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Sea Angling for Spearos
- Thread starterMr. X
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Thread Status: Hello
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Sounds like I might have to use the stiffer, stronger Tidewater Bass rod. You & Jonny are right, big spinners do create a lot of drag, too much for my rod, tried one of the biggest Devil's Own spinners from Shakespeare; the blades on these flyin Cs are much smaller, more like a small or medium Mepps spinner - but the extra lead might well combine to give the same effect. Could try towing them from the yak but already have a fair collection of handlines rigs set-up with various combinations of Eddystone eels.
Will need to check if the trebles are removable. If not, I guess I can cut them off when they rust (they look like freshwater hooks for trout & salmon to me) and replace them with a stainless steel split ring and larger saltwater treble. Will need to see if they attract fish first though. It's sounding like they might not be as promising as I had hoped. We'll see.
Re. the Hardy rod, the veteran fly fisherman was going to ask a friend, a member of the Piscatorial Society about it this week (read an article in Field or Country Life about them a few months ago - they barred Queen Victoria for a while over an issue of form, she was eventually cleared, of course
). There is a website that contains model & serial number info. for the Hardy rods & reels.
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Well I decided it's about time I found me one of them giltheads what people have been on about and havig had several biteless sessions in poo bay I decided to head west.
Started fishing from a beach near the car as had arranged to meet Macca. Well it was slow. In fact I didn't have a bite until a chap and his mate showed up and then it was all action. The crabs came down heavy and stripped my verm and rag in no time.
After meeting Macca and leaving the rod 50 yards away for 10 minutes with no apparent worries about a big take I wondered back down to find a weight on the end. Weed.
Decided i'd had enough of this so went for a quick move for a half hour elsewhere since it was crab central there can't have been any gilts about.
Jumped in the car and had a drive til I found somewhere then thought, that looks nice i'll fish there (having only fished from those rocks a couple of times that I can remember with no memory of results) knowing I was still in the Gilty "area".
Anyway, got down to it and the phone rings (It's the missus with some PC problem that it was defaulting to Firefox not IE. "And" said me, "got a bite, got to go...") and I did, one big solid tap, not a pull or rattle jus a massive single hit. Hmmm... Nothing on so reeled in to change my mangled bait.
Cast again with big rag bait and decided I needed a whizz so stuck rod in rest and turned round to attend to nature, then I heard a noise, my tripod was rattling, bloney Roland Rat I thought to myself and turned round to see the rod bent double and threatening to leave the tripod any moment (this isn't a bass rod either, my 13ft 4-7oz beach rod) so tried to grab rod while trying not to P on myself, would have been quite humerous for anyone watching from the beach if it was still daylight!! Got to the rod, sorted out and nothing there :vangry. Reel in to check the bait to find no bait and more importantly no hooks either. 25lb trace. Hmmm. GILTIE!!!!
So off we go again best bit of verm on and flick it out to wait, tap, tap give it line, tightens and tap again, let some more line, tightens and no tap, a bloney great whallop!!
Get hold of the rod proper and make sure it's hooked and it is, going ballistic, taking line with the rod bent double. What a fight!! But I am winning, letting the line go when it neds to I play it in close and get the headlight on it, well I can see silver I'm thinking, please be a gilthead...
I manage to haul it up to the shoreline and grab hold, get it up to the rod for this pic...
not what I was after but I wasn't in any mood to complain, took him back to the car for a better pic and to weigh it.
Scary look on the face but the others I took were worse.
He went 4-15 on my digi's and thus the biggest I have had in several years. :martial
Started fishing from a beach near the car as had arranged to meet Macca. Well it was slow. In fact I didn't have a bite until a chap and his mate showed up and then it was all action. The crabs came down heavy and stripped my verm and rag in no time.
After meeting Macca and leaving the rod 50 yards away for 10 minutes with no apparent worries about a big take I wondered back down to find a weight on the end. Weed.
Decided i'd had enough of this so went for a quick move for a half hour elsewhere since it was crab central there can't have been any gilts about.
