So after missing out on fishing over the weekend I went through my well worn procedure for after work fishing. My rods packed in with my tripod in it's rod carrier and my reels, leads and rigs in the shakey box so they could be quickly lifted into the car in the morning as I headed to work. That morning the bait of frozen Mackerel, Squid and sand eel placed in a cool bag with ice packs along with frozen juice bottles filled with frozen water that so the bait would be defrosted as needed at the mark.
Preparations the night before went well but I was awoken to rain and gale force wind that morning but on checking the forecast the weather was to improve so I continued. On arriving at the mark there was a light NE wind but this gave a wave and tidal rip well past the winds strength. The tidal rip was which may to wave or it may have been due to the Shannon outputing fresh water into the estuary and effecting the tides.
First three casts each gave a dog which I left to long for the bites to develop as they had took the hooks well down, as often times here quick strikes result in missed fish, but I managed to take the hooks out. After that it went quiet as after low water the tide went dead as the whatever was pushing the water down nulified the neap flood tide rip.
As it went dark my LED head torch showed it's inadequacey as I couldn't see the reflective tape on my rod tips. My expensive Tiga head lamp is still out of action but I have just ordered bulbs off of Ebay. I had debated going for a decent LED head lamp that doesn't have a battery the size and weight of a small child attached to your hip but I hate letting something that should be still functional go to waste.
I managed to see a snatched bite in the darkness on a running ledger that was probably a strap. I felt no weight on the retreive so left the bait out for 5 minutes but the fish did not come back for it. When the trace was reeled back in the bait had been pulled up the snood. I'm guessing the fish may have grabed the bait and the hook was caught on a snag. I had what looked like a shoal of whiting rip apart another bait and tie the 4/0 hook in a knot and a final doggy before 9pm that chin hook itself.
People: Me
Duration: 6.30pm until 9.30pm
Tide: 17:47 1.90m 00:19 3.60m
Weather: NE breeze with a slight surf. Mild.
Bait: Mack, Eel, squid
Rigs: Pulleys penels 2/0 on one rod and 4/0 on the other
Results:
4 dogs
Report:
Just gone through the same thing with my tiga only it was the battery that had gone for the second time. Not too expensive to replace but I decided to go the led and base light route. I like to fish in the dark with tip lights but you need to be able to see well for baiting up, landing fish and the trudge back to the car!
ReplyDeleteBattery seems to be charged ok as it goes from yellow to green on the charge indication quite quickly. I thought if the battery was dieing it would at least give some light. I had an issue with a tricky connection on the battery which I replaced but this is completely dead. I have a meter from work so I'll try and debug it.
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