Scotty T

Hi all, fished Hengisbury Head on friday night, only for about 3 hours, last few hours of the flood. Made the mistake of walking along the beach, got probably two thirds of the way to the groyne and thought sod it this will do! Its a lovly stretch of beach and I can't believe why i've never fished it before. Bait wise I had rag and squid, first fish was a black bream just under a pound, folowed by a small bass (and I mean small). Then as the light faded I was plagued by small pout, to the point where I cast out a big worm bait on a pennel and had a pout on each hook! I took my carp rod and some rapalas so decided to livebait a pout but to no avail, did have a good knock on a whole squid but missed the bugger, with so many bait fish about its easy to see why there are some very big bass caught around this mark at this time of year, spoke with a guy who was spinning up a down the beach who said he'd had a couple of mackeral, and as i walked back there was a bunch of guys fishing at the start of the beach who were having similar pout problems. Will definatley be fishing it again soon now i've got a better idea of what the place is like.

Have had my Abu 7000 for about a year now, best money i've ever spent although i've never used a Slosh or penn. I do alot of heavy rock fishing and it comes up trumps every time, also use it for boat fishing with no problems.

Thankyou all very much for your much appreciated advice, will let you know how badly I got on next week!!!

Am thinking of fishing Hengisbury Head nr Bournemouth tomorrow night, I have never fished it before, I normally fish Chesil or the Purbeck rock marks, if anyone knows Hengisbury Head well i'd appreciate some pointers or advice, high water is about 8pm. Cheers.

Many thanks for all your comments. I'm not sure why the fish wasn't netted, different skippers have different preferences I suppose, I can assure everyone the eel was none the worst for her experience with trevors gaff! All other fish were of coarse netted. Cheers again and thanks for making me feel so welcome.

Sounds good to me, those are the figurs I had in my head. Cheers

What a bunch of thoughtless idiots, and an utter waste of emergency services cash, good for you for being so patient with them. On a seperate note when out boat fishing recently the portland coastguard helicopter was scrambled to lift a diver from a boat after she missed a re-compression stop. They fly the diver to poole where they have a re-compression chamber each time it costs the NHS £1000 not to mention the cost for the helecopter which is something ridiculus per minute. We got talking on the boat and thought maybe some kind of contribution from the divers side. Any thoughts???By the way this happens quite often i'm told. [ 06. September 2004, 02:08 PM: Message edited by: Scotty T ]

Hello all, Caught this tope and conger at the weekend neither were weighed so I thought i'd throw the cat among the pigeons and ask 'How Heavy???' Conger - original picture ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tope - original picture ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ edit note: I cropped and resized the original pictures to make them load faster and behave better in the thread. Just a click on the link if you want to see the originals. Newt [ 06. September 2004, 05:08 PM: Message edited by: Newt ]

edit note: the displayed pics are smaller versions but you can see the larger ones by clicking on 'original' just above each picture. Newt We arrived at Poole Quay at 7.30am for our pick up. Our skipper was Trevor Small who owns Sheila Ann, a 38ft Bullet, Trevor is an excellant skipper, knows his onions and a nicer bloke you will not meet. We steamed out to a wreck 11miles from Poole which is known to hold eels as Trevor put some divers down on her 2 weeks ago. Things didn't go exactly to plan as we really struggled to get enough mackeral, I was surprised how scarce they were with just one or two coming up every 5 or so minutes. Original We arrived at the wreck with the tide still flooding, quite hard as well considering we were fishing neaps. The fishing was quite hard for the first hour, with the only fish being a pollock caught on mackeral feathers and a tope caught on mackeral fillet. Original Original Once the tide slacked off the there was alot more activity, the fish were being to bite!!! I was fishing a flapper when my rodtip had a series of knocks, picked up the rod and the fish was on, once out of the wreck the fish came up quite easily but had a burst of life midwater, once she was in view I was very pleased with what a saw, a conger coming to the side of the boat, not massive by any means but my first ever one!!! Trevor gaffed her in the bottom jaw and in she came, Trevor estimated 30-40lb we didn't weigh her but I would appreciate your guesstimations (bigger the better). Photos taken we slipped her back and down she went. I caught the eel using an Abu pacific rod (6'9'') and my Abu 7000 loaded with 40lb mono, she took to the job very well my main concern was if it could hold enough line, I got about 170mtrs on the spool the wreck we fished was in 40mtrs of water, any deeper and I would have struggled. Original Original Original As you can see from the pictures the conditions were superb, and as I booked the trip several months back it made it all the sweeter. Another hour goes by when I get the mother of all bites on my Abu, totally differenty bite from last time so I hit into the fish and off it went, Trevor was stood behind me and said straight away TOPE, and looks like a good fish, this thing had troughed a whole flapper!!! What followed was the highlight so far of my short 15 years of sea angling, i'd gain line and again the fish would run, the clutch on my 7000 was working hard. Then the blurry image appeared about 5 mtrs down, she wasn't huge but it was a lovly fish, Trevor got the net and was about to net her when she got her headdown once more, I frantically eased of the clutch and she took more line, now I was **** myself, I'd seen the hook in the corner of its mouth and it didn't look to secure, up she came again and this time Trevor got the net under her and she was in the boat, WOHOOOOO!!! The hook came out a piece of cake, quick photo and back she went, excellant. Again she wasn't weighed so guesstimations gents??? Original Wer also had Pout, doggies and a nice Thornback of about 10lb. All in all a cracking day and roll on next time. Cheers all amd may your lines be tight ones. Appologies for the photo sizes, but it took me ages to attach them in the first place. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ edit note: shrunk the pictures and inserted links to the originals. You can pretty easily make the pics smaller before posting them. Any decent picture editor will do the job. I like Irfanview for this sort of editing - free, quick, easy, effective. Not only here but any internet place will usually do better with a picture that fits the screen so 800x600 is about the largest you want to use. I made these 640x480 because folks aren't just seeing the picture but some of the writing and other stuff around them. The originals are untouched. Newt

Cheers Bryan, I'm a conger virgin too!!! Will give you skippers details if we have a good trip. :cool:

Hello all, Am going wreck conger fishing on Sunday 5th Sept from Poole with 8 friends and fellow anglers. The weather forecast is fantastic with neap tides on the day, perfect conditions, skipper has told me the wreck is in 40mtrs of water, was dived from his own boat and is loaded with eels to approx 60-80lb!!! Will hopefully write a report next week and attach photies for all too see. Have a fished fill weekend and may your lines be tight.

Another cracking suggestion from the good ideas club!!! What I want to know is how the hell would they police it ???

Jezzzzzus, nothing like wishing and end to the summer!!! We southern folk have a good few weeks left yet on the Bass thankyou very much(if they let us). We'll be lucky to a cod off chesil beach before november/december so its not high on our agenda, but good luck anyway,

Thanks for the response fellas, going out next Sunday, neap tides so evertything looks good!!! will use my 7000 just to see how she responds to the conditions, will let you know how we do. tight lines all.

I fish often around dorset with a 2.5lb test curve carp rod, small fixed spool reel with 8lb line. Arm yourself with a seletion of Rapalas and toby spinners and try your luck, first or last light are normally most productive on a flood tide.

Hi all, just joined the forum and wanted to ask a question. I'm the proud owner of an Abu 7000 which I normally use of marks around the dorset coast, am going on a wreck conger trip next week from Poole and was wondering if I loaded my reel with 40lb mono would it be up to the job??? Whadya think..... :confused: [ 27. August 2004, 10:04 AM: Message edited by: Scotty T ]