A day off Littlehampton.

[comanche 2,799]

We had another enjoyable day's boat fishing out of Littlehampton today. 

After chugging out to sea the Skipper stopped long enough for us to catch a decent supply of mackerel to supplement the rather dodgy tackle shop squid we'd brought with us.Decent frozen squid seems hard to come by .

It didn't seem to matter though as despite the bright sun and clear water there were plenty of conger about on the rocky mark we anchored over; none of whom had fussy palettes. 

Surprisingly  , considering l was on board ,  there were few small fish caught. This might've  been because the congers were so thick on the ground that they had  eaten them all . 

My good friend Martin had a surprise cod, a couple of smooth hounds were boated along with several rays both undulate and thornbacks . It was the endless parade of congers that put bends in rods at almost every cast that kept us in perptual motion though. 

Using a trace of 60lb shockleader l didn't  have any bite-offs but we all lost tackle on the rocks.  

An enterprising diver could probably open their own tackle shop with what we left on the sea-bed.

The odd hook and lead were not all l lost though.  I hooked something  that simply took off at a steady but unstoppable pace , put frightening bend in my old cane rod ,and kept going  and going  until it was gone.  Certainy no conger but quite what l'll never know.

All but a fish or two each were returned and there was some suspicion that the same eel might've visited the boat more than once insearch of an easy meal. 

Apparently there are so many of them about at the moment there are fears for the populations of crabs and lobsters and a conger cull has been considered. 

For the moment we were just happy enjoy another good day's fishing and only take what we needed. 

It was an especially memorable day for one chap who hadn't been out before and yet managed the best fish of the day ; a conger of 36lb that was carefully boated ,  weighed and returned after a couple of photos .

 

 

Edited September 15, 2021 by comanche

[Lenmcharristar 9,180]

Looked a good day out