hayling lastnite

[showmythefishy]

After seeing reports on here of bass, smuts and bream i thought id venture down to hayling to get in on some of the action. Armed with a bucket of big hard backs , a smaller bucket of "bite sized" hard backs, a box of squid and two mackerell from the freezer, i arived on the beach at 4.45 ready to fish the last hour of the ebb and then back upto high water. The only problem with getting to the beach while the sun is shinning is the amount of sunbathers and mad people in the water! Lol. I found my self a groin with and older couple sunbathing in the far corner and went about setting up. 20 or so mins later i was ready to go but then a family decided to come down and start skimming stones rite in front of where i would be fishing, so, i started cutting up my mackerell and squid into small strips and then sat and enjoyed the sun untill the family decided they were bored and went home.
At 6pm my first bait hit the water, a strip of mackerell on one hook, a strip of squid on the other of a wishbone dropper rig (hook size 4, fine wire) the second bait followed closely baited in exactly the same way. At around 8pmthe my mate bob came to join me and set up to my left in the same groin, with the sun getting lower i decided to send out a small hard back just on the off chance. I was also cracking the shell of a big hard back and throwing that into the water every 10-15 mins to get a nice scent trail for the smuts to home in on. Both bob and i had a few rattles on our squid strip baits but the baits were just being stripped with no fish to show for the efforts. We carried on fishing up to high water and just as the tide turned bob had a good bite on the hard back and after a small struggle he landed a smut of 3lb 11oz. This hasis unhooked, weighed and putthe straight back. With our morale boosted i ran back to my rods and rebaited my hard back rod. As i was walking away from my rod rest to cast i noticed my other rod bouncing around (maybe a bass had taken the squid and mackerell strip cocktail that id sent out on the wishbone rig just prior to bob catching his smut) i quickly cast out the hard back and put the rod back into the rest. I picked up the other rod, slack line, i reeled up the slack slowly untill i felt some weight...... not only did i feel some weight but line started stripping from my reel. FISH ON i yelled to bob who quickly came running over. I had to bully the fish away from the end of the groin but couldnt give it too much stick because it felt heavy and with only size 4 fine wire hooks i didnt want to loose the fish. As it came closer our head lights picked out the fish in the clear water..... smooth hound, looks big, double figures? Said bob. I was too busy trying not to put too much pressure on the smut knowing that those size 4and hooks could straighten at any point. Eventually the smut was on the beach. The hook literaly fell out of its mouth!! We quickly weighed the fish 8lb10oz and then returned him to the sea. We carried on fishing untill 3.30 but didnt have any more bites so packed up and were back at the cars by 4am this morning. Not the best sesh ever but we didnt blank and i was chuffed with my smut on such small hooks. The weather was lovely and the company was good and thats what matters...... anyways thats all from me.

Catch ya laters

Mark

[essentialmix75]

Hello m8 well done on the fish did you have your 8lb 10oz fish on mackerell and squid cocktail. ?

[pingu]

nice one

dave

[showmythefishy]

Yes mate. It took the mackerell and squid. Just a tiny strip of each on each hook. Thought it must have been a bass to start off with

[essentialmix75]

It's just I have never know any smutt to take mackerel in my life its just something they don't eat.

[scottish_and_mental]

Happy days mate .. cracking result !
As for the mackerel , juvenile smutts or atleast ones under the double mark will take squid and mackerel in the same way that they take ragworm and squid or peeler crab and lug ..
greed more than the need to feed - especially if they see hoards of smaller fish like micro bream and pout at the bait , meand sometimes you get takes on little baits intended for other species ... It's more likely however that because it was such a small bait on tiny hooks that after trying to 'mouth' the bait it just found itself hooked

Its the best smutt ive seen off the front and would have won you last years smutt comp by a country mile

[essentialmix75]

Your marine biology course coming on ok then steve.

[scottish_and_mental]

Originally Posted by essentialmix75

Your marine biology course coming on ok then steve.

aka too many hours catching small smutts on town quay with baits meant for everything but

Oddly my mate John threw allsorts of baits out up at Browndown last week and was the only one to catch a smutt on almost everything he cast out..
Its the first time ive heard someone say they actually wanted to catch a decent pout !


heres another smutt taken on mackerel .. thats now TWO you know of and just think untill now you knew of NONE in your life lol !!

http://www.nesa.co.uk/forums/shore-c...ess-coast.html

I bet George has had one too pmsl

[showmythefishy]

ive had smuts on rag upto 5lb, whole squid upto 7lb, now mackerell upto 8.10, and peeler (my best smut) 15.2lb, there really isnt alot that they dont eat. the only thing i havent caught them on is hermit or hard back but then i very rarely use hermits and this was the first time ive used hard backs properly.

Mark

[showmythefishy]

i would have posted pix but unfortunatly my phone decided to play silly buggers and has wiped all of my photos (fishing and of me sprogs) , video and music so to say im slightly gutted would be an understatement!!