A short weather window - Friday 14th May

[GPSguru]

Another short weather window, the forecast was NW F3 for the morning and veering South to F5 later in the afternoon. The tides suited me, launching just before high water and being as it is mid springs there would be enough water on the slip to land a 1:00pm.

I always hitch up the trailer to the Jeep on the evening before for an early start as it saves time. However, disaster struck, at 6:15am I started the Jeep ready to go and after about 5 secs the engine died and it wouldn’t restart, just cranking and not much else. A quick look under bonnet didn’t reveal any clues, but experience told me it was probably a fuel problem, and most fuel problems on diesel tractor engines are caused by air in the system. I loosened the bleed cap on the filter and the problem became immediately apparent, the O ring seal had broken but more annoyingly the brass screw has picked up on the aluminum filter housing thread. I quickly bled the air out, found a new O ring of suitable size, and then wrapped the bleed screw threads in PTFE tape which enabled me to screw it down finger tight. Turned the key and the Jeep burst in life, so that delayed me by about 15 mins.

After getting fuel for the boat I launched at 7:30am, and once out of the estuary I was expecting to find a choppy sea as it was also mid spring flood and the wind was against it from the NW, and I wasn’t disappointed with a short chop of about 0.75m.  However, I was still able to hold course at 25kns without being too uncomfortable.

The first wreck was at 11 miles and it was an OK drift, but quite fast at a little over 1knt. Soon I was into Pollock and they were a decent stamp of fish, with the best going at about 7lb. After a few drifts I had 4 Pollock and the flood slack water was approaching, which would also signal a change in the sea conditions to hopefully flat calm. In between the Pollock I also had a good number ot Pout (probably 6 or so) but they were quite small.

I decided to move to a 9 mile wreck that is a tackle graveyard.  Here I found slightly smaller Pollock and Bass to about 4lb. The drifts had slowed to a reasonable 0.6knt and the sun came out to play. TBH it was very nice to be out there and whilst bathed in sunshine I could see the rain showers all along the coast. As late morning approached the bites dried up and I decided it was time to head back in, with a flat sea I was cruising very smoothly  at 4500rpm (35knts).

A great day and nice that being retired I can pick any weather windows that pop up. Total trip was 28nm, and the catch count was 9 Pollock and 3 Bass, plus a good number of unwanted Pout.

A few pics off the gopro,

A Pollock of about 5lb,

A Bass of almost 4lb

The return trip, flat calm ....

 

Edited May 15, 2021 by GPSguru

[mike farrants]

nice report = lucky to grab the weather when you can - i was sat at my work laptop all day checking windy for the weekend - not looking good. 

great fish too!

[Andy135]

Nice work Ian. A good session snatched from variable conditions and despite the Jeep wanting a lie-in 👍

Not jealous at all. Much. 🤣

[GPSguru]

 

Found another couple of pictures off the gopro ...............  average sized pout 🙄

 

Edited May 15, 2021 by GPSguru

[Saintly Fish]

Nice one Hulk. Sounds like your fishing is really starting to pick up. Cant wait for retirement so I can just get up and go at will. Only another 20 years to go!! 

[Tony smith]

Nice report GPSGuru

And a quick fix on the jeep well done you 

Nice lot of fish and home for lunch 👍🎣

[suzook12]

Good work..... I would probably have still been in the driveway beating shit outta the jeep lol, there is usually only one 6:15 in my day, add another and I can be quite temperamantal, especially if it gets in the way of fishing!! 🤣

[Saintly Fish]

29 minutes ago, suzook12 said:

especially if it gets in the way of fishing!!

Do you ever go fishing Dave, don’t remember you ever putting up a catch report! 

[jonnyswamp]

Nice opportunist trip and well done on the quick jeep repair

Is that a silver dream lure that caught both pictured fish ?

 

[GPSguru]

1 hour ago, jonnyswamp said:

Is that a silver dream lure that caught both pictured fish ?

 

The lure is a RedGill evo 115mm blue/white. 
I tried SPJ but the jig was streaming quite quickly, even using a 120g jig in 100ft of water. The heavier jigs were just way too big as the fish were also ignoring the RedGill 178mm blue/white.

 

[GPSguru]

4 hours ago, Tony smith said:

 

Nice lot of fish and home for lunch 👍🎣

Yes, we had Bass for evening meal with peas and small roast spuds 👍

[GPSguru]

An update on the Jeep. The filter is a Racor 200 series (Jeep OEM) with primer pump, and clear bowl with a diesel heater and water sensor. Hopefully I can get a new filter head from ASAP supplies, but to keep it going I have made a repair.

when I checked the temporary fix the derv had eaten the PTFE tape and started to dissolve the O ring. It really needs to be a vitrex (sp) fuel O Ring.

The  bleed screw is a 10mm brass bolt which is ‘necked’ for the O ring. However, when I checked the thread was slightly kess than 10mm, so I an guessing it was probably a NPT thread,

So, I have tapped out the thread to 10mm and fitted a SS 10mm button head with a copper washer and O ring. 
This will hopefully provide a decent temporary / permanent  fix.

before

 

After

Edited May 15, 2021 by GPSguru

[Andy135]

Good work MacGuyver 👍

I want to say it looks like a top bodge, but that's doing it a dis-service. Could well be a quality long term fix.

[GPSguru]

1 hour ago, Andy135 said:

Good work MacGuyver 👍

I want to say it looks like a top bodge, but that's doing it a dis-service. Could well be a quality long term fix.

I would like to get just a new head with the primer pump etc, but as yet I don't know if it is available. ASAP sell the whole complete filter at £208, but I don't need the clear bowl and sensors.

Edited May 15, 2021 by GPSguru

[suzook12]

10 hours ago, Saintly Fish said:

Do you ever go fishing Dave, don’t remember you ever putting up a catch report! 

Since I got rid of my Jeep, yes!!

[GPSguru]

On 5/15/2021 at 5:33 PM, GPSguru said:

An update on the Jeep. The filter is a Racor 200 series (Jeep OEM) with primer pump, and clear bowl with a diesel heater and water sensor. Hopefully I can get a new filter head from ASAP supplies, but to keep it going I have made a repair.

when I checked the temporary fix the derv had eaten the PTFE tape and started to dissolve the O ring. It really needs to be a vitrex (sp) fuel O Ring.

The  bleed screw is a 10mm brass bolt which is ‘necked’ for the O ring. However, when I checked the thread was slightly kess than 10mm, so I an guessing it was probably a NPT thread,

So, I have tapped out the thread to 10mm and fitted a SS 10mm button head with a copper washer and O ring. 
This will hopefully provide a decent temporary / permanent  fix.

before

 

After

 

After speaking to ASAP, I have decided that my fix will probably be permanent, as this is the older 200 series and although all the spares are available (pump rebuild kits, connector elbows etc) the head is not available as a separate unit.

All I will do is to replace the copper washer and O ring, with a 'Dowty' washer to complete the fix. For those that don't know what a Dowty washer is, it is a tempered steel washer that has a built in O ring bonded to the inner diameter of the washer. Dowty washers are used almost exclusively in the hydraulics industry and these bad boys will easily seal 3000psi. Off the shelf they are normally larger BSP sizes, so I had to order the 10mm size (made in Germany) and it arrived today.

 

Edited May 19, 2021 by GPSguru