Chilly Start At Baiter

[Wedger]

Nice to see so many Poole Piscatorial Pioneers preparing to play at Parkstone Plague .

 

 

 

 

A lovely start to what we all hope will be an enjoyable and productive day.

 

Good luck to all .

[Wedger]

Bacon roll anyone?

 

[Afishionado]

Nice piccy Wedger, I can almost feel the cold creeping out of it

 

I wonder what happened to the forcast 25mph NW wind?

 

I shall be eating my roast leg of lamb, pommes Dauphinouis, and buttered savoy cabbage in my nice warm lounge when they come back in the frigid twighlight, damp and fish slimey...........

 

And they call 'me' Mad Mike

 

 

Mad Mike

[Wedger]

Wanderer's return to Playa-del-Parkstone.

 

Funny how the camera as well as the Met. can also give a very glossy view of conditions. This is how The 'Shoreman' viewed the return.

 

 

The 'Intrepid Ones' will no doubt tell a more colourful story after a bevy or three .

 

 

 

 

 

[Wedger]

and then...............

[Wedger]

and.............

[Newboy]

So, come on guys, what is the result?

 

I've heard the fishing isn't too good today, or maybe just some of the chartered boats?

[Wedger]

Kam,

 

I learned two new 'nautical' terms today .

 

1)

[TomBettle]

Despite many saying the fishing was poor.

Martin McIntyre, his brother Brian, and myself on Quest II had a great day's fishing even if we didn't get any record breakers.

 

Dropped the hook on a wreck some 14 miles off at a few minutes after 08:30 and by 08.40 we had the first of quite a few nice snakes at the side of the boat.

 

Number one to me at somewhere in the mid 30lb class, next also to my rod, a wee strap around 25lb or so.

 

Then all hell lets loose with the three of us into fish at the same time and me wondering how I was going to play my own fish whilst T-barring the other fish, drink my coffee and smoke a ciggy at the same time.

 

Martin hooks into something very solid, but moving. Not a Conger, whatever it was is just pondering up and down tide (and then back again). After 15 minutes he has the fish half way up and up and down tide it still goes. 25 minutes in and still no sign then his 30lb braid parts and we will shall never be any the wiser.

 

 

Another half an hour on our wreck and the tide is meaning we require 2lb of lead and the bites are beginning to drop. On top of that the steady force 5 wind, right on the beam is making things a tad uncomfortable and waves are sending clouds of spray into the cockpit so we head in 10 miles on to Dolphin Sands where we spend the duration hitting dozens and dozens of Whiting up to and around 2lb. In addition, the prettiest tiny Blonde Ray of about 1.5lb.

 

Nice meeting those of you I haven't before at the presentation. And although after seeing on or two of the sizes of fish that took prizes I wish we hadn't been quite so keen with the T-Bar we did had a cracking day out.

 

If at all possible we shall definitely fish next year's open.

 

Thanks Guys

 

Tom

[Sam]

our day was not so productive we were ment to be heading down to the sky but a change back to our boat instead of garys ment it was to far so headed for a small wreck in hope of a conger, 1 conger in the hole day how rubbish, dad probably saved the day with a 12lb smoothhound because all i caught were doggies and pout.

 

but something good did come out of it we all won prizes.

 

dad:

[Swainiac]

Early start for me....up at five to get tackle loaded into percival, then the drive down to Baiter....early doors saw me in autopilot, and promtly drove to Charlies workplace, and not baiter!!!! A quick turn round , and down to the slip, booked Bob F and I in. To see Veronica and Sally at the helm of the breakkie table was a heartwarming sight, thank you for that, started my day well. Bob and I finally launcehed and headed for a mark not a squillion miles from Swanage, target speicies being Spotteds. A few doggies, pout, then a Spotted for me, although when she curled around the hooklength..my hand was broader!!

