As usual, I was last to arrive on Friday and the guys waited patiently while I set up the tent, made up my bed and got my hair and make-up sorted (?). Then it was off down to Langstone for the traditional Friday mackie-bash, with Mad Dog Huxley at the helm. It was a lovely evening out on Dean Tail, with the sun dropping low (we didn't expect to see sunshine again all weekend) and the mackerel running close under the boat. We were already into fish when the others caught up with us. Dave and I soon had enough and stopped feathering, just enjoying the evening afloat while I played with my crazy light telescopic rod, which picked up a garfish. A quick look at the German Tug wreck added a pout then we belted back home again and got our heads down. It was a windy night, so sleep was patchy.

Saturday

Next morning, the promised high winds were there and after much discussion and a look at the sea state, we all decided that even with a force 7 promised for the evening the steady E-NE meant we'd be safe to hug the shore as far as Selsey. That's what we did, after a careful detour around the Winner where the depth under the keel got down to 3ft! It was a wet ride even with the spray dodger up and the bilge pump was needed at times. We passed Lady C en route, dropping by to say hello, then spotted Tamar Lady a few hundred yards from our mark. At the Hounds, I ran up tight to the reef plateau in 20ft while John and Mark went for the deeper water. They had the right call and Dave and I struggled to find much quality, although he was doing OK on the quantity. I faffed around wasting time with bait blocks, radio's, multiple rods and so forth while he steadily banged out his limit in bream up to 2lb (for which read, he whupped my ass). We had a few mini-pout, ballans, three gars each (they are everywhere this year), I got a handful of pin bream too and then added a corkwing wrasse to up my ABR score as well. It was hard fishing, the wind had us parallel to the meagre tide and the chop was hefty too, but at least it didn't rain.

Eventually the bites dried up completely and we headed out to see if Brake was fishable. We parked up downwind of Selsey Bill - any further out would have been too exposed but we only had a biggish swell at that point. Set out our stall for smoothhounds but they just were not there. I added a few more bream, a ballan and a dog but the wind had gone up from a whistle to a mild scream and we suddenly realised from the radio chatter that the other Warriors had gone in and were actually at Langstone, recovering. I decided dicretion ruled and we packed up, surfing all the way home after another courtesy call to speak with Lady C as we passed.

Recovery was a nightmare. The wind was really pushing hard now at right angles to the slip. Dave made numerous attempts to get SeaMouse lined up with the cradle but each time she was pushed off line before I could secure her and start winching. All the while, the Harbourmaster and crew sat on their rib at the top of the slip and just watched. I was less than impressed. In the end, a guy manned the winch end of things for me and then I could snag SeaMouse and get her bows locked into the cradle. After that, it was plain sailing but I'd taken a serious battering to the coloured GRP along the way. Time to buy some touch-up paint :-(

Another excellent meal at the Caribou and a wild, wet and stormy night in the tent. Mine didn't cope that well, so I woke up with half my bedding in a puddle.

Sunday

The forecast now was promising us a fishable afternoon, but at 7am it was blowing damn hard. We agreed again that we'd launch from Langstone but this time, we planned to head for the Dean Tail hole. It doesn't produce a lot but there's remarkable variety and it would keep us well inshore while we waited to see what the day would do. I slightly delayed everyone as I'd agreed to shepherd a Pro Angler owner for the day and he was a little late arriving, so eventually they got away five minutes before us. The boat (Waimaiku) was only delivered recently and this was his first ever launch, so all things considered Martin actually did very well throughout the day.

We bashed out to Dean Tail hole over a big sea, going slowly both for conditions and for the sake of our companion's new engine. Looking back at Waimaiku following us I could see her entire underside each time she hit a big wave. Flagged Martin down and got him to trim the Honda in a bit, it almost had the prop out of the water. Once the anchors were down, the sea state was bearable and there was enough tide to fish comfortably. We'd gone into the middle of the hole rather than up on an edge and were definitely over mud. I had dogs and dave a baby starry hound followed by, to his considerable pleasure, a 2lb plaice. That set the tone - for the rest of the day I played second fiddle while he thrashed me at every mark.

