Back in the salt

Back in the flatlands again and being a glutton for punishment I braved a couple more hours of stifling heat and nettle stings whilst exploring the ‘other river’, this time with a float rod and corn.  I saw Chub in three places but they were spooky and buggered off before I could tempt them.  The river was sluggish and I should know by now that I need a bit of pace to fish like this.

The following day was cooler, I headed back to the coast and with a high tide around midnight I decided to fish it all the way up hoping the Rays would show.  In theory conditions looked spot on but I’ve thought that a couple of times this year and been left scratching me bonce.

I was fishing by 1800 at the bottom of the tide, as usual a whole squid was heaved out as far as possible on the heavy rod but on the lighter one I fished a two hook rig with small baits, strips of squid or mackerel on size 2 hooks.  Last time out I’d blanked and today I wanted to start off scratching around, trying to catch anything that happened to be about.  And it worked, a bite on the first cast produced a small Bass and the blank was avoided.  The evening was lovely and comfortable after the heat of last week, there was just a gentle sea breeze but still large waves were breaking and these got bigger still as the tide rose.

For the first couple of hours I kept recasting the light rod regularly, mixing up distances trying to see what was around.  I had two decent bites in this period and added two more, slightly larger Bass.  All three had preferred squid to the mackerel strips.  On the heavy rod baits were coming back barely touched so I was able to leave this in place for longer periods.  By 2130 I hadn’t had a bite for an hour or so and it was getting dark so I decided to switch the light rod over to another pulley rig with a bigger bait on a size 3/0.  In theory I was going all out for Rays but you never really know what is on the end when the tip goes round.

An hour later it was fully dark and I thought I saw a strange movement on the tip of the heavy rod, further investigation revealed the line wasn’t going in the direction I thought it should be.  I wound down, wondering what was going on and it soon became apparent I was attached to a fish with a bit of weight to it.  I pumped it back slowly, a heavy throbbing presence that occasionally tried to heave the rod over.  As usual it was particularly reluctant to come into the shallows but I used the momentum of the next wave to drag it up the beach.  A Thornback as I expected and a decent sized one at that.

With a fresh squid whacked back out I sat back with a smile but a few minutes later I was on my feet again, the heavy rod was being yanked down nicely.  To begin with I thought I was into another good fish but sometimes the small ones put up more resistance than they really should as was the case tonight.  Still it was another Ray which is exactly what I set out to catch tonight and a welcome confidence boost.

I sat it out right up to high tide by which time it was Sunday but that was the last of the action.  Tonight things had gone pretty much to plan, five bites and five fish but next time I head out I’m sure things will be as unpredictable as ever.

The weekend came around again and this time me and Giles set off hoping to catch Bass.  We left around midday, with a pit stop at AD to pick up some ragworm but on the way we found heavy traffic which stifled us all the way up the coast road too.  Somehow we’d talked ourselves into fishing ‘shit or bust’ beach where we never know how the sea will be behaving and we’re often still scratching our heads when we get there.  Conditions around us were warm and cloudy with a light south westerly and lugging the gear to the beach worked up a sweat.  At the shore we looked down on a boiling expanse of water with a bit of swell and big waves, the kind of scene people tell us is good for Bass…

I was set up with the usual two rods.  I tried whacking out a squid on the heavy rod but on this occasion I couldn’t get the rig to hold any further than about forty yards out.  On the lighter rod was a simple running leger, a long hooklength and ragworm on a size 1 and this rod began rattling from the off.  My first cast produced a couple of rattles but I saw nothing that I could strike at.  To be honest at this point I was distracted by the heavy rod constantly shifting out of position but once I’d sorted this I was able to concentrate.  The next cast on the light rod soon saw the rod tip bouncing violently, a bite not even I could miss and I was attached to a decent fish.  On the tackle we have to use these fish will rarely tear off stripping line but in situations like this they are able to hold their own and will drag the rod tip down.  This was obviously a decent Bass, confirmed when I saw it in shallow water, but getting it the last couple of yards up the beach took patience and the right incoming wave.  The fish was a little beauty, a couple of pounds or so which I suppose would have the commercial carp hauler wondering what all the fuss is about and after a quick photo was returned to the water in perfect condition despite a total absence of what we call ‘fish care equipment’.  Sea fish are tough.

After that the bites continued, not thick and fast but every cast would bring some kind of attention.  Sometimes this would be a series of plucks and trembles on the tip, other times something more positive is easily seen and occasionally there is a violent wrench on the rod.  What we imagine happening out there is Bass of all sizes moving in and out of the area, the smallest ones can steal bait without being hooked but the bigger they get the more chance we have.  When it is like this we miss as many as we hook.  Over the next hour I managed to beach two more Bass, one of which might have been the smallest I’ve ever caught but with high tide at 1545 things slowed up.  At this time, in theory, the tidal run should be manageable but another long cast with the heavy rod proved this not to be so.  After that I changed this rod to a heavy running leger and a big bait on a long trace, this was dropped in close hoping a big Bass might show up.

We had a quiet ninety minutes or so but the sun poked through and the cloud sailed away to the east, the rugged coastal environment came alight.  Suddenly a quick flurry of bites saw me land two Bass in no time but then things went quiet again.  Around this time our ol’ pals Kev and Cooper arrived for a catch up and a look around.  Kev is a long time carp angler who nowadays despairs at what that sport has become; here he enjoyed the surroundings but I’m not sure we’ll tempt him into having a cast just yet.  We did have a planned trip out west to talk about though, heading back to the happy valley soon.

By now we were about two hours into the ebb, the outgoing flow was boiling the surface of the flattening sea but for some reason, probably a quirk of the ever shifting shingle, there was a back eddy in front of us and more by luck than judgement our baits were right in it.  What’s more we had another spell of bites, firstly all on Giles’ rod – three or four in quick succession.  Then I had a spell of rattles and landed a couple more myself.  We hoped for another better sized fish but all the ones we caught were small.

After a couple of hours of chat Kev and Cooper wandered off, the bites had dried up again but we decided to sit it out and wait to see what darkness would bring.  Earlier in the year this had definitely been a trigger but tonight the fading light didn’t bring any more action and for once we hit the road home on the right side of midnight.