Posted Tuesday at 06:43 PM
I thought yesterday was a bank holiday so I kept the diary free and planned to go fishing. Then I found out it was just a normal day and you all had to work. So in the spirit of kinship and kindness, I went fishing for you all.
The plan was to go after a new species, the stingray. I'd heard of a couple of spots that were capable of producing the odd one or two.
So Sunday I went to the bait shop to see Bill the owner, I needed some weights and rag worm.
We got talking and it came up that he was at a loose end Monday. So, I did what any decent guy would do and invited him to jump onboard Tarlach Too. I would have normally had Leo with me, but school was calling him... (much to his annoyance). The good thing about having a tackle and bait shop owner come fishing with you is that they have loads of the best freshest bait. Bill didn't disappoint. He bought along 4lb of large kind rag and about (from what I could see 40 peeler crab). We used none of the crab btw, didn't need to.
We met at 06.30 and left Mercurys by 06.50. Headed to the mark and dropped anchor in 7ft of water right on the turn of the low tide. As it was a rising tide I let out a couple more meters of rope to soak up the extra depth as the day ticked on. The deepest we were in at the end was 3m.
Bill started proceedings with a first drop bass of around 5lb, it quickly went back.
Then I pulled in an LSD (oh fuck here we go was my initial thought), that was just 1 of 3 that we saw all day.
My next bite was an impressive pull down and line started to exit my reel. I was convinced that it was a decent hound, but no. It was better than that...
A 13lb stingray was on the deck, my first ever, and what a fish. It doesn't look very pretty due to the fact that the tail had been docked and a large tope mouth shaped chunk was missing from his left wing. Either the tail and added meat he would have pushed 14lb.
Not to be out done, Bill landed a stinger too, smaller thank good at 6.5lb but spirited it was.
And that's how the day continued. In total we had 7 stingray (me 3, but the biggest), we had more hounds than I remember, again the biggest went to me at 13lb also. All were double figures, and in 7-8 feet of water they went ballistic, so much fun.
As the high tide eased so did the bites, we upped anchor and set for home at 3.30pm. Both quite knackered and full of high spirits. We hoped to get 1 or 2 stingers, but 7 was a red letter day.
I'll be back.
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www.offshoreoutlaws.co.uk
