Arranged a night fishing session with Malc and John on Saturday night. The tide was at around 3:30am, so we agreed to meet and be set up by about 11:30pm. I decided on a power nap before leaving, so got my gear ready, and went to bed, setting my alarm for 10:30. This would give me, I reasoned, half an hour to “wake up” and make sure everything was packed, and half an hour to get to the venue.
Unfortunately, I didn’t wake up until 11:30, so had to get ready in a real hurry. Luckily, I was out of the door pretty quickly, just needing to get my waterproofs on and pack the bait.
I got down to the groyne at about 12:00am, and saw that M and J were already at the venue, with M almost ready to cast. I quickly set about tackling up, deciding on a three hook paternoster as the rig – I’d built two earlier in the day.
Conditions we very blustery, and bite spotting was nigh on impossible. I relied on reeling in every 20-30 minutes, as false positives caused by the tide were getting frustrating.
On my second cast I caught a fairly sizeable Eel – he may have been 3/4 lb. Being the first fish, it won me 50p from each of my uncles ; )
The going was very slow on this session, with the wind was biting and the tide incredibly strong. However, fortune favours the bold, and we persevered with the tough conditions. I used a mixture of Black Lug and King Rag as bait, occasionally adding a mackerel strip.
I managed another Eel before the end of the session, and J caught a nice plump Eel, the biggest of the session, earning him 50p from each M and myself. I didn’t actually pay this (soz unc!), but reasoned that the most fish was worth 50p too, cancelling out my payment ; )
I had a bit of a nightmare few casts towards the end of the session – I was casting out and setting the grappling weight OK, but upon striking, the line was snapping. Strange, as the line was only about 4 sessions old. Definitely needs to be replaced!
Overall a really tough session, highlighted by the low catch volume, and the fact that M blanked.. almost unheard of. Glad I didn’t blank though! Photos to come.
Before it becomes too much of a distant memory, thought I’d better write up the session from the day after the 
