Brown diamonds and a silver bar

Back to the beaches…  The day was a scorcher, hot, clear and bright.  High tide was due around 1600 which was far from ideal so what should we do?  I suggested travelling light and trying to catch Bass on lures but Giles wanted to sit and stare at the sea so I let him talk me into it.  In truth this didn’t take much doing, watching the rise and fall is perfect therapy.

We were fishing the ‘Cauldron’ by 1430, using mostly squid on our regular rods but we’d also brought lure rods which we both used regularly throughout the trip.  At least here facing the sea there was a cooling breeze making things comfortable.  We started off with enthusiasm, going through the lure boxes and trying different depths and speeds but soon settled down to our usual form of tip watching meditation.  High tide was soon upon us and as the minutes ticked by I wondered if our best chance had gone but around 1615 the tip pulled down then rattled itself back straight.  Something had dislodged the lead and was making off with my squid.  I wound down and pulled into what felt like a snag that was being pulled slowly in.  But this weight throbbed and fluttered then pulled the rod back down on occasions as I slowly gained line and won the tug of war.  I soon had a heavy fish in close, the exact situation I’d lost the battle on two occasions this year but for some reason today I was calm and patient.  With the fish in the shallows Giles grabbed the leader and dragged my first Ray of the year onto the beach.

As usual the fish appeared to stiffen and arch it’s back as if ready for a fight but I flipped it onto it’s back then soon had the hook out. I quickly weighed the fish before posing for a few photos, then waded into the waves to put the fish back, where it flapped its wings and glided away.  My best sea fish of the year so far, nice one!

After that the tide slowly ebbed away and with it so did our chances.  We tried hard; changed baits, varied distances and kept chucking the lure but to no avail, nothing else disturbed us.  We ended up staring out to sea and chatting, just an evening on the beach really and we packed up before head torches became necessary.

 

One week later…

It’s July already but the heatwave has passed and we’ve had a week of winds that haven’t come from a cold easterly direction.  Saturday came around with a forecast that was just about as good as we could hope for; a mixture of sunshine and cloud, a comfortable, mild afternoon with a moderate westerly blowing off shore, high tide due at 2300.  We’d be fishing a rising tide into darkness which our growing experience suggests is perfect and we had a choice of beaches where we’d feel confident.  In the end we chose one of our favourites where we’d usually be confident of catching Bass at this time of year although this time we didn’t have ragworm with us. 

The plan was to fish big baits for big fish but when we started fishing at 1715 we were both chucking lures for Bass.  I used a spoon and a couple of jigs mostly fishing near the bottom but also shallower from time to time.  After half an hour without anything fishy occurring I cast out two lumps of squid, sat back and tuned into TMS to discover England’s top order had crumbled but as I sat looking at the tips and listening, Duckett and Stokes rebuilt.  Giles and I also had nibbles on small baits fished fairly close but nothing to strike at although that didn’t stop us trying.

When the close of play came I picked up the lure rod again and commenced bouncing a jig along the bottom.  I kept glancing back at the rods but the sun was in my eyes and I couldn’t really see but after a few more casts I looked back and couldn’t miss the sight of my bright yellow line flapping in the breeze.  The lure was forgotten as I picked up the heavy rod and wound into a heavy weight which I slowly pumped back towards me.  I was fairly sure what I was attached to and it was no surprise to see something brown and diamond shaped appear in the shallows.  I went a year without catching a Ray now I had two in two trips, not as big as last week’s but we don’t catch many and all are an event.

I recast the heavy rod with another squid bound onto a 2/0 Pennell.  I put a smaller bait on the light rod and dropped it in close, recasting regularly.  I kept winding in bare hooks but wasn’t seeing any bites.  Then around 1955 there was a weird wobble on the heavy rod, it was due a recast so I picked it up and once again felt a solid living presence.  This one put up less resistance and it was another Ray about half the size of the first.  While this was going on Giles missed a slamming bite, his recast had barely settled before the tip went again and he too was heaving something heavy back towards Suffolk.  We almost expected to see another decent Ray come up the beach and so it proved, we’d now had three!

This was the start of a ninety minute period where we were both constantly on the go, something we’ve experienced a few times before on the beaches but these fish were all Rays.  Whatever we fish for and wherever we choose to do it, times like these are magic, fishing on autopilot, casting out just knowing that bait will be eaten.  Whenever we go fishing we are always hoping for days like this.  We both missed decent bites and Giles lost one in the surf but by 2130 I’d had five and Giles four, at one point we had a fish each at the same time, ridiculous fishing that had been totally unexpected.  Tonight we’d fished the same way we always do but for once it had come together spectacularly and we weren’t done yet. 

It was headtorch dark, just before 2200 I was stood chatting to Giles when he started pointing and jabbering.  I looked over to see my rod bent over double and I almost broke into a run, reaching the rod just before the tripod collapsed.  This fish had the same throbbing weight I’d become used to this evening but was definitely heavier and it didn’t want to visit the beach.  Most of our fish tonight had been the size of large dinner plates but when this one came up the beach it was almost dustbin lid proportions and I was well chuffed.

I added another dinner plate sized Ray shortly afterwards then in the lead up to high tide the bites stopped, as they often do at this beach.  High tide came and went, we’d started to tidy up when my heavy rod bent over low once again.  I wondered if this would be something different but soon realised I was pumping back another good Ray.  I managed to get this one in fairly close quite quickly but reached a bit of a stalemate where I’d pull the rod back and the fish would yank it back down again.  This couldn’t go on forever and all the odds were in my favour, soon Giles grabbed the trace and pulled another dustbin lid onto the beach!  This was not as big as the previous one but still warranted the scales and camera.  With this fish returned I noticed the light rod had gone slack, this had been dropped in really close and there was a decent weight on the end.  Instead of a brown diamond I wound in a silver bar, a nice sized Bass had picked up a lump of squid.

It would have been silly to have packed up then so we put our rods out again and Giles was rewarded with one more Ray.  That was the last action of the evening, we gave it till past midnight but the rods rattled no more.  Between us we’d finished with thirteen Rays and one Bass, I’d caught most of mine on squid, Giles mostly mackerel but it felt like we could have chucked anything out and caught.  We’d been confident when we arrived but never expected the fishing to be anything like this and no idea as to why there were so many Rays around tonight.  Every tide is different.