The Pier, 29-05-14

People:myself

Duration:3 hours

Tide:high tide was 6.40pm

Weather:grand

Bait:frozen mackerel

Rigs:2/0 pulley and 1/0 2 hook flapper

Results:one thornback, one dab, pin whiting on every other cast




Report: This time last year, I was pulling ray out of the swilly like nothing else. So I decided to have a proper go at them yesterday. I got to the pier and no one else there so I had the choice of where to set up and also plenty of room for the car!!:)

So, I baited up and threw out both rods, those tide was hammering in and was quite difficult to hold bottom but with a bit of persuasion, I got them to hold. I left them out for around 15 mins and when I took them in, I had a whiting on every hook. It's a pity they're no size!

Anyway, I rebaited and cast again..on the next retrieval, I had bare hooks. This has become the usual in the swilly this year. After about 3-4 casts and retrieval, I was was winding in thinking I had more whiting when a wee dab appeared, it was paper thin so back it went!

Around halfway through my session, I was sitting having a cup of tea and I thought I saw on of the rods take a nod, but I wasn't sure both rods were nodding away with the tide. I lifted the rod and began to wind in, at first there was nothing but after a few turns it got heavy, really heavy! I was sure that it was going to be a big raft of weed. But as it got near the surface, I saw that it was a chunky thornie, with it's tail wrapped with the line. I always think it's amazing how much weight difference there is when it's tangled like that! I got it onto the pier, hook out, photo and released!

After this the tide was near impossible to hold so I pàcked away one rod and fished with just the one, catching pin whiting each cast. I finally gave up and threw out the feathers in hope of a stray mackerel but to no avail!

So I left for home with a result of one ray, one dab and countless whiting!

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

beauty of a ray

fine thornie lad....

Nice ray there Mackfish, pity about coming in tail first. You were lucky to drive on to the pier, on my recent tip the barrier was in place and I had to walk from the car park. After also getting pestered with pin whiting (which could explain the stripped hooks) I later wondered if I should have used one for bait, a ray would easily manage one.

Nice ray there Mackfish, pity about coming in tail first. You were lucky to drive on to the pier, on my recent tip the barrier was in place and I had to walk from the car park. After also getting pestered with pin whiting (which could explain the stripped hooks) I later wondered if I should have used one for bait, a ray would easily manage one.

I've seen ray being caught twice on their using the whiting. I got one and a buddy of mine got one, there is so many whiting about, we figured the ray must be feeding on them so we just threw back out any deep hooked whiting and it worked twice...

Set one up on a hair-rig and see if you attract a tope.

Set one up on a hair-rig and see if you attract a tope.

Interesting....have you ever heard of rope being got from there?...

Set one up on a hair-rig and see if you attract a tope.

Interesting....have you ever heard of rope being got from there?...

I can only speculate on what snipped through 60lb mono like a pair of scissors on me, a few seasons ago.... The shortlist is errrrrr, short.