River Crouch report 16/4/2007

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:54 am

First visit to the site only found it yesterday fished Monday evening with mate Andy in the Holiwelll point area after blanking on a 12 hour trip the previous bank holiday weekend catching only a good sun tan and feeding the crab population. Arrived hour before low hoping that the bigger tide and and the darkness might bring the odd Ray on the feed.Lovely evening flat calm . Had loads of fresh frozen herring and some big King rag dug off Canvey. Nothing much happened for the first 3 hours odd codlet on the scratching rod on rag, then about 9.30 had a bite which looked like a big lump of weed hitting my line, watched it for a good 2-3 minutes slow steady pulls on the rod tip then decided it was no weed and wound down into it. thought I was pulling through one of the mud ledges about 70 yards out then it began to move off downtide. had a struggle for 5-10 mins as the bigger tide was pushing through panic set in as got the fish a couple of yards out it surfaced then dived into the seaweed, tried moving it but stuck then decided it was worth getting wet for Andy held the rod i waded in up passed my knees grabbed the slimey on the nose and scrambled out of the water. All the reccy work i'd put in had paid off My first shore caught ray 9lb 3 oz big grin

. didnt stop shaking for 10 mins after high fives all round we both baited all rods with fresh herring but no more for the rest of the evening. Came on pulley rig herring chunk and 3/0 big mouth Varivas. Well chuffed will be going back on the next favourable tide

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:04 am

Brilliant mate,
Good buzz catching roker from the shore ain't it...!
I managed to pluck one from fambridge a couple of days ago over dead low water, could you divulge when and where you had yours.(you don't have to be specific) :wink:
I have had a couple of sessions since, on different tide cycles and haven't been able to find anymore as yet...! 8O
There are some pictures on www.fishyrob.co.uk on the diary 4th of april, did you get any piccys of your thornie?

OCB.

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:20 am

I'm not particularly fussed on catching stingray as I hear they taste pretty poor but I'm sure that reeling one in must be a bit of a thrill. If I accidentally found one on the end of my hook, to be honest I wouldn't have a clue what to do with it. Is it easy to get the hook out and what's the best way of handling it assuming that it's not going to be too lively.

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:04 pm

Sorry Father jack it was a Thornback ray very good eating got 4 nice 1/4 wings in the fridge will be having one tonight wouldnt keep a stingray myself, we'll be trying for them at a mark we know at Bradwell endof may /early june . One Cod Bob Fished down near holliwell point on one of the deeper water marks , it came about 3 hours before high water. Had tried the previous weekend during the day but weather far too sunny and tide run was slow so crabs were stripping the bait inside 10 mins. More run to the tide on monday night plus the darkness helped rather than bright sunshine, still crabs about but the herring was lasting longer enabling the fish to find it before it was massacered by the crabs.There is probably a 1/2 mile stretch of wall down there with deeper water 40 to 100 yards out according to an Imray chart I bought about 3 weeks ago. We were the only 2 there on Monday not another soul for miles. It put up a great scrap locked my reel up twice, in the end resorted to pumping it in as you would on a boat, was bloody tricky getting it over and through all that seaweed down there because of the state of the tide. Didnt even notice i had 2 bootfull's.