Opportunity Nods

Out with Dale again today...here is his account of the trip:

Had an eye on this weather window all week, its been 4 weeks since Fish Ardour has seen the water (well, on the hull that is ) I asked Ben along for the day, but couldn't make promises as the weather has been so unpredictable.
The trip was called 'On' yesterday, with the option of dashing back before high tide if we didn't like the look of it.
We met up at about 8-30 and got the boat readied - I had almost forgotten what to do! Once organised we were skimming along a chocolatey looking bay for our first stop. I thought we'd have a go at the Rays first inshore while waiting for the tide to die down a bit...
Within minutes, I had the first of the day - It was nice to feel something fight back a bit, my last few beach trips haven't produced much...

Shortly after, another, slightly better...

Then slightly worse!

Come on Ben, keep up!!!
Then, a strange one - A nice looking fish apart from a grotesque leech thing on its wing - I wasn't Impressed - Ben just ripped it off but  I didn't want anything to do with it!

Close up of the evil critter...

One more at this spot after that - Not bad for an hours fishing. Ben broke his duck with a near keeper bass but we slipped it back, he said good things will happen because he released it.
A move out deeper was planned - We upped anchor and set up on the spit close in. The last of the flood saw us into bites immediately, but the wrong sort of fish, chunky dogs, pout and whiting. We both had spotted rays here so decided that Ben should get a shot of this nicely marked one...

I re-anchored the boat for the ebb, and soon after the tide started to run Ben had a better bite, resulting in the first Nodder of the day at 7lb 4oz

Last time we were out together he did me 2-0 on the Cod and soon had the lead back with a slightly smaller fish.

Next, Ben's uptider shot off, a real nice fish this time...

Turned out to be an Eel, but a nice one, probably 30-35lb - Bit him off at the surface....

My uptider this time, and the fish I had been patiently waiting for, a nice Cod of 11lb 4oz.

The tide had really got away now but Ben managed a better Bass than the last one. He called it Karma!

Headed back in around 2, just pleased to get out really... Lets just hope that the next trips happen more frequently than monthly!

Dale.