Selsey report -houndfest 22/4/06

[Lookfar]

Hi folks,
I was invited aboard Moby, a Warrior 150, on Saturday. I was quite pleased that I actually managed to drag myself to Eastney by 8.15am as courtesy of my party animal kids I'd had way less than 12 hours shut-eye in the preceding 48 hours. John had been there a while and reported that the wind was dropping a little and that all the world and their dog had already left harbour. The crab pots had drawn a blank so we lobbed Moby in the harbour and I stood holding her off the gravel while John parked the trailer. A cold trickle down the back of my leg announced the failure of yet another pair of cheap chesties. When will I learn that quality is worth the cost?
I got the helm as far as Dean Tail. It was blowing quite hard from the east, despite clear skies and bright sun all day. We had a fair chop and some very big swells to plough through and there was nothing showing on the wreck, so after a couple of drifts John took the controls and we soldiered on to the 36M hole. After a debate about whether to fish up slope or down, we settled for the usual spot on the western edge and dropped anchor right in the gully. That put us up the slope in 80ft for the ebb and back down in the deeps at 135ft when the flood got going. At least with the bows into the weather we were comfortable, although from time to time some monster swells went by.
John found us a mackerel quite early and I tried for a tope throughout the ebb. Not a sniff, even the doggies didn't want it. John started on squid but I got my light rod straight down on hermit to play with the hounds. They didn't disappoint me, within minutes there was a nudge and a starry hound went stomping off downtide. We were needing 12oz of lead to hold bottom and the fish used the tide to his own advantage, giving me a good workout. Netted him eventually and guessed the weight at 8lb before slipping him back. Another hermit was sent down and within moments it had been stolen by a hit and run merchant. That was enough for John, his end gear came straight in and the squid was dumped in favour of a hermit. He was away at once, another starry of about 7lb.
After that, the hounds just kept coming in short bursts throughout the slack and then the flood. The size varied widely from 2.5lb to maybe 9lb, with most of them starry's. As the ebb eased I got a much heavier fish that didn't really run like the others so I was fingers-crossed for my first double of the year. It didn't look that huge in the water but when John went to lift it I could see the girth on it was something else. That went 16lb, a new PB for me. Couple of trophy shots and a tag and back she went. John got his PB into the flood, another starry of 13.5lb to leave the pair of us very, very happy. In all we got 19 hounds and a few doggies. The wind didn't relent all day, making slack water a very uncomfortable time, but the sun shone and the fish fed. Hermit was bait of the day, with just the odd hound and the doggies falling to squid. One bizarre event - I was low on braid and after slack in 135ft was into the mono backing. Struck a bite and the knot let go suddenly, resulting in a whack in the face from the rod and broken sunglasses. Worst of all, my light rod was now left with just the backing mono. Disaster
While I was contemplating whether to cannibalise the reel from my heavy rod, John brought up his own line and announced a tangle. All the other rods looked fine and when I checked, he had picked up just a single tag of blue braid. Amazingly, it was my braid! The mono had snapped just above the knot and the knot itself had caught in the clip on John's zip slider. What are the odds against that happening??? The lucky doggie was still attached too, so I knotted it back onto my reel line and hauled him in.
From the radio reports, nothing much was happening anywhere else. Dreamcatcher was inshore on Medmery and the reefs all day and never got a single bite. However, when the hermit crabs ran out we were left with little incentive to stay out and came inshore onto Bullocks. Down went a rapid series of bait blocks and in half an hour or so we saw three ballan of no great size, some tiny poor cod and pout and a corkwing wrasse. No sign of bream but we didn't really mind after the day we'd had with the hounds. Finished off cruising back over a following sea that was fining down nicely. Fish-aholic was recovering just before us. Isn't that one of the boats from this forum??

Steve

[baitmaster]

what a brillant read

must be great going out and catching fish like that i,m a land lover and doubt i,ll ever catch them species you caught

fair play to ya hope to hear you do well next time too

tightlines
baitmaster

[biggun]

Sounds like a fantastic day out! Shame about the sunglasses but to get your line back with the fish still on go buy yourself a lottery ticket

Nice one!

[wellyfish]

great read steve, sounds like a busy day , well done

[Old Smoothound]

Great read mate......

Nice to hear that the Hounds are back in town

[Lookfar]

Originally Posted by baitmaster

must be great going out and catching fish like that i,m a land lover and doubt i,ll ever catch them species you caught

Going afloat under your own steam is definitely a big part of it for me. However, unless you suffer the dreaded seasickness, there's no reason why you shouldn't share the fun. Any of the Langstone fleet will book you a hound trip up to about late July, most will take individuals or watch out for a forum boat booking.
You can also get smuts from the shore on Selsey, again there's a forum meet planned. A big hound from the shore, in the dark, on a beachcaster, must be quite an event

Steve

[Lookfar]

Hi folks,
Attempted to paste a pic into this post and failed. Is there a simple way to do it that doesn't involve three pages of instructions and an understanding of computers?

Steve

[BaggieRich]

Well done Steve, what a fantastic read. You must have been shuffed to bits.

Cheers,

Rich.

[pingu]

excellant report sounded a great day

[Rob M]

Cracking read Steve as always, well done on the PB

Rob