 

A change of mark was called for, so we tripped off towards the Betsy, anchored up and tried for a snake or two. We actually found doggies.....theres a surprise! pout, not huge but weighers, and Bob sqeaked out a nice winter Pollack, caught hard on the bottom. We tried a few drifts, Bob giving me some instruction at the helm, thank you for that, and then we decided on a few minutes flattie bashing before weigh in.

 

I took splash out back to Harbour, Bob giving me more instruction on the finer art of trimming the vessel, and we popped the hook down into six feet of water, just off the slip. Fifteen minutes later, we decided to pack up, and I had a final chuck of my gear. A slow retrieve and neptune answered my prayer for the day, a small flattie, which took the ragworm bunch just as I lifted the gear off the bottom. Into the bucket, and back to the slip to recover the craft.

 

Bob Weighed the fish in, and much to my surprise, it nudged the scales a little over two pounds, but with bigger fish reported, I wasnt at all hopefull. So how surprised was I to take second place, and with the cash prize still on the table, thank you very much!!! A great day out, my first day fishing since breaking the wrist, just glad I didnt blank!! Thanks to the committee for the oraganisation, of what appeared a fantastically executed operation. Great to see sponsers at the prize giving, I hope that they get good coverage, for next years prizes <ggg> Well done all.

 

Rich

[Adam F]

Another early start saw me arriving at Baiter for 6.30am to help get set-up - it was cold, but with the mearest hint of a breeze had me hopeful for a nice day's weather. The sun soon started to appear along with the entrants - many thanks to the committe members who stayed to complete the registration.

 

I was booked on Dawn Raider with Jimbo this year (his turn!) and the plan was to head to a wreck for an eel or two, logic being that the 40lb 100% target weight wouldnt be too hard to hit.

 

Flying up the swash channel we were greated by even flatter conditions in Swange bay, and at 27 knots we were soon rounding the Anvil heading west. The sea got a little rougher for the last 5 miles, but no to cause any concern and we kept up a 14 knot cruise. On arriving at said mark an awkward wind over tide / diagional situation made calculating the anchor drop tricky but 2nd time we were there and the wreck showed nicely on the plotter - but would the snakes feed given the bright conditions?

 

First cast and I'm in - but the excitement was short lived as a fat pout made its way to the surface...false alarm! But not more than 10 minutes later the the aggresive tugs of an eel were met with a pleasing bend in the rod!! Fish on!! ....and that's how it continued for 6 hours until 3pm!

 

We had a take on each rod every cast for the whole day - we used 5 boxes of squid, 4 cuttle, a dozen mackerel and 4 fresh pout. The fishing was hard as even though the tide was neaps, it still requires 2lb of lead at max tide, and a 30lb eel in the tide is tough going - we estimated to have lost as many eels as we landed in hook pulls and breakages. Most of the fish we like peas in a pod - 20-25lb....it seemed imposible to break the 30lb mark - James did twice with a brace of 31lbers, but I struggled. We had numerous double hook-ups and twice had 4 eels on at once. But, I left it until the end of the day and 10 minutes before the end to snare by best fish, a cracker of 38lb. We calculated over 40 eels boated throughout the day.

 

The weather stayed OK as well - we heard on the VHF conditions further east were snotty, but where we were it stayed fine - strange....

 

The steam home was very pleasent with the wind now dropped, and in little under an hour we pulled up at baiter to the weigh-in. The big eel looked a good bet all the way and was confimed later at the mariner when it took 3rd in the round fish comp and the biggest round fish pools money - a good days work!

 

Thanks must go the competiton comitte for organising another superb event, and we was supported by the numbers who turned out. Some great prizes and smooth running made it a memorable day! Also thanks to James for skippering DR.

 

Cheers

 

Adam

[duncan]

A late start for me, but that's the advantage of not having to launch - even if I was at the wrong end of the harbour!

 

Alarm went at 7 and I had the boat ready for 0720h - although I hadn't bargined for the frost and the heater took a few minutes to warm it up enough to get the iceo f the screens.

