Date: 29-04-2017
Time of day: Night
Location: Putsborough
Mark: Right hand side of beach
Low Tide: 14:07(0.26m) 02:29(0.38m)
High Tide: 20:26(9.78m) 08:51(9.68m)
Time fished from: 23:45
Time fished to: 03:30
Weather: A gentle breeze from behind at the beginning of the session, increasing in strength a lttle by the end. No visible moon. Overcast.
Sea: Clear with a very small swell and small waves of around 2ft rolling for 50 yards or so.
Method: Ledger (running ledger)
Bait: Frozen sandeel, frozen black lugworm
Caught (weight): 1 Small Eyed Ray (4lbs 0oz, Guessed), 3 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed)
The Session: I was fishing with a friend who is an occasional angler. We walked over to the last three houses on the right of the beach and each set up one rod. My friend fished a pulley rig while I opted for a running ledger. We made our first casts at around the same time and we both put them a fair distance of possibly 70 yards to allow for a fast retreating tide. My friend had the first bite which was around 20 minutes after casting out. It looked like a Ray bite but he failed to hook it after leaving it for a few minutes before reeling in. Not long afterwards I had my first bite and again it looked like a Ray bite. I waited until the rod tip was moving constantly and struck hard. The fish was obviously hooked and after about ten minutes The fish appeared in the small surf in front of us. I guessed its weight at around 3lb. The next bites we had came on both rods at around the same time. My friend was watching his rod as it looked like another Ray was taking the sandeel. As we were drinking tea we both had another bite. My friend left the bite longer this time and then struck at it. As he had hooked it I left my rod as the bite had not developed into anything. He hooked this one and it managed to hold the bottom for possibly 10 minutes and as we did not know what size it was he used caution, and as we could see the rig line in the surf it wouldn't be too long before the fish was within reach. Then the fish let up and he pulled ashore a fish bigger than mine which we weighed and found the scales to go to 6lb 2oz. I then felt that I had underestimated the size of mine and put mine at 4lb. After we returned to the rods I had a bite but missed it. Neither of us had a bite until around half an hour afterwards. My rod went but it was not quite the same bite as the ray. I didn't wait too long to strike and when I did it was a hard fighting dogfish. I had just returned the fish as my friend had a bite, which was also a dogfish. Afterwards, we both had more bites and landed two more dogfish each. One of mine was when I had one cast with a lugworm to see if a bass would take it before a dogfish did. Once the tide turned the bites almost stopped and we packed up pleased enough that we had both caught a Ray, especially as it was my friends first.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed spool £64.07 [ > 2 years 11 months ] Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool £48.99 [ > 2 years 1 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb 600m £17.99 Hook: Sakuma Manta 2/0 10 £2.35 Tackle: Maxima Clear 15lb 100m £4.00