Mr Fish
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
- Messages
- 21,366
- Reaction score
- 73,986
- Points
- 116
- Location
- North Devon
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
It seemed like a good idea at the time… two nights of fishing, a ‘quick’ session on Friday night (see Mixed Bag Bassing’ report) and Saturday night was a club roving comp.
I’d arranged to meet two mates at yet another surf beach, with a decent ray, possible bass or even a late hound on the cards.
I must admit I wasn’t really feeling it. I mused on the drive over that had I not entered the competition and made arrangements (I don’t like to break promises), I probably would have decided to stay at home.
The plan was to fish 2.5 hours down to low and then as much of the flood as we could be bothered with.
The beach is so flat and the swell so powerful last night that waves were surging 100 yards or more up the beach, while the real surf was a long way out.
It made fishing difficult and I must have walked a few hundred miles up and down to cast, to move the gear, to reel in, pretty much to do anything.
If I do the low there again I’m definitely getting there nearer low tide as the speed it dropped back was ridiculous - I think my first casts were pretty much dry after half an hour, and that was after wading halfway to Wales before casting out!
Still, a nice moonlit night and my iPhone seems to love taking pretty pictures with minimal effort!
Word on the grapevine was my mate on the end had already had three small eyed ray, when my squid rod tapped a few times then went over.
I did the surf beach shuffle - wind down the slack, run backwards and whack! Nothing. But the whole squid was pretty mangled.
First thought was I’d missed a bass bite.
However a similar bite on the next cast revealed my first ray of the night…
Not the best picture but it wasn’t huge, probably around 4lb but certainly under 5.
My mate on the end was still pulling in ray, including an 8lb plus fish.
Mate in the middle hadn’t had anything but he didn’t have waders on and you really needed them to get out past the shallow surge.
I had two more very small ray that probably didn’t make 2lb and as the flood started we all began to pick them up.
The flood brought its own challenges as you’d barely moved your gear and rebaited when the waves were lapping at your feet again.
I must admit, daft as it seems, it was really starting to piss me off!
An hour after low end mate decided he’d had enough but we decided to stay a bit longer.
More smaller ray followed and rather than keep whacking it right out, I swapped sandeel for bluey (only had one ray on sandeel all night) and began lobbing them very short, in the hope of a better bass
What I thought was a ray bite on bluey turned out to be a chunky little bass that looked just in size to me, however I was going to put it back when blood began to pour out of its gills.
It may have been borderline, maybe not, but I kept it as absolutely no point putting it back for the crabs in that condition.
I genuinely meant to take a photo but with rushing about, moving back and rebaiting, I barely had two minutes to scale and gut it.
Next lob with the bluey saw the rod go right over and a more powerful fish was pulling back.
Ooh! This one resisted all the way in and felt like a good 5 or 6lb.
It was. 5 or 6lb of strap.
???
We agreed we’d pack up soon and I had one more lob with a bluey, to use it up.
Again the rod went right over and the ratchet screamed too.
This had been literally 30-40 yards out and I was sure I had a better bass this time.
I eased it through the surf and the powerful backwash, wading towards it as I did and caught the telltale glimpse of ray eyes shining in the light of my headtorch.
It had to be a good one, it was very reluctant to come in and was pulling hard.
Finally eased it to shore…
Fecking thing was only around 6lb! Maybe a little more or less but since specimen is 9 or 10, no chance that was doing anything so I didn’t even weigh it.
That was it. I moved the gear up as far as I could be arsed then set about packing up as quickly as I could, while my mate was already almost packed up.
A good night on the fish, one mate had 10 ray, another five, I had six plus a bass and an eel, but for some reason I felt quite tetchy throughout most of the session.
No particular reason apart from the irritating surf (silly thing to get wound up about!) and I guess it was really just down to tiredness.
Maybe it was my inner werewolf coming out!
I’d arranged to meet two mates at yet another surf beach, with a decent ray, possible bass or even a late hound on the cards.
I must admit I wasn’t really feeling it. I mused on the drive over that had I not entered the competition and made arrangements (I don’t like to break promises), I probably would have decided to stay at home.
The plan was to fish 2.5 hours down to low and then as much of the flood as we could be bothered with.
The beach is so flat and the swell so powerful last night that waves were surging 100 yards or more up the beach, while the real surf was a long way out.
It made fishing difficult and I must have walked a few hundred miles up and down to cast, to move the gear, to reel in, pretty much to do anything.
If I do the low there again I’m definitely getting there nearer low tide as the speed it dropped back was ridiculous - I think my first casts were pretty much dry after half an hour, and that was after wading halfway to Wales before casting out!
Still, a nice moonlit night and my iPhone seems to love taking pretty pictures with minimal effort!
Word on the grapevine was my mate on the end had already had three small eyed ray, when my squid rod tapped a few times then went over.
I did the surf beach shuffle - wind down the slack, run backwards and whack! Nothing. But the whole squid was pretty mangled.
First thought was I’d missed a bass bite.
However a similar bite on the next cast revealed my first ray of the night…
Not the best picture but it wasn’t huge, probably around 4lb but certainly under 5.
My mate on the end was still pulling in ray, including an 8lb plus fish.
Mate in the middle hadn’t had anything but he didn’t have waders on and you really needed them to get out past the shallow surge.
I had two more very small ray that probably didn’t make 2lb and as the flood started we all began to pick them up.
The flood brought its own challenges as you’d barely moved your gear and rebaited when the waves were lapping at your feet again.
I must admit, daft as it seems, it was really starting to piss me off!
An hour after low end mate decided he’d had enough but we decided to stay a bit longer.
More smaller ray followed and rather than keep whacking it right out, I swapped sandeel for bluey (only had one ray on sandeel all night) and began lobbing them very short, in the hope of a better bass
What I thought was a ray bite on bluey turned out to be a chunky little bass that looked just in size to me, however I was going to put it back when blood began to pour out of its gills.
It may have been borderline, maybe not, but I kept it as absolutely no point putting it back for the crabs in that condition.
I genuinely meant to take a photo but with rushing about, moving back and rebaiting, I barely had two minutes to scale and gut it.
Next lob with the bluey saw the rod go right over and a more powerful fish was pulling back.
Ooh! This one resisted all the way in and felt like a good 5 or 6lb.
It was. 5 or 6lb of strap.
???We agreed we’d pack up soon and I had one more lob with a bluey, to use it up.
Again the rod went right over and the ratchet screamed too.
This had been literally 30-40 yards out and I was sure I had a better bass this time.
I eased it through the surf and the powerful backwash, wading towards it as I did and caught the telltale glimpse of ray eyes shining in the light of my headtorch.
It had to be a good one, it was very reluctant to come in and was pulling hard.
Finally eased it to shore…
Fecking thing was only around 6lb! Maybe a little more or less but since specimen is 9 or 10, no chance that was doing anything so I didn’t even weigh it.
That was it. I moved the gear up as far as I could be arsed then set about packing up as quickly as I could, while my mate was already almost packed up.
A good night on the fish, one mate had 10 ray, another five, I had six plus a bass and an eel, but for some reason I felt quite tetchy throughout most of the session.
No particular reason apart from the irritating surf (silly thing to get wound up about!) and I guess it was really just down to tiredness.
Maybe it was my inner werewolf coming out!
That last shot is superb. was it taken with a phone camera?