Jumped in the car and had a drive til I found somewhere then thought, that looks nice i'll fish there (having only fished from those rocks a couple of times that I can remember with no memory of results) knowing I was still in the Gilty "area".
Anyway, got down to it and the phone rings (It's the missus with some PC problem that it was defaulting to Firefox not IE. "And" said me, "got a bite, got to go...") and I did, one big solid tap, not a pull or rattle jus a massive single hit. Hmmm... Nothing on so reeled in to change my mangled bait.
Cast again with big rag bait and decided I needed a whizz so stuck rod in rest and turned round to attend to nature, then I heard a noise, my tripod was rattling, bloney Roland Rat I thought to myself and turned round to see the rod bent double and threatening to leave the tripod any moment (this isn't a bass rod either, my 13ft 4-7oz beach rod) so tried to grab rod while trying not to P on myself, would have been quite humerous for anyone watching from the beach if it was still daylight!! Got to the rod, sorted out and nothing there :vangry. Reel in to check the bait to find no bait and more importantly no hooks either. 25lb trace. Hmmm. GILTIE!!!!
So off we go again best bit of verm on and flick it out to wait, tap, tap give it line, tightens and tap again, let some more line, tightens and no tap, a bloney great whallop!!
Get hold of the rod proper and make sure it's hooked and it is, going ballistic, taking line with the rod bent double. What a fight!! But I am winning, letting the line go when it neds to I play it in close and get the headlight on it, well I can see silver I'm thinking, please be a gilthead...
I manage to haul it up to the shoreline and grab hold, get it up to the rod for this pic...
not what I was after but I wasn't in any mood to complain, took him back to the car for a better pic and to weigh it.
Scary look on the face but the others I took were worse.
He went 4-15 on my digi's and thus the biggest I have had in several years. :martial
You think I hung about to zip up?? Not likely with the rod going!! Some things are more important...
Wasn't a huge bait at all actually, bit of verm about 5 inches long I guess on 5/0 pennel rigged Sakuma Manta Extra's hoping for a gilthead bream and having heard they have a tendency to bite lesser hooks in half. Was a fat old worm though, in fact nearly all of the ones I dug yesterday were.
Just need permission to get out again now but I have to say that fillet no 1 (no 2 is frozen down) went down well cooked in Guernsey butter with some local hedge veg new spuds (with some butter) and frozen peas. All perfectly healthy since it's fish eh!!
Wasn't a huge bait at all actually, bit of verm about 5 inches long I guess on 5/0 pennel rigged Sakuma Manta Extra's hoping for a gilthead bream and having heard they have a tendency to bite lesser hooks in half. Was a fat old worm though, in fact nearly all of the ones I dug yesterday were.
Just need permission to get out again now but I have to say that fillet no 1 (no 2 is frozen down) went down well cooked in Guernsey butter with some local hedge veg new spuds (with some butter) and frozen peas. All perfectly healthy since it's fish eh!!
Well Oama season is here in Hawaii and is really the only time I actually enjoy baitcasting. Oama are a baby goatfish that come in to the shore in small schools. they are about 3-4inches long and make amazing live bait. Ive caught everything from ulua to tiger sharks on this bait and it always makes for fun fishing.
Every season starts the same way, I have to go through all my oama gear and make sure I have everything. Bait bucket, live bait well, air pump, oama pole, 2lb test mono filament, tiny #16hooks, tiny split-shot weights, and so on. Upon inspection I realize my air pump and bait bucket are missing (thanks to my future brother in law), my 2lb test is rotten, and I dont have hooks. Thankfully I still have my bait well, oama pole, a few lead weights and everything needed to do some dunking after I catch a few oama.
50$ later and a second trip back to the market because I forgot to buy bait, Im at my secret oama hole ready to catch some bait. It takes me a good hour to find the pile and another 3 to catch 8 oama. On a good day when the oama are biting you can fill a bait bucket within an hour. Unfortunately the oama fishing was not as productive as I had hoped and my day had been spent. All the same I still had 8 oama which represented 2-3 hours of dunking by my self so I was satisfied. It would just have to wait until I got off of work waiting tables later that night.
