Last January I asked Tom if there were any fish he wanted to catch this year. His answer was Bass and Dogfish.
He has already caught 2 Bass this year, while I haven’t had one
and I decided tonight was the right time to get him his Dog.
After the good numbers at the Shore league match at Tan Lan last week, the venue didn’t need thinking about. A couple of packs of Lug, 1 of small sandeel and a Mackeral from the freezer and we were ready to go.
Conditions were warm and dry on our arrival. An hour and a half before low, we fished straight in front of the Arches alongside the rock groyne.
I opted not to fish, but Tom was fishing 2 rods so I spent the evening baiting up, sorting out tangles, unhooking fish and watching for bites.
As the second rod was cast out we had a visitor. It was local fisheries officer Phil Capper who had come down to investigate reports of netters in the area and had seen our headlamps. He stayed for a brief chat when he saw it wasn’t us he was after but rushed off when a vehicle matching the description of the one he was looking for parked up at the Arches. It turned out this was another angler, who joined us on the beach later on.
First cast resulted in mission accomplished. After a bit of huffing and puffing, Tom pulled these up the beach.
Next target was a Dog over specimen weight of 2-08-00lbs for the club so we carried on with similar catches every cast. Double and treble headers made up of Dogs and some nice sized Whiting were coming in.
I think it was a bit much for Tom. His arms were aching and he was getting tired so it was decided we would head home at around 10pm.
The tide tuned just after 9pm and this seemed to bring the bigger Dogs in. He dropped a good one at the waters edge, but next cast produced this one, weighed at 2-09-08 it was the one we were hoping for.
He had a last cast on both rods to use up the last of the frozen bait and we got ready to go home.
The first to come in had this greedy Dog on it. It had taken 2 hooks.
The last retrieve resulted in a treble header of 3 different species. A small Dog which Tom returned while I unhooked what I thought were 2 small Whiting. Upon closed inspection, one of them was a Pollack! At Tan Lan?
The final score was 6 Dogs, at least a dozen Whiting ( I lost count
) and a Pollack. With another week off, we could be hitting the island next week if the weather is fit and ive told him to think of another target for me to get to work on.
The guy who joined us on the beach was planning to stay until Saturday afternoon, but was already moaning about the Dogs as we left. Hed only had one!
Happy Days!!!
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