Courtesy of problems with work and traffic, I rolled onto the campsite about 7.30pm. The others were out slaughtering mackerel, and generously handed me a good number when they got back, which I duly chunked for groundbait while the mozzies chewed me to bits. Time for a quick meal to put back some of the blood they'd siphoned out of me and a warm night's kip trying not to scratch the bites :-)

Next day dawned overcast and the guys were up and about at 6am.

Dragged myself out of the sack feeling well under par. Breakfast made things worse and by the time we met Dave Huxley at the slip I was well rough. Launching was effortless with so many helping hands and we got away in convoy. We were well to the back, having tried for a mackerel among the shoals bursting fry onto the surface in Langstone. There was a good chop running and we only really caught up halfway to utopia. In went the pick and out went the hounds and tope baits along with mountains of chopped mackerel but my mind was on other things really, like hanging on to breakfast. Wind across tide had us rolling drunkenly all morning and with so much boat movement bites were not easy to spot.

I missed a couple of good offers, lost something nice when the leader knot let go and finally latched onto a hound that did the 'sleeper' trick of just coming gently up the tide then going berserk in the net.

That was a 10lb 15oz common, so it was tagged and dropped back. I added a mackerel later but the seas had picked up further and I was getting on my limits. Dave agreed to coming inshore to find me some shelter and we ran right in onto Brake Ledge. There were some huge rollers at times en route, with one especially big one burying the nose and putting a large amount of water clean over the cuddy and onto the half canopy.

Brake was a lot more civilised. I was able to take a proper interest again and fed down groundbait blocks right from the off. Dave was first away with a ballan wrasse and we steadily picked up a mix of ballans, pout and small bream, with a poor cod and a doggie thrown in as well. Notably, I had a pout that was over 1lb, a monster for a summer inshore reef, whilst only one of our 8 bream was even sizeable. Odd to see the pin bream arriving so early. Dave also hauled in a pout with it's face gone so there must have been cuttlefish about. When the anchor trip unexpectedly failed, we went on the drift for a while which added a pollack and a gar to my tally before we headed up to Boulder to catch the flood. The others were in on the reef but we settled up in the gully in hope of a ray or a hound. No joy on that score, but we picked out another7 bream as well as more ballans and a mackerel.

The wind had dropped a little bit by now, so desperate for points we headed out to the hard ground north of utopia in search of hounds.

Dave got just one, another small common, along with mackerel and gar. We were having real problems getting the anchor to bite and when it let go yet again we came right inshore onto the Hounds to winkle out a few more pollack before setting off back down the coast to make the most of the shelter from the land. Stopped to investigate some gannets feeding, then picked up a few mackerel in Langstone itself where the shoals were again harrying fry on the surface, an incredible spectacle.

Off to the Caribou, where the company and Steve's food was as good as ever. The talk was of next day's forecast and the general feeling was that we'd be lucky to leave harbour.

Sunday

I'd gone out like a light when I reached the tent, but from what I could see it must have rained all night. Got the boat prepped between showers and we headed down to the slip. With a forecast of a 4-5 onshore wind due to swing off the land and go 6, occasional 8, we were very dubious. However, it was surprisingly still and the Langstone charter fleet was loading up and heading out, monohulls as well as the big cats.

The mackerel were back in harbour again and we all drifted around Valkyrie, a huge SouthCat, for a while. It was an amazing experience to retrieve feathers through water boiling with fish mouths, feel them hitting the line constantly yet have no takes! Picked up enough though and headed out behind Lady Christine. The plan was to go as far as Bullocks Patch and then review the situation, as none of us wanted to be caught offshore when the wind swung round and picked up. It lumped up steadily as we headed out and at Bullocks it was agreed we'd go no further. I dropped the pick at the base of the reef, in hope of a bonus ray, but it didn't pan out that way. Instead we had small species right from the off, a brace of pout, pollack and corkwing wrase, a mackerel and a gar. The wind had picked up to a steady whistling force 5, the seas were really coming through and Mark quite rightly came on the VHF suggesting we cut and run. The anchor then decided it for us when the cable ties let go again! Avoid Wickes cable ties, they seem rather brittle.

