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Following a few days away in Jersey, this was the first trip out on Tango Bravo this month, and the first of what will hopefully be a run of 8 bass trips during this spring tide. This was also the first day of our "Biggest Bass of the Month" competition. This competition has been organised to raise money for a good cause and is sponsored by PENN.

PENN have kindly donated two complete outfits to help us raise money for a good cause during September. Anglers may enter the competition for an additional Ł5 per day and the angler who catches the biggest bass during the month will win a PENN Waveblaster combo. Every angler that enters the competition will also be entered into a draw to win a PENN Powerstix combo at the end of the month. All money raised will be going to well known fellow skipper, Spike Spears who until recently operated the charter boat "Bessy Vee" out of Langstone Harbour. Spike who has been suffering from what everyone thought was a back problem, has recently discovered that his pain has been due to bone cancer. He is now undergoing chemotherapy treatment whilst at the same time undergoing tests that will hopefully match Spike to a suitable bone marrow donor. Many UK charter skippers are doing their bit to help raise funds for Spike. This will hopefully help him to overcome the problems associated with a sudden loss of earnings, leaving him free of financial worry so that he can channel all his energies into beating his illness.

Todays trip was in unseasonally hot conditions and for the most part on a calm sea. Fishing, although not fast and furious, was fairly steady throughout the day and the lads landed a credible 40 bass to 7lb 1oz, one or two tope and a bonus bullhuss. Mackerel are beginning to show signs of thinning out, although we did manage to find enough for bait without to much trouble.

Although we lost two days due to weather, this spring tide has seen us getting afloat six times in search of bass. Sadly the biggest spring tide in 75 years failed to produce them in any great numbers. Numbers of fish landed ranged from 40 on the first day but fell throughout the tide to just 9 bass landed on each of the two last days. A period at anchor on the final day produced blonde rays and a fine bull huss. The best of the bass are shown here.

Best of the day on the 10th for Mark who released this fish of 8lb 13oz together with another that he caught of around 6lb. This is the biggest bass so far for September and puts Mark in pole position for the PENN Waveblaster combo

Our biggest bass of the month competition has received lots of support and in just 6 trips we have raised Ł300. Mark's fish pictured above is still the best so far but with kind weather, this month should see us doing a further 6 bass trips.

A very enjoyable day light line fishing between Bournemouth and Hengisbury Head. The 5 anglers and one skipper landed a total of 156 fish in a light hearted competition. The catch included 10 different species, of which two, plaice and red mullet, were added to our 2007 total. Species landed were bream (107), tub gurnard, bass, mackerel, scad, garfish, plaice, ballan wrasse, pollock, and red mullet. A day that was enjoyed by all on board and a day that proved that fishing isn't always about chasing the big ones.

A difficult day that found us fishing a couple of wrecks about 10 miles off the coast in a stiff northerly wind. Dispite the beam on sea, the lads did well in the conditions to land a few tope and one small eel. A move to a bank closer to home in the afternoon produced only one more tope and none of the blonde rays that we were hopeful for.

I can't believe that it has been a week since I was last out in the boat. A couple of days off, a bit of work elsewhere and oh yes, three more weather cancelled trips. Today was another bass trip in yet more not ideal weather. Although sunny, we had to endure a fresh south-east wind all day. Dispite my fears, bait was fairly easy to come by. A short spell just off Bournemouth pier produced enough mackerel and scad for the mornings fishing. We even landed four bass on the feathers but these were all undersized The bass fishing itself proved to be very dissapointing with just two landed. Both were reasonable fish at around 5lb. Many miles in the afternoon failed to produce any more bass and so by the end of the day, we were able to officially claim today as the worsed bass trip of the year. Nothing to do with the crew though, who were a fine bunch of capable lads. Just a case of difficult conditions and not a lot of fish about on the day. The lads raised another Ł40 for our charity.

Apart from a bit of mist and fog early on, today saw us fishing in some great conditions. This was a split trip in that we bass fished in the morning and did light line fishing inshore during the afternoon. Bait was again easy to find off Bournemouth. Sadly though, we were late getting away from the Quay and our window of opportunity to target the bass was greatly reduced. We did however land three reasonable fish with the best of the day taking the scales to just over 6lb. The afternoons inshore fishing was very pleasant with a mixed bag of mainly small fish that included bream, plaice, gurnard and garfish. The lads raised another Ł30 for our charity.

A similar day to yesterday with bass fishing AM and inshore for variety PM. Live bait proved slightly harder to find but after about an hours fishing off Bournemouth Pier we had enough for a couple of hours bass fishing. The bass were still hard to find but this was our best day of this tide. We were up on numbers and size with the first drift alone accounting for fish of 8lb 6oz and 11lb 2oz. Inshore fishing in the afternoon was slightly down on previous days but the lads caught enough fish to maintain the interest, catching a mixed bag that included nine species. We raised another Ł45 for our charity making a total of Ł415 raised so far this month to go towards "Spike Week". The bass of 11lb 2oz caught by Claud Mouratsing is the biggest of the month so far making it the front runner in the PENN sponsored competition to win one of two rod and reel outfits.

Well, that's it. Poor weather has prevented us from doing anymore trips this month, so Claude's fine bass above wins the competition for "The Biggest Bass of the Month" He wins a Waveblaster combo donated by PENN. Thanks to everyone who paid an additional Ł5, or in some cases more, to enter this competition and support a worthy cause. Each entrant also received a raffle ticket and is entered into a draw to win a Powerstix combo also donated by PENN. The draw is scheduled to take place this Friday, 6th October, in the Coventry Arms, Corfe Mullen, Poole. Many thanks to PENN for kindly sponsoring this event.