Toerag

I believe one of our local skippers only fishes if it's a slow day and he needs to prove to his clients that there are actually some fish down there! I would personally object to the skipper fishing if the fishing was being done on the drift and the punters had to wait longer for the boat to return uptide because the skipper was sorting out his fishing tackle or fish. AS JB suggested, if the fishing's good then the skipper and deckie should be busy with gaffing/netting/untangling etc.

I wouldn't buy anything off them - they can't spell.

Norm - you have a PM

LOL!!! 6-9-8, It's in the first post!

The British boat-caught record was demolished last week with this stunning fish of 6-9-8. Caught west of Guernsey by Ray Fallaize. Thought you might like the pic.

yes, but are the fleet going to catch them all within a year like they normally do?

30l is probably not too big, I use a 30l karrimor Hot Rock one. Think about it - I put a tub of weights, tackle wallet, couple of floats, couple of plugs, camera, rag, lunchbox, flask and waterproof jacket in mine and it's full! You don't have to fill it up, and it will sit better on your back than a small bag with bits hanging off. No metal on it to corrode, apart from maybe the lid pocket zip. As to weights poking holes - I keep my grippers in a 1l drum-shaped posh ice cream tub. It's see-through and tougher than a normal rectangular ice cream tub, plus the lid doesn't seem to pop off so easily. Alternatively a malteser bucket would be great, I use one on the boat.

Barry - I think it depends on what part of the country they're in. Some areas seem to only hold small bass. Personally I think the mesh size should have been increased this year as there's more bass than usual hitting the 36-40cm range due to the big 2002 yearclass. This abundance of bass would have compensated for the reduction in takeable fish due to increase in mesh size.

Sole are nocturnal, if you have clear water like we do here then moonless nights are pretty much essential. They will come in to shallow water (6ft), and close into reefs so don't be afraid to cast short. Schnorkellers here see lots at night, but hardly any in the day. I've never had one, but my mate's done best with big ragworm baits on standard paternosters or running legers left out for a long time. Perhaps a 2 hook parternoster with 3 normal sized rag on each hook would give a good scent trail and allow a good chance of the fish finding the hook. Normal bait here is rag, but people don't fish with lug so that's no measure of the effectiveness of each sort of worm. We don't get as many as other parts of the country, but we do get a better average size.

Why did you get old-fashioned 'thick' dacron? Or did you mean to say that you've bought some 30lb superbraid like dynon or whiplash? If you got superbraid, then yes, you did get a good price.

You think that's bad? The old colours for 50V DC wiring (as used in telephone exchanges) were black +ve, blue -Ve. They have now changed to grey -ve blue +ve!! Someone is guaranteed to die by mixing up the old and new blues!

Stoaty - the general opinion is that the coloured water has been to blame, the divers reckon the visibility is the worst for 30 years. Also, the wrecknetters (and gillnetters in general) have been doing very well as the fish can't see the nets, conversely anglers have done badly as the fish can't see the lures! Anyhow, the water's finally clearing so sport has picked up, hopefully all the nutrients stirred up into the water won't create a massive 'may bloom' of algae.

Found them at last, had a shedload to 15lb yesterday!!! The big difference is water clarity, the colour's dropped out of the water so it's now black instead of green. Now I just have to wait for the ling and cod to turn up!

Krysb - porgies come in close, the commercial guys here netting for red mullet and bass in winter accidentally get them within 1/2 a mile of the shore in 20m of water. My father-in-law and I had a visitation from what we think was a porgie when we were wrecking the summer before last:- ..it chomped his (would have been double figures easily) pollack and a (would have been 5lb) cod that I caught. Both fish were seized about 2/3rds of the way up to the boat.

It's definitely a brill. The other identifier for brill is the white spots around the edge of the body, these are clearly visible in the pic. Even dinky turbot have a lumpy back, I've had one of 1lb and it was lumpy.

3 things Norm:- 1 - You're a jammy git!! 2 - Well done for beating the fish 3 - Wreck turbot - do you know if only certain wrecks hold turbot because I've never caught one even though I've spent a fair amount of time fishing hard on the bottom right into wrecks, including some known to be half buried in sand & gravel. Although people think they live in the scour around the wreck a diving friend of mine found a big double literally stuck to the side of a WW2 wreck last year, just like a topknot!

Pop to the library and look in the fishing books there - there's always a 'how to set up for shark fishing' page or two. - as for tackle - use a hire rod& reel, but make your own trace or buy your own from the shop, there's nothing worse than losing a fish due to someone else's poor knot tying or crimping.

..oh and reeling in to find out that your hooks have disappeared without any bites definitely means you've been crabbed! (normally spiders).

There was an ad for powerpro on the homepage last week?

Bites - if you're fishing multiple hooks for flatties/codling, then unless your rod is bouncing around mentally and nearly getting pulled in there's no need to reel in, just leave it out for 20 minutes then reel in the fish (if any). If you're using single baits for bass/cod/rays etc then the chances are that you'll know when you've got a fish on in no uncertain terms!!

Do a search on here. People on here like the suverans, greys longboat, & uglystik1480. They're not cheap rods but they're very, very good.

That is an incredibly telling comment about the fines there Steve. Who do we need to lobby to get the fine structure increased?

--> QUOTE(Norm B @ Apr 3 2007, 12:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> A few years ago I reviewed the Conoflex 20/50 which was a good all round rod and I still use mine but I don't know if it's still in production but it's worth asking. If not go for the 2 rods, something like a 12/20 and a 30/50 with reels to match, like the Daiwa SL30SH for the 30/50 and a Shakespeare Powerplay or Atlantis for the 12/20 with braid on both. Or even better just use SL30SHs or an SL30 and SL20 on both, that way you have common spares, and you get to know their foibles. Phish - good point, perhaps boat rods need to be rated in terms of weight like spinning & beach rods? Having said that, a 12-20 will handle up to 1lb of lead, and that's easily enough for all drift fishing, even in 100m (300ft)+ of water. The secret is to use thin braid, and not fireline.

Actually they're not too expensive. OK, they're not bargain basement, but they are very good value for money. I've never used one so I can't vouch for it, but they're similar to the daiwa SLxxSH series, which in my opinion are brilliant.

Unless your fishing for ray or conger at anchor then 20lb class gear is more than adequate, and 12 or 15 better for everything except pirking. As suggested, try out some gear before making a choice. If you want a reel without a levelwind then get a SL30SH and put 30lb braid on it, nothing comes near it for the price at the moment. See the braid threads for advice on braid.