Merlin 335
Member
I decided to take advantage of the big tides and paid another visit to Perch Rock to target thornback rays. I carried on with my experiment of one rod having a pulley dropper and the other with my usual up & over; one slight change to the pulley dropper was that I was going to try it was a "dongle", I have used this before, but without much success. I was the the first person on the beach (not surprising as it was 3am!), but shortly afterwards two other anglers appeared. Low tide was at 6am and due to the big tides, I knew that I wouldn't have long after low tide due to the strong tidal pull of the mersey.
I had bites on both rods straight from the off, but they didn't amount to anything. After recasting both rods, I had a strong bite on the up & over and reeled in a thornback ray....nice, target achieved. I baited up and launched out another bait, soon afterwards, I had another bite on the same rod and hauled in another female thornback ray. I was getting my hopes up that I was going to have a good session. As I was having no joy on the rod with the pulley dropper/dongle, I reeled that in to rebait and decided to cast in the area where I had just had the 2 thornback rays and put the up & over where the pulley dropper had been. Unfortunately, I forgot to move the bail arm before casting (school boy error!) and had a crack off. I took this opportunity to switch the pulley dropper to an up & over, as I had no confidence in the pulley dropper with the dongle.
By this point the tide was pouring out of the mersey and my lines where being pulled nearly 90 degrees to the left. I decided to reel in both rods to change bait to discover a whiting on each rig. With the tidal pull being so strong, I decided just to fish one rod until it eased off towards low tide, so ensure that my lines didn't become tangled.
I managed to pull in another thornback ray and a dog fish just before low tide at 6am. As the tide had slackened off, I still carried on using one rod and launched out a fillet of mackerel. Whilst starting to pack some of my gear up, I had a fantastic bite and then suddenly heard the screech of a bird, to my dismay a seagull had flown into my line. I couldn't believe it had happened again!. After freeing the bird, I decided to call it quits and went home.
I had bites on both rods straight from the off, but they didn't amount to anything. After recasting both rods, I had a strong bite on the up & over and reeled in a thornback ray....nice, target achieved. I baited up and launched out another bait, soon afterwards, I had another bite on the same rod and hauled in another female thornback ray. I was getting my hopes up that I was going to have a good session. As I was having no joy on the rod with the pulley dropper/dongle, I reeled that in to rebait and decided to cast in the area where I had just had the 2 thornback rays and put the up & over where the pulley dropper had been. Unfortunately, I forgot to move the bail arm before casting (school boy error!) and had a crack off. I took this opportunity to switch the pulley dropper to an up & over, as I had no confidence in the pulley dropper with the dongle.
By this point the tide was pouring out of the mersey and my lines where being pulled nearly 90 degrees to the left. I decided to reel in both rods to change bait to discover a whiting on each rig. With the tidal pull being so strong, I decided just to fish one rod until it eased off towards low tide, so ensure that my lines didn't become tangled.
I managed to pull in another thornback ray and a dog fish just before low tide at 6am. As the tide had slackened off, I still carried on using one rod and launched out a fillet of mackerel. Whilst starting to pack some of my gear up, I had a fantastic bite and then suddenly heard the screech of a bird, to my dismay a seagull had flown into my line. I couldn't believe it had happened again!. After freeing the bird, I decided to call it quits and went home.
