on the way up and with the fish staying tight into the boat, I was sure it was a Cod
It's head broke the surface and I could see it wasn't a bad one either
With the net out of reach I had to hand ball it over the gunwhales and was happy to see it land on the deck
A fat little bugger that went just shy of 6.5 lbs
Sent another squid straight back out, made a cup of tea, ate a Viennese whirl and waited
And waited
Had a good pull down on the other downtide rod about 20 mins later that didn't amount to anything
Then had a small strap on the port side uptider
That was pretty much it for the last of the ebb
Slopped about a bit on slack water then swung into the tide fairly quickly to start the flood
All that happened here for 3 hrs or so, was another 4 Congers that were T barred off at the side until the tide just stopped
and the slight N Westerly swung me a full 360
Wrapped up the uptiders and just used the downtiders with the baits just bobbing along the bottom as the boat swung about
Looking about and the 12 or so boats that were around me were all doing the same sort of thing and one by one they were moving about looking to find a bit of tide 
It was now 10.45 so I packed in, pulled anchor and caught the 11.15 inbound lock
No a red letter day by any means, but got me off to a start for 2024
 
 
 

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 .........................

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 .........................

Not much going on at them moment so i'll share this. 
I took part in the 'Small Boat Sea fishing' groups species hunt and did ok - the rules are simple - small private boat or charter boat (but cant be a mix), no kayaks, the fish are on a list (only fish on the list count), photo the fish with your card to count - no min size)
I ended on 23 species, and came 19th out of over 100 entrants - my prize was a lure bundle from Lureshed UK - soft plastics and jig heads! some very well made lures!

my 23 species were....
Mackerel, Garfish, pouting, conger, Ballan, Corkwing, pollock, poor cod, dogfish, scad, whiting, smoothound, spotted ray, thornback ray, blonde ray, undulate ray, tope, red gurnard, tub gurnard, black bream, cuckoo wrasse, bull huss, thick lipped mullet.
Notable species for me this year were a few firsts - first ever undulate, bull huss and thick lipped mullet - and I always enjoy a cuckoo wrasse


I missed out on a few relatively easy fish that I've had in the prior year - they just eluded me! - Bass, Launce, Turbot, Grey gurnard and small eyed ray - would have seen me on 28 and in 10th! 
I should also be able to get plaice, spurdog, brill. so I must try harder next year!
the winner was Jake Davison from Muscle fishing (youtube channel)  and he had 38 - he was fishing from a tiny Polycraft tuffy and was able to travel the entire country with it on the roof - from Cornwall to Scotland for the Skate. 
thoroughly enjoyable to take part through the year as it makes you try for species you might not normally target, and with a wealth of prizes - over 30 this year - there's a real incentive to keep on it!

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.

Well, until today I haven’t been out at sea since the middle of August. The weather (mainly) and work (occasionally) had conspired to keep me landlocked with no chance of pestering, let alone catching, any fish.
At long last everything went to plan and I got out of Littlehampton on this mornings flooding tide.
By 8.45am I was four miles off in 16m of water with the pick down on some mixed ground.
Unfortunately no specimen fish took a liking to my lovely squid and lug baits though I did manage 15 nice (over 1.5lb) whiting a 4lb pollack and some straps. 
Most importantly the boat,engine and trailer all worked perfectly and I was able to enjoy a much needed day at sea.
Hopefully we will get a spell of settled weather soon so I can get out and play again.
 

A short weather window on a big tide, so it had to be worth a go.
Launched in the dark at 07:00 with brother in law as crew. Went out to 4 different wrecks between 10 and 15 miles out and there was nobody at home, not even a Pout !
However, we did mange to lose 6 sets of gear between us, I lost 3 slow jigs, and James lost 3 sets of running booms. The sea was a tad lumpy past 10 miles, but still doable.
As we had to be back on the slip for 12:30 to catch the tide, I decided to head inshore for the last hour, at our usual bait mark near the Orestone.
On the way back in I noticed 5 boats fishing an inshore wreck (the coal boat) at 5 miles out, which is unusual, so I guessed either a) all the other wrecks were netted, or b) the fish were showing inshore.
Once on the inside of the Orestone we decided on Maccy rigs, looking for decent Mack or Whiting. The sounder was full of activity, mostly on the bottom, so we dropped the rigs. Straight away I was into a fish that was definitely not a Mack or a whiting, it was, however, a 50cm Bass. This is pretty much the way it continued for the next hour with Bass, Pollock, and Channel Mackerel. I tried small slow jigs, and also 115mm Redgills, but the only thing that would catch was the 3 string tinsel Hokkai's. I assume the Mack, Bass, and Pollock were chasing some sort of white bait, but using the livescope I couldn't identify what they were chasing.
We ended up with 12 Bass from 48 - 52cm (we kept 4), 9 Pollock of about 3 - 5 lb, and I lost count of the Mackerel, but some were very large.
After this episode I have started tying my own feathers (Tinsels) as the 'ready mades' are unreliable, we lost a good half a dozen decent fish to bad dropper knots, and snood breakage.
Sorry, but no pics this time. My GoPro has bitten the dust (they are notoriously unreliable, but give good footage), and I will replace it with a DJI Osmo Action 4, but they are like rocking horse poo at the moment, so I invested in a cheaper Wolfang GA460, and need a couple of sessions to get the hang of how to operate it efficiently. I got some footage, but it was just us going uptide on a wreck for another drift.
So, almost 45Nm, but it came good in the end. The sea was flat inshore so I fished until the last minutes then gave it beans to get back (40kts).
I am hoping to get out over the Christmas, weather permitting, and make a trip the the Skerries for some winter Turbot as there are less Plaice around to steal the baits.
Hope you all have a good Christmas.
 
