Toerag

Is she setting it as per the usual ABU instructions to adjust it so the 'lure' drops slowly from the rod tip? That only applies to freshwater lure fishing with light lures, for sea fishing that's a load of crap. She needs to set things so the drag works as she wants it to, then when she presses the freespool button/thumbar the drag is disengaged and she can cast. I've never used a C4 leverdrag, but a 6600LD. I never used it for casting and got rid of it because the drag was crap.

Ah, but did you simply buy the same BS as you did with PP, or the same diameter? I reckon there's nothing between them if the diameter is the same. as long as you're talking 50lb whiplash/40lb PP or thereabouts. I can't vouch for the lighter BS's.

I've eaten red gurnard and it is actually really nice. However the percentage of meat to waste is pretty poor hence the low price for them. Interestingly, we are seeing a massive influx of Tub Gurnards here, I quote one of the local commercial fishermen who trawls for flatties:- "Yes most definitely, up until even last season reds were the most dominant, now reds are few and far between with more tubs than ever. An average night for us would be say around 150kg of reds but now lucky to see 20kg!!!."

I got the DVD for my birthday yesterday

The thing about braid is that a lot of people haven't cottoned onto the fact that there's a massive difference between the brands. I've used 3 braids - whiplash, fireline, and powerpro. Whiplash is incredibly thin - perhaps the thinnest braid per BS available. Fireline is about the thickest braid available. Powerpro is middle of the road in terms of diameter per BS. 80lb Whiplash is as thin or thinner than 20lb fireline! As stated before - use the same diameter as you would mono until you're used to braid, then reduce the diameter to gain the benefits. All my braid is used for boat fishing so the lightest I've used is 30lbBS. Whiplash at 30lbBS is unreliable - it seems to part in random places and at random strengths. Whiplash at 65lb is indestructible - it's so difficult to snap that it's dangerous to use really. The 50lb is about right - it's thick enough to behave in a predictable manner, yet still nice and thin. Fireline is so thick you might as well use mono. It also goes 'hairy' after a while. Powerpro is somewhere inbetween - I've had the 40lbBS on my reels this summer along with 50lb whiplash and the two are very similar in diameter and performance. It is more tightly woven so makes a humming noise through the rod rings, but that's pretty much the only difference. I guess it's like mono - some 15lb stuff is .38mm, some is .31mm. The thick stuff is cheap and tough yet isn't nice to cast with, the thin stuff is nice to use but expensive and less forgiving as it's pre-stretched. In the end the best all round monos are about .35mm

You have the choice of going for a simple 'measure and release', or 'weigh and release' with the result decided on heaviest/longest bag, or adding 'species points' into the equation - ie. each fish has a points tally associated with it, as well as measurement/weight points. Rarer species attract more points, eg. pout are 2 points per fish, whereas bass is 30, and there is 1point per 1/4lb of weight. You need a bonus prize for the best fish per species/specimen - otherwise the lad with 2 plaice for a total of 3lb beats the lad with the single 3lber because they have 2x plaice points compared to one. Measure and release is screwed up by the presence of doggies or garfish. As it's a comp for impressionable young people you need to encourage best practise - ensure size limits are strictly enforced, and encourage C&R. If it's a measure & return or weigh and return comp then ban barbed hooks.

Ooops, forgot about rays! Scad are also pretty spiky and common at this time of year if you're float fishing.

The magazines also tend to review trailerables, or new models, and most of the ones in my list have been around for some time. Given that a new 23footer is going to be in the region of £30-50k there's not too much demand or relevance for reviews of them.

Weevers are the only truly poisonous fish you're likely to encounter - they live in sand and there's plenty of pictures and other info on the web if you google for them. However, there are many other spiny fish:- sea scorpions, bass & gurnards are the things you're most likely to get spiked by. Toothy fish such as ling or whiting are also troublesome. Wounds from fish spikes or teeth tend not to heal very well due to bactieria in fish slime/saliva.

You are spot on - it's about 4 metres bigger than everything else in Whitby I think, so of course it's going to be towing a bigger trawl and able to cope with crappier weather. As to the price - well fish prices have been higher this year so it's bound to gross a better sum. What would be a truer description would be to know if the tonnage is bigger than ever landed before. I think Leon is also correct - we need to make sure that the current glut are allowed to grow up. If it means that the boats can go out once a month and catch their quota then brilliant - the crews can spend the other 3 weeks doing another job. Once this happens every year then the quotas can be increased.

