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North West Low water session at Vale Park- 29/10/22

Merlin 335

Merlin 335

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Decided on a final session for thornback rays on the Mersey at Vale Park, I had only fished here once before and had blanked. Low water was at 8.50am, so turned up at the beach shortly before 5.30am. I decided that I was going to fish one rod with my usual up & over rig and the other with a running up & over - but with a dongle/hair rig. I have given up on trying the pulley dropper on the Mersey, as an up & over always out fished it for me.

I had both rods in the water for just after 6am and I didn't have to wait long for my first thornback ray to my usual up & over rig, it wasn't a bad size (I seldom weigh rays, I just like the sport in catching them). Shortly afterwards, I had a 34cm whiting on the other rod, which was going to be my dog's tea. I then had another ray to the running up & over rig - this was my first ray on this dongle/hair rig and the circle hook worked like a charm, going into the corner of the mouth. After a short lull, I had a small whiting to my normal up & over. I then had another thornback ray to the dongle/hair rig - this ray had some vicious thorns on it. So far the running up & over with the dongle/hair rig was working a treat. Then my nemesis, the dogfish decided to make an appearance to my usual up & over - I decided to switch this rig over to another running up & over with a dongle/hair rig and was shortly rewarded with another ray. From here on in it was just dogfish and at 9.30am I decided to call it quits as the tide was starting to race in.

All in all a good session with 4 thornbacks rays, of which 3 were caught to my running up & over hair/dongle rig and all the fish had been hooked in the corner of the mouths - showing that the rig was working as intended. I think from now on in when fishing for rays, this will be my rig of choice, I just have to decide on using 4/0 or 6/0 circle hooks, so a bit more experimenting needed. I enjoyed fishing at Vale Park and will give me other options when Perch Rock is busy.

For November & December, I will be moving over to fishing the Fyde coast for cod, as at the moment it is fishing quite well for them.

 
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Nice report Merlin! 🎣🎣 (y)(y)
 
Yes there's a few codling showing here on the Fylde. I got out last week for my 1st session with the big rods and lug and had 3 to about 1lb12oz, all returned, lots of whiting and 2 of the almost obligatory doggies. Any codling showing on the Mersey marks Merlin?
 
Topwater said:
Yes there's a few codling showing here on the Fylde. I got out last week for my 1st session with the big rods and lug and had 3 to about 1lb12oz, all returned, lots of whiting and 2 of the almost obligatory doggies. Any codling showing on the Mersey marks Merlin?
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I think there has been some out, but I only fish the Mersey for rays from end of August to end of October, I fish the Fylde coast more often, as it's closer to where I live. What I don't like about the Mersey is that the high water marks are fishing off proms and the like - which is not my cup of tea, I prefer the beach or rocks.
 
I hear what your saying Merlin as I'm no fan of fishing off proms etc but I've had some great HW cod fishing on the Mersey over the years. Many seasons it been a better bet for decent fish than local marks like 5bar, Rossall etc
 
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