To many fisho's gettig out on the beach and tying into a good fish is what they are after, but without a bit of thought and preparation it doesn't always end up as we would like.
This weekend I spent the first part of getting the key bits and pieces together with rigs being made up and reels loaded with fresh line and shock leaders in preparation for hitting the beach in the evening down on the Ninety mile beach. Previous sessions have shown that we would need a bit of weight in the rigs as the weather was forecasting a south to South Westerly which ment either head winds or side drift.

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Gear being Used on this occasion were the my new Daiwa SL30 , 6oz grip leads and Pulley rigs with 7/0 circle hooks targeting Gummies )
The conditions dictated that we would be fishing with heavier leads and post a phone check with Mark to verify that things hadn't gotten worse , Graham and I headed down to Sale to pick up Mark Johnson who's fish from the prior weekend had gotten us fired u to hit the beach this time around.
Conditions that greated us weren't as bad as the weather reports but still enough to warrant sticking with our original game plan. Baits on this occasion were Squid, Pilchards and some pippies with the focus being on the bigger baits targeting the Gummies that should be around in line with the moon phase.

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Mark set up and waiting for the action to hopefully Start )
The tide was scheduled to peak at around 9.30 so our hopes were high that our intended targets would arrive , this at first didn't happen with bites being far and few between with only smaller fish turning up.

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Graham ability to get Flathead is amazing no matter where we tend to go ???)We did start to get action as the tide fell and headed towards the bottom at around 12.30pm through to 4.30 am with a variety of fishing being taken by mark, Graham and Mark's son Linden who had gotten to the beach prior to us.

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[b]Linden overlooking his two outfits [/b])

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Mark's 6+ Kilo Gummy )
Mark was using his Zziplex HSM and ABU 10000 as well as his XTR sport I believe and ithey handled all of his catch with ease.

Hooked up to what we hoped was another Gummy but the Skates and Rays had moved in making for some action but not what we had hoped for.

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One of the two Skate taken by Mark )

Number two for the night.
We also tangled with a few very big rays that proved to be a problem tangling the lines and getting away with rigs from a few of us , but as we would have released these as well it just added to the fun of the night.
The warmer than expected weather also had the bugs out in force , being attraacted to the gas light set up by Mark.

I finished the night off with a nice elephant shark which after the pictures was also returned back as I didn't want it for the plate.

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the coulours on these are spectacular )

sending the Elephant back home
All in all a variety of fish were taken by all of us and a great night was had , a little preparation goes a long way in making for a great night out with mates