Conditions just got better and better, so we soon made the decision to push east. Dean Tail wreck gave us a couple of mackerel each on a very difficult drift (damned if I could hit the wreck) then we slogged along well behind the others to Bullocks Patch, with Waimaiku tucked in behind us. The place was alive with pin bream. Dave had around 14, with 9 for me. I had a ballan, we picked up mackerel on the retrieve and a handful of dogfish. The luck of the Huxley's was still in force though, with him connecting first to a conger that eventually straightened his size 4 hook then to another solid fish that turned out to be a large flattie. Which flattie and how large we'll never know, as it spat the hook just under the surface.

With both of us maxed out on bream, it made sense to try for hounds. We went for the traditional SFI mark north of Utopia. Mark had gone for the southern bank but I opted for the middle and this time it was us that called it right. There was no stopping Mad Dog. He was into an 8lb starry before I'd even got my immense battery of rods deployed. He followed up with 10.5lb, just short of 13lb and 5lb, with common hounds of 6,7 and 8lb. It seemed every time I looked round, his rod had gone over again. I got two starry's and two commons from 6lb-11lb as well, the fish mainly coming to hardbacks as the hermit baits were quickly ripped apart by small bream. We added dogs, a mackerel and even a pin bream on Dave's 4/0 pennel rig but the hounds made the day. Conditions had gone right down to almost flat, the sun came out and the hounds fought hard. The last two of mine came on the uptider as the tide picked right up and we had a real struggle to net them.

When Mark and John called 'hometime', we got the anchor up and collected Waimaiku then set away after them. They'd disappeared and we came back at a steady 20 knots, running in Martin's Honda. There was no-one about at Langstone- John was unknown to us to out at sea salvaging a sail board but I couldn't work out where Lady Christine had gone. She was there when I brought the trailer down though, and Moby arrived soon after. Recovery this time was a lot smoother but the Pro Angler gave us a few problems. The winch was ungreased and in high gear whilst the creaking and groaning from the rollers suggested they were also not free running. I gave Martin a hand on the winch and it took a hell of a lot of effort - no wonder he'd gone purple.

Back to the site for a clean-up and over to Chris's for the barbeque. As ever, it was superbly cooked and a real pleasure. Nice to chat to everyone, great to meet up with Martyn at last and a trifle embarrassing that we'd hogged most of the prizes. Blame Mad Dog for that, he was unstoppable on Sunday.

Yet another wild and stormy night and we downed the tents wearing chest waders. My tent was by now on the edge of a small lake. A nice breakfast at the cafe (still in chest waders!) and I was following John up the A3 by 10am.

Thanks again to everyone who attended, especially to Chris who really makes it all possible.

Steve

Friday:

Arrived at the campsite at 1200 on Friday and was soon joined by John Smithson, Richard Walton and John Irwin. After we had consumed some tea we were off for the annual crabbing session down at the ferry and it was very pleasant having a pint while collecting some bait. After a couple of hours we returned to the campsite and hitched up Lady C and with Seamouse we went back to the ferry for an evening's mackerel fishing. A quick passage out to dean tail saw us get enough mackerel for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday:

The weather forecast was about as bad as it gets BUT we still headed out and doing about 8 knots slogged our way around to Selsey to try and get some shelter form the 5-7 NE wind. Tamar lady was already there along with some charter boats, so we pitched in and hoped the weather might ease a little? First fish was a goldshinny to me and then John got into some bream,garfish and the usual reef pout. Despite groundbaiting after a couple of hours the bites stopped and I decided to move out a little but the wind had increased and as soon as we got the anchor in we just swung 270 degrees in the wind and tide and I decided to head back the langstone for some shelter. In the harbour the wind was just as bad and when I tried to anchor and just drifted right across the harbour till the anchor bite, a complete danger to everybody!

Sunday:

Sundays forecast was very iffy so we decided to head for the deantail hole and see how the weather panned out? I had a small smoothie and bream and pout and john the same. BUT the weather was much better than expected so we headed out to Bullocks to see what the weather was like there? It was a bit better and as soon as the baits hit the bottom we had bream to about 1.5 lbs, john even managed a tripe shot of them!! We also had ballen wrasse.pout dogfish and john managed a strap conger!

Having stayed for an hour or so and with the weather improving all the time I decided to head out for some tope and bigger smoothies. On the new mark the weather was the best all day and straight away with groundbait going down I was into bigger bream and I managed a small tope! As the tide slackened john took the first double figured hound and then all hell broke loose as the hounds really came on the feed!!! Im not sure how many we had and we should have taken the time to weight some of them more accurately as Im sure some were bigger than we guessed. Unfortunately in the end we ran out of crabs so when the anchor slipped we headed home on a near flat sea doing 22-23 knots!

