Saturday was my first fishing trip to the Firth of Thames. Thanks goes to Gottafew who i met through the Forum. He invited me to go out on his boat after a meet and i was really worried about being seasick.  Having had only one other 'boating' experience of fishing, Kaikoura 18 man charter boat, i had suffered terrible seasickness. 7 hours of producing burley is not fun i can tell you. So having done loads of research of remedies i settled for Paihia Bombs from the Paihia Pharmacy. Just rang and ordered over the phone and they came next day. Well let me tell you they worked a treat. On the water for over 8 hours and not one moment of nausea!! Brilliant eh. We left around 6am, i was a bit late, and headed to Waikawau boat ramp. A small queue soon allowed us get on the water. Weather was good, except for a breeze. Made it a bit choppy at times but the Paihia Bombs did the trick . So off we zoom to a spot Paul chooses and in next to no time the anchor was down and we had our lines on the water. Was bloody brilliant being out there i can tell you. Soon enough we were getting bites and we pulled a few small snapper out. Then i struck into what i consider to be a massive fish! I'll never forget the buzz of fighting it up to the surface. A snapper which had the rod bent so thought it might snap. In reality it wasn't a monster but to me it was a PB by a long shot. So after doing the deed i sat down and said to Paul 'i dont care if i dont catch another all day'. Paul just laughed. After that Paul started pulling them out for fun. All decent sizes. Then it went a bit flat so it was decided we'd find another spot. I asked Paul how he picked a spot. He said 'gut instinct'. I said i could be 'gut' he could be 'instinct' . So in went the lines again and we pulled out a gurnard then all sorts of smaller fish. It went flat for a while and i asked a few question like a newbie. Paul was very knowledgeable and very patient i thought. On the drive up i'd asked if you could jump in and have a swim. Paul just smiled at me. Now i know why. Something caught my eye and holy ****! It was a Hammerhead shark! I didnt know what to do. Paul was calm as a millpond. I was amazed at seeing one for the first time in it's natural habitat. It was only a baby, maybe 5 feet, but to me i thought it was gonna eat me! Apparently the current is very strong too so jumping in for a swim was off the menu . After a while Paul went crazy and must have pulled out 10 decent snapper in 15 minutes. One in particular was a real beauty. The agreement was we share the catch and we were getting close to our limit. We tried mullet, mackerel, kahwhi and pilchards, which by far the best bait. We decided to call it a day and headed off to the ramp. I'd been plastering myself in sunblock but obviously not enough as i'm burnt as hell. (bloody poms) even burnt through my hair!! Wore a cap most the day too. Will have to invest in one of those hats with the flaps that cover your neck. Bit of a queue but soon had the boat on the trailer and we headed home. It was better than i'd believed it could be for me and i'm really looking forward to going again. It was a long day but well and truly worth it. The missus agreed after she tasted the fish...Beautiful!!!

Good stuff! Awesome to see forum guys gettin out together to share the costs/learn something/catch some fish. I was in touch with paul part way through last year about heading out for a fish but work commitments and injuries seriously slowed down my fishing for a while. Will have to get back in touch sometime soon. Well done on the PB too!

Pleased to see the Pahia Bombs worked for you. I'm sorry I was away and you couldn't contact me regards sea sickness remedies. As for the sun burn, I would suggest Ego Sunsense Sport, and make sure you reapply it if you are going to be out all day. Those hats with the flaps work well too. Great to see you had a great trip 

Well and truly hooked, nice report Donut, sounds like you guys had a good day out.

Great report and always good to hear how these forums connect people up for some memorable days on the water.