Catch Report - Putsborough - 13th July 2019 (4)

Date From: 13/07/2019 20:30:00

Date To: 14/07/2019 02:30:00

Time of day: Evening - night

Location: Putsborough

Mark: Main beach

Low Tide: 10:02 (2.24m) 22:28 (2.13m) 10:59 (2.03m) 23:21 (1.89m)

High Tide: 03:48 (7.78m) 16:23 (7.89m) 04:49 (7.95m) 17:18 (8.18m)

Weather: Cloudy with sun shine, warm and gentle wind from behind dying down to no wind later on.

Sea: Clear with waves up to 3 feet high and rolling for up to 80 yards.

Method: Ledger (homemade up and over rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig)

Bait: Frozen extra large sandeel | frozen whole peeler crab

Caught:

The Session:

I visited a local beach at an optimal time in the day and tide to catch Ray and also try for Smoothhound which I have not specifically done here before. When I arrived I was pleased to hear long periods of quiet in between the waves breaking as it meant to me good sea conditions which I could wade out in to get my bait further out.

I walked quite far along the beach and set up the rod I was going to fish sandeel with first and waded out until I was almost waist deep in water and beyond any breaking waves. My cast went out around 80 yards and I then set up the rod for Smoothhound. I waded out just as far and this bait went around the same distance. I then settled down, not really expecting anything until the light faded but knowing both species do feed well during the day so I could have bites quite soon.

Further along the beach another angler was fishing from about the same time as me and it didn't seem long before he had something that looked like a Ray which got my hopes up, but I had to wait for an hour and a half for my first bite, changing baits twice during that time and also taking some photographs of my rods all set up and the condition of the but of beach I was on.

That first bite I had was on the crab and was typical of a Smoothound bite, a few pulls of the rod tip and then it began to pull the tip right around so I struck. The fish fought fairly well and took a while to calm down once it was on dry sand but stayed quite still during unhooking and photographing. I put it back and had to stay with it for a few minutes as it kept turning back and swimming into the shallower water and beaching itself. Eventually it swam outwards and I returned to my rods. I began baiting my rod back up when the other one showed a bite. I got ready and gave the fish a minute or two while it pulled the tip gently back and forth before also pulling the tip right down and again I struck at this moment. It was obviously hooked but did not fight very hard and it became clear why when it appeared at the shoreline, because it was just a few pounds in weight.

A pattern began emerging now as I had a bite on both rods in quick succession around 15 minutes later but I missed both of them. Then after another 15 minutes the sandeel rod signalled another bite and again after a few minutes of watching the rod tip move gently back and forth I struck into a Ray that was almost twice the size of the first. After I returned the fish and had rebaited and recast, the other rod showed a bite and I struck into another Smoothhound which was around half the size of the first one.

As it approached the period of low tide it went quiet for a vit and the waves became a little larger and rolled for a further distance. I was able to just cast shorter distances and then wait for the tide to come in. Around an hour after low tide I had some more bites, two on the sandeel but the fish dropped both baits eventually. The reason for one being left was obvious as I reeled into find the bait had slipped up my line.

The sea began coming in quick but due to still getting bites I wanted to fish as long as possible. I was running low on bait though so made my last tow casts of both rods with re-used bait and left them out as long as I could. The rod baited with crab showed a bite when I had walked back with the tiode a couple of times leaving barely any line on my reel. I had to make sure I struck at the fish before it had time to take the six or so turns of line and when I did strike I walked quickly forward and began wading out to gain as much line as possible. I could feel the fish on the end and it felt big but I wondered if it just felt big due to the amount of line in the water vausing a large amount of spongyness which could betray the real size of the fish. After feeling the fish make off to the side for a moment I then felt the grip lead dragging through sand and the fish was off. I first guessed that I could have had 250m of line out when that took the bait so it was in deeper water than usual but now I think it was closer to 150 as I had lost a bit of line from previous tackle losses so the spool was not full. In any case this session has made me eager to try there again soon.

Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:

Set up 1:

Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 1 years 2 months ] Reel: Wychwood Riot Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 1 years 0 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m Hooks: Sakuma Manta 2/0 (£13.05) 100 Shockleader: Rovex Surf clear 60lb (£7.99) 150m Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 25lb (£6.25) 100m

Set up 2:

Rod: Daiwa Seahunter Z 12ft 2 piece Fixed Spool (£37.99) [ > 0 years 4 months ] Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 5 years 2 months ] Line: Maxima Crystal Ivory 20lb (£14.08) 651 yards Hooks: Sakuma Circle 440 3/0 (£19.20) 50 Shockleader: Rovex Surf clear 60lb (£7.99) 150m Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 25lb (£6.25) 100m