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So, after almost a year of getting back into angling, endless whiting and endless blanks later my luck finally changed.
1 month after moving to herne bay and hearing all the recent reports about rays, I got the green card from the missus and Friday the 28th was the night to give it a bash. Having stocked up on bluey about a month ago and spent a fair while building rigs I was ready to head on down.
After a short stroll past a few anglers and the kings hall I set up in a nice and comfortable spot to myself. Took my time setting my rods up and made sure I always had one spare rig baited up ready for when I reel in the previous. Darkness came quickly and it immediately became obvious that the rod-tips that I purchased off eBay were utter sh&1te, I could barely see the tips of my rod, this was utterly rubbish. Suddenly I was also absolutely freezing, realising that I had made school boy error after error I had left my hat, big coat, and every other cold night essential were still were I left them on the chair by the front door. After an hour of making perfectly crafted bluey baits I was starting to get quite frustrated with the whiting devouring my works of art, adding to this I was frozen to the bone. 2 beers later I was scrapping the barrel and on the cliff face of giving up, then suddenly rod number 2 had a little knock....... It was just a knock, nothing special, just a knock, like any other knock, just like a whiting knock.
Anyway convinced that I had another annoying whiting wasting my bait I decided to reel in, but this time something was different. It was heavy. Heavy like weed, heavy like the weed I had experienced in reculver before. However much to my astonishment I saw my breakaway lead run up my line towards the tip of my rod, this was odd, something was up surely? And then to my utter amazement sat a ray, my first my only thornback ray. I was stoked. Dragged it up the beach and popped it down to get a closer look. Seen a few pictures on here recently and I thought to myself 'this looks fairly large'. A few minutes later a couple of anglers who were arriving for the night walked past and seemed pretty chuffed for me, they offered to weigh it and were proud to announce that it was 10lb exactly. I was over the moon, my first ray and a stonking double (just). After a year off failed trips, whiting and internet fishing I had finally got something ashore to be proud of.
Happy days in the bay of dreams
(Now for the technical stuff) Rod - £20 off eBay Reel - fixed spool with just about 1 bearing Rig - pulley pennell loaded with bluey Cast - failed. Landed 20 yards from the shore, was going to reel in and cast again but got distracted as I needed a wee. Line - 12lb mono Ray weight - 10lb Width - 55cm Length - 95cm The end, good night x
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1 month after moving to herne bay and hearing all the recent reports about rays, I got the green card from the missus and Friday the 28th was the night to give it a bash. Having stocked up on bluey about a month ago and spent a fair while building rigs I was ready to head on down.
After a short stroll past a few anglers and the kings hall I set up in a nice and comfortable spot to myself. Took my time setting my rods up and made sure I always had one spare rig baited up ready for when I reel in the previous. Darkness came quickly and it immediately became obvious that the rod-tips that I purchased off eBay were utter sh&1te, I could barely see the tips of my rod, this was utterly rubbish. Suddenly I was also absolutely freezing, realising that I had made school boy error after error I had left my hat, big coat, and every other cold night essential were still were I left them on the chair by the front door. After an hour of making perfectly crafted bluey baits I was starting to get quite frustrated with the whiting devouring my works of art, adding to this I was frozen to the bone. 2 beers later I was scrapping the barrel and on the cliff face of giving up, then suddenly rod number 2 had a little knock....... It was just a knock, nothing special, just a knock, like any other knock, just like a whiting knock.
Anyway convinced that I had another annoying whiting wasting my bait I decided to reel in, but this time something was different. It was heavy. Heavy like weed, heavy like the weed I had experienced in reculver before. However much to my astonishment I saw my breakaway lead run up my line towards the tip of my rod, this was odd, something was up surely? And then to my utter amazement sat a ray, my first my only thornback ray. I was stoked. Dragged it up the beach and popped it down to get a closer look. Seen a few pictures on here recently and I thought to myself 'this looks fairly large'. A few minutes later a couple of anglers who were arriving for the night walked past and seemed pretty chuffed for me, they offered to weigh it and were proud to announce that it was 10lb exactly. I was over the moon, my first ray and a stonking double (just). After a year off failed trips, whiting and internet fishing I had finally got something ashore to be proud of.
Happy days in the bay of dreams
(Now for the technical stuff) Rod - £20 off eBay Reel - fixed spool with just about 1 bearing Rig - pulley pennell loaded with bluey Cast - failed. Landed 20 yards from the shore, was going to reel in and cast again but got distracted as I needed a wee. Line - 12lb mono Ray weight - 10lb Width - 55cm Length - 95cm The end, good night x