Inbound was exciting, surfing over the crests. The others went straight for recovery but Dave and I had half a mind to try and grab a few more points from mackerel or bream in the harbour mouth. Pottered back out and just in those ten minutes or so the sea had picked up even further. Gave it up as a bad job and came in quick, with John Urwin again assisting with recovery. Thanks John, much appreciated.

That was it. Back at the campsite Mark departed for home while John and I spent a very wet afternoon dropping pitch and getting the boats ready to go home before changing into dry clothes for the BBQ.

Another excellent evening at Chris's van was very much appreciated and by 10.30pm I was following Moby up the A3 into the teeth of a gale.

A difficult SFI for fish and weather but really good fun and excellent company. Roll on next year!

Steve

I arrived at the campsite on Friday and missed the best pitch by 5 minutes! Had a couple of goes at putting the tent up as had not used it since the last sfi :-) We were soon off for a very pleasant afternoon's crabbing with john S, Richard and john I! In the evening we went out in Moby and soon had enough mackerel for everyone at the campsite and finished it off with a tasty fish and chip supper :-)

Saturday:-

The weather looked iffy on Saturday, overnight the clouds had come scudding in and we had light rain. But we were all soon in the water and I was following Moby south to Utopia and the first stop of the day. I had a job getting the anchor in first I ended up too close to Moby and then my anchor triped , so I changed it for my spoils anchor rig and this time it went straight in and no problems. Things were slow to start with just doggies but I kept a steady supply of groundbait going down and john and I kept going. The weather got up a bit but it was not unsafe and just as the other lads were heading inshore john took the first smoothie 14ibs starry. I told john we would stay as I was sure we would catch but in the next 30 minutes we did not have a bite then all hell broke loose and we had 4 hounds in 10 minutes. they must have been shoaled up tight and had just got around to us :-). Then another 20 minute break and then another burst of action and 2 more hounds and this is how it went until I decided to move inshore over slack water for the bream on Boulder. John and I quickly got into the bream but they were all small and John managed two wrasse so as the tide increased I took john in for some inshore pollacking . The hounds was slow going and we managed only 2 small Pollack so I moved us west a little and we got into some nice fish of about 1 pound size !

Sunday:-

Well the weather beat us ! We managed only 1 hour fishing and then headed in I had 3 bream and john 2 and 1 pout!

So that was it :-)

Thanks to john Irwin for crewing for me again! Thanks to John Smithson for organising a great SFI and to Chris for organising the caribou and doing a sterling job with the BBQ in very testing conditions!! Well done to all the winners and I hope we can do it all again next year :-)

Mark

Well here is a brief report of this year's SFI from the perspective of Dreamcatcher.

As we had decided to make life easier for us all by camping, we were to join our fellow campers at the site around 1.00pm on the Friday. Due to crap traffic, Martin was delayed from Oxford and so we arrived at the site at closer to 3. Set up tent and hoped for the same weather we were enjoying, but knowing that wouldn't be the case. John, Mark and Richard appeared with plenty of hardbacks and we got 2 boats sorted for a Mackie session. In the harbour, MArk spotted some furious activity on the water and we all headed over to massive shoals of MAckerel, I've never seen anything like it!! We had brand new shiny mackerel things on so were confident of filling our bait box........yeah right! tried everything but despite almost being able to WALK across the water on thier backs we just couldn't get more than the measly 4 we managed. John came over to see how we were doing and could not believe we couldn't catch...they had tons! We changed to conventional feathers and started to catch but Moby was always going to win that race with about 120 of them!! Matt reckoned we were an early contender for the wooden spoon......He had me worried there!

