Simon Everett

What a fabulous trip - the eagles must be amazing. Wher were you?

We have a sheet we give out to customers - which you can fill in with chinograph or wipe off felt tip. Gives all the info you need to anyone. Either leave it in the car window with a date and time that if you are not back by for someone to contact the emergency services - giving the info on it. The other option is to sign up to the Coast Guard CG66 scheme - they have your details then for all time - until you update the info if you change kayak etc.

A couple of us are planning a touring/fishing trip down to Coombe Martin from Minehead way. That stretch of the coast - the more the merrier provided you can keep your bum in your seat. No dates yet - kayak for one member hasn't been unloaded yet! This week it comes. He has a Marlin on order and we are just waiting for Customs to release the container. Probably mid July.

I know, I know - and shouldn't you be at work keeping those bikini clad life guards in check? There are some tope showing in North wales - sheltered from the south. Easy launch too. The Towyn lot have all thinned out and moved off again, like they did last year. There are a few around Treaddur Bay too - off Maen Piscar, about a 2 - 3 mile paddle but easy enough and plenty of bait about.

Quite right - they kill most of the sharks they catch - or cut them free at the side. Mostly bulls and lemons because they come right into shallow water - can be a nuisance nicking your hooked fish on the end of your line - all you get is a head. In California they also get a good number of threshers. Blues in America mostly come off the northern sports fisheries - Maine. They are big over there and a 200lber is not uncommon - but they are way out on the drop off, 40 - 60 miles steam. Over here blues average 50lb with a big one going over 100lb. If you go way out off Wales they are getting much bigger fish - 150lb - 200lbers occassionally with a good average of somewhere between 70lbs and 90lbs. My post about tackle should have read 200lb mono - not 20lb (missed a button!) Phooey - that isn't a nice new reel. Not tarty enough - Starvin has one of those!! Common as muck lad. You need one of the new Penn International Torques (like I am getting when it gets here....Torque 300!!) When you off on your charter trip? Martin - Ihave caught tope, just not this year!!

Stu - we pay more because of a couple of things: shipping - in the US they can stick the container on a train or truck - it has to cross the Atlantic first, then get trucked from the port (currently a container costs around £600 to truck over here) Then there is the import duty and VAT to pay - and you pay the VAT on the value of the goods, the import duty and shipping cost. Then you have the dealer's overheads to pay - and business rates in this country are extortionate, then the employment costs of the staff..........and it goes on and on. Then take into account in the USA you probably have a market of 5,000,000 potential kayak anglers - and over here about 5,000. Fewer purchasers covering higher overheads. Which is why you should support the little man! This doesn't just go for kayaks - but think how your local tackle shop feels - he is doing his best and then you go and buy stuff overseas - so when he isn't there for you to get your bait from, you'll understand why. If you want the facility, you have to support it. If you don't support him he goes bust - then you have lost the local outlet. You can't have it both ways. Just look at sub post offices in villages, or the local grocer etc........buy in Tesco and you only have Tesco. The little shop cannnot compete and in the end it is the customer who loses out because with little competition the supermarkets have the local economy by the short and curlies - and then the customer pays!

Being copied by a major manufacturer is flattery indeed!! We have had the hatch between your legs on the Dorado for 6 years now.......takes a 9 foot rod taken in half and fish up to 100lbs or so in weight!! What will they think of next? !

Yakdiver - that is EXACTLY why you have a rudder! INSTEAD of having to put in correction strokes, just point at where you want to go and paddle straight there - no correction strokes, no offset on the paddle, no edging to keep straight - just point and paddle. Going upwind, you don't need it, so raise it up and reduce the drag. That is why our kayaks are built with the rudder built in as an integral part of the kayak - not as an aftermarket add on, with the lack of strength that entails. If you are careful and aftermarket rudder will be fine - but be careful because they are vulnerable. Provided you are aware of the possible vulnerability it will be fine because you will give it the little bit of respect it needs. Pick the rudder up before coming ashore - OR make sure you hit the beach straight on and don't run back down (dig your paddle in behind you and use it to prevent the kayak from running back down the slope) - it is running backover the rudder that will cause grief, not coming in normally where it will kick up.

