After nearly 40 years of playing around on boats I finally took some time for myself to do an official RYA course and passed my level 2 powerboat, was it worth it?

After describing the situation in part 1, and explaining to harbours the difficulties, you’d have hoped that things might have got better? Ha, not a chance.   This is how things currently are.

It’s that time of year when the Isle of Man comes alive, motorbikes everywhere, lunatics using and abusing our roads as if it was some glorified track day.   Beer, music, unbelievable racing.  For 2 weeks around the end of May, beginning of June the Isle of Man becomes the “road racing capital of the world”, it’s TT time!

I like to think of myself as “competent” when it comes to boat handling.  Throw me in any boat and I’ll do OK, with just the 28 years of taking them to sea, mostly single handed, you learn enough to get by.  When it came to trailers, berthing, tight squeezes I would usually be thrown the controls and told to sort it.  The current single screw shaft driven boat I’ve got, with no thrusters, all things being equal I can get to spin around quite handy.  But I’m struggling with the current berthing arrangements so I’d appreciate any input from anybody with more experience?

Not going to lie, I’ve been really confused by some of the reports I’ve seen this year from around the UK and the state of the Mackerel stocks. It was always my belief that the Mackerel we saw came from down south and migrating north as the sea warmed up but if what people are reporting is right that can’t be the case?

I’ve been putting this off for a week and even managed to fit in one last trip on her but it’s got to be done. Due to buying a new boat Kirsty II my ever faithful fishing companion for the last 10 years needs a new home. She is a late 2002/early 2003 model Jeanneau Merry Fisher 580 fitted with a 2012 Evinrude Etec Direct Injection 2-Stroke 90HP engine. The maximum horse power rated for this boat. Also included is a 6HP Tohatsu 4 stroke backup, all electronics and an Indespension Trailer.

If you’ve got any sort of canvas on your boat that uses snap fasteners at some point you’re going to have to replace them. The “proper” way of doing this involves removing the canvas/cover and using a hammer with a snap fastener fixing tool that you can buy online. For this the canvas needs to be flat and not moving, ideally you want to have a wooden block in place. Of course on my boat removing the canvas cover that keeps the weather out of the cabin is an absolute pain in the hole (it would be wouldn’t it!), in involves inching it along a long track whilst trying not to break the clear plastic window. So when the cheap snap fasteners I made do with last time broke after only a few months it was time to look for a better solution so that I could replace the snap fasteners in place with better stainless versions.

If there is one thing that I’ve found over the years that can help improve catch rates it is keeping track of what you are catching. I don’t know a single commercial fisherman that doesn’t keep records of what was caught, when and how! I’ve been doing the same for the past 11 years and it’s meant that on days when others are struggling to catch anything we’ve been able to nip out and get a feed in minutes. It’s also how I’m able to put people who are having a really bad day on a few fish, even on the toughest of tide/weather combos.

With the Mackerel season being so important to just about all other summer fishing I thought this was worthy of a small post on its own. So just how has the Mackerel fishing UK 2019 season been?