Merlin 335
Member
From September through to the end of October I like targeting thornback rays on the wirral peninsula. So for my second trip this year I ventured for an early morning session at Perch Rock, low tide was at 6.09am; so I arrived on the beach at 3.15am.
The baits I use are mackerel, bluey, squid and combinations of these; one rod I had a pulley dropper and the other had an up & over ( both with 4/0 pennels) - I am currently pitching these two rigs against each other to see if they fish the same or as I think, the up & over will out fish the pulley dropper for rays (I believe that the strong currents in the Mersey makes the pulley dropper rise up the line and so is not constantly fishing on the bottom).
Within 5 minutes, I notice a bite on the left rod and reeled in a doggie, not a good sign. Over the course of the next hour or so, I pull in a total of 6 doggies. The bait wasn't staying in the water long enough to tempt a ray before dogfish engulf my baits....I don't like catching dogfish!
As it was getting nearer to low tide and the tide is slackening off, I get a run of 4 thornback rays - happy days! my target species. On the rig competition, it was 3 to the up & over and 1 to the pulley dropper - so far confirming my theory (although I will continue for the rest of the year testing this out).
After low tide I caught another doggie and decided to call it quits, as the tide was starting to race in.
As usual, for the final 20/30 minutes when the tide is racing too hard to fish, I have some casting practice to hone my pendulum cast. On my fifth cast (which was the best of the lot!), whilst reeling in, my rod suddenly bent over double - I then realised that the line had become tangled round a cormorant that had been diving. After 10 minutes of battling to bring it in, I managed to bring it to the shore. I called over to the only other angler on the beach for a hand (thank you Conrad) to help me untangle the bird, after several minutes of dodging the beak of a very angry bird, we managed to free it and return it safely.
The baits I use are mackerel, bluey, squid and combinations of these; one rod I had a pulley dropper and the other had an up & over ( both with 4/0 pennels) - I am currently pitching these two rigs against each other to see if they fish the same or as I think, the up & over will out fish the pulley dropper for rays (I believe that the strong currents in the Mersey makes the pulley dropper rise up the line and so is not constantly fishing on the bottom).
Within 5 minutes, I notice a bite on the left rod and reeled in a doggie, not a good sign. Over the course of the next hour or so, I pull in a total of 6 doggies. The bait wasn't staying in the water long enough to tempt a ray before dogfish engulf my baits....I don't like catching dogfish!
As it was getting nearer to low tide and the tide is slackening off, I get a run of 4 thornback rays - happy days! my target species. On the rig competition, it was 3 to the up & over and 1 to the pulley dropper - so far confirming my theory (although I will continue for the rest of the year testing this out).
After low tide I caught another doggie and decided to call it quits, as the tide was starting to race in.
As usual, for the final 20/30 minutes when the tide is racing too hard to fish, I have some casting practice to hone my pendulum cast. On my fifth cast (which was the best of the lot!), whilst reeling in, my rod suddenly bent over double - I then realised that the line had become tangled round a cormorant that had been diving. After 10 minutes of battling to bring it in, I managed to bring it to the shore. I called over to the only other angler on the beach for a hand (thank you Conrad) to help me untangle the bird, after several minutes of dodging the beak of a very angry bird, we managed to free it and return it safely.
