Cowes 19th March

Friday and it was pouring with rain, I didn't fancy digging worm in it, or sitting Bassing at my usual spot as its an exposed beach. So after collecting Mackerel, squid and sandeel from Barneys at Cowes I was setup on the beach at Cowes by 7.00pm.

One rod had a 2 hook flapper with mackerel and squid strips in the hope of small stuff cast about 50 yards, the 2nd rod was a clip down ith sandeel cast at distance looking for a ray. Cowes is a reasonably deep venue where almost anything can turn up, although envariably it doesn't!
I started getting small rattles from the off on the flapper rig, but to small to strike, finally just before 10pm a slightly better bite and in came the 1st fish, a nice little Pollack.



The small rattles continued as did the rain but I still couldn't connect to anything then about 11.30pm I started to get a nodding on the sandeel at distance, could this be my Ray, striking there was a deffinate weight there. But alas no Ray but a doggie still that was 2 new species for the year.



Around Midnight the rain finally stopped, so I set up my Bass rod also with a running ledger, large mackerel fillet and this was cast very close in, as the Bass wil run very close to shore on a dark night, despite a couple of good knocks By 1am I'd had nothing more, the tide was running har and the weed was in and the rain was back with vengence, so I moved to Gurnard, a shallower beach but tide and weed are not normally a problem and its a good beach for spotted rays. By 4am I was soaked, tired and with no more fish I called it a night.