Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 375
- Reaction score
- 3,427
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
After a quiet session the previous Thursday night, I saw several reports this week of the very same beach producing plenty of bass 
, but after giving it some thought about a return, I reasoned that the place might be busy with all the publicity, so I decided to give it a miss. After a good think I settled on a quieter beach instead, where I was fortunate enough to catch 2 decent small eyed ray around this time last year. There was still a pretty good chance of a bass or coalie at this spot too, so I was confident of a decent session 
.
I arrived just after low water and my confidence was immediately boosted further, when I found a very fishy surf rolling ashore. First off I rigged up my continental rod with a 3-hook flapper, and after baiting it with a mixture of rag and lug, I blasted it beyond the furthest white water. Once this was settled I immediately rigged up my second rod with a 4/0 single hook pulley dropper, which I baited up with half a squid. This was also cast to maximum range, in an effort to reach a decent depth of water, before I sat back to wait for the action to pick up.
Sadly, the evening got off to a very slow start and the rods remained completely motionless for the first hour, save for the continuous, rhythmic nodding caused by the waves. Despite this, I kept a steady stream of fresh bait going in, still confident that the fish would turn up eventually
. Finally, after about an hour and a quarter I had the first bite of the night, a half decent rattle, but unfortunately the culprit missed the hook 
.
Over the next 45 minutes I missed several more bites, but eventually my luck changed and the blank was beaten with the first whiting of the night, a small pin but a fish nonetheless
.
Now that I had got the hang of it, I caught a steady stream of mainly small whiting, though I also missed the vast majority of the bites I had. In fact there were so many of them out there, that even the large ray baits were being stripped within 10 minutes or so of being cast out. After a couple of hours of this, I conceded that there were obviously no rays about, so it was time for a change of tactics
.
Though the majority of the bites were undoubtedly pin whiting, I began to wonder what else might be out there, so the 4/0 ray rig was swapped for something at the other end of the scale. In its place I clipped on a 3 hook boom rig, armed with size 8s and baited them with small pieces of lug or rag and this rig had hardly been in the water for more than a few minutes when the rod tip started rattling. To be honest I was hoping for a 5-bearded rockling or some variety of flatty but it wasn’t to be, and there were so many whiting out there that nothing else stood a chance of getting near the bait.
The last hour of the session continued to produce pins, but in among them I thought I’d finally hooked something a little more interesting. A more urgent knock dislodged the lead and the culprit actually put up a bit of a scrap in the surf
, but rather than the hoped for bass or coalie, it turned out to be just another whiting, albeit a decent example of over 34cm 
.
With high tide approaching though, I’d had enough of catching whiting and I finally called it a night at 00:20.
Next up is a dads and lads huss hunt tonight, with Steve A and our boys, so hopefully we’ll all get something which will fight back for a change.
, but after giving it some thought about a return, I reasoned that the place might be busy with all the publicity, so I decided to give it a miss. After a good think I settled on a quieter beach instead, where I was fortunate enough to catch 2 decent small eyed ray around this time last year. There was still a pretty good chance of a bass or coalie at this spot too, so I was confident of a decent session .I arrived just after low water and my confidence was immediately boosted further, when I found a very fishy surf rolling ashore. First off I rigged up my continental rod with a 3-hook flapper, and after baiting it with a mixture of rag and lug, I blasted it beyond the furthest white water. Once this was settled I immediately rigged up my second rod with a 4/0 single hook pulley dropper, which I baited up with half a squid. This was also cast to maximum range, in an effort to reach a decent depth of water, before I sat back to wait for the action to pick up.
Sadly, the evening got off to a very slow start and the rods remained completely motionless for the first hour, save for the continuous, rhythmic nodding caused by the waves. Despite this, I kept a steady stream of fresh bait going in, still confident that the fish would turn up eventually
. Finally, after about an hour and a quarter I had the first bite of the night, a half decent rattle, but unfortunately the culprit missed the hook .Over the next 45 minutes I missed several more bites, but eventually my luck changed and the blank was beaten with the first whiting of the night, a small pin but a fish nonetheless
.Now that I had got the hang of it, I caught a steady stream of mainly small whiting, though I also missed the vast majority of the bites I had. In fact there were so many of them out there, that even the large ray baits were being stripped within 10 minutes or so of being cast out. After a couple of hours of this, I conceded that there were obviously no rays about, so it was time for a change of tactics
.Though the majority of the bites were undoubtedly pin whiting, I began to wonder what else might be out there, so the 4/0 ray rig was swapped for something at the other end of the scale. In its place I clipped on a 3 hook boom rig, armed with size 8s and baited them with small pieces of lug or rag and this rig had hardly been in the water for more than a few minutes when the rod tip started rattling. To be honest I was hoping for a 5-bearded rockling or some variety of flatty but it wasn’t to be, and there were so many whiting out there that nothing else stood a chance of getting near the bait.
The last hour of the session continued to produce pins, but in among them I thought I’d finally hooked something a little more interesting. A more urgent knock dislodged the lead and the culprit actually put up a bit of a scrap in the surf
, but rather than the hoped for bass or coalie, it turned out to be just another whiting, albeit a decent example of over 34cm .With high tide approaching though, I’d had enough of catching whiting and I finally called it a night at 00:20.
Next up is a dads and lads huss hunt tonight, with Steve A and our boys, so hopefully we’ll all get something which will fight back for a change
.
.
