Downhill Beach Friday 13th

[nialk]

Hadn't been out fishing since well before christmas due to the weather , family and work so thought would get out and blow away the cobwebs ( plus try out the new beach caster my wife bought me for christmas....lol its amazing what dropping lots of hints can do ), plus my mate wanted to try out his new rod rest ,

Arrived at the beach about 7.30pm with my mate Monty and started to get set up. The weather was starting to get frosty but with such a clear sky , it was a lovely night to be out.

Got the rods built up 3 fixed reels and 1 multiplier reel, with various rigs , baits used were mackeral, black lug ,squid and a few prawns.

Don't know what it is but fish around us dont seem to like the squid or prawns....as they never get touched , not even by the crabs.

4 lines were cast into the water and then we retired to the 4x4 to listen to the rugby.

Nothing stirred , no tip movement , nothing, we were fishing a filling tide .

After half an hour the lines were brought in and rebaited with makeral and black lug and cast out again, again nothing happened then bang, my rod tip starting moving about but the bite alert tip lights showed nothing , so I thought it was just the tide or seaweed on the line, waited another few minutes and still the tip was moving so reeled it in and there was a mid size flounder on the hook, after carefully releasing it and rebaiting I cast in again and within 5 minutes I had another flounder, again no indication on the tip light.

Fish number 2 safely released to fight another day.

That was it , no more fish, we continued to fish until 2.00am and low tide and all we got was frostbite lol

At least I bloodied my new beach caster on its first outing but whats the betting that will be the last fish on it for quite a while!!!!

All in all a good nights craic, great company , hope to get out again soon

[dave316]

Well, you could have had worse luck on Friday 13th. Still a nice place to spend an evening, maybe you'll do better there when you can get your hands on some ragworm, but probably not too many fish about there at the minute anyway.

[johnwest]

my rod tip starting moving about but the bite alert tip lights showed nothing , so I thought it was just the tide or seaweed on the line, waited another few minutes and still the tip was moving so reeled it in and there was a mid size flounder on the hook, after carefully releasing it and rebaiting I cast in again and within 5 minutes I had another flounder, again no indication on the tip light.

Always good to get a couple of fish. Are you using these new tiplights which are supposed to change colour when you get a bite?

[nialk]

Yeah, I bought 2 of them, read all the advertising blurb on them and thought they sounded great , they flash green alright but failed to change to red when fish were on. Will maybe try them again when im out next week or else they will lie at the bottom of the beta box and go back to the old tip lights.

[weedave]

doesnt sound like its fishing well at the min up there.

at least you caught something though.

dave

[wishiniwasfishin]

If they are the same ones i bought, you need to remove some of the o-rings to increase the sensitivity, first time i used it i had a doggie bite and there was no indication at all!!! So into the bottom of the box they went lol wasn't until i was looking at them later did i realise!

I still prefer the old tip lights to be honest but good to have as a back up! or for the conger rod!

Hope that helps

[Al and Jordan]

you did well to get the 2 flounder man. it's a beach i've never had much success on myself. seems to blow hot and cold from day to day. about 2 years ago we fished a comp on it and it was hard going to say the least. i think the comp was won with 4 fish and lots of blank cards getting handed back in. yet a mate of ours went up the next day fishing the same conditions on the same tide and cleaned up with loads of decent flats and a bass
go figure

[nialk]

Best result i have had at Downhill was 5 flatties and another night 4 flatties. Between Monty and myself we caught 3 bass last year and the flatties but it varies from night to night.
3 weeks in a row we caught a bass and then nothing but crabs or flatties, maybe this year will be better.