With a 7 am start, 10 CSSC Wales members boarded Anchorman, on what was another windless day, and headed West towards Nash Point, for a crack at the smoothound.
Minutes after the anchor was droppd - a pout was boated (the only one of the day!) and then the 1st dog of the day came over the gunnels (the 1st of 150+!).
Then I dropped 2 big fish in quick succession, that could only have been smoothound - they went off like steam trains! 3rd time luck and I managed to hold on to my 3rd smut - all 12lb of it, and a pb common.....
A starry soon followed the common, then I hooked into something different. I thought it may have been a full house of dogs, and some other peoples gear....but as it got closer to the surface - it woke up, and dived for the sea bed. It turned out to be a blonde ray of 19lb - another pb for me.
The tide eased and Dave thought it was time for a move to deeper water - where they had picked up some tope earlier in the week. Not long after dropping hook, I pulled in a strap on squid and crab cocktail. One of the lads boated an eel of 23lb which eventually took the pool for the heaviest fish. A fair few eels came to the boat at this mark.
As the tide increased the hounds came back on the feed, with a decent stamp of fish, along with the odd bull huss.........
Another move onto the side of a sandbank to target ray, proved to be frustrating with dogs attacking every bait. But Dave the skipper showed us how it was done, by catching a thornback and a spotted ray in quick succession. I managed to pull up a thornback and a double figure eel amongst the doggies, before another common smoothound totally ignored my crab bait and took a liking to squid on the top hook.
A final move to deeper water later on in the day proved to be fruitful for everyone on board, with even some of the less experienced anglers getting amongst the smuts. I added another 2 starry's to my tally, and then pulled in 2 bull huss on the same trace.
At 4.30 Dave called lines up, and an end to the competition. It has to be one of the best days fishing I've had for a long time.
We ended the day with 40+ smoothound, 20+ conger, 10+ bull huss, blonde, thornback, and spotted ray......and over 150 doggies.
I was lucky enough to win the qualifier, and will now travel with Mark and Simon to Weymouth for the finals in July.
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