Wilson flyers are unbeatable for the price I think - the only other choices in the 23ft range are a Hellraiser, Osprey 22, seaward23, ocqueteau/beneteau/jeaneau/arvor things, cheetah cat, duver 23, aquafish23. Here's my opinions of them:- Hellraiser - awesome machine, but needs a 200hp motor to get the best from it. Very rarely seen for sale secondhand as they're so good. Osprey 22 - new out so won't be available secondhand - look gorgeous Seaward 23 - normally come with twin shaftdrive diesels - fantastic seaboat as they're semi-displacement hulls. Most have the long cabin, but they did make a commercial variant with a short forward cabin. Ocqueteau etc. - popular but tend to top out at 17knots. Cockpit floor is covered in drain channels to get guts stuck in them. A bit 'hairdressery' for most serious anglers. Structually not too good according to the GRP repairmen I know. Cheetah - good reputation, not much in the way of a cabin or storage space though. Economic as it's a cat. Duver 23 - been around a while, either shaft or sterndrive versions available. Could be a good buy if you can find one? Aquafish 23 - outboard or sterndrive versions, relatively new so not many around secondhand. Not sure about the hull's capabilities, but they're popular. All should survive a F5-6 if you get caught out in one, but you wouldn't want to go fishing in anything more than a 3-4. The wilson isa catherdral hull so will involve a fair bit of pain if it's rough. The Seaward and Hellraiser have the best pedigree.

The alderney water taxi had a 27hp yanmar for years - it died due to lack of maintenance last year. I don't know anyone with a bad word on the honda 4-strokes - Cheetah sell them on their cats, and a lot of those are used commercially.

Cheers for all that info guys & gals I hadn't thought about barblessing my hooks, but I have a dremel so will give it a go next weekend if the weather lets me out. Failing that, then Promar looks the way to go.

Or you could do what I did - cut the top half off a 7kg butane gas cylinder and use the bottom half as my crucible. I'll post some pics sometime, but I can keep 100oz molten with my BT cable jointer's stove running on butane. Go to www.fishingweightmolds.co.uk for ladles and other accessories.

Calling all lure anglers - I had a lot of trouble recently untangling bass caught on big rapala magnums from my shakespeare landing net and have decided to get one of the rubber mesh ones I've seen on telly. Does anyone know where I can get one, or have any other input? It'll be used in saltwater so has to be corrosionproof.

Good points by CJS there! I reckon on 1mile / litre in my MI21 with it's 150 diesel sterndrive with top speed of 32knots. Mate of mine has one with a honda 135 fourstroke outboard and reckons on getting the same economy and performance, but of course his fuel is more expensive, although the engine is cheaper. With regard to drying/lifting out - you may be able to use a drying pad in your marina/harbour to do anode and driveoil changes. I regularly beach my MI to bleach the weed off the sterndrive as that really hurts performance. What exactly are you thinking of getting Elton?

I warm my moulds by lying them down open and casting a few 'half weights' first with no loops etc. These half weights can be then re-melted down. Alternatively just lay them in the melting pot on top of the lead - they'll float. You also need to pour swiftly - not in haste, but just swiftly, and try not to pour so fast that the lead 'backs up' in the mould 'funnel'. Have your mould next to your melting pot so you're not moving a long distance between the two, and although you need ventilation a strong draft is not such a good idea. Get everything prepped up and work fast - try go get an 'assembly-line' mentality and you should be able to work so fast that your molds get so hot you have to wait for the leads to solidify in them. Between two of you with 2 or more moulds you should be able to work very efficiently - on my own I can knock out 60-80 10oz supazooms in a session, and the critical factor for me is how fast my stove can melt the lead.

My volvo sterndrive diesel - oil change every 100hrs, fuel filters every year, alternator belt - every 2 years, coolant - 2 years. Sterndrive - oil change every 50hours - I work on this as being 50 hours motoring, but I simply check it every few trips or if I get line round the drive - if it's not emulsified or discoloured then it gets an annual change. I did use it with emulsified oil in it for at least a month a couple of years ago and having been flushed out it's been fine ever since. Anodes - annual change.Propshaft seals - 2 years. Bellows - 2 years with annual inspection. As the boat has to come out for antifouling annually then it's no real hardship to do the servicing. Yes, a sterndrive is more expensive than an inboard for servicing, but if you do a lot of miles then the reduced cost in fuel due to extra efficiency may be worth it. In reality it boils down to what you want to do with the boat - if all the marks are within 6 miles then an inboard is fine, if you're looking to do 30 miles+ wrecking then an outboard or sterndrive is the way forward for a sensible length of travelling time. Outboards are cheaper and probably just as reliable as diesels these days, but can you carry enough fuel and afford to pay for it?

