Abbotsbury 22/5/9

[Spahill]

Hi all
just about recovered enough to get the report in.
After watching the weather improve all week - the plan to hit Chesil after work was put into action.
Finished work, shopped for food, cooked tea for son, packed car (prepared tackle night before) then Picked up Kirikomi from work & joined the throng of holidaymakers heading to the coast. To be fair traffic flowed very well after planning to go under A303 rather than cross it & cloud disappeared before hitting the coast.
Stopped of for chippies in Dorchester - yummy & only 85p.
Arrived to a fairly empty car park around 20:30, stuffed face & looked for space on beach. Chicken chuckers had mainly finished & were heading home so slotted in 50-60 yds west of car park.
Rigged the rods for feathers whilst K setup the tent & her carp chair.
Caught a solitary mackerel before arm tired out.
Switched to K's left handed reel & wanged out. Aaaarg... problem... reel handle wouldn't turn, haven't found out whats wrong yet, may have knackered it trying to pull out of snag at Lilstock last cast last trip.
Luckily Have a pair of Pen 850's so untackled my rod swapped reels switched it to lhw & wound in the feathers. K was twitching them out of boredom whilst stuck out & had a bite but didn't hit it.
Pretty dark now so used 3rd reel (meant for bass rod) on my beachcaster. After putting a shockleader on it was nearly dark so only the one fresh macky to go with frozen.
K had a 2 hook flapper, almost scratching, for the doggies, I had a 3/0 pulley pennel for anything bigger.
Second put in K catches a doggie, I retaliate with a pouting embarrassed. Then i get a doggie. Appear to be getting more interest on the larger baits so switch K to a pp 6/0 2/0, which provides more interest but no hook-ups.
As tide slackens around midnight, bites pick up & we share some doggies. As I’m baiting K’s rod mine shows some more movement so I let it develop whilst chucking K’s out & setting it.
Hit my bite & it doesn’t fight like a doggie (at all), more like a bin bag which gets a bit livelier close in.
Mistake the lump for a cuttlefish in the dark , but when i get on top of it, it turns out to be a ray (bait was partysquid bound above macky chunk).

Catch a few more doggies, ring the changes on bait, but sport slows up quickly so hit the tent at 2am.
Freeze my bits off for an hour with almost no kip so get up & start fishing to warm up at 3.
Get another doggie before dawn around 4 followed by a nice spider.
Chicken chuckers are turning up by 5 am so try to catch a few, manged 3.

Macky bashing is hard work when you are not hooking them & they stand so close together – scary.
Drove home with 2 rests as was shattered & hit the sack soon after. Fantastic view from the Hardy monument as the vale below was covered in fog (stretched to Salisbury ) and we were in bright sunshine. Wish I’d taken a photo – sort of picture that wins competitions if you can get it right.
Can someone indentify the Ray for me please. It had some small little thorns on top & felt a bit like Velcro on top.
For those that don’t know (doubt if there are many) they have telescopic gobs & the little beggar managed to get me finger, good crunch for a little fellow.

Sorry for long winded report, but I like a long a read.

[geejayy]

cracking ray spahill,

looks like a spotted to me ( i can't remember if its spottys or blonds that have spots right to the edge of the wing)


top angling m8

[Norfolkboy]

Well done mate, that's a lovely ray

[Portland Pirate]

Sounds like you had a nice night. That is a Spotted Ray, well done.

[BaggieRich]

Having never even seen one, let alone caught one, I'd still say that was a spotted ray mate.... Nice catch. Any idea what sort of size it was???

Full marks for effort mate, that's a long old session.

[cuckoo]

Cracking stuff spahill and a lovely spotty , well done mate

[Twiddler]

Well done Sparhill nice ray there, great report too

[Banana Steve]

I know what you meen about them standing so close, Yesterday i had two guys fit into a space next to me, normally in a area i would use to cast in, it was so cramped, the guy feathering even caught my rig and i was straight out in front of my self. they only fished for 2 hours but in doing so made life difficult for me.

[BaggieRich]

Originally Posted by Banana Steve

I know what you meen about them standing so close, Yesterday i had two guys fit into a space next to me, normally in a area i would use to cast in, it was so cramped, the guy feathering even caught my rig and i was straight out in front of my self. they only fished for 2 hours but in doing so made life difficult for me.

There have been one or two, errrm, incidents at Budleigh when it gets like that Steve. Some people don't appear to know the dangers of three ounces of flying lead, or are just far too ignorant to care. Either way, I try not to fish when it's like that. A good long walk will normally sort out a quiet bit of beach.....

[geejayy]

Originally Posted by Banana Steve

I know what you meen about them standing so close, Yesterday i had two guys fit into a space next to me, normally in a area i would use to cast in, it was so cramped, the guy feathering even caught my rig and i was straight out in front of my self. they only fished for 2 hours but in doing so made life difficult for me.

thats chicken chuckers for ya, i avoid the popular spots in daylight,
every year may-sept , always the same