Tommy Devorty
Active member
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2021
- Messages
- 66
- Reaction score
- 322
- Points
- 54
- Location
- Brighton
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
After the recent storms and blows I was keen to get out as much as possible last week on the building tides, at the beginning of the week I fished a mark only 10 minutres drive from me, it's a quiet stretch slap back in the middle of some really popular marks but for some reason seems to be ignored by the majority, which suits me, a few hours on the beach resulted in dogs and straps, I had squid and also took some sardines from the local fish mongers with me to try due to the lack of bluey and sandeels around locally, a few hours on the beach resulted in just dogs and straps ... a couple of days later I headed along towards Pagham and had another go for a ray, the fishing was hard work here with a lot of weed around in some big seas, nothing to exciting caught either with a similar result to my earlier session so packed up just after high ...
A couple of days later conditions had completely changed again, with the wind swinging north east and the tides building I was aware the recent coloured seas would be clearing out and wanted to get out again on Friday before it cleared completely ... I took some mackeral along with the squid for this session and opted for an area in Lancing I'm familiar with after living in the area up until a few years ago, rather than sit around at home I decided to head to the beach at low and check it out, picked the spot I fancied and chilled for a bit lobbing out a couple of fresh lug until the water hit the stones, nothing on those ...
As the tide flooded I had my first dog of the night (can't bring myself to call it a cat shark?!!) ... there was a flurry of dogs as high tide approached so I decided to ditch the squid in favour of straight mackeral on my up & over pulley rigs, this paid off about half an hour into the ebb when the tell tale signs of a ray bite slowly started to the arc the tip of my Century graphex super match ...
I lifted into the fish only to feel a dead weight, like it was snagged ... holding the rod tight I just knew it can't be snagged, I kept slowly lifting into the weight applying some pressure walking one way, then the other, when after a couple of minutes it moved and I was on it to start bringing it in ... I was 99% sure it was a big Thornback or even a surprise Blonde, I've lost count of how many double Undulates I've had over the years, I love catching them but more often than not there's not much fight at all, the majority of time pretty much coming in like a carrier bag full of water! ... but this fish was different and giving a real good account of itself, easily the most sport I've had from a double figure Undulate!
I did for a second think I had beat my previous PB of 15lb9oz due to the scrap and the fact
this male was really thick and in great condition, it settled the scales at 12lb8oz, no personal best but a good first Undulate of the year in some really nice chilled calm conditions
The fish had taken mackeral on a 2/0 up & over pulley rig with Cox & Rawle Specimen Extra and Mustad Big Gun which held firm during the original tussle and never let me down!
More dogs followed so I shot off home, a nice end to a busy week and my efforts rewarded, thanks for reading and hope you all have a nice weekend
A couple of days later conditions had completely changed again, with the wind swinging north east and the tides building I was aware the recent coloured seas would be clearing out and wanted to get out again on Friday before it cleared completely ... I took some mackeral along with the squid for this session and opted for an area in Lancing I'm familiar with after living in the area up until a few years ago, rather than sit around at home I decided to head to the beach at low and check it out, picked the spot I fancied and chilled for a bit lobbing out a couple of fresh lug until the water hit the stones, nothing on those ...
As the tide flooded I had my first dog of the night (can't bring myself to call it a cat shark?!!) ... there was a flurry of dogs as high tide approached so I decided to ditch the squid in favour of straight mackeral on my up & over pulley rigs, this paid off about half an hour into the ebb when the tell tale signs of a ray bite slowly started to the arc the tip of my Century graphex super match ...
I lifted into the fish only to feel a dead weight, like it was snagged ... holding the rod tight I just knew it can't be snagged, I kept slowly lifting into the weight applying some pressure walking one way, then the other, when after a couple of minutes it moved and I was on it to start bringing it in ... I was 99% sure it was a big Thornback or even a surprise Blonde, I've lost count of how many double Undulates I've had over the years, I love catching them but more often than not there's not much fight at all, the majority of time pretty much coming in like a carrier bag full of water! ... but this fish was different and giving a real good account of itself, easily the most sport I've had from a double figure Undulate!
I did for a second think I had beat my previous PB of 15lb9oz due to the scrap and the fact
this male was really thick and in great condition, it settled the scales at 12lb8oz, no personal best but a good first Undulate of the year in some really nice chilled calm conditionsThe fish had taken mackeral on a 2/0 up & over pulley rig with Cox & Rawle Specimen Extra and Mustad Big Gun which held firm during the original tussle and never let me down!
More dogs followed so I shot off home, a nice end to a busy week and my efforts rewarded, thanks for reading and hope you all have a nice weekend
