[JP Coutanche]

Well its been too long since I've been out for a decent trip and breaking my toe has forced me to stay put even longer! I was thinking I'd give it another week and then I looked at the weather and thought not a chance I'm wasting a gorgeous day out.

I thought that I'd head down to Bouley bay as there was plenty of little spots to go and investigate, plus I had a nice selection of lures and SP's to go play with. I had a plan initially to attempt to catch some Bream, firstly by using bait (to make sure they were there) then I had a few Reins SP's that I thought I might try. This plan lasted about a hour and was ditched, decided that I go for some Pollack and work my way back to the shore where I could target some Wrasse as the sunset. Managed around 30ish Pollack largest being about 3.5lb but most were a lot smaller and a couple of Mackerel.

Then decided to got target the Wrasse around the rocks, I saw this little spot and thought it looked like a good spot for some Wrasse.



I had 2 casts using the dead and shake technique Keith taught me a while ago (its been a while but I remembered and didn't lose any lures this time!). Just as I gave it a shake, Bang! Fish on and up came a Wrasse. Not massive, but I wasn't complaining he gave a good fight for a small fish.



Put the little fella back and got straight back in. He fell to a 4" Salty Tournament Worm - Red Shad on a 7g jig head. So I stuck with it to try and get another, 4th cast in and it wasn't a bang but a strong pull, I thought I was hung up on some weed at first until it pulled back. I look down into the water and see a flash on white, after a 10min fight I pulled this to the surface.




Not what I was after but I'm not gonna complain, no scales unfortunately but it was about the same size as my last one which was 8.5-9lbs. After struggling to get it to the shore for a pic (I wasn't getting that on the Yak, snapping my rod would have been the least of my worries), I made sure he was recovered and he happliy flapped his way back into the bay.

Also can anyone do me a favour and let me know exactly what ray it is, I thought a small eyed, but I'm not very good with rays never caught that many.

All in all a good day after such a long break!

 

[Keith White]

You are kidding right ?

Ray on SP ?

Smalleyed by the looks of it...

Insane.

If you remember the poll we did before we started all this, ray came a very poor last place as most thought it near impossible.

I'm in shock now....

 

[Ben Field]

Haha, was thinking of ray tonight actually, fishing a sheltered (fishless) sandy spot. Crazy! Amazing!

 

[JP Coutanche]

You are kidding right ?

Ray on SP ?

Smalleyed by the looks of it...

Insane.

If you remember the poll we did before we started all this, ray came a very poor last place as most thought it near impossible.

I'm in shock now....

Your in shock, I couldn't believe it when I saw it come up. Without a doubt the last species I expected to be on the end of my line. My arms still sore from holding it of the bottom whilst I got it to shore.

What a buzz tho!

 

[alan aubert]

great report well done

 

[Carl B]

nice one jay, this s.p stuff is starting to have no limits, you never know whats going to come up, well done m8

 

[Simon L]

Wow !!! Well done on landing a Raymond :clap:, that must have been some wierd heavy fight :shock: !

 

[Bagpuss]

Nice one.
Is someone compiling a list of species caught on soft plastics & maybe the type of soft plastic taken by each species, ie. worm, shad, grub, etc. It would make interesting reading at the end of the year.

 

[Retired]

Wicked. Well they do eat sandeels.....

 

[Alex Jordan]

Holy moly - that is a turn up for the books!

 

[Keith White]

Nice one.
Is someone compiling a list of species caught on soft plastics & maybe the type of soft plastic taken by each species, ie. worm, shad, grub, etc. It would make interesting reading at the end of the year.

There was an overall list being sort of maintained by **** but I don't think it goes any further than species.
I agree, a breakdown per species might just be viable right now.

 

[Dom Sheppard]

Well done on the fish, it reminds me of bait fishing last year with ragworm and catching a thornback ray, not having caught one on rag before, i put it down to a crab feeding on the bait and the ray pouncing on the crab hooking itself at the same time!
perhaps that may of happened to you?

 

[Dave Watson]

well done m8 - a ray on a SP

 

[JP Coutanche]

Well done on the fish, it reminds me of bait fishing last year with ragworm and catching a thornback ray, not having caught one on rag before, i put it down to a crab feeding on the bait and the ray pouncing on the crab hooking itself at the same time!
perhaps that may of happened to you?

The thing is I watched it swim under my Kayak, I thought it was a plastic bag or some sort of debris. It only dawned on me that it was a ray when I pulled it of the bottom and upto the top. I actually hooked into the fish on my 2nd shake and in about 15-20ft of water, I was using a technique to catch Wrasse, maybe the rays like the same technique? lol

 

[Peter Walker]

hi guys peter from wa ausralia trying to think of a fish that has'ent been caught on s/p it is the way to go know 1 pkt of s/p leadheads in different weights rod n reel thats it the most common one here is berkley salt plastics there is so meny it can take fore ever going through the colors caught 6 bluefin tuna of the ocks a month ago 2 on a lime green 5 inch berkley the rest on halco poppers 8-12 bucks a pkt depending on brand

 

[Dom Sheppard]

The thing is I watched it swim under my Kayak, I thought it was a plastic bag or some sort of debris. It only dawned on me that it was a ray when I pulled it of the bottom and upto the top. I actually hooked into the fish on my 2nd shake and in about 15-20ft of water, I was using a technique to catch Wrasse, maybe the rays like the same technique? lol

Well that is amazing and i think its got to be one of them catches you will remember for the rest of your life.
Well done again Jay

 

[Steve Lewis]

What a Ray Jay :-D well done on the fishing and a great report with pics :clap:

 

[Sam Roche]

well done Jay great post.

 

[Andy Marquis]

Brilliant work!!

Ray on SP, so this is where we are going next then!!

 

[Stephen Olsen]

well done Jay,great catch