As a lot of you will know from past posts on here, one species I've been enjoying catching is the Sole, I've kind of set myself a little side challenge of getting one over a pound and a half by the end of the year. The reason I mention this is that on my last trip out with Ben he landed two incredible specimens, one going 1lb 12oz and the other going 2lb, this is a dream for me and just to see the fish was a pleasure!
On top of answering all my questions and helping with what to target, how to target and where to target, Ben also spent a few hours working on my cast, I'm not the biggest caster infact I'm probably average at best but he helped me out massively and I now grasp the basis of the pendulum cast and he also helped me add quite a bit of distance.
If any of you want to check out the kind of fishing Ben does then you can click the Vision Angling image on the side of this blog and it will take you to his YouTube channel.
I haven't managed to get out on as many trips this month as I did last month due to the fact I am no longer furloughed, I am however glad to be back at work, I just wish I could still fish as much as I was doing a few weeks back, but hey as long as I pick the right location and the right tide I'm hoping for quality over quantity from now on.
My only really good session fishing wise was one where I went off to Southbourne beach with Lee again to try for a few Ray's, this time we met my Dad down there who was metal detecting for a few hours that evening.
I fished a Ray bait on one rod and a 3 hook clip down on the other, I managed a lovely little Small-Eyed Ray on my first cast on a Sandeel with half a Squid wrapped on the side, this was bound to a pair of 3/0 Sakuma manta extra hooks on a pulley drop down rig.
I then managed to bring in a Plaice and a Sole on the other rods first cast, before hooking into the second Ray of the evening. On the way in this rod got snagged on something, not a hundred percent sure of what though, after around a minute of trying to free the line and failing I decided on walking to my left to get a new angle on it, I took about 3 steps to my left and the line snapped, some how Lee caught the line and started to walk right with in instead. About 10 steps to the right and it was free, he ran the end of the line to me and I hand lined in my first ever Undulate!
During this time, Lee was fishing pop up rigs and had managed to bring in a couple of fresh Mackerel for bait, I baited my rig with the tail end of one of these, this is probably the largest bait ever attempted to use, I cast it hoping to hit about 80 yards, the plan for this one was to leave it out and hope for a bigger fish to come along.
When it came time to pack up, I wound down to the lead and lifted to break out the grips, I said to Lee, 'it didn't seem to want to trip' so I did it again, this time though i felt some movement too. After pumping and winding for a while I finally beached the fish, an awesome 7lb Undulate Ray, a massive thanks to who ever he was that lent me his scales! Still can't believe I left mine in the car, I didn't want to make the walk back leaving the fish out of the water so running to the guys next to us was the better option in my opinion.
