All the W's

After a successful trip for the guys on Thursday, my solo mission Friday night was to get into my first smoothound of the year. Conditions were going to be tricky, strong cross winds against the flooding tide would create a bit of chop on the water which isn't ideal. However arriving at the mark I was able to set my tripod up without it falling over and eventually I was able get my casts going mostly with the wind to reach the distance required.

It was a difficult session until high tide, I only saw one bite, which was missed and I experienced all the W's weather wise - wet, windy, wavy. The on off rain had me thinking of sacking of the fishing early but at just gone midnight the ratchet sang on one of my rods as something took the frozen crab bait. I could feel some resistance and after a bit of commotion on the surface I had my target, a little smoothound of 4-5lb. It was a lively one but eventually I managed to get an alright photo in the rain as well. Once returned I seemed to ignore the weather and fished hard, landing another smoothound pup and two dogfish.

There was a slight lull in action when as I was dealing with one rod the other hit the rocks. I picked up thinking it was the wind when something substantial was pulling back. I loosened the drag and played the fish in, letting it swim when it wanted. A decent smoothound in the 8-10lb size was soon in front of me. I guided it round to a landing spot and for some reason decided to lift it out by the line instead of grabbing the fish. Inevitably there was a snap and a splash as the fish lazily swam back out to sea just out of arms reach. A slight disappointment on the night but given the conditions I was more than happy to get the job done and see a couple of smoothies.