I had a go last year for the blues that come in fairly close off the southern Irish coast. There is a mark there where they do come within 1 mile and less of the shore. It was not successful - there were 6 charter boats fishing the same area for a week - not a single run between us. I also paddled out almost to the Fastnet, further west and about 5 or 6 miles out - blowing a bit so I didn't go any further. Again, only caught a few mackerel - water gin clear. I must have been able to see the feathers down to 60 feet, or so it seemed! Again no luck though. To be really successful you need A LOT of dubby in the water. I am going in end July possibly early August with a skipper (it has been mentioned, but not in public) right out. He will put the slick out - and we're talking 2 dustbinfulls - and I'll drift with him and fish the slick. The trouble is for a real chance of getting a blue shark you need to be well out. There are the odd ones coming in close - but you need to live on the spot and keep at it to get lucky and coincide. Porbeagles are easy to find - 1 mile out off Bude area. Plenty of them - but even a small porgie is a mean beast and about 1 in 4 will charge the boat - headbutt normally, some actually start to bite at the boat - they do get mean. Of course, you could get lucky and get hooked up to a nice, docile, 80lber - but the chance of meeting mum is always there. Porgies also breach regularly.....blues I have no problem with. I first muted the idea of a porgie because of their proximity to the shore. I think there is a more realistic chance of a blue from hitching a lift the 20 miles or more out......I also have the maings of a trip from N. Ireland again with a boat to do the donkey work, asa friend of mine had 18 blues to his own rod in one day last year......that is the best chance I have heard of! Late August or Early September is the time there - I am going for late August so as to get to Richis week down south! Rods - 30lb class is fine from a kayak, depending on the capacity of your reel a 20lb could be ok, but you will have to work much harder. You will be fishing them on the drift. A good drogue is necessary otherwise you cannot put any pressure on the fish. I use one that is about 4 feet square and it is fine. Reels: any medium multiplier with plenty of capacity. You want about 35o yards capacity - 50lb braid would be best - you could use 30lb braid with a long tapered leader as the rubbing length. Wire trace - at least 3 feet of 200lb wirethen a length of 20lb mono - rod length for on the kayak (your trace needs to be shorter so you can handle the fish - putting the rod in the holder while handlining the trace in is risking a dive from the surface and the trace snagging something before it gets back to the rod tip.....a shorter trace length of rod length only means you can reach the fish without having loose line around the place. PUT THE DRAG RIGHT OFF AND RATCHET ON ONCE IT IS AT THE KAYAK. That way,if it dives you can let go and the reel will let it go without trying to tip you over or pull the rod out of the slot and you won't get an overrun. Hooks - circle hooks are the thing now. Through the lips and up through the head - not too far back so you don't mask the point. OR through the eyes. You can increase the hook hold by sewing the hook into place too. I think it is going to happen this summer.

Coming in late because I saw this on the other side - and answered there. The Wychwood is excellent and what I have always used. Put a couple of corks on the top lines to stop it from sinking. Slows you down to almost a dead stop from wind drift. Those with a hole in don't work very well (I know what Paul has said!) in comparison. Get a big one made up - square is quite OK. Ripstop nylon from the kite shop, some tape for the edges. away you go - you can sew it home on a domestic machine, or find a friendly sailmaker who will do you a favour. It will only take him 5 minutes on an industrial machine.

Aha, the new, slimmer Yakdiver hits the water then It is the windage that makes life difficult going into a strong breeze - it will though, with determination and good paddle technique. You'll have bags of fun with her. As you get used to the difference in padling technique you will find the Prowler much faster than the Cobra.

Also glad to hear it turned out OK in the end - have you worked out WHY it happened yet? If you go over the rewind video in your head you might be able to work out what it was that caused you to fall off. Also a lesson learned that you really do need to practise getting back aboard - righting shouldn't be a problem at all. I was doing capsize drills for the lads in Sardinia and the wind was howling at around 45 knots - seriously. It is possible even in very extreme conditions - use the wind in your favour, not against you. Get to windward - but don't let go! The wind is then helping the kayak back over, and helping the kayak stay upright as you climb back aboard. Another thought - it is warm water now, relatively. Imagine what state you would have been in if this happened in cold water - like in Feb or March........you would have been hypothermic within about 5 or 6 minutes of getting wet. Merely getting out of the water doesn't overcome the onset of hypothermia either, until you can get out of the wind and get your wet stuff off and into somewhere to warm up then the hypothermia continues to deepen. Worth looking into so you can dal with it should it happen either to you, or one of your mates. Everyone should be aware of how to deal with a hypothermic casualty. Much of our safety kit is not carried for our own benefit, but for that of those around us. A serious trauma requires first aid - your first aid kit isn't so much for administering to yourself (you won't be in a fit state - or able to) it is for helping others either to help you, or for you to help them. Imagine a plug with one treble in one hand, and the other treble in the other hand.....you are handcuffed. How you going to deal with that then, even if you do have a first aid kit!

