Mr Fish
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
- Messages
- 21,374
- Reaction score
- 74,018
- Points
- 116
- Location
- North Devon
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
Mainly because I haven’t really done anything worth reporting on!
Had a session up in Somerset last Saturday night but just small dogs and a strap, not worth the effort of typing it up.
Today was a daytime comp and in March that’s pretty dire. I certainly didn’t fancy trundling all the way up to Somerset to blank or get a couple of tiny dogs.
So I made the long and arduous journey five minutes down the road to my local beach. It took quite a bit more than five minutes to climb around to the rocks around the corner, but it’s not TOO bad.
As expected, a fairly strong ENE wind was whipping in from 45 degrees to my right, making for a lumpy sea, with the odd wave breaking over the rocks, but certainly fishable.
The target really was rockling, as they’re pretty fat this time of year and a sizeable one is definitely possible.
The mark also throws up huss, eels, dogs and the odd pollack, with wrasse in season (but far too early for those).
Usually it fishes better at night but I figured it was worth a shot.
I had a bite on a big squid bait right at the outset, but struck into a snag (oh yes, very snaggy here!)
Rotten bottoms are essential but unfortunately I found the 20lb Sensor I’d grabbed as a rotten bottom line was not breaking before my (supposedly) 30lb Asso Classic line, albeit the Arsehole, sorry Asso, was pretty old.
After feeding a couple of leads and rigs to the ever hungry bottom, I had another bite and lo and behold a small huss about 3.5lb came ashore. In fact, I’m not sure it was even hooked as it dropped off on the rocks at my feet. She (I think!) was rather fat and I’d expect was in pup.
Anyway, she was gently lobbed back and wasted no time in diving back to the bottom.
Usually I’ve got an unhooking mat but she was laid down gently for the picture and wasn’t out of the water very long.
A few nibbles followed but either came to nothing or I was snagged.
The picture doesn’t really show it, but it was a lumpy day.
A bite on a chunky mackerel strip resulted in the first strap. I’d suspected they were around as a previous trace came back as a messy slime covered ball ?
Another small huss followed, again it dropped off about five inches above the deck and I didn’t bother with a picture, it was at least a pound smaller than the previous one.
Another strap followed ? No, we don’t photograph straps!
It’s a nice platform to fish from though, once you actually climb around to it.
My battered old ‘rock’ reels, a Slosh30 and 535GS (bloody tank of a reel).
I was working my way through quite a few rigs and leads, but kept putting fresh baits out because you only get about four hours here and the crabs were fairly active.
Leaving a bait out for 45 minutes will just turn it into a dead rod, imo, so I was ripping through the squid and fish baits at a fair rate.
A few bites on the flood came to nothing and being aware that if my access was cut off I’d have a very awkward and tiring climb back (you can still get out but it’s really not a climb I’d want to do these days), I packed up about 20-30 minutes before I probably really had to.
As expected, the way back was still very clear, but you never know if wind and swell will push the tide in quicker than it went out, so best not to take chances.
I definitely prefer that mark at night but it was encouraging there was a few bits around in daylight too, so it’s certainly worth trying again I think.
Had a session up in Somerset last Saturday night but just small dogs and a strap, not worth the effort of typing it up.
Today was a daytime comp and in March that’s pretty dire. I certainly didn’t fancy trundling all the way up to Somerset to blank or get a couple of tiny dogs.
So I made the long and arduous journey five minutes down the road to my local beach. It took quite a bit more than five minutes to climb around to the rocks around the corner, but it’s not TOO bad.
As expected, a fairly strong ENE wind was whipping in from 45 degrees to my right, making for a lumpy sea, with the odd wave breaking over the rocks, but certainly fishable.
The target really was rockling, as they’re pretty fat this time of year and a sizeable one is definitely possible.
The mark also throws up huss, eels, dogs and the odd pollack, with wrasse in season (but far too early for those).
Usually it fishes better at night but I figured it was worth a shot.
I had a bite on a big squid bait right at the outset, but struck into a snag (oh yes, very snaggy here!)
Rotten bottoms are essential but unfortunately I found the 20lb Sensor I’d grabbed as a rotten bottom line was not breaking before my (supposedly) 30lb Asso Classic line, albeit the Arsehole, sorry Asso, was pretty old.
After feeding a couple of leads and rigs to the ever hungry bottom, I had another bite and lo and behold a small huss about 3.5lb came ashore. In fact, I’m not sure it was even hooked as it dropped off on the rocks at my feet. She (I think!) was rather fat and I’d expect was in pup.
Anyway, she was gently lobbed back and wasted no time in diving back to the bottom.
Usually I’ve got an unhooking mat but she was laid down gently for the picture and wasn’t out of the water very long.
A few nibbles followed but either came to nothing or I was snagged.
The picture doesn’t really show it, but it was a lumpy day.
A bite on a chunky mackerel strip resulted in the first strap. I’d suspected they were around as a previous trace came back as a messy slime covered ball ?
Another small huss followed, again it dropped off about five inches above the deck and I didn’t bother with a picture, it was at least a pound smaller than the previous one.
Another strap followed ? No, we don’t photograph straps!
It’s a nice platform to fish from though, once you actually climb around to it.
My battered old ‘rock’ reels, a Slosh30 and 535GS (bloody tank of a reel).
I was working my way through quite a few rigs and leads, but kept putting fresh baits out because you only get about four hours here and the crabs were fairly active.
Leaving a bait out for 45 minutes will just turn it into a dead rod, imo, so I was ripping through the squid and fish baits at a fair rate.
A few bites on the flood came to nothing and being aware that if my access was cut off I’d have a very awkward and tiring climb back (you can still get out but it’s really not a climb I’d want to do these days), I packed up about 20-30 minutes before I probably really had to.
As expected, the way back was still very clear, but you never know if wind and swell will push the tide in quicker than it went out, so best not to take chances.
I definitely prefer that mark at night but it was encouraging there was a few bits around in daylight too, so it’s certainly worth trying again I think.