 

0730h and we slip the lines and head off sticking to plan A. This was a calculated and potentially rash plan as we had never actually caught the target species before - any of us! However it seemed sound ...........

 

the target were huss; they had the potential to deliver excellent speciemen weights and we 'knew where they were' based on Dave's experiences as a potter "a couple of years ago".............

 

So throttle open, trim out and off we went through the harbour.....a friendly wave to Great White (who appeared to have stopped to feather bait off Old Harry... ) plotter on goto gave us 13.5 miles of open water and winding it up to 28 knots gave us an ETA of 0825h - what a perfect day!

However as we left the lee of the Purbecks a reduction to 22knots seemed prudent and we eventually arrived at our mark in snotty conditions and to find a North End of a string just North of where we had planned to fish - poetic justice or what?

No great shakes as the gulley we planned to fish ran a long way E/W so a move a prudent mile E saw us drop the hook into 150ft, and conditions suggested the full 150m of chain/warp go with it..........

Thoughts of recovering that lot were quickly dispelled as the first drops resulted in instant action - there was something actually down there!

A couple of missed bites and bare hooks later Dave and I were both into fish and, amazingly, both were huss! On the boat his registered just over 8lbs and mine just under 7 so we kept his and put mine back (expecting bigger!)

 

Well, apart from a sloppy beam sea, some excellent soup from a pressure cooker, the odd drop of pussers rum in the tea.........the final tally read 2 huss and 2 conger to Dave, 4 huss and 2 conger to me; together with 1 dog and a fair few pout. The majority of the pout being contributed by Phil.

 

Running back in the change in the conditions after the first 5 miles was absolutely amazing, and by 3 miles off the sea was as gentle as a kitten. Given the weigh in time, and the journey from Rockley by car, we eased up to 32knots from the back of Peveril right through to Rockly, dropping to 10 through the entrance as required by local byelaws!

 

Great day out and a plan that (almost) came together - Dave thought it did anyway! His Huss weighing in over 10lb and 100%+ on the scales at baiter.

 

Thanks to all the organising committee, who put in endless hours of effort to make the day run as smmoothly as it did. Thanks to Aidy at the Marina for the warm welcome, and of coure the sponsors who contributed so much to the event - the Icom, Lowrance and Raymarine products on the table would all have been welcomed on Phaeton.

[blueboatdriver]

Not too much to shout about on Bliss 2 in the way of fish anyway. We did have fun getting the ten man life-raft down off of the wheelhouse roof while ten miles off though.

 

Tony Way isn't on line so he's asked me to thank all of the organizers, who he appreciates have put a lot of time and effort into getting this whole thing off the ground. Especially those who had to start late and get in early to man the scales etc.

 

Thanks from all on Bliss 2 also, even though we didn't win anything it was great event and look foward to the next one.

 

 

[blueboatdriver]

Poole Piscatorial Pioneers preparing to play at Parkstone Plague  .

 

 

 

Cracking bit of aliteration Wedger

[TomBettle]

I am reflecting on yesterday's comp and from what most people have said we all really enjoyed the day and will return in even greater numbers next year!

 

My only gripe ( and I promise it isn't a serious one! ) is that we saw Eels far smaller than several we hooked being weighed in.

Personally I wouldn't keep an Eel unless I believed it held a good chance of taking the competition, but my crew assured me that "Dad" makes something very tasty from them and so they were allowed one each. I really hope that the other snakes brought to the scales go to good use...

I am sure they will and why I am writing this I am not sure, it was just something on my mind.

The competition was excellently organised and appeared to run like clockwork. In addition, it being a specimen comp was fantastic in cutting down on the wholesale slaughter seen in comps of yesteryear.

I don't know how it would be viewed by the committee and the masses, but to enhance the conservation side even further would the club consider a minimum size to weigh in?

