Late spring has been busy. It's a good time for Bass and the Smoothounds start to show up too. I want to catch both and with the long hours of daylight and a bit of juggling I've been able to give it a good go. It takes a bit of effort and a bit of thought, I try to make the best of the time available and make my decisions on the tide and conditions. I don't always get it right, maybe it would be boring if I did?
Another quiet hour passed but as high tide approached I started to get proper bites and had two Dogfish in ten minutes. I expected this to be the start of something but the action stopped again. At 1530 I tried something different, a butchered peeler crab wrapped in squid was attached to my pennel. This is said to be a top bait for several species but I don’t seem to catch much at all on them, however what I have caught includes a few memorable fish. After ten minutes the rod baited with crab literally folded over and I was attached to something of a similar weight to the Dogs but this was fighting differently. I say fighting but with the heavy tackle in use, a fish of this size cannot really resist but it was having a go! Maybe a Bass? Maybe a… Yes! A little Smoothound, my first of the year. This was a small one but even on the beach it didn’t stop fighting, it writhed and twisted constantly like an Eel until it was slipped back into the sea.
After that I had
rattles on just about every cast but few proper bites but I was content having
caught what I set out for. Even the
small Hounds are cool creatures and I can’t catch enough of them! I fished on till around 1815 and caught a
couple more Dogfish and may well have caught a few more but I’d had enough.
For once I’d got my act together and organised all the gear
which enabled me to be in the car and away within thirty minutes of finishing
work. Into town for ragworm and out
again to pick up Rich. We took the A
roads, the long way round and a far more tedious drive but after we progressed
to narrowing roads cutting through woodland the rat race was left behind.
After the long hike we were fishing two rods each around 1830, an hour into the ebb. At home the weather had been baking hot and still but here facing the salt there was a cool northerly which had us layering up almost as soon as we got there. Once settled and comfortable we took the tops off cold beers and sat back to chill, chat and chuckle which we did successfully for the rest of the evening. We had three spells of bites, firstly a couple in full daylight, several more in the dusk period and a few more after dark. We missed a few, lost a couple but managed to land nine between us although there were no decent ones tonight. The weirdest thing of the evening was the lobster that Rich managed to catch, the first either of us had ever seen outside of a restaurant tank.
The walk back was uneventful this time but once in the car
we soon saw a Badger followed by Deer and Rabbits, as usual the countryside had
come alive after dark.
What should have been a relaxing day turned into a busy one which is not what you need when the temperature has gone past 30*C. I got everything done and got on the road around 1615, a bit early really but it meant I’d miss the worst of the traffic. With the weather as it was I knew the coast would be busy but with the evening approaching people were starting to head home and I managed to squeeze into the car park. There were still plenty of day trippers about so I loaded up and took a long, taxing hike south, crunching across the stones. I was surprised to find myself the only angler on the beach, do the others know something I don’t?
I was set up with two pulley rigs around 1720, the North Sea
was as flat and blue as I’d ever seen in and was pretty clear too. With high tide due at 2048 I expected a long
wait before anything happened but here at the coast it was much fresher than it
had been at home so it was comfortable sitting staring at the sea with the sun
behind me. There was not a breath of
wind and the rod tips were still, I could expect to see a rattle if a fish so
much as sniffed my bait. The Gulls home
in on anglers here, they’ve learned they can beg a feed out of people kinder
than me. I had a Herring gull comically
circling me on foot, never getting too close but near enough to dart in and
steal some bait if I dropped my guard.
Later this was replaced by a Black headed gull who was noisy and
annoying so was chased off.
Time passed and the tips remained still. The flat sea made me think a Ray might be on
the cards but what I really want at this time of year is another Hound. It’s always difficult to tear my eyes away
from the rod tips but the flat sea gave me clues. I saw fishy swirls on a couple of occasions
and later a couple of tiny silver fish leapt.
I thought maybe Bass were active but this isn’t a beach I associate with
this species, still I wasn’t getting any action and the baits were mostly
coming back untouched. As high tide
approached it looked like a blank was on the cards and I decided I’d give it
till 2200 then get away if nothing happened.
With high tide came a cool breeze from the east which ruffled the surface for the first time and a few minutes later the bites started and didn’t stop! Four hours of inactivity was followed by two hours when I barely got a chance to sit down. I had plenty of choice for bait; squid, mackerel, crab and ragworm but it didn’t matter what I chucked out, it all got eaten. I started with a Dogfish on each rod then had a slamming bite on rag which was a small Hound which didn’t stop fighting. After that I had a decent sized Whiting but other than that it was Dogs all the way. During the quiet early evening I’d have been glad of a Dogfish but by 2300 my tally had reached ten, I was knackered and I’d had enough so that was my lot.
Another early finish at work gave me time to get out to the coast for another go for the Bass. In truth it had been a bit disappointing to this point, I’d caught a few Bass but none of any great size. My favourite estuarine spot had been consistent for keeper size fish through the previous two springs but so far this year the bigger ones hadn’t shown up. With high tide due just before midnight I had plenty of choice but I liked the idea of fishing the flood and dropping baits close in, near to the structure the retreating tide had exposed on my last couple of visits. State of tide aside, another thing that this spot has in its favour is it always seems to switch on when it gets dark, whatever the tide is doing.
I was fishing by 1830 using two lighter rods, both rigged up with simple running leger rigs baited with ragworm. The evening was mostly clear with a gentle easterly breeze blowing into my face. Last week we’d had flurries of bites throughout the evening but that wasn’t the case tonight and nothing happened until around 2000 when the sun was hidden and the area fell into shade. This came in the form of fast rattles which had stopped before I’d even lifted my arse from the chair and as the minutes ticked by it looked like it wasn’t going to happen tonight. Finally at just before 2200 I had a proper bite and wound in a small Bass. After that bites came regularly; I missed plenty but hooked a few too, the highlight being an a lovely lump of silver that wasn’t quite three pounds. Apart from that I had a couple more smaller Bass and an Eel.
The bites seemed to stop at high tide when the water went
slack but just as I was beginning to tidy up a rod slammed over and I was attached
to another fish, not another big Bass but a second small Eel. That was enough, it was gone midnight and I
had a good hike back to the car ahead of me before a forty minute drive across
the county. At least it should have been
but for a bloody closed road and diversion, don’t get me started…
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