After work I picked up my fiance (yup, just popped the big question), grabbed a bottle of red wine and headed down to the beach. Upon arrival I realized that one of my two big dunking reels was frozen (once again, thanks to my future brother in law). SO now I only have one pole big enough to land anything of size. I decide to rig up a smaller whipping pole I keep in my truck for dunking. Its a 11ft light action pole with a 450penn and 12lb mono filament. Didnt really expect to land anything large on that pole but thought it would be fun anyway.
Once on the beach I set up the poles, beach chairs, opened the wine and casted out the two lines. Before I could even sit down back in my chair my big dunker gets whacked. The strike was so strong it actually pulled my sand spike out of the ground. Now my pole is lying in the wet, salty sand. Not too happy with that one. And to top it off the fish cut the leader. I finally get the pole set up and back in the water. This time I was able to make it back to my chair.
The night was amazing. The moon had just set and the stars were out in full force. There were tons of shooting stars to keep us occupied, which was good because the next strike didnt come for about an hour. I was gazing up at the stars when I heard the line peeling off of one of my reels. When I looked down I saw my small pole almost parallel with the sand. The fish was taking a powerful run and had no problem taking the 12lb test off of that reel. THe initial run took me down to about 4 wraps of line on my reel before I could turn the head and start gaining some line. He took 4 good runs, each one getting shorter in succession. I could hear the fish splashing and jumping which gave me a good idea of what it was. We only have a couple of species that will jump, and a few will actually tail walk like marlin.
My fiance did an exellent job of keeping the fish in the middle of the beach and out of the rocks with our head lamp.
The resulting fish was an Awa'aua (aka Hawaiin tenpounder, ladyfish, or hawaiian tarpon) I estimate his weight to be between 8 and 10 lbs which was pretty big for that species. These fish put up an awesome fight and lucky for him/her they are not an easy fish to prepare so I let him go. I had to stand in the water with him for about 5 minutes before he could swim off.
Every season starts the same way, I have to go through all my oama gear and make sure I have everything. Bait bucket, live bait well, air pump, oama pole, 2lb test mono filament, tiny #16hooks, tiny split-shot weights, and so on. Upon inspection I realize my air pump and bait bucket are missing (thanks to my future brother in law), my 2lb test is rotten, and I dont have hooks. Thankfully I still have my bait well, oama pole, a few lead weights and everything needed to do some dunking after I catch a few oama.
50$ later and a second trip back to the market because I forgot to buy bait, Im at my secret oama hole ready to catch some bait. It takes me a good hour to find the pile and another 3 to catch 8 oama. On a good day when the oama are biting you can fill a bait bucket within an hour. Unfortunately the oama fishing was not as productive as I had hoped and my day had been spent. All the same I still had 8 oama which represented 2-3 hours of dunking by my self so I was satisfied. It would just have to wait until I got off of work waiting tables later that night.
After work I picked up my fiance (yup, just popped the big question), grabbed a bottle of red wine and headed down to the beach. Upon arrival I realized that one of my two big dunking reels was frozen (once again, thanks to my future brother in law). SO now I only have one pole big enough to land anything of size. I decide to rig up a smaller whipping pole I keep in my truck for dunking. Its a 11ft light action pole with a 450penn and 12lb mono filament. Didnt really expect to land anything large on that pole but thought it would be fun anyway.
Once on the beach I set up the poles, beach chairs, opened the wine and casted out the two lines. Before I could even sit down back in my chair my big dunker gets whacked. The strike was so strong it actually pulled my sand spike out of the ground. Now my pole is lying in the wet, salty sand. Not too happy with that one. And to top it off the fish cut the leader. I finally get the pole set up and back in the water. This time I was able to make it back to my chair.
The night was amazing. The moon had just set and the stars were out in full force. There were tons of shooting stars to keep us occupied, which was good because the next strike didnt come for about an hour. I was gazing up at the stars when I heard the line peeling off of one of my reels. When I looked down I saw my small pole almost parallel with the sand. The fish was taking a powerful run and had no problem taking the 12lb test off of that reel. THe initial run took me down to about 4 wraps of line on my reel before I could turn the head and start gaining some line. He took 4 good runs, each one getting shorter in succession. I could hear the fish splashing and jumping which gave me a good idea of what it was. We only have a couple of species that will jump, and a few will actually tail walk like marlin.
