Another bash at chale

The weather was warm and calm, Friday evening had finally arrived and at 7pm I left home and after picking Kierran and Matt up we were down Chale for another go at the Rays.

The sea was flat calm, though a little clear for my liking. After scaling the cliffs we walk along the shingle for a calf aching 10 minutes and found John (lighty) already set up, he'd been there all day, and had had a small Painted Ray.

Clip down rigs were put on with sandeel, mackerel and Squid as bait, I'd also brought my Bass rod, a running ledger, size 6/0 circle and large chunks of mackerel as bait.

It was overcast but warm so no nice Chale sunset.

Things were quiet till dark when the Pout came on the feed, I saved a couple for bait and returned the rest.

The sandeel were being stripped clean by the pout, so wrapped one in a fillet of mackerel hoping this would last a little longer.

Just before midnight around high water Lighty shouted over that he'd had a good Bass bite close in, I turned to see if he was in to a fish, then turned back just in time to see my rod steadily pull round, taking the rest and other rod with it.

Striking I felt a good weight and a reassuringly nod nod nod on the rod, I knew it was a good fish so took my time, it put up a good fight, but with the help of Kierran and Matt I landed it.

My target species, my first ever Undulate Ray, and what a corker weighing in at 13lb 6ozs.

Photos taken I slipped him back and he was gone back into the darkness.

We fished on till 4am despite some good Bass bites Lighty was the only one to hook one, with one just over 4.5lb.

Around 4am it started to rain so we called it a night, scaling the cliffs in the rain was not easy feat, as they turned very slippery but we all managed it safely.