The trouble is to develop such a unit would COST MONEY - which anglers are generally loathe to part with. To whit - how many posts on here about dodging the system and buying from the States, or buying the cheapest unit available.....if you want good kit you have ot put your hand in your pocket, you can't have it both ways. You either pay for the R&D to get the better kit, or make do. Specimen and I both have Raymarine units - they are NOT cheap (somewhere in the region of £500) but they are submersible. Contacts do survive if given vaseline protection - much better and much cheaper than WD40 (which is just a mixture of various fish oils and some additives). The Hummingbird units HAVE BEEN built with kayaking in mind - which is why they have dedicated fittings for the Ocean Kayak angler models. Raymarine were brilliant when my screen filled up with water - it turned out it was a unit that had failed to be sealed - the replacement does get some condensation at first but it clears and the picture is bright, clear and very detailed. The screens ae sealed, as are the housings. The Hummingbird units are very similar in performance and the more upto date ones are probably more advanced than the older one I have. Starvin - I thought the whole idea was to have signs on your screen. That is the fish that is....

Excuse me for being fick - but it says it is a beach fishing comp........and what is the paddle round the pier bit? It doesn't say. Ta.

Am taking the range of kayaks down to the show and have been asked to do some kayak fishing demos on the lake there. Anyone lost for something to do, come and have a go and keep me company!

Lovely pictures from all of you. You lucky lot. Those cliffs look fantastic in the early morning glow. Fab ray Richi - what a pretty fish. Off to Pwllelli tonight for a boat test tomorrow - not yaking, but taking a rod to explore a couple of spots at dawn and dusk......

SPOOF? Mark - I say 3.

I am looking for an 8 kayak trailer to take them about. Less drag than 2 on the roof - use less fuel towing 2 behind than 2 on roof.

What bait for the smoothounds Richi? You never know I might be able to sneak off south....

good point about the selectivity - but it also requires restraint and when the 2 fish limit is introduced everyone will have to be bound by it, not just line fishermen, but speafishermen too. If looking through the 2005 Gallery that is the sum total of the years catch then I see no problem - except they could be a bit more imaginitive with their pictures and take the capture shot on the rocks with a decent background, instead of at home with an ivy clad wall and bird box as a background! That doesn't harm anything making the trophy picture look decent. As for becoming infertile with age - too big for any of us to worry about - a 17lber in Guernsey was stuffed full of ripe ova - it is these bigger fish that contribute more to the spawning success than the smaller fish. That is another reason to NOT kill bass over 5lbs - the bigger they are the more valuable they are to the spawning effort. 1x 10lb bass contributes as much spawning effort as 20x 2.5lb bass - because her eggs are larger and more viable and there are many more of them. Those very large females in the 13lb and 15lb bracket in the pictures and that you see in the anglong galleries as well - we are just as much to blame - are even more fecund than the 10lbers. If only we could get people to understand it though.