My fiance did an exellent job of keeping the fish in the middle of the beach and out of the rocks with our head lamp.
The resulting fish was an Awa'aua (aka Hawaiin tenpounder, ladyfish, or hawaiian tarpon) I estimate his weight to be between 8 and 10 lbs which was pretty big for that species. These fish put up an awesome fight and lucky for him/her they are not an easy fish to prepare so I let him go. I had to stand in the water with him for about 5 minutes before he could swim off.
Attachments
Cool post Blaiz
Still reeling after reading that our friend AtomicHaggis has just had his world turned upside down, http://forums.deeperblue.com/beach-bar/79764-so-sad-i-could-die.html#post730159 -- words of encouragement probably appreciated.
Just picked up a copy of Total Sea Fishing (free 25lb x 50m Ultima MemorX memory-free snood line), looks like there are several decent articles. Also had a quick flick through Sea Angler (my usual read) - typical, they are reviewing Bass rods this month!!!:head Actually mine, the Shakespeare Tidewater is featured, and does well although discribed as light (2-4oz rating) - which is what we were aiming for. Must admit the slightly more expensive Abu Garcia rod review looks significantly sleeker - although it was rated about the same.
Still reeling after reading that our friend AtomicHaggis has just had his world turned upside down, http://forums.deeperblue.com/beach-bar/79764-so-sad-i-could-die.html#post730159 -- words of encouragement probably appreciated.
Just picked up a copy of Total Sea Fishing (free 25lb x 50m Ultima MemorX memory-free snood line), looks like there are several decent articles. Also had a quick flick through Sea Angler (my usual read) - typical, they are reviewing Bass rods this month!!!:head Actually mine, the Shakespeare Tidewater is featured, and does well although discribed as light (2-4oz rating) - which is what we were aiming for. Must admit the slightly more expensive Abu Garcia rod review looks significantly sleeker - although it was rated about the same.
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Just ordered some 20lb Varivas 356 fluorocarbon line from https://www.veals.co.uk/acatalog/Hook_Lengths_and_Trace_Line.html & a replacement 11cm mackeral Maria Angel Kiss lure. Veals is not cheap (& is planning to raise prices!) but fluoro lines seem to be even more expensive elsewhere (although usually for 100m rather than 50m). I plan to use the fluorocarbon line for a rubbing trace for lure fishing & for tying simple rigs.
Found this interesting article while looking into fluoro carbon lines: Bass Fishing Resource Guide® - The Fluorocarbon Advantage
Found this interesting article while looking into fluoro carbon lines: Bass Fishing Resource Guide® - The Fluorocarbon Advantage
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I took my Scupper Pro Kayak out on the west coast today, superb conditions with a fair tide flowing over and around the rocks. When the wind started to pick up there were some good waves too, occasionally burying the bow as the wave would sweep over the kayak - my idea of a good paddle
I was trolling a small blue/silver lure with a feather. picked up a pollack after just a few minutes, ideal as my son likes fish cakes from pollack and we had run out. i carried on into the tide and increasing wind and picked up another pollack
i carried on along the coast, quite hard work, managed a couple of miles but no more fish, just enjoying the paddle. stopped and drifted for a few minutes taking a moment to relax and take in the view and the environment whilst enjoying a cup of sweet tea - superb.
heading back downwind and down-sea was great fun surfing the odd wave and making good speed i picked up a good size mackerel - which put up a good fight! i moved out away from the shore and around the 'knife' rocks - the tide was ripping past the rocks which made things quite exciting. another pollack, but too small for me and 'lightly' hooked allowing for an easy release without being handled.
The outer reefs looked ideal for bass, so i turned back into the tide for a further slog into wind, keeping close to the weed/rocks and working the edges. it wasn't long before i got lucky -the rod bent hard over, i though i might have snagged, but the line was coming off the reel so i expected a fish.. after a good work out i landed a bass (3 1/2 Lbs) which i am very pleased with - good 'eating size'
so with plenty on the stringer it was time to head in; one more cup of tea and drifting back towards home... ideal
[Funny how the sea looks so calm in the photos??!]