Boats recovered, fish & chips supper and it was off to the Caribou for a swift pint with all the other SFIers, with an eye on the weather and the decision to not decide where to go until daybreak.

Saturday 26th

After checking the weather, the plan was to head to Utopia and then come inshore to the reefs in the afternoon. We slammed a fair bit at 18 knots but I was keen to get there as quick as poss so just put up with it. Down went the pick and we turned to prepare the rods. That's when I discovered that 2 rod rings had been wrecked as they banged around in the rod racks. Anyone know of a good rod repairer near Worthing??

The session on Utopia was uneventful to say the least. A few LSD's and a Mackerel (a p.ss take after last night!) was all we had to show for it. The tide was running fast now and the wind was chucking us around a bit... and it was bloody cold and raining from time to time. A pretty grim picture and a million miles away from last years SFI. We decided to pull the pick and head into Bullock for a while.

Arrived here and sent down some groundbait (1st time I have tried that

method) and fished a variety of baits. We had constant sport with Poor Cod, LSD,s and Wrasse, both Ballan and Cuckoo and Black Bream but none above 1LB.

Eventually, things went quiet and we headed for Boulder.

This really was a repeat of Bullocks with many of the same species coming aboard. There was 1 notable addition and a first (knowingly) for Dreamcatcher, in the shape of a Bull Huss of around 2LB. We had reached a reasonable score by the end of the day, given the conditions but it was hard work. The rest of the guys around us (with the exception of Dave S) had headed further inshore but we took the decision to take a more gentle ride into Langstone, so packed up and headed home. With all boats recovered it was back to the site for a quick shower and off (in the rain) to the Caribou. A pleasant evening with good food and great company.

Sunday 27th

The forecast for today was very grim and with a splitting headache (sleep depravation from a rainy night, not drink related!!!) and Martin suffering from a dicky tummy I decided that, for the tiny amount of fishing we may get in, it just wasn't worth venturing out. So, when the other guys had headed off, we packed up the gear and headed back to Worthing. The rain eased before getting home and stayed off just long enough to scrub Dreamcatcher down before the heavens opened......for the next 24 hours.

We headed to Chris's caravan for the BBQ which went fantastically well and our thanks go to Chris and Co for the great job they did in delivering good food from a rain soaked BBQ. Well done Guys.

The prize giving went well and congratulations to all winners, you certainly deserved it. Oh and thank God I missed the wooden spoon, but I suspect it was only by a whisker!!

Finally, our thanks to John for organizing the SFI. and MArk for taking care of the camp arrangements. Despite the weather it was good fun and great to see all the SFIers again. Just a bitch about the weather but it is the one thing we can't change.

Gary

Bill and I arrived Friday about 2pm and managed to get into the pub where we were staying. Chris invited us around for a tea/coffee at his caravan and we meet up with those there.

4pm we took Sammy down to Wilson's boatyard and paid our dues and launched without any hitches. We decided to nip out to see if we could catch any fresh mackerel and was told they have been getting loads around the entrance but it appears they had all moved down to Langstone!

As we did not get a sniff at Chichester we headed out to DeanTail and managed a few to jump on the hook and we soon had enough for the following day's sport.

Back to Wilson's and Chris kindly allowed me to tie up along side T/Lady.

Saturday

Saturday morning arrived bright and early and Bill and I were down at the yard by 7.30am to find Chris had gone out earlier and tied up Sammy on the pontoon. We were soon heading up the channel out to sea and motored towards a mark a bit before Utopia, as we arrived we noticed T/Lady had beat us to it!

We dropped the pick down close by and settled in for hopefully some sport.

It seemed it was my turn to catch the first fish which turned out to be a nice small tope of 11lb and was followed by another a little smaller. Bill was not getting a bite. As others mentioned the wind and sea grew more and more uncomfortable so we decided to head inshore to see if it was less lumpy so we headed to Brake and meet up with Garry and his crew.

