Billy’s and a billfish

I was warned before I left the house today, no slips trips or falls ahead of our big day on Sunday. For a moment I thought about it, I then MTFU and got the gear ready.  I did however intend to be more careful than usual with any green boulders I might come across.

The water was a little creamy so I decided an SG sandeel in pearl might do the trick, didn’t  settle on it,  tried a laminated Wave Worm , then  a DC9 , all in 20 mins, daft really. I had another rummage through the box and picked a Mag Popper, considering that last year I went without a single take on the surface for the whole season I was for some reason confident this would solve the problem. It’s always scored for me in the past but last year this and any other surface lure I put on couldn’t buy me a bite.  Anyway,about 5 minutes after changing I was looking somewhere else but felt a tap. I looked around to see a big flat spot in the waves, fish, it came again, but got it this time, good fish, so we settled in for some fun for a minute or so but despite the brand  new Owners it came off, pissed right off, again….

This didn’t exactly make up for it but as it took off across the surface much Iike the Houndfish I’ve caught at a few destinations I knew I was into my first Scottish Garfish, not too common up here. I’ve caught Gars in Portugal but it was a bit of a surprise, especially in May on thinking about it.

Nearest I'm going to get to a Scottish billfish

Then a nice fish, strong this one, fannied about with it for a while before it was beached.

A nice little session with the fish all coming off the top. I hit the road quitting while I was ahead. I didn’t even get to high tide, might have gotten another fish or two but no point in pushing my luck, no point in tempting fate.

 

First Bass of my season

My time has been limited over the last few weeks with a couple of hours here and there. Lynne’s making good progress and she can manage a few steps without crutches now. With our wedding next week and plenty of things still on the to do list I was pushing it to get a  trip in. With this in mind, l made a major detour after finishing work anyway and headed SW.

A modest start to my 2014 Bass season but very much appreciated. It took a Kinetic D360 in-line punched in to the surf.

I then had its twin 15 minutes later.

I had a move and landed on my mark bang on time. The moon wasn’t up yet and this was my first time on the mark this year so it didn’t feel familiar. It had changed underfoot, the waves were breaking differently but I put the lure out at 11 o’clock and let it swing around to 3 o’clock five times before I felt a tap. The the rod hooped over and the line peeled off the reel, two nice runs and some shaking with some solid weight as it swam around , then it went horribly slack. Pissed off I wound in , checked the hook and made another cast. I had another two bumps before the moon popped through the low cloud on the horizon and lit the beach up like Blackpool so I hit the road about an hour later.

I've sneaked a couple of Sea Trout out as well. Unfortunately like the Bass I've just told you about I've had two  cracking Sea Trout come adrift after I thought they were almost in the net, chickens counted never ends well.
 

50 greatest lures of all time

I came across this Field and Stream article Here The comments made me laugh , some people take things way to seriously.

I was surprised to see this lure in at number two - the Dardevle Spinnie

I caught my first fish  on one of these about 40 years ago. It seems it's been around for over a century, might just get a couple for old times sake.