De Wall, 19-Nov-14

People: Me

Duration: 19:00 - 22:00

Tide:Dropping, First half hour of rise

Weather: Fantastic. Calm, Dry

Bait: Frozen Crab

Rigs: Pulley

Results: 1 Cod ,approx 2 lb, few missed bites






Report:

Dusted off the bait gear for the first time in over a year ( I normally fish with lures). Arrived to the wall, as I got there the fella beside me was hauling up a chunky cod so I knew I was in with a shout. He had been flooding the previous couple of hours and had three or four fish so show for his efforts. I arrived about two hours before low water.

I have two bait rods, a 4-8 Oz telegraph pole that I tolerate but do not love, and a nice 2-4 Oz bass rod - which actually worked grand using a 4Oz gripper- no issue holding bottom.

Set up the heavy rod, first cast, awful noise altogether. The top ring had come off. Probably serves me right for abandoning in the shed and not checking enough for signs of corrosion. This really affected my distance for the rest of the session and worsened the rod's already poor bite detection. Still, I was fishing!

Cast out the lighter rod and settled down for the tea.

The next hour and a half saw no bites for myself or my colleague beside me. About forty minutes before low water he headed off, but he said to me to make sure and hang on until the tide turns and I should pick up some fish. He was not gone five minutes before the light rod started bouncing. Picked up, fish on, but he came off on the way in.

Nothing until about half nine (LW) when the light rod got a more tentative bite only seconds after the bait landed in the water. No fish this time, must have mouthed the bait and dropped it.

A little while later and it was time to head home. Reeled in the heavy rod, felt resistance on the way in but no movement, assumed I had caught a nice lump of weed. Looked down and saw I had a nice cod on the line. About 2 lb. When I gutted him at home after, he had a whole small crab in his stomach, so crab definitely is the bait of choice.

Bad end to the night though, reeling in the light rod got snagged. Put a bit of pressure on, not too much I thought and bag, the top half of the top section just exploded. Must have been some little internal crack or weakness that I hadn't seen. Now looking for a new top section (see the wanteds section of the forum!)

So all in all, no blank on the first bait session of the season, but a lot of collateral damage!

good report

you sometimes wonder about this fishing lark - two dead rods for 1 fish!

Ten quid in bait, weights, hooks, swivels, diesel . . .the list goes on!

I certainly don't do it to save money on buying dinner!

nice read well done with the cod

Good read, a proper kamikaze nights fishing!

good report...