I was trolling a small blue/silver lure with a feather. picked up a pollack after just a few minutes, ideal as my son likes fish cakes from pollack and we had run out. i carried on into the tide and increasing wind and picked up another pollack
i carried on along the coast, quite hard work, managed a couple of miles but no more fish, just enjoying the paddle. stopped and drifted for a few minutes taking a moment to relax and take in the view and the environment whilst enjoying a cup of sweet tea - superb.
heading back downwind and down-sea was great fun surfing the odd wave and making good speed i picked up a good size mackerel - which put up a good fight! i moved out away from the shore and around the 'knife' rocks - the tide was ripping past the rocks which made things quite exciting. another pollack, but too small for me and 'lightly' hooked allowing for an easy release without being handled.
The outer reefs looked ideal for bass, so i turned back into the tide for a further slog into wind, keeping close to the weed/rocks and working the edges. it wasn't long before i got lucky -the rod bent hard over, i though i might have snagged, but the line was coming off the reel so i expected a fish.. after a good work out i landed a bass (3 1/2 Lbs) which i am very pleased with - good 'eating size'
so with plenty on the stringer it was time to head in; one more cup of tea and drifting back towards home... ideal
[Funny how the sea looks so calm in the photos??!]
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Had a good time spearing in S. Devon. Rod-wise managed 2 mackeral, feathering at Torcross with the new Tidewater bass rod, the old Leeda 60 surfcaster reel & a 3oz lead - cast huge distances but my arm was beginning to ache after an hour & the shoulder was quite painful after an hour and a half. This set-up seems better suited to bait fishing.
Saw lots of good size mullet in various "fingers" of the Salcombe ria [Boden country according to the Telegraph]. Tried, half heartedly, to catch them on a few occasions without success. I think we'd have had more luck with float/ledgered bread/rag worm, or rag worm-spinner combination but we were just filling the odd half hour/hour on holiday so stuck with spinners, small tobies and small eddystone & delta eels (with in-line power-ball or torpedo leads). The power-balling is working fine now, my current rig is a small Woolies power ball with guitar-string wire through, a big swivel at the top and a small swivel at the bottom, with the eel on a 4 foot trace; tried various trace lines: 4lb - too weak for snags, 8lb - still a big weak & floppy, 10lb, 20lb "invisibile" fluorocarbon -- the stiffer lines are much easier to deal with.
Was surprised at the number of tangles I had to deal with on holiday. I had been getting on very well with the Whiplash braid last season so was surprised that it didn't go so well this trip. I did re-spool recently, so perhaps it got wound on the wrong way? It seemed to be worse with light casting weights (e.g. spinners), poppers/top walkers and in windy conditions - the braid likes/requires constant tension. Probably spent half of my angling time unknotting the braid. I usually use a small wire clip without swivel to attach lures but added a swivel clip but it made little difference. Will probably try a different, stiffer braid or perhaps my 15lb Ultima PowerPlus mono next time. For the bass rod used a swivel clip combination provided by Foxfish (thanks) to terminate the shockleader, which provided desirable extra security for the heavier rig.
[Spearing report for trip on the Devon 2008 thread].
Another petition that might be of interest: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/1mileboundry
A local angler at Beesands told me he saw a Spanish trawler run a huge net across 3 bays there & looped round to scoop up all the fish. Apparently that is illegal and he called the Fisheries, who turned up an hour too late. Double win for the Spanish, free British fish & depleting the competing British holiday market (good year for them what with the tennis & motor racing too). That said, I saw enough fish to keep me happy - although some bigger ones would have been nice.