We were soon into Bream, pout and wrasse and at slack head to a mark that a certain someone gave me, not saying whom but all I can say it was a crap mark, except for a couple of doggies. As the tide increased we headed to Boulder and meet up with the majority of fellow SFI'ers. We were quickly into Bream and Wrasse, in fact we were having so much fun we were the last to leave the mark as we could not help catch fish, a nice change for me!

Back to the mooring and again tied up along side T/Lady for the night then back to the pub for a shower and get ready for the nights entertainment.

Sunday

In the morning Bill and I were again down at the yard by 7.30am and had decided to head out to Membury but if the weather or sea state got rough we would head straight back in. On the way out it was lovely and smooth but the wind was slowly gaining strength. We got the pick down and started to see what we could pull out, Bill was soon into a doggie and then a nice thornback ray of about 3 to 4lbs plus a mackerel, me I seemed to have got something wrong as nothing was interested in my tasty samples.

It was not long before the wind and sea had started to built up so we both agreed it would be good to get back now and still have time to get back on the mooring and recover Sammy onto the trailer before all the water had got out of the channel. Most of this time it had been raining and it did not stop even as we recovered the boat!

As we were so early I decided to give the inside of the boat a good wash out and I had a number of loose crabs which had died and started to smell, so it saved doing this later and as I was already wet it did not seem to matter any more.

We returned to the pub and changed out of our wet clothes and had an afternoon power nap ready for the evenings BBQ.

As others have said the BBQ was excellent despite the conditions and I too would like to add my thanks to Karl, Jim and Chris for their hard work to make it happen. I also would like to add my thanks to John (S) for organising the SFI this year.

Again it was good to meet up with everyone and we all agreed that despite the conditions the "social side" was as good as ever.

Dave

I arrived at the campsite first for a change beating Mark to the best pitch by about ten minutes.

After we'd set up and Richard and John Irwin had arrived,we set off for our annual Crab collecting trip.

They were in good supply this year and we caught enough for all of us in Quick time.

Back at the campsite we hooked up the boats,and headed of for another annual event,the Mackerel bash.

We were leaving the harbour when Mark spotted a flock of Gulls working an area a short way from us,there was a huge shoal of mackies feeding on some fry.With four of us it didn't take long to fill enough fish boxes for the three boats for Saturdays fishing.

Back to base via the chip shop and the caribou and an earlyish night.

Saturday was forecast to be the best day of the weekend and we were determined to make the best of it,we headed straight out to Utopia,where we'd done so well the previous year.Unfortunately the fish weren't there in any numbers,Richard had a couple of nice Smoothhounds the best a 14lb common,and three dogs.I had only one small Starry to show for my efforts.

The sea and wind had picked up so we headed inshore to Brake ledge,again the fishing was slow apart from a dropped Pollock.

Out again to Boulder and the expected Breamfest,we must have been slightly off the best area and the fish never showed,we did manage a few Wrasse,1Pout and a small Bullhuss but it was hard work.

Back to the slip via the Hounds area just to to have a look.

The boats were recovered with no dramas and after a quick shower we headed off to the Caribou,the meal and company was as good as ever.

Sundays forecast was iffy to say the least,we decided to stick together and as soon as the predicted wind started to pick up,make a run for home.Unfortunately Richard was feeling under the weather with a bad headache so I went on my own.out at Bullocks the conditions weren't to bad and I managed to pick up a couple of small Bream,more Ballans,and a Poor Cod.By now the wind was getting going and we made a run back in to Langstone,with a following sea it wasn't to bad any longer though and we'd have been in trouble.

With the forecast not getting any better I packed up the tent and made the best of a wet afternoon.

The BBQ,as usual,went well considering the conditions Chris and Karl did wonders,I'm not sure I would have been to happy with that many muddy feet in my caravan.

John

I travelled down Thursday evening with Karl and met up with Jim and Pete in the Caribou with John Irwin joining us later. The main object was to deliver the food order for the Saturday evening including two last minute orders for Simon's crew.

