spanner

baldycoup, I know just the place for you...... my avatar piccy ...... have a look at the link in my signature

Hi guys, I'm going to be driving all the way down to Poole at the end of August and I'll be bringing the kayak with me. If all goes to plan I'll have 3 days available to get out fishing, Aug 25-27, so I'm hoping some of you southern softies can show me a good time I want to catch a few of the species I can't get up here with smoothounds top of the list cloesly followly by bass and bream and I'm not averse to a few species of wrasse either. One thing I reaaly need to do is go and fish Richie's conger mark at Portland as its where I started fishing as a kid, the mark is right infront of Incline Road where our house was, long gone now, and I used to fish off the breakwater beside the Hood. So how about it, Starvin, Speciman, Richie and any others, any takers for Spanner's Southern Return? By the way, I'll be camping, anybody got any suggestions for a good yak-fishing friendly campsite in teh area, close to Poole preferably?

Simon, I agree with you, one without a hole makes a better brake than one with a hole. I used to use a fishbag but it was too much like an anchor, when I'm drift fishing I don't want a dead stop.....

Thats the same one I use and it works well.

Yep, I always carry one and use quite a bit whenever it is breezy. On a windy day it has slowed my drift from 4.5mph to 1.5mph and made fishing possible. I think the one I have is a cheap Plastimo drift chute.

If its a US made one its not actually 5mm, the yanks dont do metric. Its either 3/16 or 7/32 I cant recall, but whichever it is its close enough so that 5mm fits.

try the universal mounts page..... http://www.ram-mount-uk.com/universal-mounts.htm

Hi Gerry, All bought in the UK The bars were storage hangers that I bought in B&Q. They were a U shape with a flat bit on the end of the longer leg for mounting it on a ceiling. I just cut them off before the bend. All the RAM stuff came from GPS Warehouse, which is where the RAM-Mounts UK website (http://www.ram-mount-uk.com) links to when you go to purchase. The cradle I use for the VHF is the belt clip holder , RAM-HOL-BC1.

Nice one Simon...... I could do with some of that R&R

I was going to do the same thing but ended up just wearing it round my waist with the pouch facing forward. Everything easily to hand then

I wouldn't plan on anchoring in a current that I couldn't paddle against, especially as recovery would then be very dangerous. You would be committed to your position or downtide only and that could lead to problems.

Hi Gerry, Welcoma aboard. I'm based close to Aberdeen so not too far away if you want to meet up for a session some time. Don't be fooled into thinking the sahllow bays are always the best place to start. Pretty much the biggest hazzard you'll face will be surf, so I'd avoid a shallow beach launch until you are more experienced at basic handling first. Much better to launch from a harbour or a sheltered bay like Findhorn. Shallow beaches are OK in a flat calm though.... and we get lots of those up here don't we For a compass I carry a silva hilwalking compass as a backup to my GPS, dead simple and does the job. I use wading boots with my drsuit and apart from cold feet in the middle of winter they are great. I'm guessing you already have a pair? I got a couple of dry bags for using on camping trips but to be honest I get so little water inside it isn't really necessary. I've never had more than a teaspoon and I have a US made P13.

be safe guys http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgo...est/6562381.stm

I lock off the anchor trolley by taking a turn of the paddle keep around it. For the anchor line I do one of two things depending on the situation. The easiest is to tie an overhand loop in the anchor line and use a small snap link to attach it to the screw gate. When fishing for BIG fish I want to be able to drop the anchor in a hurry without having to pull the anchor trolley back from the stern/bow to the cockpit. Then I lock off the anchor line by taking a loop twice through the pad eye that is just back from the padde keep and put the loop over the paddle keep post. That way it is never actually tied and all I have to do is lift the line off the post and away it goes..... Mind and attach a float to your anchor line reel/winder first and make sure it wont unwind, no problem if it is a divers reel with a ratchet, I just use a bungy strap wrapped around the reel.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/6494533.stm No idea what the circumstances were but Balmedie is a shallow, sandy, open surf beach. The weather has been fine recently and the seas fairly calm. Be safe guys..... it only takes one mishap

oops... just noticed the replies When I'm anchoring in 'deep' water I use 200m of 65Kg dacron. When I'm anchoring in 'shalllow' water I use 100m of 110Kg dacron, cos its easier on the hands. When I'm anchoring south of the border I use 100ft of 3mm cord from B&Q The anchor trolley is made using the same cord from B&Q, with a short loop of on bungey cord, which also came from B&Q, to allow some stretch. handy for putting it tohgether and for riding at anchor. You can see the bungey on the right of the screw-gate in the picture. 2 x SS pulleys, 2 x SS snap-gate carabiners and 1 x screw-gate carabiner came from a chandlers, as did the pipe clips but any hardware store should have them . The D-ring came from an old walking boot, so I guess you can get them a cobblers. 1. Remove plastic screw from the rudder mount. 2. Use a SS M5 bolt to attach the D-ring. 3. Use one snap-gate carabiner to fit a pulley to the D-ring and the other to attach the second pulley to the pad eye at the bow 3. Unscrew the runners for the deck rigging from one side of the yak and remove the bolts from the runners. 4. Cut/saw the pipe clips in half, making sure you dont cut the mounting hole and that the base is short enough to fit in the recess where the deck runners were 5. Use the bolts from the runners to mount the 1/2 pipe clips in the same mounting points that the runners were. 6. Tie one end of the trolley cord around the bungey loop, I used a bowline, and fit the bungey to screw-gate. 7. Run the cord though the bow pulley, from the bottom up, and round the stern pulley from the top down, under the clips all the way 8. Tie it off to the screw-gate with another bowline. The short loop of bungey means you can keep the trolley taught and still have a bit of leeway for tieing the bowline and getting the length right. Hope that helps.

Date noted I have loads of big trolling lures for pike just waiting for a chance to get wet... that could be a good opportunity.... not to mention the ferrox

I rigged up mine on my P13 without drilling any holes and it can all be removed and returned to standard in a trice. For the stern pulley I fitted a small D-ring to one of the rudder bolts. At the bow I clipped the pulley to the lifting pad eye. I removed the runners for the deck rigging and used the same bolts and recessed nuts to mount plastic pipe clips that I cut in half, so they act as J guides to hold the anchor line in place.

Simon, Did you get my PM?

Here is one in Stonehaven. http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/webcams/index.asp

She certainly is a looker Glad you managed to get rigged without drilling You'll be able to paddle fast enough to tow a tuna spreader then?