IN SEARCH OF THORNIES.....

I had a couple of hours fishing a local estuary for thornback rays on saturday as i,ve been meaning to give it a go for the past few years and i,ve recently been hearing some good reports of late of a few of our spikey friends being caught from the shore just a few miles up the road from where i live. So as i had some squid in the freezer, always have, and also some nice frozen herrings left over from the pike season i decided to dust down the sea tackle Saturday afternoon and head to my chosen venue to fish the tide a couple hours either side of high water the same evening. Gear sorted out from the tackle room, reels re-spooled with my favourite 15lb Red Ice line, clipped down rigs and pennel hooklinks tied, bait put in the bag and everything including Oscar the springer were bundled into the back of the car and away i went to smell the salty air.

I fished an hour up and 2 down but only had one little rattle on my close in scratching rod. The bait was only lasting 15 minutes before it was getting stripped clean by the crabs. It was a beautiful evening though and i just enjoyed sitting by the water listening to the rigging of the moored boats chinking away as the breeze blew, only being interrupted by the quacking of low flying ducks and Oscar thundering up and down the pathway like a maniac, he,s a bit hypo even for a springer

 Oscar looks a little bored here but its because i told him to sit still while i took his picture. Little sod kept trying to eat the bait from my bucket whenever my back was turned. He enjoyed paddling around in the seaweed at the bottom of the seawall and trying to catch the low flying seagulls though. He certainly slept well that night after all the excercise he,d had. In fact so did i..

I took these two picture just before the sun set and have to say i,m rather pleased with the way they have turned out.