BRYANS ANGLE

Around May time thornback ray start to show up in catches from the shore and boat, in my local River Crouch, as they migrate into the shallower water to spawn i believe. This gives us the chance to catch a few for a couple of months before they drift away to wherever they go to. For the past few years i seem to of  been too busy to fish for them locally and on the the odd occasion that i have had the time to wet a line i havn,t been able to connect with one. Well i thought i,d have another try a couple of weeks back as the weather was due to be nice and i just fancied having a dangle in saltwater. Weighed down with all my kit i stumbled the mile  or so along the sea wall to my chosen marsh area that i thought might produce the goods. After nearly falling 'arse over tit' over a bramble and then having to 'hop' over a small adder as it crossed my path i finally dumped my gear down at my chosen spot and sat on my bucket a huffing, puffing sweaty old man. After a few mi...

A good few years ago i was diagnosed as having Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both my hands and also something similar in my elbows. Over the coarse of 2 years i had operations to relieve the symptoms and fortunately they have mostly worked now, but i still have problems with holding small objects and working with fiddly things. None too good when your an avid angler and every rig you tie takes ages and sometimes quite painful. Now tying rigs on the bank is an awkward thing to do at the best of times but couple that with Carpal Tunnel and it can be damn near impossible, especially when its wet and cold. I now overcome this problem by preparing all my rigs before i go fishing. I,m pretty lucky in that i store my tackle at my warehouse so have dedicated a room solely for fishing and its next door to my office, so whenever i feel the need i grab a little bit of kit and sit in the office listening to music, watching fishing online and tying up various rigs for future trips.  Today i sta...

A couple of weekends ago i had a pass from the better half to spend the day fishing as she was going to be in London cheering on a friend who was running in the London Marathon, well done Sam Monks. With this in mind i had to make a quick decision as to what species and where i wanted to fish. With the old brain cell clunking and creaking i opted to have a spot off sea fishing at a favourite mark of mine in hope of an early thornback ray. Rumour had it that there had been a few caught lately and considering i had just received my gate key i decided to try Holiwell Point on the River Crouch. It would of been rude not too. Having loaded my tackle into the van the night before i set the allarm clock to wake me at 7am so that i could get to my mark at low water as i wanted a scout around first and also to see if i could find a few peeler crab under the rocks. Well in a nut shell i overslept and arrived 2 hours later than i had hoped but still 3 hours before high tide. I had a little mooc...

A couple of evenings ago i decided to have another go at catching a thornback ray at a local mark. I got there a good 4 hours before high tide to fish the tide up in hope of catching some bass as well. Fortunately the mark i wanted to fish was free so i quickly set up my rods and started to cast various squid, herring and ragworm hookbaits out at different ranges. I use 3 rods whenever i can as it gives you more scope, most fish come to the 2 rods cast to the horizon but its surprising how often the short distance rod will produce the bigger fish. There was no action until just before high tide when as i was having a little beach comb i noticed my ragworm baited rod start to nod then pull down. As ran up the shore whatever was on the end of my like just kept on pulling until my tripod and all 3 rods had come crashing down on the rocks. Once the active rod was picked up mi started to pump in a heavy weight which thumped every so often. I wasn,t sure what was on the other end but was p...

Last weekend i took my other half Sharon and our two dogs to a secret mark for the day to have a picnic and  see if i could bag a thornback ray. The weather wasn,t particularly good being very overcast with a strong wind blowing and a bit chilly. Sharon didn,t mind and neither did the dogs so of we set. After a nice offroad drive along the bottom of the sea wall we were at my chosen destination and carting the gear over to the otherside of the sea wall to fish on top of an old pill box. Sharon took her camera and the dogs for a walk as i proceeded to set up my tackle on top of this comfortable fishing platform. After one slip cast resulting in a big birdsnest i had my two rods cast out, one with a 2 hook flapper baited with ragworm for the bass and the other with a big herring fillet for the thornies.  Just as Sharon got back from her walk i had a knock on my herring rod followed by a big slack line. Quickly winding in the slack i felt another thump and walked backw...

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...