Duration: 7 hours
Tide: flood, then ebb
Weather:Couldnt have been better, t-shirt weather till midnight (for me anyway)
Bait: Crab, rag, lug, mack, sandeel, squid
Rigs: Clipped and flappers
Results: 4 thornies, 4 smoothies, dogs, dabs, codling, coalies, pouting, whiting, lesser weaver fish
Report:
Recent reports for this area have been poor, and I fished it on wednesday without much success, and 2 crack-offs to rub salt into the wound.
My thinking was that the venue had to come good soon enough, and with the recent rough weather (now flat calm), coupled with a full moon conditions were perfect for good quality fishing. Boy was I right
I've noticed in a lot of reports this summer that plenty of smoothies have been caught in daylight, so hopes were high when we arrived at 6pm.
Hopes were raised when we arrived at the beach and I found a rig washed up on the shore that I had lost due to a crack off on wednesday.....maybe this was a lucky omen, so I quickly attached this rig to my 1st rod, baited up with a big fat juicy crab bait, and sent it to the horizon. Out with the flapper then to see could I keep my self busy with the small stuff (or even a bass) until the smoothies arrived.
20 mins later I noticed a slack liner on the distance rod, tightened the line a little, a few small knocks ensued but nothing to get the juices flowing. A few more knocks later and I thought I'd better get a look at it, bang fish on.........he came in fairly easy until he saw the beach, then he charged right, managed to land him handy enough, 1st hound of the night on my 1st cast of the session around the 4 1/2lb mark.....HAPPY DAYS
Had another rig ready baited to go out, but had a big rag on a pennel, sent it out anyway, even though the 1st fish took crab.
In the mean time, Mark was catching a few coalies in close, and dogs at distance.
I was also getting a few coalies and dabs in close.
Noticed another small bite developing on the distance rod, thought it might have been a small bass, but reeled in to catch my 2nd hound of the night, on only my 2nd cast with that rod........HAPPY DAYS AND SOME
The light was now fading, and this meant the smaller species in close were feeding hard, with a good few doubles and the odd treble coming in.
Mark had asked at the start of the session if ray were caught off this beach, I said they should be there given that they are caught at another venue just a few miles up the road.
His question was "self" answered in some style as he proceeded to catch 3 thornies in 3 casts.
I dont think he could quite believe he got the 1st one, and by number 3 he was in dreamland
His 1st east coast thornies......ever
The 1st coming to crab, and I think the other 2 came to sandeel.
I was kind of thinking to myself that I was falling a bit behind now as Mark had 3 thornies, and I only had 2 hounds, my prayers were soon answered as I landed hound number 3. It was a common hound aswell, so an extra for my species count for the year.
We were now 3 each for the proper fish, so it was going to be exciting to see who would win out, Mark maybe having the edge as he had sandeel and crab for the ray, me only really having the crab, and also I think Mark's extra casting distance seemed to be doing the trick for the ray, he's probably got 30-40 yards on me, and this extra distance just seemed to put him out into the stronger tide run, evidently were the ray where feeding.
I tried a few big mack and squid baits hoping to tempt a ray out, but didnt have any luck, I tried a few big baits in closer for bass, but no joy either.
Mark was then into his 4th thornie of the evening, some achievement considering he hadnt caught a single thornie in all his years angling on this coast.
I was now feeling like my luck had run out, as the hounds seemed to have passed us, my big crab baits were untouched for a few casts.
Then another stroke of luck, Mark had struck into a fish, and as he beached another doggie, there was another trace tangled with his line, it was the other trace I lost on wednesday evening, and I was pleasantly suprised to see another hound hooked on my pennel rig.
A lucky escape for the fish, who must have been hooked since wednesday night, and I'm claiming the catch as my own.....whether it should go down as a catch for wednesday night or this evening is cause for debate maybe, but I'm counting it as my own for tonight
It was now 4 proper fish each, but the action had slowed right down, we stuck at it for another 2 hours, but I'd say that was more in hope than expectation.
All in all a super eveings fishing, and neither of us felt like we had just put in 7 hour stint.
Oh, I also got a lesser weaver fish, so that was 2 extra species for the year
Photos to follow, when I get round to unloading the gear out of the jeep.
, three beard rockling,.shore rockling, 5 beard rockling, flounder, lesser spotted dogfish,bullhuss, dab,bass(13), more whiting : pollock,poorcod,pouting, sea trout(the dodder!)brown trout,sea scorpion,mackerel, silver eel,
