Mr Fish
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
- Messages
- 18,895
- Reaction score
- 65,340
- Points
- 116
- Location
- North Devon
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
It all started with the scissors.
I’d had a lazy Saturday, spent the afternoon sorting a few emails and at 4.30pm idly wondered what time high tide was, as it would suit a hound beach I was thinking of.
8.10pm! Ooh! Dithered for 10 minutes, wasn’t really feeling that energetic but thought, sod it, I need to force myself to do something.
The previous week had been divided between work and in my spare time I’d been hunting for spider peelers, with some limited success, but not great.
The mantra all week had been ‘must get out fishing’, so really I had no excuse.
A mad rush around to throw gear in. Not many pulley rigs, meh never lose much there.
The reel I wanted, with 30lb line on, didn’t have much line on as I shredded/lost it wrassing and completely forgot.
No time to respool, grabbed a couple of alternatives.
Bait was some refrozen spider - the hounds don’t care and I wasn’t wasting the good stuff on them, and some refrozen squid for hounds or huss.
Made reasonably good time on a drive that can sometimes take an hour and was on the 25 minute walk to the mark at 5.45, the plan being to fish two up and two back.
A bit later than planned, but not too bad.
First impressions it was rather blustery and drizzly, with a fair surf rolling in.
I hadn’t even bothered to check the weather (first schoolboy error), but it was still fishable, so….
Second impression, there was two blokes where I’d planned to go.
Not the end of the world but it’s a bit deeper and the pebble ridge isn’t as steep there, but I went up from them at a spot I’ve fished before.
They were in full wet weather gear but I was already sweltering, would just have to get damp for now and I had a spare t shirt in the car if needs be.
Watched one land a smallish hound for the other, and he went down and brought it back held up by the tail. Grrr! ??
That can badly injure sharks and they were instantly lumped in the ‘noddy’ category.
Oh how the fishing gods must have laughed!
‘Twas quite lumpy and the picture doesn’t really do the sea state justice.
First thing, I needed to put a leader on one reel. Where are the scissors? No scissors.
I remembered they were in my crabbing rucksack still (I use them to prep crab and cut the lungs out).
Okay, not the first time I’ve used a knife to cut line etc. it needed sharpening, but adequate.
Got everything sorted, cast out (only had two pulleys but you don’t lose much here ??
), and settled with a coffee to catch up on messages.
Which of course is when the crab rod screamed off with the first hound run. Completely unprepared and unprofessional, I totally missed it.
Rebaited, finished my coffee, which now had dollops of peeler juice in it (extra protein?) but it wasn’t going to go to waste - I poured it, I’d damn well drink it, by god!
There was some weed about and I idly noticed it was dragging my lines down a bit.
Then I noticed one line was buried under the shingle. Well, mahoosive pebbles.
Got as close as I could to try and free it, then saw the other was in exactly the same state.
Needless to say, lost the lot, plus a fair bit of line on both reels. Good job I’d recently refilled them ?
Schoolboy error two: I didn’t set the tripod high enough and was too lax with letting the slack out after casting - you need to keep on top of it when you have shingle like that and rough seas.
Which I know, of course.
The ‘noddies’ were watching all this and probably thinking ‘what a noddy’ ??
They landed a few more small hounds…
Changed one reel as I had a spare and CBA to tie another leader right then, tackled up. Again.
Not easy making rigs with just a knife ?
Back to fishing.
Finally it all went right. Hound run, strike, bringing in a lively fish, not too big by the feel, but at least I was on the board.
On your own up a steep pebble ridge, it wasn’t terribly easy. I had to beach the hound then walk down as close as I could on the treacherous surface, then pull him in with the trace.
I didn’t pick him up by the tail though!
Not very big, about 4lb I’d say, but a start!
This was better. I missed another run, on squid this time, then one on crab.
Then became snagged up and before I could exert much pressure, the line broke.
I obviously didn’t check the line well enough for damage before tackling up again (schoolboy error three, if we’re still counting).
High tide came and went, then I had a sort of bite on the squid, seemed to be coming in empty then suddenly there was a fish on!
Either it had hooked itself but not moved much, or it grabbed the bait when it moved.
Anyway, a slightly better hound at maybe 6lb, I didn’t weigh it.
Still a low weight for this coast but it was something.
As the tide dropped, the other two started packing up and I put a double squid in close in the lovely surf - there had to be a bass or three in there.
The second picture was taken after I’d packed up - I wouldn’t shine light on the water at all while fishing.
I could have played around in the surf for another hour or so, but I’d had enough, it would have meant moving everything down the steep ridge and the rain was heavy enough now that I’d had to put a coat on.
When I brought the squid in, a tiny bath toy sized huss was clinging on to it.
So I guess you could say I hit both targets, but it was a real comedy of errors night.
You’d think after decades of angling, silly mistakes would be a thing of the past and to be fair, they mostly are, but not last night.
