Solent Variety

Headed out yesterday in the Solent with Dave in search of a bit of variety. The day nearly started in distaster as one of the trailer tyres popped off the rim of the wheel. Thankfully this was rectified in quick time with a car jack and pump from the club and soon we were on our way out.
We were in two minds deciding on where to start but opted for a mark we’d tried before that usualy fishes a bit better later in the year. 
First stop though was to check my crab pots and collect some live spider peeler crab for the session. From two pots, we had plenty of crab all popping and ready to peel. Spiders, unlike normal shore crab will feed during the peeling process, allowing them to be collected in this way.
First cast and my rod was off – this was the first of several turbo charged Smoothounds and on light rods, loaded with braid and small fixed spools, these things really give you the run around.

The next fish really was amusing, decent bite and a full bend in the rod, followed by a large hound breaching the surface and completing a 6ft high backward somersault in the air before shaking the hook! Iv'e had some slamming takes in the past but I have never had one swim straight to the surface and leave the water completely.....could have been mistaken for a tarpon! 
Next fish was a bit different and turned out to be a chunky silver eel of 2lb 4oz. The larger eels to tend to have a bit of a soft spot for big crab baits.

Three or four more super charged Smoothounds each soon followed, all fighting extremely hard on the light gear and in shallow water.

Things began to slow up here after the flood tide had run it's course so we opted for a short move to a piece of rough ground that can produce bass, more smoothounds and some quality wrasse.
Within minutes I had some hefty clonks on a big crab bait and soon had this 3lb 8oz wrasse on the deck.

Followed by a few smaller ones:

On the last cast, Dave managed a new personal best wrasse of exactly 4lb....a nicely coloured specimen too.

With our fishing time down to 15 minutes we couldn’t resist investigating a massive shoal of fish boiling nearby, the gulls were going crazy! After some frenetic feathering we managed 50 or so mackerel and were soon heading back to the harbour with just enough water to spare!
Really enjoyable day, you can’t beat a bit of variety – we will be back for another go at the wrasse, I am sure there is an Island record down there with my name on it!