The bottom of the tide was soon and I was only just about to finish work; I pretty much ran to my car at the end of the shift, stoppe doff to pick up squid from my freeer and drove to Links Road, the closest spot I might find some smoothies. The sea, after a couple of days of rough northerlies, had some colour back in and looked fine - a large but gently rollings well wouldn't cause any issues as there was little wind. I set to work getting everything ready to launch while half conversing with someone in his car and then launched, paddling out three hundred yards and dropping anchor right at the very end of the ebb.
twenty minutes passed with one tiny bump that removed a squid head so I hauled up and moved another hundred ayrds out, finding a deeper patch. Down went the whole squid again, penneled on the end of flowing traces and 4oz breakaway leads that terminated at my end with Warbird 220's on Ice Pike rods. I'm 2cm short of James' hound on the warbird competition.
I waited right through the end of the ebb and slack water before changing my baits as the water started to flood. I rcekoned on half an hour, maybe an hour with luck, before it became unfishable and changed to six and then eight ounce leads as the tide picked up. Ten minutes after the first bunch of non-hooking knocks I had a heart-stopper as a huge bull seal popped his head up three feet from my bow, dead centre, and eyeballed me for twenty seconds. It was the only seal I saw today and I reckon he'd have battered me if he felt like it! A pity he didn't stay for a photo, just dived and hit both my lines on the way down.
Lots of bites but the 2/0's never hooked a thing. Bates were getting trashed but even when I went to smaller pieces I still failed to hook anything and all the while the tide was building. Then the wind followed suit and the swells grew. By eleven or so, two hours after launching, the bites stopped, the leads staretd to bounce and the water was rushing past; I had no time left and had to up-anchor and head in for quite a bumpy landing.
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