For example: My crew were Congering (not dancing round the boat, but trying to catch eels ). Brian was only allowed to keep his strap, because it was his first eel and he assured me it would be eaten), but I would have been very happy with a 75% of specimen rule. Meaning we wouldn't be eligible to weigh in an eel of less than 30lb

 

The rule would apply across the species board and would hopefully reduce even further the killing of fish that would not normally be for the table.

 

Is a 75% of specimen size a good rule to introduce or do you think it would just make the competition less attractive?

 

****

 

I have to say that after being in this "new" club for just a month the experience has been very rewarding. Loads of great people, collectively with tonnes of experience across the board. Everyone has made me feel very welcome and shared information. Thanks.

 

Tom

[Newboy]

COnservation all very well, but on the other end of the spectrum, what if it was really bad day? Very few fish being caught, and there's a chance prizes lower down won't be won because very few fish being brought back.

 

I'm sure most fish were taken back to eat one way or another.

[Sinbad]

A fantastic day out in Sinbad, albeit spoilt by the fishing !

Alun J was up early for the sign in at baiter, and express couriered two bacon rolls back to Christchurch slipway.

Launching from Christchurch and fishing the inshore bay marks we thought would give us better chances with a nice Bass or sizable Whiting, or even hopes of snagging a Cod/ Ray / Conger, which is always a possibility in this area.

(Some chance!)

Also made sense to me, with small / slow boat not to fish offshore and lose the first part of the ebb and the flood to steaming time. Perhaps should have stayed in the harbour for the flatties !

 

The plan was to fish the last of the flood off the ledge, and then the ebb at Xray.

In the end we fished Xray then a small wreck 2m further offshore, for masses of Doggies and a few whiting and Pout, then returned to the deep water off the ledge on the flood. The plan was OK, but the water temperature of 8 degrees was a severe change from two weeks ago, and may have put the conger off and moved the Whiting offshore.

 

Listening to all the 'whingeing' on Channel 06 about the lack of action in the spoil area, was at least easier to bear as we were finding the sport between dogfish, fairly poor to say the least.

The steam back in was un-memorable 20mins or so, followed by rapid pack up, drop off boat at Alun's, and change cars for the drive over to Baiter by 16:50hrs - just made it! Bit like the 'great rod race' only without the camera crew and the fish.

 

Anyway, we very much appreciated the early start that Veronica and others made to cater for us, and the many hours of personal time given up by the organising committee to make the day run so smoothly.

 

I thought the sponsorship was remarkably generous, the prizes very attractive to competitors and well targetted to boat fishermens needs - it was also good to see the sponsors representatives there on a Sunday to support the prize giving.

 

This has given me great encouragement to do better next time!!

 

Paul F

 

[duncan]

Is a 75% of specimen size a good rule to introduce or do you think it would just make the competition less attractive?

 

Tom, a good point but one that I think has to sit with the skipper and crew on the day.

Personally I wouldn't bring a fish to the scales that I didn't believe had a reasonable chance of a 'major' prize unless I would have taken the same fish for the table on any other occasion.

The ban on sharks, including tope, taken last year indicates a serious concern over conservation by the club and committee, and the lack of anyone targetting wrasse, despite the opportunities available in our waters, is I believe indicative of a wider responsibility.

It would be nice to know the estimated prize cut off percentage throughout the day but even this is flawed as the apparant discrepency on my scales showed!

If the club was looking to implement a rule across the competitions fished through the year I would be more in tune with your suggestion but this is the only one fished to the scales with little evidence of people targettign inediable species over the years.

Good topic for airing though.

[Paul J]

Is a 75% of specimen size a good rule to introduce or do you think it would just make the competition less attractive

 

Tom,

 

Thanks for bring this up, it's a good point and one i was reflecting on today.

I will bring this to the commitee to discuss.