Saw lots of good size mullet in various "fingers" of the Salcombe ria [Boden country according to the Telegraph]. Tried, half heartedly, to catch them on a few occasions without success. I think we'd have had more luck with float/ledgered bread/rag worm, or rag worm-spinner combination but we were just filling the odd half hour/hour on holiday so stuck with spinners, small tobies and small eddystone & delta eels (with in-line power-ball or torpedo leads). The power-balling is working fine now, my current rig is a small Woolies power ball with guitar-string wire through, a big swivel at the top and a small swivel at the bottom, with the eel on a 4 foot trace; tried various trace lines: 4lb - too weak for snags, 8lb - still a big weak & floppy, 10lb, 20lb "invisibile" fluorocarbon -- the stiffer lines are much easier to deal with.
Was surprised at the number of tangles I had to deal with on holiday. I had been getting on very well with the Whiplash braid last season so was surprised that it didn't go so well this trip. I did re-spool recently, so perhaps it got wound on the wrong way? It seemed to be worse with light casting weights (e.g. spinners), poppers/top walkers and in windy conditions - the braid likes/requires constant tension. Probably spent half of my angling time unknotting the braid
. I usually use a small wire clip without swivel to attach lures but added a swivel clip but it made little difference. Will probably try a different, stiffer braid or perhaps my 15lb Ultima PowerPlus mono next time. For the bass rod used a swivel clip combination provided by Foxfish (thanks) to terminate the shockleader, which provided desirable extra security for the heavier rig.[Spearing report for trip on the Devon 2008 thread].
Another petition that might be of interest: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/1mileboundry
A local angler at Beesands told me he saw a Spanish trawler run a huge net across 3 bays there & looped round to scoop up all the fish. Apparently that is illegal and he called the Fisheries, who turned up an hour too late. Double win for the Spanish, free British fish & depleting the competing British holiday market (good year for them what with the tennis & motor racing too). That said, I saw enough fish to keep me happy - although some bigger ones would have been nice.
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I've not had much trouble with braid tangling before but I haven;t done much plugging this year.
Had a beauty of a bass last night. Will try to write some more later on!!
http://www.fishing-guernsey.co.uk/forum/uploads/1/House.JPG
I can't load images at the moment, apparently i've exceeded my quota. Maybe my subs ran out?? Will sort it later this evening.
Had a beauty of a bass last night. Will try to write some more later on!!
I can't load images at the moment, apparently i've exceeded my quota. Maybe my subs ran out?? Will sort it later this evening.
OK, here's the story which I lifted straight from the local site if bits don;t make sense...
Left home about 7:45 hoping for a quick fish and race to the weigh in (8pm). Headed out west into the wind. Grande Havre was busy as usual, I think there were 5 people on the beach, had a quick chuck but nothing but crabs. Moved elsewhere to have a place to myself and get fishing. Long cast with one rod and smaller bait, thinking I was on sand (til I tried to reel in and it seemed rather weedy) and a shorter cast no more than 30 yards with the Estuary bass rod and big bait.
Had a little tap on razorfish but nothing developed. Brought it in to check and no bait left.
A couple of casts later using the manky re-frozen verm after getting hitched up in the really rough and losing my gear I had a clasic slimy thing bite, very very gentle taps, just the two. I was standing back to the sea with rod over the shoulder keeping my eyes out of the wind (they get upset with it for some reason) when I felt them, two very delicate taps, very rockling like. Turned round and stepped forward which must have given about 3ft of line and I realised that it was tight again and a slight pull. Bloney bait grabbing so and so's I said to myself, gave it another foot of line and suddenly there was a heavy weight pulling away like weed in the tide sort of thing.
Decided to hit it, at which point everything went ballistic. Never felt a fish go off like that before, absolutely mental, I loosened the drag a touch as I knew my trace was a bit frayed from losing the hooks last cast and couldn't be bothered to change it, though I thought I should have before I cast it was too late now, there was something attached and going mental screaming line off the reel, rod bent double.
I made my way down to the water, leaving drag as was letting the fish take line and retreiving when he stopped running. After a few minutes of holding deep it came to the surface about 20 yards out and started head shaking and thrashing about, I could see it was silver but what was it?? Gilthead or Shiny??
That was soon answered when it came a bit closer and I could see it was really long, shiny!!
Managed to drag him up to the edge of the water while still thrashing about a bit but worried about the trace I didn't want it to get in the rough, quick grabbed the gills, my whole hand able to fit in there and lifted what felt very heavy out of the water and safe up to the rods.
