I was starting to believe I was cursed, as other anglers on some of the days were catching bass and hounds beside me. It wasn't down to bait, I had been using fresh rag I dug and fresh frozen peeler and squid. I was sure I was getting conditions right but I was just in the wrong spots at the wrong times I think. Regardless, I got out last night and finally managed to break the curse with 2 smooth hounds.
After trying 3 or 4 new marks among the usual few I fish, I decided to hit up a local beach that has been hit and miss this year for me. It has produced bass and smoothies in the past and it didn't disappoint me this time. Arriving an hour before low water, I set up with a flapper rig with little strips of bluey, and a bigger squid bait on a pulley rig. On what must've been the second cast of the pulley rig, as I'm showing some passers-by a photo of a smooth-hound, the rod takes a dive and I strike in to my first smoothie in weeks. It was beached in no time at all and was the center of attention of a few passers-by who recorded it as I went to get my T-bar. At around 3lbs, it was released well.
The humid evening plodded on as the tide began to flood and the light faded, but the sudden activity was fleeting as no bites registered for another 2 hours. Towards the end of the session, I was talking to my friend who showed up to fish the flood when the rod stand clattered to the ground, reminding me that I didn't have my drag set! I fumbled around in the dark finding the rod that caused the mess and struck into a decent fighting hound, which was landed around 5 minutes later. Looks were deceiving in the dark but once I picked it up I was delighted as it was close to my PB, I'm awful at guessing weights but I reckoned it to be around 6lbs.
It was promptly released and that was it for the evening, we fished on for another 50 mins to no avail.
Twas great to be out on such a fine evening
