With a cold spell forecast for most of next week it seemed wise to avail of the reasonable weather over the weekend. The trip across country was undertaken under very dull, cool and occasionally drizzly conditions so I wasn’t at all surprised to spot a couple of depressed looking buzzards perched on fence posts near the roadside. However some relief from the forty shades of grey was provided by the brilliant yellow flowers of gorse, whin, furze or Ulex europaeus, take your pick. Quite an assault on the senses; mustard on the eyes and coconut on the nose. Reminds me of when I was still working (or at least still getting paid), I had to take a class of 15 year old girls on a Biology field trip. I asked a few of them to smell the gorse flowers and tell me what they smelt like. “Sir, they smell like Malibu!” said the first one I asked. I was afraid to suggest my idea in case they asked me what a coconut was.
Having parked the car, I sifted through the tackle box to remove excess weight for the hike across fields to my mark and set up. I was hoping to target rays so set up one rod with a plain lead, pulley rig, 2/0 hook and a generous slice of mackerel and let fly. A second rod was set up with a 3 hook flapper, size 4 hooks and matching small strip of mackerel to target flatties. The weather was quite changeable requiring frequent addition or removal of layers to suit wind strength, direction, drizzle or dry etc., still it was something to do between the infrequent bites! It was just under an hour before the flapper went slack as a dogfish took the bait for a walk. Just over an hour later, a second doggie attacked the flapper rig followed by a 4lb 4oz thornie 20 mins later. 2 more dogfish came to the flapper rig before a second small ray (1lb 10oz) accompanied by a dab also succumbed to the flapper and small baits. I didn’t see any typical ray bite; just a series of rattles which I attributed to the dab. A short while later a second double of ray and dab took the flapper rig baits; so what about the pulley rig with larger ray-size baits? Exactly, what about it! A change to whole sandeel made no difference, back to mackerel strip again but the only ”bite” over almost 6 hours was a large seastar. I conceded defeat and changed to a new rig I hadn’t tried before, the Urfe rig, recommended in Sea Angler for when the going gets tough. The change worked; it attracted another 4lb 4oz thornie, a doggie and the best dab of the day (32cm) over the next hour. I finished the day with 4 rays, 6 doggies and 4 dabs, not bad for a day that seemed very slow at times. I continue to be surprised at the number of rays that choose small baits on small hooks on flapper rigs, I’ve caught 6 rays so far this year, all on small baits and 5 on a flapper rig, like I said previously, the 3 hook flapper could become my 1st choice ray rig.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.