Yabba Dabba Do!

Having been beaten at the weekend by the species I was after I felt determined to get back as soon as possible to get the species in the bag. The difficulty was juggling work and family commitments around a window in the weather something so many of us have to contend with. So I decided to have a go last night fishing 1 hour up and 2 hours down, this time using all the advice I had been given. Chris didn't take much convincing and with his face having returned to just plain ugly we were soon at the mark, a couple of anglers were already setup fishing and everything seemed good for a fish. We asked the anglers how they had done and they had managed a few Whiting and a solitary Dab, this spurred me on knowing the little flats were feeding. I cast out the rigs armed with tiny hooks which were loaded with Black lug tipped with squid then I sat back to wait with everything crossed. It wasn't long before the left hand rod tip shook violently indicating some interest, upon striking I found myself snagged. Chris had noticed my predicament and exclaimed " hold on mate I will get the glove" he then pulled out he's 1970s snooker referee glove which he had decided was suitable for pulling for breaks. However as luck would have it the line didn't break and came free, I reeled in to find a 3 Bearded Rockling looking somewhat annoyed under the headlight beam. There was also a bunch of line tangled in the rig, the cause of the snag no doubt, its always nice to remove that from a beach. We debated the species of 3 bearded rockling that I had caught and decided it was the Shore Rockling and one I had already had, so a quick snap and back into the sea with him.

Next it was Chris's turn as he decided to reel in and check the bait, as he swung the rig over the wall there on the bottom hook sat a Dab! I was starting to feel cursed as once again everyone around me were catching Dabs, to add to my paranoia I started catching dogfish and whiting on the tiny lug baits. Sometimes you feel that Neptune isn't ready to give you the fish you desire and no matter what you do will change it, we fished on into the ebb tide and just after midnight with the fat lady climbing her podium my rod tip trembled very gently. I pointed it out to Chris, " this is different, very gentle" at this point the rod bent over demanding a strike and I promptly obliged. There was definitely a fish on but I was unsure of what species, the problem fishing over a wall with a high parapet its like the lucky dip at the fete you don't know what you've got until it is your hand. Boom! a beautiful little Dab sprung into view and a little Irish jig followed as both Chris and I were elated. We quickly took the pictures and I ran the fish down the steps to the waters edge to release the little guy carefully and thanked him for showing up in the nick of time.

Chris wanted to put out a big bait for the last hour and I just wanted to cast out and enjoy the ambience of this beautiful little harbour. We started to pack up when Chris's whole Whiting was grabbed by something and the steady pulls seemed very eel like, sadly the fish found the rocks and we never got to see it the last action of the night. So its onto the next species as this was a bit of an extra blog there should be the normal sunday one after the midlands trip. Thanks so much Jon Patten, Pete Gregory and Ian hooper for the tips it really is appreciated and without doubt helped me get this species. Cheers as usual Chris for driving, photographing and sharing the experience.