Flattie hunting weekend

Well I had a weekend pass from "she who must be obeyed", Yipee!
Two nights of fishing,Bliss.
Friday evening found me down at St Helens in search of a Flounder, normally a good spot for them, so I was set up by 6pm. Two hook flappers with plenty of bling and ragworm the chosen bait. It was the 5th of November so there were plenty of fireworks going off everywhere, unfortunately very little was happening out at sea, maybe they were watching the show, by 9pm all I had were a couple smut pups and a solitary pout so decided to move to the Toll Rd seaview, another good spot for Flounder and normally plenty of Bass.
20 minutes I was set up again, the wind was howling along the beach and I was grateful for the beach buddy, soon after the rain started and it poured, By midnight I'd not even had a nibble despite the sea looking perfect, so reluctantly I called it a night.

Saturday: After picking Nick up we were set up At Shanklin by 6pm, this time our Quarry were Sole and Bass, so one rod had size 2 hooks on a sole rig and again Ragworm, the other was either Crab or whole Squid on a pennel.
After casting out I texted the wife to let her know I was set up and then had a little rattle on the worm rod, five minutes later this was followed by a good pull round and I struck, it felt weighty and I was hoping it was a good Sole, it started to put up a fight as it got into shallow water but I was rewarded with a new PB spotted Ray of 3lb 5oz, my twelvth ray of the year.



Also there was a small Pout on the other hook.
Twenty minutes later Nick landed this small Plaice, not big but things were looking good for a fish filled night.



After this initial success things went quiet, with me dropping two good fish because of the small hooks, necessary for the sole, and landing 3 or 4 Pout.
Time was getting on, the tide was nearing high so I decided to drop the worm rod in close at about 30 yards, 20 minutes of nothing then suddenly a good slack line bite and one of our target fish was landed, a Sole going exactly a pound





High water arrived and what few bites we were getting stopped totally, so at 11.30pm we decided to move to the other end of the esplanade to fish the tide down.
The tide turned about 00.15am, initially nothing then 00.45am I get a rattle on the worm rod, followed by more so eventually I struck and in came these two small plaice.



After that it seemed to kick off, and so did the weather with heavy rain thunder and lightening around me I managed two bag a school Bass just under size another small Plaice and loads of good sized Pout.
By 3.30am basically out of bait we decide to call it a night. A good nights fishing, the fireworks were great, but couldn't compare to the electrical storm layed on by mother nature.