Thanks again to Chris Tier for organising the meal at the caribou and the BBQ! To John Irwin for organising the SFI and keeping me company and to John and Steve for putting up with me moaning about the weather!

Well done to the prize winners and seeing all the usual crew !

Well Bill and I set off from Poole after filling the tanks with diesel on Friday morning. We were heading for Hayling Island and had booked moorings at Sparks Marina. As we headed down we stopped off to try for fresh mackerel off Hengesbury Head and managed to catch a few. We then travelled on up the Solent towards Hayling. He got around Hurst at slack but hit the ebb in the Solent which pushed our speed down to less than 8kts!! Little did I know I had an engine problem at this time! We slowly made our way around and got into Hayling after about 5hrs+ travelling.

Surprised on the amount of fuel used! After tying up on the pontoon we headed to our digs the Caribou!

Next day, Saturday, we set off but the wind was growing all the time, tried at Membury Bank but it got too lumpy so headed inshore towards the Hounds. There we saw Tamar Lady and the x3 Warriors of Steve, Mark and John. At both stops we picked up Bream and the odd mackerel. It was too rough to contemplate going out to try for smootheys or tope as it meant going past Selsey and the shelter it can provide.

After a while I noticed we had slipped at anchor but the wind and sea state was such we had enough, so headed back in. By the time we got to the pontoon it was blowing hard and we had a job to tie up securely but had to put fenders on the pontoon rather than the boat to protect the boat.

Sunday forecast looked pants but woke up to still air but by 10am it had grown strength to about F5. Some friends had managed to get out and said it was improving, after listening to what was in store on Monday Bill and I agreed to cut and run back to Poole.

What a super day to be out, in the Solent it was almost calm. Stopped off at Christchurch for some more fresh mackerel but no luck this time so carried on heading back into port as I was knacked and wanted just to get home.

Long way and a good shake down for the boat, a few problems occurred on the way to Hayling, one of the return feeds from one injector came off sometime up the Solent so lost fuel in the bilges. Fixed this the following day and made sure it would not happen again in a hurry!

We also had wind and tide against us which was not good. The trip back was much easier once he got into the Solent all the way to Hurst without any problems. Not a very successful week-end for us and weather crap but glad to be back home one day early looking at Monday's forecast.  Travelled about 100nm and used too much fuel!

As I was totally knackered I could not face the drive around to Hayling for the BBQ and then home again. As it was I went to bed at 9.30pm and was asleep in minutes.

Glad others did better than us this week-end and well done to those who were in the prizes.

Dave S

with a less than encouraging forecast for the weekend I made the trip down to Hayling with a little less enthusiasm than usual. I arrived at the campsite to find Mark had beat me to the easy pitch this time. Our usual Crab gathering trip went well and we soon had enough to keep the three boats supplied in case the forecast was wrong.

As soon as Steve had pitched camp we loaded up a couple of the boats and headed out to Deantail in the hope of finding so Mackerel for the Saturday. For a change they seemed on the wreck ad after about 40 mins of so we'd caught enough. Recovering was easy with so many hands and after the traditional fish and chips we hit the sack. The wind was a problem in the night with all the tents taking a battering.

The morning came and with it a stiff n/easterly,the plan was to head around to the Hounds area and take advantage of any shelter we could find. A trip that normally would take 15 mins take the best part of a hour,steaming into what seemed like a howling gale is no fun. On arrival we had to put the bilge pump on to clear the water we'd taken over the top of the cuddy. With such a strong wind it was never going to be comfortable fishing and with the stern facing South and the lines steaming East it was a nightmare.

We managed to catch enough Bream + a couple of Wrasse including a Goldsinney as well as the obligatory Dog and a Pollack so not too bad given the conditions. The wind was picking up and the decision was made to head for cover in Langstone,the wind was,if anything worse in the harbour and after one attempt at anchoring we gave up and had an early finish.

Dinner at the Caribou was up to it's usual standard and a great time was had.

Sunday started with the remains of the howling gale of the previous day but with winguru giving a break we headed out to a nearby mud hole to see what was about. We had bites from the first drop,mostly Bream but a Small Starry took a Rag bait and provided a change. With the wind dropping we made our way,slowly,out to Bullocks patch,more bream were landed but little else.