Friday morning we had organised a "Krypton Factor" puzzle for Pasty Pete, to erect 3 gazebos which I had borrowed due to the forecast of rain for the Sunday. In the end we all chipped in and it didn't take too long to get them up. The rest of the day was spent sorting out tackle and bait and loading the boat. We then had to sort out a bad battery connection on the boat; with this done we were all ready for the Saturday

After a fish and chip takeaway we met up with some of the other SFIers for a drink at the Caribou, still awaiting the arrival of the rest of our crew driving down from Scotland. Alan and Ian eventually made it at about 21:00 and after a couple of drinks we departed to the caravan, here we decided on an early start to make the most of better weather forecast for the Saturday.

So 06:00 on Saturday saw us getting on to the boat and we got away from the mooring at about 06:30 after moving Sammy (which was attached to us) to the pontoon. First stop was for some Mackerel which didn't take too long to secure and then we anchored up in the hope of some Smooth Hound or Tope. It was soon evident that there were plenty of Hounds around and most of the time our efforts were concentrated on them. In total we had around 20 Smooth Hound with some decent double figure fish, a PB of 14lb for Alan and the biggest went to Pete at 15lb, all the fish were Starries. When the waves started hitting us broadside I decided to head inshore to Medmery for a rest over LW and await the flood. Here Karl picked up a Small Eyed Ray of 7lb and a small Blonde Ray, Pete also picked up a Small Eyed Ray of 4-5lb.

As the flood started I moved to Boulder Bank, immediately we started catching small bream at a steady rate, then quite a few Ballan Wrasse to rag baits. We stuck it out and the size started to increase with a few good keepers at around 1.5-2lb. Ian had a nice female bream at 2lb 8oz but this was topped by a really dark male fish of 3lb 10oz which fell to Jim's rod.

We also had Corkwing Wrasse, Tompot Blenny, Mackerel, Pout and a Garfish.

It was great to see everyone at the Caribou on the Saturday evening and I'm sure everyone enjoyed their meal. A lot of the talk was of the weather forecast for the Sunday and it wasn't good!

As we headed out to the Medmery on the Sunday morning it was wet but the sea was calm, we stopped for some fresh Mackerel and then stuck the hook down.

The wind had started to rise by this time but with bow into wind it was reasonably comfortable. Pete soon had Small Eyed Ray of around 5-6lb but that was it bar a mackerel to Ian. Listening to the Coastguard forecast saying that the wind would back round to the North and rise to gale force it was not looking good, we heard the rest of the SFI fleet call it a day on the VHF. We stuck it out for a while longer until the wind started to rise and I called it a day. The original plan was to fish the rest of the day in the Harbour. I did a few tidal calculations and realised that we could in fact just make back on to my tidal mooring before we lost the water. So I put it to the crew; we either go straight back to the mooring and call it a day or stick it out in the Harbour until 19:00. The decision was the right one and the one I wanted to hear. We called it a day and only just made it back on to the mooring, I reckon with only 10-15 minutes to spare.

The rest of the day was torrential rain and strong wind so it was a wise move. The rain just didn't stop, it seemed to get worse!

Somehow we managed to get the BBQ done under the gazebos with Karl cooking and myself running around delivering the food to the extremely full caravan.

I was quite amazed that so many people made it, thanks to all for making the effort. After the presentations from John S and people drifted away I had a quick clear up and the TL crew relaxed until the early hours with the aid of various alcoholic beverages.

Sunday morning we started the clean up operation and said our goodbyes to Alan and Ian. John Irwin came round to help and it didn't take too long to sort out the outside. When John, Pete and Jim departed, Karl and I cleaned up the inside of the caravan and we departed for home.

Many thanks to John S for organising the event, a great job done and the baseball caps were a great idea. Also thanks to Karl for the cooking and his help.

I hope Ian and Alan had a better journey home than they did coming down.

Looking forward to next year, the weather can't be as bad!

Chris