He was still a bit feisty despite the fight and the scales wouldn't settle, looked like 8-10, then 9-1 so I decided to leave it a bit and try when he calmed down. When it eventually gave up wriggling about I weighed it again and it went 8-12. A massive PB for me.
Absolutely chuffed and the fact that I missed the Fesitval weigh in by 2 hours is a shame but not a damper at all judging by the smile which I still have now, 12 hours later.
And what do I regret? Not putting it back.
Andy
Left home about 7:45 hoping for a quick fish and race to the weigh in (8pm). Headed out west into the wind. Grande Havre was busy as usual, I think there were 5 people on the beach, had a quick chuck but nothing but crabs. Moved elsewhere to have a place to myself and get fishing. Long cast with one rod and smaller bait, thinking I was on sand (til I tried to reel in and it seemed rather weedy) and a shorter cast no more than 30 yards with the Estuary bass rod and big bait.
Had a little tap on razorfish but nothing developed. Brought it in to check and no bait left.
A couple of casts later using the manky re-frozen verm after getting hitched up in the really rough and losing my gear I had a clasic slimy thing bite, very very gentle taps, just the two. I was standing back to the sea with rod over the shoulder keeping my eyes out of the wind (they get upset with it for some reason) when I felt them, two very delicate taps, very rockling like. Turned round and stepped forward which must have given about 3ft of line and I realised that it was tight again and a slight pull. Bloney bait grabbing so and so's I said to myself, gave it another foot of line and suddenly there was a heavy weight pulling away like weed in the tide sort of thing.
Decided to hit it, at which point everything went ballistic. Never felt a fish go off like that before, absolutely mental, I loosened the drag a touch as I knew my trace was a bit frayed from losing the hooks last cast and couldn't be bothered to change it, though I thought I should have before I cast it was too late now, there was something attached and going mental screaming line off the reel, rod bent double.
I made my way down to the water, leaving drag as was letting the fish take line and retreiving when he stopped running. After a few minutes of holding deep it came to the surface about 20 yards out and started head shaking and thrashing about, I could see it was silver but what was it?? Gilthead or Shiny??
That was soon answered when it came a bit closer and I could see it was really long, shiny!!
Managed to drag him up to the edge of the water while still thrashing about a bit but worried about the trace I didn't want it to get in the rough, quick grabbed the gills, my whole hand able to fit in there and lifted what felt very heavy out of the water and safe up to the rods.
He was still a bit feisty despite the fight and the scales wouldn't settle, looked like 8-10, then 9-1 so I decided to leave it a bit and try when he calmed down. When it eventually gave up wriggling about I weighed it again and it went 8-12. A massive PB for me.
Absolutely chuffed and the fact that I missed the Fesitval weigh in by 2 hours is a shame but not a damper at all judging by the smile which I still have now, 12 hours later.
And what do I regret? Not putting it back.
Andy
For cooking Jonny, I filletted it down and froze the 2 fillets as I have meals planned for this week. We are a family of 3 so a fillet for all 3 of us will be a rather generous portion but I am a growing lad (outwards not upwards!!).
I nearly alway cook bass in the frying pan, nice and hot skin down with olive oil and butter til burned then do a flip for a minute on the flesh side but open to suggestion.
The thing didn't fit in the fridge whole, let alone the freezer... Good thing my bait fridge was empty!!
I nearly alway cook bass in the frying pan, nice and hot skin down with olive oil and butter til burned then do a flip for a minute on the flesh side but open to suggestion.
The thing didn't fit in the fridge whole, let alone the freezer... Good thing my bait fridge was empty!!
Andy, that GBASS comp: on the website what does GBASS or BBC imply?
Also is there an entry for kayak (as opposed to 'boat') category, i thought i saw it but not on the results?
would the GBASS be a good way to entre a couple of fishy comps in the kayak or is there a better way?
Also is there an entry for kayak (as opposed to 'boat') category, i thought i saw it but not on the results?
would the GBASS be a good way to entre a couple of fishy comps in the kayak or is there a better way?