After failing spectacularly to catch my first Sole of the year when making the 80 mile round trip to Shoreham West Arm last Friday the continued good weather convinced me to try a session closer to home on Clarence Beach last night. After picking up some ragworm from my friendly local digger I left the house at 7:15pm and was at my chosen mark by 7:30. There were still a few families on the beach enjoying the evening sunshine, but nothing that would impinge on the fishing and I soon had a 2 hook clip-down rigged up and pendulumed out to somewhere near the edge of the shipping channel. The other rod was set up with a 2 hook flapper and dropped in close, hoping for Bass or Bream while the sun was still up.
It wasn't long before the long rod gave a good pull down and shortly after I had my first fish on the beach, a little smut of about 2lb but big enough for the remaining sunbathers to point and exclaim at sharks being caught in Portsmouth :busted_co
As the sun went down I decided to try a bit of spinning with a Dexter, not a lot was doing here but I did get a solitary lonely Mackerel so it wasn't a wholly wasted effort. While spinning I had noticed a little tap tap tap on the close rod and soon after reeled this in to find a small Black Bream on the end. So far so good - just over an hours fishing for three species
Another smut pup soon followed on the distance rod, and by now it was fully dark so concentration moved on to the close in rod.
Nothing much was happening here, baits were coming in untouched and apart from the Bream no bites had been seen. About 10pm I had a tiny Pout on the distance rod, then next cast as I was reeling in I got caught in a snag and lost everything from the leader knot. Every cast on the retrieve I had been pulling into something pretty solid about 50 - 60 yds out, usually pulling through but this time it got proper snagged. While I was dealing with this I noticed a good pull on the close in rod, going over to investigate I had a bit of slack line but when I tightened up I couldn't feel anything there.
While digging out a new shockleader I noticed another pull, again slack line and again nothing on tightening. I decided to give it a couple of more minutes then when I lifted the rod to dislodge the grip lead I could feel something pulling away on the other end. After a short tussle I was over the moon to see this coming through the surf and onto the shingle:
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![Image]()
So chuffed I had to photograph it twice :fishing:
Carried on fishing for another hour with both rods targetted close in but no other bites until I packed in at about 12:15. A great little session with 5 species including my target species of Sole. A few days off the beach now but looking forward to trying for my next target Red Mullet next week then I'll be back at Clarence on the next good set of low tides to try my luck once again :thumbs:
It wasn't long before the long rod gave a good pull down and shortly after I had my first fish on the beach, a little smut of about 2lb but big enough for the remaining sunbathers to point and exclaim at sharks being caught in Portsmouth :busted_co
As the sun went down I decided to try a bit of spinning with a Dexter, not a lot was doing here but I did get a solitary lonely Mackerel so it wasn't a wholly wasted effort. While spinning I had noticed a little tap tap tap on the close rod and soon after reeled this in to find a small Black Bream on the end. So far so good - just over an hours fishing for three species
Another smut pup soon followed on the distance rod, and by now it was fully dark so concentration moved on to the close in rod.Nothing much was happening here, baits were coming in untouched and apart from the Bream no bites had been seen. About 10pm I had a tiny Pout on the distance rod, then next cast as I was reeling in I got caught in a snag and lost everything from the leader knot. Every cast on the retrieve I had been pulling into something pretty solid about 50 - 60 yds out, usually pulling through but this time it got proper snagged. While I was dealing with this I noticed a good pull on the close in rod, going over to investigate I had a bit of slack line but when I tightened up I couldn't feel anything there.
While digging out a new shockleader I noticed another pull, again slack line and again nothing on tightening. I decided to give it a couple of more minutes then when I lifted the rod to dislodge the grip lead I could feel something pulling away on the other end. After a short tussle I was over the moon to see this coming through the surf and onto the shingle:
So chuffed I had to photograph it twice :fishing:
Carried on fishing for another hour with both rods targetted close in but no other bites until I packed in at about 12:15. A great little session with 5 species including my target species of Sole. A few days off the beach now but looking forward to trying for my next target Red Mullet next week then I'll be back at Clarence on the next good set of low tides to try my luck once again :thumbs:
