ouchthathurt
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 15, 2021
- Messages
- 2,948
- Reaction score
- 12,811
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Hastings East Sussex
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
After several weeks where work, honeymoon and roofing the kitchen have put paid to my shore fishing, I finally got a chance to get the rods out for a few hours. The morning was spent pumping lug set for an evening low tide, which was due at about 1950 last night. So after a scrumptious dinner of pork belly, I got to the beach about 1845. The recent storm had washed away the sandbanks that usually separate the angler from the open sea and dumped the sand straight into the rocky reefs between the tide lines, the scouring action had created a deep depression where I decided to set up. Sticking the chesties on, I tackled up both Leeda icon elite match rods with Diawa 7ht multis, rigged with 2 hook clipped down rigs baited with lug on size 1/0 hooks. The first one was sent into the deep depression and the other one was waded out and cast over a sand bar that had survived the ravaging of the storms. Within 5mins, the long rod produced a proper rattling bite, but on striking, I’d missed it! Buoyed by the immediate action, I began re-baiting that rod when I noticed the short rod drop slack as the 5oz gripper broke out and swept down tide. After a few mins of chasing it in the surf, bass no1 hit the sand.
I quickly rebaited this rod and sent them both back out there. After 10mins waiting, the short rod fell slack again, and bass no2 hit the bank.
After rebaiting the short rod and sending it out there, I cocked up the timing of the cast and it went low and wide, dropping quite short, only about 25yrds, I thought about retrieving it, but remembered that big bass will come in very close, so thought I’d give it 10-15min and see what happened. Propping this rod on the rest, I noticed the long rod had a massive slack liner. A quick reel in and I was retrieving bass no3, the short (miscast) rod slammed over, before dropping slack, so I placed bass no3 in a rock pool and after a fiesty scrap in the surf, bass no4 also joined its mate in the rock pool. Bass no3 was quickly released, bass no4 came home for tea. He measured 51cm and was the biggest fish of the trip
i had enough time for one more cast so sent both rods back out there again, both fishing short this time as the tide was well on the flood now. Things went quiet for half or so, before a sprightly rattle on the left rod produced bass no5 of the evening. This trace was rather tangled on retrieval, with a nice coating of eel slime, so thanking my lucky stars the eel had fallen off and left a bass, I packed that rod away.
By now, the tide had reached the “warning rocks” that at night tell me it’s time to leave before the gullies behind me start to fill. So the last rod was retrieved with nothing to show for it. I was in the car and home by just after 2200.