Input like this helps us improve year on year which is our aim

 

Cheers

 

Paul J

[TomBettle]

Is a 75% of specimen size a good rule to introduce or do you think it would just make the competition less attractive

 

Tom,

 

Thanks for bring this up, it's a good point and one i was reflecting on today.

I will bring this to the commitee to discuss.

Input like this helps us improve year on year which is our aim

 

Cheers

 

Paul J

Thanks Paul

I don't want to be seen as an interfering busybody, and the idea wouldn't stop people keeping fish for the table during a competition, it would just make the weigh in more competitive with only the very best fish being elligible.

 

Eg: Yesterday, me and the guys had plenty of Whiting we didn't weigh in, but we did keep a few to take for tea. My crew also wanted a Conger each as they eat them. but I did limit it to one "nominated fish" each. No harm done and no wastage.

 

The obvious difficulty is a descrepancy in scales:

On the scales on the boat Martin's conger came in at about 34lb and on the official scales 6 or 7 hours later it was about 36lb, however the Whiting I weighed in was 2lb 4oz on my scales and only 1lb 15oz on yours. I wasn't worried as as far as I was concerned the competition was fun and on the whole I think most people would be happy.

The other problem is if the competition was particularly tough you may not get enough fish weighed in for the prizes available. I don't think that their is an answer to that apart from maybe rolling smaller prizes over to another competition.

 

As I have said in my Poll, it is just an idea that even if not officially carried over I would probably instigate on my boat for all fish not normally consumed.

 

A final thought, although probably very tough to monitor in practise would be to have assigned fishing "zones" where competitors must fish.

Within each of the zones a marshal boat is available with official scales and fish are weighed and released (where appropriate) on board with the marshals decision as final. The hardest part here is transfer of the marshals at sea. It isn't actually difficult to do safely, but does take practise and it may not be feasible for H&S reasons.

 

Tom

 

PS: Anyone who reads this thread and or the Poll, please input your thoughts, positive or negative.

[great white]

Hi all

Nice to see that as we all recover from a long day the comments are all so positive

 

after a very busy and enjoyable day yesterday, we can all reflect on the events of the day.

What a superb turnout, Thanks to all who fished and especially the Ladies that got up early in the cold to help out.

 

I would like to join in all of the comments about our numorous and very generous sponsors, they are helping to expand this competition year on year and we all must thank them for their support.

 

On the point that Tom makes on conservation, we as a Club are 100% behind conservation of our sport and the fish that we target. No one more so than my boys and I.

 

However [As Duncan says}on the one comp a year that we run with a weigh in the odd fish taken to the scales I consider to be acceptable.

 

We spent ages yesterday changing the water in my bait tank in the effort to keep the smoothy and Conger alive, but after weighing they would not swim off in the harbour [the LSD did}

so they, together with a few pout and another non returnable eel caught on another boat were given to a friend from work to be consumed.

 

That is the first smoothy I have killed in about 18 years so while I was sad to see that we could not return it. I will keep it in perspective , together with 1 conger killed this year out of dozens caught on my boat.

 

On the other point about minimum sizes, we can select a percentage but it must be set well in advance and advertised so that people can decide if they want to fish to these sizes.

Adjusting this limit or trying to track it through the day would be impossible and unfair on whoever was trying to do so

 

We know from fishing other comps [our Burnham trail away] that these rules work and conserve fish.

 

But in an Open comp we must set the level at a rate to allow fish to be recorded.

 

Your competition Committee worked hard to get over

[Coddy]

Hi

This was my first open since joining the club, last year I had just moved so I was a helper.

 

As I am still learning marks I headed for the spoils and sure enough there were a few boats already there so my thinking was about right.

 

Where to drop the pick was the next thing, saw a charter boat and thought they know more than me so I parked up near by.

 

Soon into a nodding fish, think might be a cod but no just a nice whiting. I am used to small whiting on the East coast so seemed very nice to me.

 

My crew mate Bill had a small spotted ray but did not weigh it as it was small so back she went.