As I say, it all started with the scissors…
I’d had a lazy Saturday, spent the afternoon sorting a few emails and at 4.30pm idly wondered what time high tide was, as it would suit a hound beach I was thinking of.
8.10pm! Ooh! Dithered for 10 minutes, wasn’t really feeling that energetic but thought, sod it, I need to force myself to do something.
The previous week had been divided between work and in my spare time I’d been hunting for spider peelers, with some limited success, but not great.
The mantra all week had been ‘must get out fishing’, so really I had no excuse.
A mad rush around to throw gear in. Not many pulley rigs, meh never lose much there.
The reel I wanted, with 30lb line on, didn’t have much line on as I shredded/lost it wrassing and completely forgot.
No time to respool, grabbed a couple of alternatives.
Bait was some refrozen spider - the hounds don’t care and I wasn’t wasting the good stuff on them, and some refrozen squid for hounds or huss.
Made reasonably good time on a drive that can sometimes take an hour and was on the 25 minute walk to the mark at 5.45, the plan being to fish two up and two back.
A bit later than planned, but not too bad.
First impressions it was rather blustery and drizzly, with a fair surf rolling in.
I hadn’t even bothered to check the weather (first schoolboy error), but it was still fishable, so….
Second impression, there was two blokes where I’d planned to go.
Not the end of the world but it’s a bit deeper and the pebble ridge isn’t as steep there, but I went up from them at a spot I’ve fished before.
They were in full wet weather gear but I was already sweltering, would just have to get damp for now and I had a spare t shirt in the car if needs be.
Watched one land a smallish hound for the other, and he went down and brought it back held up by the tail. Grrr! ??
That can badly injure sharks and they were instantly lumped in the ‘noddy’ category.
Oh how the fishing gods must have laughed!
‘Twas quite lumpy and the picture doesn’t really do the sea state justice.
First thing, I needed to put a leader on one reel. Where are the scissors? No scissors.
I remembered they were in my crabbing rucksack still (I use them to prep crab and cut the lungs out).
Okay, not the first time I’ve used a knife to cut line etc. it needed sharpening, but adequate.
Got everything sorted, cast out (only had two pulleys but you don’t lose much here ??
), and settled with a coffee to catch up on messages.Which of course is when the crab rod screamed off with the first hound run. Completely unprepared and unprofessional, I totally missed it.
Rebaited, finished my coffee, which now had dollops of peeler juice in it (extra protein?) but it wasn’t going to go to waste - I poured it, I’d damn well drink it, by god!
There was some weed about and I idly noticed it was dragging my lines down a bit.
Then I noticed one line was buried under the shingle. Well, mahoosive pebbles.
Got as close as I could to try and free it, then saw the other was in exactly the same state.
Needless to say, lost the lot, plus a fair bit of line on both reels. Good job I’d recently refilled them ?
Schoolboy error two: I didn’t set the tripod high enough and was too lax with letting the slack out after casting - you need to keep on top of it when you have shingle like that and rough seas.
Which I know, of course.
The ‘noddies’ were watching all this and probably thinking ‘what a noddy’ ??
They landed a few more small hounds…
Changed one reel as I had a spare and CBA to tie another leader right then, tackled up. Again.
Not easy making rigs with just a knife ?
Back to fishing.
Finally it all went right. Hound run, strike, bringing in a lively fish, not too big by the feel, but at least I was on the board.
On your own up a steep pebble ridge, it wasn’t terribly easy. I had to beach the hound then walk down as close as I could on the treacherous surface, then pull him in with the trace.
I didn’t pick him up by the tail though!
Not very big, about 4lb I’d say, but a start!
This was better. I missed another run, on squid this time, then one on crab.
Then became snagged up and before I could exert much pressure, the line broke.
I obviously didn’t check the line well enough for damage before tackling up again (schoolboy error three, if we’re still counting).
High tide came and went, then I had a sort of bite on the squid, seemed to be coming in empty then suddenly there was a fish on!
Either it had hooked itself but not moved much, or it grabbed the bait when it moved.
Anyway, a slightly better hound at maybe 6lb, I didn’t weigh it.
Still a low weight for this coast but it was something.
As the tide dropped, the other two started packing up and I put a double squid in close in the lovely surf - there had to be a bass or three in there.
The second picture was taken after I’d packed up - I wouldn’t shine light on the water at all while fishing.
I could have played around in the surf for another hour or so, but I’d had enough, it would have meant moving everything down the steep ridge and the rain was heavy enough now that I’d had to put a coat on.
When I brought the squid in, a tiny bath toy sized huss was clinging on to it.
So I guess you could say I hit both targets, but it was a real comedy of errors night.
You’d think after decades of angling, silly mistakes would be a thing of the past and to be fair, they mostly are, but not last night.
As I say, it all started with the scissors…