Hmmm, sounds like a coverup for a threesome attempt gone wrong to me

I think the government created the license situation knowing that VCUs would gain a monetary value. You can actually give a license/VCUs to another person if you want to, or you can sell it to someone. The government receives no money, it all goes to the vendor/broker. They're similar to shares in that there is a market value, which does vary (usually upwards). I for one am a supporter of the scheme - it stops people jumping on the bandwagon to make a fast buck, and has the effect of stopping vessel size and power increasing as fast as it would have without the scheme. The only problem with it is the ability to get a license based on tonnage and horsepower instead of VCUs only - this has led to a lot of static gear (gillnets/trammel nets/potters) skippers selling their monohulls and buying a cat of the same tonnage and power that has more deckspace to allow more gear to be used . There is also no restriction of where a boat can fish, so big vessels simply steam round the country wiping out areas as they go - this provides no incentive for the 'local' skippers to look after their own patch.

We have a few deep bass marks like that - 90-130ft deep. They're mostly big gravel banks, but some are hard, virtually flat ground with the odd bit of reef up to 3ft high - the sort of ground you can drift over and only lose the odd hook but never any weights. We normally fish them on big springs (3.5knots drift) hard on the bottom with livebaits, but sometimes the fish will herd the bait up in the water at which time you can get them spinning up, or if the gannets are diving then probably by trolling big deep diving plugs. The bass we get are often stuffed with 2-4" long scad. Hope that helps!

Get one of those flow-troll bait containers or a traditional elliptical courge to tow behind the yak, that should work perfectly.

I don't speak for all boat owners - but I know this - the average private angling boat owner will get out 10-50 times a year (data gathered from me, my friends, and small boat fishing websites). I know most will put back a lot of fish, however there are boats that do go to the bass marks or wrecks on every single tide that they can. Everyone knows that they're not putting the fish back - they see them land them ashore at the end of the day, or see them bring the fish aboard and not put them back. These boats aren't fishing the bass marks for sport - you soon get bored of catching 3lb bass - they're fishing for beer money. They might fish the wrecks for sport, but what are they doing with their fish? On another thread Barry said he had 10 good ling one day - I'm guessing they averaged 18lb, so that's 180lb of fish. At 8oz per portion allowing 1/3 wasteage for filletting that's 120lb x 2 portions per lb = 240 portions of fish., or put another way, 60 meals for a family of 4 out of ONE day's wrecking. So, any serious anglers WILL catch more than they need for their own consumption. They may put some of it back, but let's face it, you don't spend £40k on an Aquafish or MI21 to go flounder bashing in the estuary do you? Everyone knows that the guys running boats like this are hardcore anglers who are good at catching fish. The only way to go is bag limits or commercial license - pure recreational anglers who put their excess fish back won't mind the back limit. Commercial license for an 'angling boat' is prohibitively expensive so only those who catch shedloads will need them. By the way - which would you rather have, a license on an angling boat catching 2 tonnes a year, or on a trawler or gillnetter doing 2 tonnes a day? RSA and commercials can work together on this subject as both hate the 'unlicensed commercials'.

Good advice from HA there. In the boat we get the bass on marks where we never see mackerel, or even catch them. A lot of our deep (100ft+) bass marks were found by anglers following gannets, but they still produce a lot of fish even though the gannets aren't there. We also find that certain marks produce certain sizes of fish, so you need to find the big fish marks. It's not so cut 'n' dried with shore marks, but you can certainly tip the scales in your favour. My opinion - if you want big bass and not schoolies then avoid clean ground, and fish a big bait - 1/2 or whole 10oz mackerel, or a whole calamari, or whole bluey, or double/triple peeler bait. Whole launce are not so good as you miss bites when the bass folds them up to fit them in it's mouth. Use 5/0-7/0 widegape hooks (varivas big mouth/sakuma manta/razorclaw big bend), maybe on a pennel rig.