What else do you do on a wet Friday night?

Second time out this week, two very different nights in terms of the weather. The fishing’s been OK; I’ve had my bad luck and my good luck. I lost a proper fish earlier in the week, too much drag  I think and the hook tore out, wasn’t happy with that one at all. Just prior to that I also had a nice bright fish about 40cm resting in the net and was just about to take a picture, as I went to lift it out the fish bolted straight out a hole I hadn’t noticed in my landing net, it was all going well, at least the sun was shining on what was a nice warm evening. I also missed few chances and decided at that point I would be changing out the existing hooks for some new Owners I’ve had for a while.

Tonight was a wee bit different, scudding 20 mph winds with rain and it was 50/50 if I would make it out. I really didn’t fancy the long drive through the tea time traffic but I’m glad I did.  The new lures had arrived from Denmark and with the nice new Owners to go with them there was not much point staying at home was there?

Fisherman by their nature are prone to exaggerate sometimes, but  honestly , it took the lure about a rod length out and was 20 yards away as quick as a flash and it never let up till it was in the net . It also took me around some structure, my leader was wrecked and I could feel the fluro grating against the rocks.  I was happy I’d paid a little extra for the Seaguar fluro, good gear that. Netting the fish was a fiasco but I got there in the end. Not the most flattering picture of me, need to work on the angle or wear a mask, but trying to take a picture in driving wind and rain while thinking about returning the fish in good condition is not easy. It’s an improvement on my salt caught PB weight wise. I took a rough measure against my rod as I left my tape at home, somewhere around 57-59cm and what I believe to be one of the skippers I’ve been looking for lately. The fish never seemed to mind the weather tonight, nice little session.