DJDBazzer
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- Oct 4, 2020
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After a quality session over the Christmas period, 2020, Keith, Steve, Steve and I had been dying to get down to our favourite beach on the Jurassic Coast.
We had planned to hit the beach Christmas just gone, but due to freezing conditions, COVID and issues with my van, we decided to put it off until we were back to some sort of normality.
Normality took a lot longer than we had hoped, but yesterday offered us pretty ideal conditions to head down to said beach, minus Steve and Steve, who had family duties today and so opted for a rock mark almost within shouting distance
As some of you may have worked out, and are probably aware, the car park gets locked at sunset, so we made the LONGGGGGG walk down to the beach fully laden with sleeping bags, self inflating mattresses and enough bait to feed an army of strap congers.
Keith learnt from our last trip and brought his converted battery powered trolley, which coasted down the path without Keith even breaking a sweat.
We finally made it to our chosen spot and swiftly launched ray baits in to the frothy surf.
Nothing much was happening so we decided to collect some drift wood for the fire, which was a reasonably easy task due to the recent storm.
I sat and split some kindling with my filleting knife, being extra careful not to slice myself, as we were a long walk from civilisation.
A quick look up at my rod and I noticed a strange bite...
I left the rod for a while, until my line went pretty slack and my impatience got the best of me.
It was pretty obvious from the start that I had hooked in to something bigger than a spider crab.
Kelp in the surf line made it quite difficult to land, but eventually we had a decent size small eyed ray making its way up the beach.
I never expect to catch much in daylight, without heading to Chesil anyway, so this left me pretty optimistic for the rest of the session.
The sun soon set and the temperature dropped like a rock.
Keith was landing a few bits, mainly straps and pout, I managed to snag a 6lb eel.
It wasn't until around 22:45 that I looked up at my rod to see my line on the beach. I tightened my line, thinking that I had picked up some kelp in the surf, but no...
Once again, my line went slack....
I left it a few minutes, waited for a decent lunge before striking in to the fish.
Right away I knew it was a good fish, especially when it hung up on the gulley around 20 yards out.
At one point I thought I had found a snag, but eventually the fish released itself and I managed to glide it in on a wave.
Now, I have had a few small eyed rays, but the only double figure one, I caught in my first year of fishing... I knew that this would be close to a PB.
I placed the ray in my blue Ikea bag and was over the moon to see the scales settle on 11lb 11oz, a new PB.
I said to Keith before the trip that someone would have a PB in what were perfect conditions, but I had my money on it being him.
Unfortunately for Keith, this was about as exciting as it got....
A few hours in to the flood, everything went dead, not even a strap.
We sat and enjoyed the fire, which was roaring all night thanks to Keith's haul of coal, found buried in a recent rock fall.
We sat and chatted, as we watched the SpaceX Starlink constellation pass over head, must have been over 60 satellites in a row, perfectly spaced out.
With that, we both decided to hit the sack, Keith suggesting he would be up in an hour to carry on fishing.
I woke up at 4:30am and noticed Keith fishing, but I couldn't find it in me to crawl out of my sleeping bag.
One strap conger later and the sun was up and I was ready to make the long walk back.
Unfortunately, due to a slight malfunction, Keith's trolley stopped working on the way back, meaning he had to push his gear up the never ending path... To be fair, it still looked a breeze...
Anyways, a slightly longer report as promised.
Hope we've all had a good weekend.
Peace!
We had planned to hit the beach Christmas just gone, but due to freezing conditions, COVID and issues with my van, we decided to put it off until we were back to some sort of normality.
Normality took a lot longer than we had hoped, but yesterday offered us pretty ideal conditions to head down to said beach, minus Steve and Steve, who had family duties today and so opted for a rock mark almost within shouting distance
As some of you may have worked out, and are probably aware, the car park gets locked at sunset, so we made the LONGGGGGG walk down to the beach fully laden with sleeping bags, self inflating mattresses and enough bait to feed an army of strap congers.
Keith learnt from our last trip and brought his converted battery powered trolley, which coasted down the path without Keith even breaking a sweat.
We finally made it to our chosen spot and swiftly launched ray baits in to the frothy surf.
Nothing much was happening so we decided to collect some drift wood for the fire, which was a reasonably easy task due to the recent storm.
I sat and split some kindling with my filleting knife, being extra careful not to slice myself, as we were a long walk from civilisation.
A quick look up at my rod and I noticed a strange bite...
I left the rod for a while, until my line went pretty slack and my impatience got the best of me.
It was pretty obvious from the start that I had hooked in to something bigger than a spider crab.
Kelp in the surf line made it quite difficult to land, but eventually we had a decent size small eyed ray making its way up the beach.
I never expect to catch much in daylight, without heading to Chesil anyway, so this left me pretty optimistic for the rest of the session.
The sun soon set and the temperature dropped like a rock.
Keith was landing a few bits, mainly straps and pout, I managed to snag a 6lb eel.
It wasn't until around 22:45 that I looked up at my rod to see my line on the beach. I tightened my line, thinking that I had picked up some kelp in the surf, but no...
Once again, my line went slack....
I left it a few minutes, waited for a decent lunge before striking in to the fish.
Right away I knew it was a good fish, especially when it hung up on the gulley around 20 yards out.
At one point I thought I had found a snag, but eventually the fish released itself and I managed to glide it in on a wave.
Now, I have had a few small eyed rays, but the only double figure one, I caught in my first year of fishing... I knew that this would be close to a PB.
I placed the ray in my blue Ikea bag and was over the moon to see the scales settle on 11lb 11oz, a new PB.
I said to Keith before the trip that someone would have a PB in what were perfect conditions, but I had my money on it being him.
Unfortunately for Keith, this was about as exciting as it got....
A few hours in to the flood, everything went dead, not even a strap.
We sat and enjoyed the fire, which was roaring all night thanks to Keith's haul of coal, found buried in a recent rock fall.
We sat and chatted, as we watched the SpaceX Starlink constellation pass over head, must have been over 60 satellites in a row, perfectly spaced out.
With that, we both decided to hit the sack, Keith suggesting he would be up in an hour to carry on fishing.
I woke up at 4:30am and noticed Keith fishing, but I couldn't find it in me to crawl out of my sleeping bag.
One strap conger later and the sun was up and I was ready to make the long walk back.
Unfortunately, due to a slight malfunction, Keith's trolley stopped working on the way back, meaning he had to push his gear up the never ending path... To be fair, it still looked a breeze...
Anyways, a slightly longer report as promised.
Hope we've all had a good weekend.
Peace!
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