Andy 1965
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 367
- Reaction score
- 3,376
- Points
- 93
- Location
- North Wales
- Favourite Fishing
- Lure
After a successful lure season, it was time on Thursday night for a return to dirty bait fishing and I decided to take advantage of the calm and frosty conditions, with a session on the rocks after rays. Now fishing the right ledge at my chosen mark can make or break a session, and when I arrived to find a van already parked up, I feared I might have missed my chance to get on my favoured spot. It was worth a look though, as the other guy might prefer to fish somewhere else, so after getting suited and booted I set off along the frozen footpath to the mark. Thankfully I was in luck, and I arrived to find that I had the place to myself 
.
Once safely at my camp for the night, I first set up the ray rod, rigged with a pulley dropper and baited with a squid and sandeel cocktail. As soon as this was cast out, and the rod set in the tripod, I assembled a second rod rigged with a 2-hook flapper, and baited with lug and squid on one hook, and plain sandeel on the other. This second rig had barely touched the bottom when the rod tip started bouncing away all over the place, and I knew immediately that the whiting hordes were in town. Though this could be a problem, with my baits potentially being stripped before my intended species could find them, it was also a good thing as it would at least provide me with a regular supply of fresh bait.
The first cast produced a double header of whiting on the flapper, while the 5/0 on the pulley dropper proved too big for the whiting to swallow, though they gave it a damn good go. For the next cast the flapper was baited the same, but this time the dropper was baited with herring and while the flapper accounted for another whiting, the change of bait on the other rod did the trick, as 15 minutes after casting out, I had a decent pull-down bite. I gave it a couple of minutes to develop and eventually the bait muncher set off with my offering in its mouth, and the drag gave a steady stream of line. I then lifted the rod and tightened the drag, meaning that the would-be escapee set the hook itself. A decent weight on the line, coupled with the odd dive, had me thinking I might have hooked a huss to begin with, but when the culprit finally surfaced below me, I could see that it was in fact my intended species, a nice little thornback of 3lb 12oz 
.
After a quick snap she was released to grow bigger, while I rebaited and cast out again.
The next hour and a quarter was quiet on the ray baits, and after several more casts I was now running out of herring, I did however have a decent stock of fresh whiting
, so I decided on a change of tactics and bait. The flapper was now replaced with a pulley rig, armed with an 8/0 Varivas Big-Mouth and I selected a small-ish whiting, which was impaled on said hook, this was then whipped on securely and launched as far as possible into the darkness. The rod was then placed in the tripod as usual, with the drag set fairly tightly, but I had barely done this when the tip pulled hard over, as once more the drag gave line to something which had made a very quick meal of my offering 
.
After a similar scrap to the first one, Ray number 2 was soon beaten and I was pleasantly surprised to see it was a bit bigger than the first at 5lb 11oz
.
After this excitement, things went quiet again for half an hour or so, but it wasn’t to last and when the predators next started feeding, they weren’t messing about.
First off was another identical take on the pulley rig, and this time I wouldn’t have things so easy. After the initial run, this fish put up much more of a fight and I was convinced that I had hooked a double figure ray, possibly even big enough to improve on my current PB of 10lb 13oz. After a good 5 minutes of hauling it to shore, the ray finally surfaced and to be honest I was a little disappointed to see that it wasn’t as big as I first thought
. The ray had in fact become tail-wrapped in the line and I had been pulling it in backwards, which explained how difficult it had been. Despite that, it wasn’t a tiddler by any means and at 8lb 1oz it was the biggest fish of the night so far 
.
While I was re-baiting the pulley rig, I was surprised to hear the other rod bouncing in the tripod, so I hurriedly finished what I was doing and cast out the fresh whiting, but I had barely put this rod down when the other one was pulled hard over and line started to pour off the reel!
I quickly picked the rod up and tightened the drag, as the rod tip started to nod powerfully, before I began pumping the fish towards shore. Several minutes later, it was finally beaten and spotting the tell-tale glow of my headlamp in the fish’s eye, I immediately knew that it was in fact a half decent huss. After a couple of hairy moments, as the fish was swept backwards and forwards in the swells, I was ultimately able drag it up onto a dry ledge, from where I could grab the top of the rig body and hand-line the huss safely ashore. It wasn’t a monster but at 8lb 13oz, I was more than happy with it .
While I was half way through unhooking and weighing my catch, I was surprised by the sound of line being taken off a reel against the drag yet again
, so I quickly released the huss before turning my full attention to the other rod. Sadly though I was too slow, and by the time I got there, what I assumed was another huss had dropped the bait, leaving me with just a mashed whiting as a calling card 
.
Despite the cold weather, I was actually feeling very warm with all the running about
, but it wasn’t over yet. Ten minutes or so after missing the huss, the other rod was off yet again, this time on a squid and sandeel bait, but despite the fish taking line off the reel at quite a rate, it somehow managed to avoid getting hooked and when I picked up the rod the fish was gone 
.
After losing 2 fish in 2 bites, I hoped for an opportunity to make amends, but it wasn’t to be. As the tide started to push, the big fish went off the feed, to be replaced once more by whiting. In fact there were so many whiting about, that I even caught one on a whiting fillet mounted on a 5/0
.
