I was tired out Monday evening but, I made the decision to head out on a bait collecting session with the squid jigs, thinking there may be a few about. The conditions were still, water gin clear and I could immediately see gars kiting about in my torch light, as well as some scad eyes. Fishing half tide up things were a bit slow to my surprise, I put a small metal on one rod to mix things up and hooked a scad which kindly disgorged itself about 20ft above the water and it was gone. I began to think it would be one of those nights. Next up, a really good pull down on the squid rod and a serious fish on. I was pretty surprised at what I was seeing in the rod tip as it would easily handle most squid on this carp rod. About 30 yards out I saw an absolute lump of a squid on the surface, thrusting with water jets in the opposite direction. Fortunately, I'd built a new dropnet that was 5ft across and on this occasion was rigged to float so I'd have no issues guiding a fish into it. It's built for congers, rays and huss really (and exceptional squid on this occasion). After a minute or two nursing it to the edge of the breakwater, I could see it had a decent hold on the jig and I carefully eased it into my waiting net and hauled it up the wall to safety. I knew it was a PB looking at the length, it had done its best to shoot me with water/ink and was glowing a plumb colour. I quickly set up my camera tripod for a selfie, only to discover my flash was back at my house (hence the degraded morning after shot). I grabbed the measure and took a few phone shots and was pretty happy with a new PB at 4lb 6oz & 3/8 on the scales.
[ATTACH=full]1253[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]1254[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]1255[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]1256[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]1257[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]1258[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]1259[/ATTACH]
I then went through a long period of nothing happening all the way to high, no more squid about, weird. I did have a black bream and a dog on a bait rig using one of the monster squids tentacles cut into strips and opted to pack up and head home, exhausted. On the way back I did reflect that the session was very poor, it almost felt like a blank after getting that squid early and then things going quiet. I guess once again that's the fine line between success and failure in fishing, I should be very grateful for 2 PB's in two sessions.
P.S. The old faithful pink Yamashita doing the business, the same jig responsible for my last PB squid.