The conditions improved still further and we headed for deeper water to have a go for Hounds,first cast Richard had a 11lb Starry on Hardback but the bites were a bit slow,we stayed put though and finished with 4 hounds all starry's three of which were doubles.

The BBQ was calling and we reluctantly made our way back at a steady 20knts,after the lousy seas we'd had it was nice to get the boat on the plane.

On the way back we picked up a wind surfers board and after checking to see if the owner was about,unlikely as we were about 7mile off, we loaded it onboard and passed it over to the Harbourmaster at Langstone.

The BBQ was terrific and many thanks must be said to Karl and Gareth for their cooking skills.

Thanks also for Chris's hospitality and to John Irwin for organising the SFI and providing such great "trophies"

The craic at the campsite was as usual terrific as was Richards company on Moby.

It was not the best of SFIs for the crew of Tamar Lady!

Friday was spent bait collecting, getting the caravan ready for the BBQ on Sunday, we also managed to get out for a few hours to get some fresh Mackerel.

Saturday saw us getting up at some ungodly hour of 03:00 to catch the tide, the forecast wasn't good but we had to beat the tide. It was quite windy from the start but we made our way up towards Selsey to get some shelter from the NE wind. When we got the anchor down the conditions were not bad at all, except for the swinging about in the wind.

Ian was first into a fish, a bass of 1lb 7oz, I soon had one much smaller, then it was a few bream and doggies, Gareth picked up a small thornback and Pete had spotted ray of 3lb 10oz. I decided to move in near to the Hounds where immediately I had a better stamp of bream which went exactly 2lb. We all picked up bream with Gareth leading the way, we also had more doggies and Ian managed to pick up a small tub gurnard. When it was time to up-anchor we found we had picked up a pot rope with the anchor, after around

15 minutes we managed to free ourselves and head back to the Harbour, which was as rough as I have seen it.

Back on the mooring it was time to head ashore in the dinghy, first to go ashore were Ian and Jim with Gareth rowing, but with the strength of the wind and a flat bottomed dinghy Gareth made zero headway towards shore and the dinghy and occupants were just blown up the creek! They managed to grab hold of one of the moored yachts and Barry from the boatyard came out in the yard boat to tow them to the pontoon, he then came back to pick up myself, Pete and Karl for which we were very grateful!

It was great to meet up with everyone at the Caribou and I think Steve and Lucy did a great job with the food. The only negative for me was that my exhaust went at the front end that evening.

The forecasts for the Sunday were differing to say the least and we were not sure what was going to happen, I decided that I would set my alarm and see what the weather was actually doing and make a decision then. So at 04:00 my alarm went off and it was howling a gale with very heavy rain, so back to bed I went. By 07:00 though the wind had dropped, but of course it was then too late for TL to get off the mooring, so were shore bound for the day which was really frustrating, as the day progressed the weather got better!

I took the opportunity to try and get my exhaust sorted so Jim, Gareth and I headed off into Havant and eventually found a "Quickfit", the bad news was that it was the section with the catalytic converter (expensive) and they didn't have one. Therefore we went and bought an exhaust repair kit from Halfords. Jim and Gareth did a great job using a couple of aluminium cans and the repair kit. When all was finished I started up and all was fine, except we then spotted I had puncture in the rear offside tyre! To compound matters we could not release the under-slung spare tyre, the mechanism was completely jammed up from the previous owner's over tightening! So Jim and I headed back to Havant to get a new tyre put on the flat, by the time we got back Karl and Gareth had managed to release the mechanism hold the spare.

So eventually we able to go and clean and unload the boat and get ready for the BBQ. For once it didn't rain during the BBQ (that came later) and the food John had sorted really went down well, thanks to Karl and Gareth for the cooking of it. It was good to see that Steve and Lucy came down to see where these smelly fishermen hang out! It was a shame that Dave and Bill had to return to Poole and miss the BBQ (what a very good decision that turned out to be!). Congratulations to Dave H for nearly doing the clean sweep! At least there was some representation from TL with Pete winning the best ray /flatfish with his spotted ray and Gareth winning the wooden spoon (Redgrave

Award) for his rowing exploits!

During the night the torrential rain and gales arrived (I really felt sorry for those camping!), but we were up early to see Ian off with his lift to the airport with Jim and Pete. I then donned all the waterproofs and cleaned up outside after the BBQ and got everything put away. After Richard arrived to give Gareth a lift back to the airport we bade our farewells and made our way back home.

Hopefully better luck and better weather next year!