Back on for my big update,I thank you all for reading.
Some more salt water angling to get through before I reveal my coarse fishing exploits.After my success on the smooth hound fishing my attention was turned towards catching a few rays.And no,I don't mean a week in a cushty all inclusive lounging about like a lizard.
Far from it,I'm talking about those flat things with the long tails.I have become fascinated with the species as a whole,
Undulate,Spotted,Small eyed,blonde and thorn backs were the target.I wanted to collect them all over the course of the season....But then again we don't always get everything we want....yet.
To catch them all from the shore was a tall order,Me and the likes of Moxy,James and Tom Collinridge Clocked up some miles trying to do so.
The tally of dogfish and packs of blast frozen eels we got through was also excessive.
The hunt for Rays became a bit of an obsession,long drives after work to the likes of Poole and other favoured Ray territory's all to often ended in no Raymonds,but hey I am learning and each unsuccessful session only spurred me on to rectify that matter more and more.Like I said...a bit of an obsession.
The Thorny was fairly easy to catch from shore and boat,I had a few from the Bristol channel and a bonus one whilst trying to catch flounder or plaice from the Kingsbridge estuary.
We all had good Small eyed whilst fishing a lads trip out of Watchet aboard Seafire.A few spotted's were also boated along with huss,smoothys,eels and the ever prolific pooch fish making for a cracking day out and a few more Rays under my belt.
With 3 down I still pursued the Blonde and Undulate,the latter really kicked my ass.To cut a long story short I still have not got my grubby hands on an Undulate,and not for the lack of bloody trying for that matter.I think it will have to wait until next year now but hey ho that's fishing for you.
On a positive note I did manage a Blonde! my main plan was to fish out of Dartmouth but
After 3 trips in row got the thumbs down right at the last minute due to the shit winds I had to look else where.
With a little gap in the weather ear-marked myself and Tom managed to get a last minute charter out of Minehead
Most of the lads on board were targeting cod but me and Tom had our hopes on some ray action,Mike(the 18 year old skipper of Teddie boy) assured us that when the time and tide were right we would move over a deep gully he had found to be especially good for a blonde or two,that will do me I thought.
Sure I like a Cod or two but I couldn't wait to move! finally the time came to up-sticks and after a short steam up the channel Mike seamlessly anchored the boat in the perfect position for our baits to be presented bang on the money.
He wasn't wrong either, 10 minutes or so passed before Tom was into something that was pulling back with intent, his rod was as bent as a nine bob note whilst heaving the creature up against the strong tide.A few tense moments passed before we got to see what was causing all the commotion.Sure enough it was the Blonde ray Mike had promised us.
However, time was getting on, the window for me catching a Blonde was closing.
Meanwhile Tom was into his third! the thought of throwing him sea-bound ran hard in my mind when out of the blue my rod was nearly pulled into the pond.
I grabbed the rod to be met with heavy resistance! playing a good Ray as calmly as I could I was praying the hooks held,bloody good job they did too! I think the smile says it all.
A big thank you goes to Mike! I cant recommend a trip out with this keen young Skipper enough,he will keep you on the fish and trust me you'll be pissing tea from your ears if you accept every brew offer.Four out of five is not bad,but trust me I will get my Undulate sooner or later!
Ain't Rays brilliant!!!!
Til next time
Good luck
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