 

Had a couple of doggies but got fed up with the conditions so moved for more shelter but as the boat kept swinging about it was imposibe to fish so moved again, and again but no fish.

 

(You are not the only ones Jack)

 

Would like to thank the organisers and especially Paul J for all his hard work to make it a succesful comp for the club.

Well done mate, first class.

 

Coddy

[overdraft]

After a 6.30am start on the river and scrapping the ice from the boat, it seemed so nice and warm in my bed some 30 mins ago!, but aftera steay plod down to the quay and a nice cup of tea things seemed a lot better, a brisk walk along to Baiter and back along with very welcome bacon roll soon got the blood pumping,we decided to target the flounders instead of the long haul out after see the forcast, so under the bridge and into Holes bay for one of those monsters often pulled from within there,not a bite in 2 1/2 hrs!! so on we moved to our next spot where were joined by another boat , but still no action and the time was marching on, so with the last throw of the dice we decided to head up towards home and plant the boat on the mud with a rising tide and wait.

 

Still nothing and the clock moves onto 2pm,when Charlie retrieves his line very slowly and spots a flounder following it up, this stirs us into action thinking we might just see some action! still no bites though, until I spot the faintest of tugs on my line, after about 5 mins I eased into the first fish of the day and what turned out be my best of 2lb 8oz on the boat 2lb 2oz at the scales within the next 20mins or so 3 more were bought aboard, 1lb 14oz being the next best for Charlie to also claim a prize, so with some regret we decided to leave and give ourselves plenty of time to moor up and get back to the wiegh in hoping to be in the prizes,made it to Baiter in loads of time, great to see so many people taking part and returning so many fish, cant wait to hook one of those congers when i'm next flounder fishing!!!!!

 

Onto the club and presentation, great atmosphere and chat,had no idea I had winning fish so what a surprise when I heard the wieght of the winning fish, I was blown away for a minute or two, and what a choice of prizes,so after a very,very slow start to the day it all went as planned!!!! it just shows its never over until Charlie closes the scales!! Thanks to all the committee for great day and all the hard work,also to the sponsors (Golden Arrow) for my wonderful prize,and all the others that were kind enough to donate.

 

Kim

[TomBettle]

We spent ages yesterday changing the water in my bait tank in the effort to keep the smoothy and Conger alive, but after weighing they would not swim off in the harbour [the LSD did}

so they, together with a few pout and another non returnable eel caught on another boat were given to a friend from work to be consumed.

 

 

 

Hi Charlie

 

Please don't think I am having a dig at anyone. The competition was a great success and all of you who oranised it clearly worked very hard and made the whole event brilliant. My idea (whatever the %) is purely an idea to show how committed we are to our sport and also to make things are bit more competitive.

We had a great days fishing and enjoyed the whole day from sign in (Bacon butties were great) through to presentations.

 

If I was knew how to keep an several angry conger alive and calm through the day I would be sure to have weighed in better fish. The little blighters were not having any of it and refused to go anywhere near my live tank and continued to "climb" out of my large black fish bin so I took the view that I wouldn't personally bring one to the scales that didn't look a clear winner.

I chose to go congering wrongly assuming that a 40 would be a doddle so I personally chose the wrong species to win.

 

I think it is tremendous that the club has such a great junior section and applaud they way they join in on everything so the last thing I am suggesting is to be a killjoy, but the very fact that the competition is just one day a year, in my very humble opinion, means to me that I, personally, would only want to weigh in a fish I was proud of rather than "something" I may get a prize from.

 

As I say, it is my opinion and I was interested to see if any others felt the same way. If not (as it appears by the way my Poll is going ) I will respect the view of others and shut up, however I will fish the way I believe is right.

Fishing this way will mean that I may not win many prizes in competitions, but if and when I do win it will be with a good fish that I am genuinely proud of.

 

Ok, me of my box now and I promise not to make any more comments in this topic or my poll.