Wattsy
Member
High tide was around 23:00 and I fished from about 20:30 to 01:00 just past the sealife centre in front of the mini golf. It was windy. It was very very windy. I got to the beach and wondered why I was even trying. I used squid and herring for bait and against my better judgement used three rods.
I didn't really get a chance to stop all night - between pulling weed off leader knots, untangling the mess that bait elastic and whiting made of pennels and actually unhooking fish I barely sat down and was working around the rods like a round robin.
Only whiting tonight. Lots and lots of them though. Things to note:
A 30cm whiting on braid at relatively close range on a cheap 10ft rod gives a shocking bite - a 2lb bass would be pulling the rod in I'm sure.
At one point I had a bite on the drop - there were that many fish I hadn't even got to the rod rest before something found the herring.
4/0 is the sweet spot for hook size - two of the rods I used 5/0 and they didn't really produce bigger fish - the same sized fish just managed to hook themselves in the eye or through the head.
You can catch those whiting 5 yards out. I only experimented with this when the tide was on it's way out so the lead would have been over mud rather than sand but even so, ridiculously close. I only had a few casts that close so can't make any conclusions about the size of the fish some were smaller, some were the average size for the night.
Most fish were in the 25cm to 30cm range.
The highlight of the night was probably this:
I've had two fish on a pennel before but this time a third one managed to lasso itself between the other hooks. This had a big bait on so I can easily imagine the fish swarming on the big bait, shaking their heads and tearing it apart.
If it wasn't for the wind it would have been an epic night of fishing in terms of numbers but the wind took 80% of the gun out of it and made it a chore.
I didn't really get a chance to stop all night - between pulling weed off leader knots, untangling the mess that bait elastic and whiting made of pennels and actually unhooking fish I barely sat down and was working around the rods like a round robin.
Only whiting tonight. Lots and lots of them though. Things to note:
A 30cm whiting on braid at relatively close range on a cheap 10ft rod gives a shocking bite - a 2lb bass would be pulling the rod in I'm sure.
At one point I had a bite on the drop - there were that many fish I hadn't even got to the rod rest before something found the herring.
4/0 is the sweet spot for hook size - two of the rods I used 5/0 and they didn't really produce bigger fish - the same sized fish just managed to hook themselves in the eye or through the head.
You can catch those whiting 5 yards out. I only experimented with this when the tide was on it's way out so the lead would have been over mud rather than sand but even so, ridiculously close. I only had a few casts that close so can't make any conclusions about the size of the fish some were smaller, some were the average size for the night.
Most fish were in the 25cm to 30cm range.
The highlight of the night was probably this:
I've had two fish on a pennel before but this time a third one managed to lasso itself between the other hooks. This had a big bait on so I can easily imagine the fish swarming on the big bait, shaking their heads and tearing it apart.
If it wasn't for the wind it would have been an epic night of fishing in terms of numbers but the wind took 80% of the gun out of it and made it a chore.