Great stuff Musket - nice fish that summer flounder!! Jealous as hell, long time since I caught a flounder, must 5 or 6 years. Blankseville every trip since then. Good to see the bass going back too - I know you return yours. Not everyone does and it is simply ignorance that peole kill so many, or greed. Bass are so easy to catch that returning the youngsters is good management for the future. Killing small (under 3lbs) bass and definitely killing any bass over 5lbs is sheer stupidity. I will get my flack jacket as I know that this will rile some folks - but the Americans have recognised the value of a "slot size" for taking fish with restraint for nearly 20 years. The Irish have recognised how valuable bass ae and have also brought in strict restrictions on numbers captured and size limit - 45cms and only 2 fish per angler per day maximum. This is hotly enforced too. Consequently, you can go out in Ireland and catch good bass virtually every day - the fish haven't been fished out. Are we the only anglers who are still living in the dark ages killing everything we catch? Bass are slow growing - that little schoolie in your last picture at 1.5lbs is between 6 and 10 years old. Imagine a 5lber - it has taken 12 - 15 years to grow to that size. A 10lb bass is geting on for 25 years old. So look at it this way - if you kill a 10lber, it will a quarter of a century before that fishes spawning from this year grow to be the next 10lbers. A QUARTER OF A CENTURY. On the other hand, if we look after our fish and operate a 55cm Minimum Landing Size (by law) which is roughly 5lbs, the majority of the bass you would catch would be that size - a 5lber every trip......I could live with that. AND there would be more of them. I am with you Musket, we must be very guarded about our fishing spots until we know who we are revealing them to. That may sound selfish, but it isn't, it is simply a measure to try and protect the fish stocks from unscrupulous exploitation - and it might not be YOU that does the exploiting. You only have to be excited and talk too ludly in the pub - that chap leaning against the bar has a mate who nets bass on the sly. Too late, your fishing has just been wiped out. Bass are very regional in their populations - if you net out an area it takes a very much longer time than simply the growth rate for them to repopulate that area - because it is like salmon returning to a river. Bass live in a certain area and it is those stocks that populate that area only - catch them all and the fishing will decline very quickly and remain in decline for years. The Manacles is a very well known bass mark, so is the Eddystone reef. The Eddystone has not recovered yet from being hammered in the 1980s - 20 years on and the stocks have still not recovered out there. The Manacles used to provide AN AVERAGE bass of 5lbs - now you are lucky to catch a 5lber and the main stock is only 2lbs, like everyhwere else. I hope people reading this don't think I am having a go at THEM - i am having a go AT EVERYONE ho kills too many fish. Personally, I have killed 8 bass in the last 10 years - that is very sustainable. I caught about 200 bass last year and killed none. I have no worry about people taking the odd fish - but there are less susceptible fish out there to catch to eat. Personally, a nice red gurnard would be on my plate before a bass - far more flavour in a gurnard (or a monkfish from the prawn trawlers or scallop dredgers - don't get me started on scallop dredgers.....!!! They ruin the seabed for ever.) Take care chaps about where and who you talk to about your good fishing spots - amongst your friends, quietly. But the walls have ears and the commercials are desperate for new fish and fishing grounds - so don't go talking openely about what and where - PLEASE. For everyone's sake, be restrained with your fishing and careful about disclosure. Thanks.

As it is Lowrance kit I suggest you ring the Lowrance Guru - Iain Henderson on 01506 406290, he will sort you out.

Don't be afraid of using a clip - I have never lost a fish or lure to a clip letting go. You have to keep pressure on the fish though - I can imaging a head shake on loose line throwing a lure off a clip. The one I use is a Breakaway clip that is a complete loop - crooslocks are also very good. The Rapala knot is strong and reliable - but a fiddle to tie every time. Tucked half blood is my preffered knot - uni knot for joining line is fine, but for some reason I cannot get them to work on a swivel or hook - 25lb mono tied with a uni I can break the knot in my fingers!! Tucked blood for me - it might not have the same strength in % terms, but it is a much more forgiving knot to tie and therefore more reliabel - which is a very important element. Lures trolled will not be affected by a clip, very light casting lures can be, especially some of the small floating divers. The extra weight of the clip is enough to upset their balance. Knots for little, light lures, clips for bigger ones and any that I troll (except redgills!)

Danny, judging by the number of replies you have had there isn't anyone on the Isle of Wight to meet up. Maybe you should try posting on the overseas website Richi goes out inside the Neeedles race a fair bit given favourable wind and tide. But you shouldn't go out there until you have the technique and stamina to paddle out and back. He has already had experience of one chap who couldn't paddle a couple of hundred yards against the tide, and that was in the harbour. You need to get out and get some miles in. A good 3 mile paddle will soon show you how fit you need to be. Just paddle along the coastline and back, just outside the shore break to begin with. You could take a spinning rod with you and a few lures to relieve the boredom - but you won't actually get bored, even just paddling will soon become addictive. There is always plenty going on to keep you occupied.

Jolly Jay, instead of the Eagle 128 - which works but doesn't last all that long from what many people who started with them found out - would be a slightly more expensive version from Hummingbird. They are made to withstand the salt properly and come from the same importer as your kayak. First rate after sales service too.