 
 
 

Ideally 2kts ish, any faster than 3kts and the bass need a motorbike to catch you up !

We troll using a Portland rig, with a 3 or 4oz cannon ball lead as they don't spin. The lure trace on the portland is about 5ft.

A short weather window on a big tide, so it had to be worth a go.
Launched in the dark at 07:00 with brother in law as crew. Went out to 4 different wrecks between 10 and 15 miles out and there was nobody at home, not even a Pout !
However, we did mange to lose 6 sets of gear between us, I lost 3 slow jigs, and James lost 3 sets of running booms. The sea was a tad lumpy past 10 miles, but still doable.
As we had to be back on the slip for 12:30 to catch the tide, I decided to head inshore for the last hour, at our usual bait mark near the Orestone.
On the way back in I noticed 5 boats fishing an inshore wreck (the coal boat) at 5 miles out, which is unusual, so I guessed either a) all the other wrecks were netted, or b) the fish were showing inshore.
Once on the inside of the Orestone we decided on Maccy rigs, looking for decent Mack or Whiting. The sounder was full of activity, mostly on the bottom, so we dropped the rigs. Straight away I was into a fish that was definitely not a Mack or a whiting, it was, however, a 50cm Bass. This is pretty much the way it continued for the next hour with Bass, Pollock, and Channel Mackerel. I tried small slow jigs, and also 115mm Redgills, but the only thing that would catch was the 3 string tinsel Hokkai's. I assume the Mack, Bass, and Pollock were chasing some sort of white bait, but using the livescope I couldn't identify what they were chasing.
We ended up with 12 Bass from 48 - 52cm (we kept 4), 9 Pollock of about 3 - 5 lb, and I lost count of the Mackerel, but some were very large.
After this episode I have started tying my own feathers (Tinsels) as the 'ready mades' are unreliable, we lost a good half a dozen decent fish to bad dropper knots, and snood breakage.
Sorry, but no pics this time. My GoPro has bitten the dust (they are notoriously unreliable, but give good footage), and I will replace it with a DJI Osmo Action 4, but they are like rocking horse poo at the moment, so I invested in a cheaper Wolfang GA460, and need a couple of sessions to get the hang of how to operate it efficiently. I got some footage, but it was just us going uptide on a wreck for another drift.
So, almost 45Nm, but it came good in the end. The sea was flat inshore so I fished until the last minutes then gave it beans to get back (40kts).
I am hoping to get out over the Christmas, weather permitting, and make a trip the the Skerries for some winter Turbot as there are less Plaice around to steal the baits.
Hope you all have a good Christmas.
 
 
 
 

Bah Humbug...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ok, ok, Merry Christmas Outlaws. 👍

Happy Christmas Pete, and also to all the other offshore Outlaws.
 
 

Happy Christmas Pete, and also to all the other offshore Outlaws.
 
 

Happy Christmas Pete, and also to all the other offshore Outlaws.
 
 

Thanks Pete, and a happy Christmas to you  and all our other forum members and readers. Geoff.🙂

gps
happy xmas to you and your famerly
 

Hmmm, very good action camera's with excellent footage quality, good build quality as well, however, they are notoriously unreliable from a firmware perspective, things to look out for are , overheating, freezing up whilst recording, crappy audio, audio that is not in sync with the footage, recording a split screen video, randomly turning off, turning off in temps below -3c, battery going flat when the camera is turned off (a major issue on all GoPro's), and poor battery life
Be advised that they are very microSD card fussy, generally the Samsung Evo Plus seems to work in them fine.
A lot of those issues go right back to the GoPro 3 and still haven't been fixed on the gopro 12 !
My GoPro hero 7 Black has bitten the dust, it won't turn on unless you remove and refit the battery, then it turns on and off perfect for about 30 mins before returning to its 'no turn on state', I have re-flashed the firmware numerous times, so in the bin it goes.
I will now replace mine with a DJI Osmo Action 4, but they are hard to come by at the moment, so I have got a Wolfang GA460 as a temporary measure.
You will probably be best in shooting at 4K30, and then outputting the final edit in 1080p, this will give you the best cropping and editing ability.
Software wise I mostly use Corel Video Studio Ultimate, but I also have Black Magic DaVinci, which is harder to use, but the editing facilities are mind blowing.
 
 
 

Do you remember when you wanted one for these for Christmas?