Bothrops
Member
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2022
- Messages
- 27
- Reaction score
- 129
- Points
- 28
- Location
- Christchurch
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
Decided to have a beach session last night to escape the monotony of TV induced lassitude. Fished 2 rods, one with worm on the usual 3 hook flapper and the other with fish baits (anchovy, sandeel, mackerel) hoping for a ray or decent bass. No action at all until dusk set in when there was a huge amount of surface activity very close in not much more than 20 yards from the shore. It was difficult to see what was causing the commotion as it did not look like mackerel so I decided to reel in my flapper rig right through the boil and the problem was solved, a foul-hooked scad. The shoals were very active and stayed very close in until the light faded
As darkness fell I picked up a few very small black bream on the worm and started to get rattles on the fish bait which resulted in a few missed bites and some very tangled traces which is unusual. Again mystery solved when at last in came a very small strap conger followed by another and another and another….Apart from a tiny smoothound it was obvious that the conger were on the fish bait almost as soon as it hit the water so my target of a ray or bass looked a lost cause and with some reluctance I packed in after a couple of hours of the ebb tide. Conger, and certainly in these numbers, never seemed to feature in catches along local shores so some sort of dramatic change for whatever reason is certainly afoot. Any suggestions as to the reason? Anyway a pleasant night spent under the stars with plenty of activity albeit from small fish and now it’s back to fly fishing.
As darkness fell I picked up a few very small black bream on the worm and started to get rattles on the fish bait which resulted in a few missed bites and some very tangled traces which is unusual. Again mystery solved when at last in came a very small strap conger followed by another and another and another….Apart from a tiny smoothound it was obvious that the conger were on the fish bait almost as soon as it hit the water so my target of a ray or bass looked a lost cause and with some reluctance I packed in after a couple of hours of the ebb tide. Conger, and certainly in these numbers, never seemed to feature in catches along local shores so some sort of dramatic change for whatever reason is certainly afoot. Any suggestions as to the reason? Anyway a pleasant night spent under the stars with plenty of activity albeit from small fish and now it’s back to fly fishing.