Slow afternoon and night at hayling

[showmythefishy]

Went to chichester harbour entrance on hayling to get fresh bait for the evening, I arived at about 3pm , spinning rod and feathers ready to go and went about trying to find some mackerel. Didnt have to wait long, maybe 3 casts and I had my 1st. I walked down towards the sailing club casting as I went. But I couldnt find any more. I stayed down by the sailng club for about 30 mins because I have seen the mackerel splashing around there at low tide countless times before. I walked back up the beach towards the life boat station where there was an asian guy bottom fishing, he had 2 undersized bass in his bucket. By the time I got back to my car it was 6pm.
Time to meet my mate and go do some proper fishing!
After a cuppa, a sausage bap abdul a chat we decided to head to the coast gaurd look out at eaststoke corner. We found a groyne with no one habbiting it and quickly claimed it as our own. Baits to be used were , 1 freshly caught mackerel and frozen mackerel, sand eels, squid, and after reading thid months tsf I also had tinned sardines! Lol
To start off with we both used rigs with small hooks, I used a 3 hook loop rig armed with size 4 hooks and baited with strips of fresh mackerel on 1 rod and a wishbone dropper rig again with size 4 hooks but baited this with strips of squid. I hit both out as far as I could.bob started off with a bomber rig with mackerel on 1 hook and squid on the othet on one rod and a 3 hook flapper again with a mixture of baits and he dropped that in fairly close.
We carried on like this untill it got dark I then started double patting with 1 rod, changing between a squid stuffed with sardines and a nice size strip of mackerel tipped with a squid head. That rod was always cast as far as I could get it. on the other rod I put out a mackerel head and lobbed it out around 30 yards and just left it out there just incase there was a decient bass on the prowl.
All was quiet, both myself and bob had a couple of tiny rattles but nothing to show for them. High tide came and we were still both fishless! As the tide started to move again bob had a bite on his 3 hook flapper, he landed a bass, just under 1lb (estimate) it took the middle hook which had mackerel on it.
I missed a bite on my distance rod which I had baited with mackerel so I rebaited with some more mackerel and whacked it back out, the tide was well on its way back out by now and I started to pack up my gear, just leaving my rods and bait to pack away at the end of the night. At 2.30 we decided to call it a night, I reeled in the mackerel head and inspected it, didnt look like it had been touched at all. I reeled in my other rod and to my suprise I had a fish on the end! A lil whitting!! We had only been saying earlyer that it wouldnt be long till they started to show and here was the first one of the season in my hand. Well of course he went back in the water with a joke about telling his friends and family to come to hayling to meet bob and myself. Lol.

Well thats enough of my ramblings a looong days fishing with 1 mackerel and a whitting for meand a lil bass for bob. But now we have high hopes for the next few weeks as the whitting are on their way!!

[scottish_and_mental]

nice report mate .. i must get down Eastoke soon - aint fished it more than once this year !

[showmythefishy]

Had some really good whitting sessions over the past couple of years around hayling, anywhere from the pipe down to chichester harbour entrance can produce loads of fish and many upto the 1lb marker, its great when the conditions alow to get the light gear out and let them put up a fight ;-)