South East Southend 2020-10-27 night

[Wattsy]

I fished just to the east of the Sealife Centre, high tide was 22:11 and pretty small at 5.33 metres. There was a stiff breeze from the SW. I fished from about 20:30 to 01:00.

Bait was dirty party squid that was pink and past it's best but whiting will eat anything so I wasn't worried. The first rod was a 4/0 two hook flapper with half (lengthwise) squid mantle whipped on to make a sausage shape. The other rod I started with a running ledger with a 3/0 with a 2 tied to it with a tiny strip of squid. This was meant to be the in-place live bait rod.

There were bites coming before I'd even set up the second rod and I opened up with a double shot of small whiting.

The live bait rod was rattling within minutes of being in the water. As it turned out, the live bait was bigger than I'd wanted and the half squid hooked a finger sized whiting so I put that out as a live bait.

There was a stream of whiting around the 25cm mark so eventually I gave up on the live bait rod and swapped the ledger for a paternoster pennel and lashed on a couple of squid in an attempt to land a sizeable whiting. I also started putting whole squid on the flapper.

At about 23:40 I had a better bite and could feel something better being winched in. Now I know a lot of people hate dogfish but I couldn't have been happier to catch this one which was 51cm long and came home with me. The actual bait for this one was three squid heads - whether that was a coincidence or not, I'll be researching over the coming weeks.



After the dogfish I used a fillet of whiting on the pennel rod which I left out - when I bought it in to pack up there was a whiting on each hook, one of which was sizeable.

The bites continued until about 01:00 when I packed up.

Next thing, I'll get some herring because where there's dogfish, there's a chance of a ray and I won't catch one on lugworm and even if there aren't any rays, the bigger whiting and the dogfish will take a big chunk of herring.

I finished with three sizeable whiting and a dogfish in my box and lost count of how many undersized and borderline whiting I caught.

 

[Shirleycodlin]

Well done on your catch.
Rays will take squid and lug.
On a local mark, anglers targeting sole will often catch thornback ray's on lug.

 

[Tatunka joe]

Nice sesh mate a decent feed there .

 

[Mukiwa]

Well done on your busy session, and some to take home too.

I agree with Shirl, I have had Ray's on lug and squid, especially this time of the year.

Ok light bulb, you took the dogfish home, what's it like to eat then , I know people eat hounds ect which was called "sweet William" in the fish and chip shops here in the uk.

 

[Wattsy]

Well done on your busy session, and some to take home too.

I agree with Shirl, I have had Ray's on lug and squid, especially this time of the year.

Ok light bulb, you took the dogfish home, what's it like to eat then , I know people eat hounds ect which was called "sweet William" in the fish and chip shops here in the uk.

Dogfish is what the chip shops call rock eel or rock salmon (at least around here). It's been a while since I've had it so it's hard to describe exactly but I'd say it's good and flaky with a mild flavour and it's "boneless", which I'll be especially appreciative after dealing with the whiting!

I do make you and @Shirleycodlin right about the lug but it was late so I probably didn't express myself properly - I'm pretty sure that if I put a lugworm on I'd get wrecked by micro bass within minutes - and if not them, the whiting and probably smaller ones at that. Given that I'd definitely be pushing my luck fishing for a thornback from Southend, I'd need to stack the odds in my favour which is what I meant kind of. Herring was my choice as it's the local bait of choice for roker (or always used to be and I distinctly remembered noticing it when I grabbed some fresh squid yesterday).

Anyway, now I'm winding myself up about those micro bass because if there weren't so many of those, there'd be an outside chance of a sole of that beach too in season.

I think I'll go again tonight in any case. See if I can improve on my results with bigger baits.

 

[Mukiwa]

Dogfish is what the chip shops call rock eel or rock salmon (at least around here). It's been a while since I've had it so it's hard to describe exactly but I'd say it's good and flaky with a mild flavour and it's "boneless", which I'll be especially appreciative after dealing with the whiting!

I do make you and @Shirleycodlin right about the lug but it was late so I probably didn't express myself properly - I'm pretty sure that if I put a lugworm on I'd get wrecked by micro bass within minutes - and if not them, the whiting and probably smaller ones at that. Given that I'd definitely be pushing my luck fishing for a thornback from Southend, I'd need to stack the odds in my favour which is what I meant kind of. Herring was my choice as it's the local bait of choice for roker (or always used to be and I distinctly remembered noticing it when I grabbed some fresh squid yesterday).

Anyway, now I'm winding myself up about those micro bass because if there weren't so many of those, there'd be an outside chance of a sole of that beach too in season.

I think I'll go again tonight in any case. See if I can improve on my results with bigger baits.

I havnt seen it advertised at the chip shops but now keen to try it. The hunt will continue.

Omg do I know about micro bass. Greedy buggers. But at the same time good for the future stocks.

Tight lines tonight mate, wish you all the luck in catching a real beast

 

[bananas]

Nice report mate, well done on the fish, small whiting beats standing on the beach blanking id say.
Love the taste of dogfish, the odd good one comes home with me at times