The whiting plague didn’t last long though, and after half an hour everything was quiet once more. Hoping that there might still be the odd ray about, I fished on for another hour, using whiting, squid and sandeel baits, but they remained untouched, so I called it a night at 00:20 and headed back to scrape a thick layer of frost off my car, before making my way carefully home.
So the first session of my winter season was a productive one, with my target species successfully ticked off and I’m looking forward now to seeing what next week brings
.
.Once safely at my camp for the night, I first set up the ray rod, rigged with a pulley dropper and baited with a squid and sandeel cocktail. As soon as this was cast out, and the rod set in the tripod, I assembled a second rod rigged with a 2-hook flapper, and baited with lug and squid on one hook, and plain sandeel on the other. This second rig had barely touched the bottom when the rod tip started bouncing away all over the place, and I knew immediately that the whiting hordes were in town. Though this could be a problem, with my baits potentially being stripped before my intended species could find them, it was also a good thing as it would at least provide me with a regular supply of fresh bait
.The first cast produced a double header of whiting on the flapper, while the 5/0 on the pulley dropper proved too big for the whiting to swallow, though they gave it a damn good go
. For the next cast the flapper was baited the same, but this time the dropper was baited with herring and while the flapper accounted for another whiting, the change of bait on the other rod did the trick, as 15 minutes after casting out, I had a decent pull-down bite. I gave it a couple of minutes to develop and eventually the bait muncher set off with my offering in its mouth, and the drag gave a steady stream of line. I then lifted the rod and tightened the drag, meaning that the would-be escapee set the hook itself. A decent weight on the line, coupled with the odd dive, had me thinking I might have hooked a huss to begin with, but when the culprit finally surfaced below me, I could see that it was in fact my intended species, a nice little thornback of 3lb 12oz .After a quick snap she was released to grow bigger, while I rebaited and cast out again.
The next hour and a quarter was quiet on the ray baits, and after several more casts I was now running out of herring, I did however have a decent stock of fresh whiting
, so I decided on a change of tactics and bait. The flapper was now replaced with a pulley rig, armed with an 8/0 Varivas Big-Mouth and I selected a small-ish whiting, which was impaled on said hook, this was then whipped on securely and launched as far as possible into the darkness. The rod was then placed in the tripod as usual, with the drag set fairly tightly, but I had barely done this when the tip pulled hard over, as once more the drag gave line to something which had made a very quick meal of my offering .After a similar scrap to the first one, Ray number 2 was soon beaten and I was pleasantly surprised to see it was a bit bigger than the first at 5lb 11oz
.After this excitement, things went quiet again for half an hour or so, but it wasn’t to last and when the predators next started feeding, they weren’t messing about.
First off was another identical take on the pulley rig, and this time I wouldn’t have things so easy. After the initial run, this fish put up much more of a fight and I was convinced that I had hooked a double figure ray, possibly even big enough to improve on my current PB of 10lb 13oz. After a good 5 minutes of hauling it to shore, the ray finally surfaced and to be honest I was a little disappointed to see that it wasn’t as big as I first thought
. The ray had in fact become tail-wrapped in the line and I had been pulling it in backwards, which explained how difficult it had been. Despite that, it wasn’t a tiddler by any means and at 8lb 1oz it was the biggest fish of the night so far .While I was re-baiting the pulley rig, I was surprised to hear the other rod bouncing in the tripod, so I hurriedly finished what I was doing and cast out the fresh whiting, but I had barely put this rod down when the other one was pulled hard over and line started to pour off the reel!
I quickly picked the rod up and tightened the drag, as the rod tip started to nod powerfully, before I began pumping the fish towards shore. Several minutes later, it was finally beaten and spotting the tell-tale glow of my headlamp in the fish’s eye, I immediately knew that it was in fact a half decent huss. After a couple of hairy moments, as the fish was swept backwards and forwards in the swells, I was ultimately able drag it up onto a dry ledge, from where I could grab the top of the rig body and hand-line the huss safely ashore. It wasn’t a monster but at 8lb 13oz, I was more than happy with it .While I was half way through unhooking and weighing my catch, I was surprised by the sound of line being taken off a reel against the drag yet again
, so I quickly released the huss before turning my full attention to the other rod. Sadly though I was too slow, and by the time I got there, what I assumed was another huss had dropped the bait, leaving me with just a mashed whiting as a calling card .Despite the cold weather, I was actually feeling very warm with all the running about
, but it wasn’t over yet. Ten minutes or so after missing the huss, the other rod was off yet again, this time on a squid and sandeel bait, but despite the fish taking line off the reel at quite a rate, it somehow managed to avoid getting hooked and when I picked up the rod the fish was gone .After losing 2 fish in 2 bites, I hoped for an opportunity to make amends, but it wasn’t to be. As the tide started to push, the big fish went off the feed, to be replaced once more by whiting. In fact there were so many whiting about, that I even caught one on a whiting fillet mounted on a 5/0
.The whiting plague didn’t last long though, and after half an hour everything was quiet once more. Hoping that there might still be the odd ray about, I fished on for another hour, using whiting, squid and sandeel baits, but they remained untouched, so I called it a night at 00:20 and headed back to scrape a thick layer of frost off my car, before making my way carefully home.
So the first session of my winter season was a productive one, with my target species successfully ticked off and I’m looking forward now to seeing what next week brings
.
