Duration: 8.30pm - 4.40am
Tide: HW 1am
Weather: cold, calm and dry
Bait: mack, squid, lug, razor and sand eel
Rigs: australian suicide rigs
Results: JORDAN: 1LB 13OZ 3 bearded rockling and a lobster. ME: 3 pin whiting and a micro coalie
Report: we decided to change things up a bit and went on a specimen rockling hunt on the causeway coast. our usual session would consist of chucking out 2 spinning rods each, with 3 hook flappers on em. but last night we set ourselves the target of bagging a specimen rockling
. we researched a mark where it might be dooable and special suicide rigs were tied (thanks to lee reighner and paul worseling 
). i dusted off our summer boat rods and reels as we would be fishing tight to the sea bed on seriousley rough ground. there was also the chance of conger too, so anything lighter could end disasterously 
. so 2 boat rods each were baited up and cast and we sat back and waited for that tell tale click, click, click to begin 
. the first run was almost instant 
, but sadly i was baiting up jordan's rod at the time, and by the time i wiped the mushy mack off my hands and hit the rod the fish had buggered off and left me a lovely bird's nest to untangle 
. but undaunted, i rebaited and cast out again. 30 mins or so passed and jordan got a thumping run. he struck into it with all his might and an epic battle of "tug of war" began with him and a hefty eel. at first it was stuck solid, so he let some line out and freed it up . but for every 5 turns of the reel he got back on it, it was taking 10 back in return 
. 3 mins of deadlock passed when the enivetable happened,,,, twang!!!! the hook bent out and jordan almost ended up on his butt. the eel made off with his prize, an entire mackeral fillet . i was gutted for jordan, but at least it ment there were fish out there . by now we were 3 hours into the session and we still had'nt landed a single fish yet . jordan looked at me, and i at him and we both came to the same conclusion........ it was time to break out our trusty spinning rods and 3 hook flappers . so 5 mins later we were both fishing 2 boat rods and a spinning rod each. we had to get something now 
. i was the first to get a knock on the spinning gear with a wee whiting who was almost the same size an the 1/0 hook he had impaled himself onto . but hey,,,, blank saved . another followed soon after with loads of bites that we just could'nt hook into. (probably due to their small size ). then jordan's spinning gear got a hit and he reeled into something with a bit of weight on it (bearing in mind, these are 1oz cast weight 6ft rods 
0). to our surprize larry the lobster made an appearence and was hooked in the chops fair and square on a bit of mack . jordan carefully landed him and he went into a bucket of sea water to go home with us for lunch the next day .after all the excitement we chilled out with a coffee each and a choccy bicky
. all the rods were reeled in and re-baited and to be honest the next hour was pretty quiet with just the odd knock on the spinning rods from the micro whiting . then jordan got a slow and timid click, click on his boat rod and hit and hooked something . he knew by the weight it was'nt an eel, but there was something there . we were elated to see a massive 3 beardy break the surface!!! our hearts were in our throats as he swung about on the end of the line as there was a 20 foot drop below us to the sea. but jordan got him on dry land and we both began jumping about like 2 giddy school girls . MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!! not only was it a new PB for jordan, but this thing was a monster 
. he was 42cms long and had a girth of 21cms from behind his head i had to weigh him 4 times as he was only coming up at 1lb 13ozs on the digital scales, and to be honest i thought he looked a lot heavier 
but if that was all we had to complain about, we were still the 2 happiest fishermen for miles around so after lots of measuring and photographs he was returned to swim another day. he was none the worse either, as he shot off like lightning back to the murky depths from which he came . i'm not sure if they have the rockling in the sea angler's shimano mission comp, but i'm gonna send in the pic any how to see if it get's him in the april edition. by now it was 4.30am and we called it a day as we were both shattered. jordan had got his target species and we went home 2 very happy campers 
