Another Day, Another Ray

I'm addicted to the Blonde Ray fishing. Its awesome! Richard was down for a couple of days so we planned a session out on the ray so see if he could latch onto a big one. 

We launched mid morning and headed out to the mark and anchored up. The tide was approaching low and we were hardly staying tight to the anchor and spinning around which was annoying. We were on clean ground yet Richard somehow pulled out 3 decent Pollack around the 4-5lb mark! He was after a few Pollack so he was happy. Bites were slow to come by but eventually Richard had his rod bending double....

A bit of tussling and he pulled aboard a 14lb Blonde Ray... mission accomplished!

I could hardly find a bite and for the next hour we didn't catch much so headed out to deeper water. The tidal flow was better here and kept us tight to anchor but not a bite came our way other than a couple of dogfish for me. 

Back to mark 1.... the big spring tide now starting to flood. It didn't take long for Richard to find another ray, then another, then another whilst i sat biteless! He had a couple of crackers of 15lb and 16lb, one i think was on his light rod too which was funny to watch! I finally hooked a smaller Blonde around the 7-8lb mark. 

Then it was back to watching richard landing a few more before i had a proper run.... i gave it plenty of line as i didn't want to miss it! I pulled hard into a running fish and it soared off with powerful surges... after what seemed like an age i got it off the bottom and eventually to the surface.... a decent one after the long wait - that was my well happy! A 16lb male with a 70cm wingspan..... which gave me chance to try my camera boom to grab the photo - it worked quite well with the self timer on the camera allowing me enough time to press the shutter and get in position for the photo

Richard had a couple more including an 11lb Small Eyed! He has a few photos he may put on here. He also had a nice Greater Weever which hopped off the hook into the footwell, after a bit of gonad-weever dodging and dancing he grabbed his camera for a photo, pressed the shutter but it leaped out the kayak! I had a small Dab and then we sat biteless for a while and called it a day. 

We were joined by the Porpoises at one point which was nice to see - i finally managed to grab a photo of one and even saw one jump out the water which is a first. 

Richard had a cracking day finishing up with 7 Blondes to 16lb, with others of 15lb and 14lb, 1 Small Eyed of 11lb, 3 Pollack of 4-5lb and the Greater Weever! I must have used up my fish points at the weekend as it was 2 Blondes for me but had the cracker of 16lb. Im glad the trip down was worthwhile for Richard, he had been out the day before at Lamorna and had a few bits and pieces too - i fished with him briefly but was on the tandem with Holly and her little brother. It was his first kayak fishing trip at age 5 - he loved it and caught mackerel which he had for tea! I even winkled out a few Cuckoo wrasse as did Richard. Great fishing with you again Richard, I'm sure we will be fishing again sometime in the future now that you have had a good taste of Cornwall!