From the brilliant to the bizarre

After the great morning session yesterday, I have really got the buzz back and there was only one place I was ever heading in the evening. Back down there for an hour before last light, this time accompanied by Ben and Rory as well as a few others we met down there, we started working the lures and covering all depths. The three of us perched ourselves off an island, myself taking the left side, Ben the straight out route and Rory covering the right. After a good half hour I decided I'd ditch the surface lure and go sub-surface. It's relatively deep so on went an SG Eel and back out I went, targeting the left hand side of an underwater reef. A few casts with nothing before hitting my first bass of the evening on the drop, only a schoolie of

around the 1lb mark but a fish nonetheless. I started to glance round to see how the others were doing and after seeing Ben's rod nicely arched over and the reel screaming, I went across to help him land his fish, which so far is his best of the year and his first qualifying fish for the TLF Bass Challenge at 52cm and roughly 3lbs in weight (This will make Dan Ferguson happy) Another hour passed and it was now dark, Ben had called it a day leaving myself, Rory and another lad Boansy to fish on. I decided to try the spot I'd had my fish earlier in the day, this time wading out to waist height where I was met with a deep drop off. First lure tried

was unsurprisingly the successful lure from before, the Seaspin ProQ 120, but nothing.....then came the turn of the Komomo II AFP, nothing.....The Komomo II JFP, nothing. We couldn't buy a fish between us and we were approaching the time where we'd have to start thinking about making a move. It was time to whack on old-faithful, the daiwa shore line shiner, which I have have more fish on this summer than any other, but for some reason has never done the business for me in the straits. That soon changed though on my first cast, in which the fish plucked at it a few times before smashing it properly and bolting off towards the current. My drag, although set tight was screaming alerting Rory to the fact I had a decent fish. A brilliant fight lasting around 4 minutes ensued before the fish finally nestled safely in the kelp where I could grab it. Not quite as big as my one from the morning but very stocky. It measured 59cm on the ruler but more importantly, Rory had his boga so I was interested to see what it weighed, just over five and a quarter so say 5lb 5oz, gutted I didn't have my scales for the morning session now lol. Anyway, no more action was had, so after guiding Boansy back across to safe ground due to him forgetting his headtorch, I headed off home setting the alarm for 6am again for one last raid.

The morning came and after reaching the mark, I first decided to go back home due to the rain, however after a phone call from mate Eddy to say he was down there, I opted to go back. Met down there this time by Jon, Stu and Scotty we all tried our best to rise a fish but they weren't having any of it. Then things turned bizarre. I'd switched over to a SG Eel to see if the fish were staying deep when close in I felt a small tap. I initially thought I'd hooked weed but then it started pulling back. In the water in front of me appeared none other than a dogfish! What is the world coming to lol. I was in two minds as to whether or not I'd fouled it but after Jon had tailed it for me, we realised it was hooked right in the scissors, surely that must have been a deliberate take? Certainly not what I was expecting but I'm claiming it for the lure caught species hunt :) Rest of the session was a big fail, with all of us failing to get anything else. A few days rest now I think.....or not, a weekend of lure fishing and toping begins.

Thanks for reading,

Tight Lines,

Ross