West bex 31/5/8

[Spahill]

Saturday afternoon saw Kirikomi & myself disappear off to the south coast for another nights hard fishing.
We were going to fish Seaton, but were told in the angling shop that the car park closes at night, so pointed east and rolled up at West Bex.
Heading towards Cogden we found a large enough gap between the other anglers to setup (wayward casting makes space important). Funnily enough it was exactly the same spot we fished a fortnight earlier. Has anyone written a thesis on the distances anglers are prepared to walk and the benefits of trying different “pegs” against the comparison of this time and last?

Anyway we pitched the bivvy/tent and sited the collapsible chairs facing Portland/carpark (last time, facing the other way, car headlights kept shining in my face at night) and setup the rods. 2 long rods with pennels, 2 12 footers with feathers. Having brought some smelly frozen squid & half a dozen frozen mackerel it was time to get some fresh bait to go with the new sand eel & rag.
30 mins feather & muppet chucking saw 2 cream crackered angler return to their seats for a rest without any fresh bait.
A group of young lads replaced our neighbours and started mackereling getting a fish on his second chuck, lucky git.
Switching from the muppets to the feathers on my rod (right handed reel) I gave it another go and proceeded to catch some fish, firstly a tiny mack which I put back as too small for bait, then a couple of other species I could do with a hand identifying, pictures beneath, along with 3 useable mackerel another tiny one and a very small pout.

and

As the sun set the proper fishing started with the longs & a feather rod converted to a 2 hook flapper. Kirikomi taking a 3-0 lead in the dogfish winding stakes whilst I was busy trying to keep bait on the rods. Played with my new toy, a baiting needle, It was fantastic, “buy baiting needle” should be tattooed on every beginners head, forget American Express, I will never leave home without it again. As for the advice about taping the sheath to the leg of your tripod, I was so impressed that, if I had the cash, I would have bought the company.
Dogfish kept coming through the night (all returned) right up until I gave up with exhaustion around 05:00 with the sky bright again.
Caught dogfish on everything, they were very keen on the sand eel, spoke to one of the guys by the car park & they had only doggies as well. Good job I like doggies.
That’s it for a few weeks until we hit Ringstead for the conger & bass (and doggies???).
Many thanks to anyone who identifies the fish.

[pingu]

sounds a good session to me

dave

[BaggieRich]

Well done mate. Sounds like a nice night.

Re the fish, I stand to be corrected as I've never had one myself, but could the first one be a herring??

Rich's wild guess fish ID

Not even prepared to guess at the second one though....

[silverfish]

Well done mate.

[geejayy]

good report spahill, , jst as well someone likes doggies.
as to those fish ,
i recon the bottom one is a horse mackerel otherwise known as scad

but the top ones got me puzzeled, may be a herring or one of the shads?

[Greenheart]

Nce one mate. I think that the top fish is probably a Herring. Could the bottom one be an immature Scad? They usually have a black spot on their side. Maybe it's not developed on this one yet.

[Norfolkboy]

Well done mate. Would say that 2nd fish looks like a scad too.