Shore Fishing On Saturday

[Gillies]

Myself and my pal were shore fishing on Saturday, had a pretty enjoyable day - between the two of us we had 7 species .... Thornback Ray, Dab, Tub Gurnard, Cod, Coalfish, Mackerel and Whiting.

 

We were there mainly for the Rays, none overly great in size caught (biggest 5 lb 10 oz) .... I was pretty happy with my first Tub from the shore which weighed in at 1 lb 3 oz (3oz short of Scottish Record). We had 5 Rays each .... and I also lost 4 in a row, dont ask me how ... they just fell off !!!!!!!

 

What made the day interesting was that the bottom seemed to be carpeted in small to medium sized Whiting and when they would would attempt to devour the large chunk of Mackerel on a 4/0 hook they would become hooked ..... this in turn would seem to attract a Ray and as they would enjoy their free Whiting meal they became hooked (kind of accidental live baiting) ... around half the Rays caught on the day came in with a half munched whiting on the the hook also.

 

For the conservation minded among you, to put your minds at rest - All Rays caught between us were returned apart from 2 extremely deep hooked ones.

 

Gillies

[Westie]

Sounds like a few well spent hours to me. Rays from the shore round my way (Suffolk) are (I believe, unless someone tells me different) like hens teeth.

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Good days fishing Gillie

 

Not wishing to sound rude but how sharp was your hooks??

 

I found that rays with that tough jaw line need a very sharp hook and I use the stone each time I bait up when targetting them.

 

Lost my best ever thornie after a fifteen minute battle during which time I thought it was well and truely hooked, got it right to the surface and it spat the hook out and vanished. My brother looked at my hook and said he was not surprised, tapping his finger on the so called point.

[Gillies]

Ha Ha - Ken the Blunt Hook Theory is coming to my mind .... it was a new just out of the box Mustad 3261 BLN ... maybe it got a nick on something on way in or something like that, or maybe the nashing jaws on Thornie I had beforehand had blunted the hook somewhat. I left the single hook rig and all other tackle I used that day with some kid whom turned up as we left .... hope he didnt loose any fish with it!

 

The Thornies do go some when they get into fighting mood - loosing one after 15 mins, it must have been some fish, bet your glad you got to see it at least ... must of an "oh no" or words to that sort moment when it spat out the hook !!!!!! ... my worst blunt hook experience was a 20-30 Cod from shore on the bluntest piece of metal known to man to be called a hook ... had it one for a few mins until it let go.

 

Gillies