Thornback Ray Fishing, Hythe Ranges

Thorny Rays on Lovely Days 

Dymchurch Road, Hythe, Romney Marsh, TN29 0TY. UK

Traps set

After kind of finding my fishing mojo, I was meeting up with my friend Jason at Hythe. It was a new venue for me, a classic shallow sandy beach broken with breakers. I'd heard a few things about, and was very keen to go and fish this venue. Our target was to be Rays, with a second target of Sole. Our plan was to fish from low to high tide, an all nighter involving dusk and dawn. We all met up after work an hour before low water, the sun was out, the wind nothing more than a gentle breeze blowing over ours shoulders, and the sea was calm, conditions were near perfect for our targets and for us! I set up a Yuki Q7 and my old faithful Vercelli Spyra fiamma both with Shimano Ultegra XSDs loaded with 20lb braid, both rigs were pulley droppers, one with a single size 2/0 Sakuma manta extra with 30lb snod for the Rays, and the other rod was a single size 4 Aberdeen with 15lb snod for the Sole. And baits were to be Bluey and Lugworm.

1st ray at 4lb

With both rods cast out, The Ray rod cast to the horizon, that's as far as I can cast, which is closer in reality and further in my mind lol, well only thing I'm sure it's over 100m. And the second rod for Sole cast around 40meters. I sat back and waited, the rod tips held perfectly still, baits untouched by crabs and the apparent lack of  Whiting or Pouting which can be a nuisance, was leaving the baits out and confidently fishing for their intended targets. It was very quiet indeed, the sun went down, and in the darkness I expected a deluge of bites, but nothing! Then out of the blue a big big pull down followed by a slack liner. I watched the rod tip, it didn't move again, but I noticed the line peeling off downtide to the right towards Jason, the fish was on the move and in a hurry!!!, I reeled in the slack line, and lifted into the fish to set the hook. It was a weird and very hard fight, it literally seemed like I dragged the fish nose first through the sand all the way in! it was a Thronback Ray around the 4lb mark and a very welcome catch.

2nd ray at 6lb

Although having caught a Ray, I should of been happy, but the truth was I was having a nightmare casting, I'd cracked off 5 times with wind knots, I never had this issue before, well so many times in one session, compared to a few times over a year! not only was I down to my last rigs, and no components to make any more, I was at a loss, and was considering calling it a night. After a sulk and chat with Jason, I decided to carry on, I stripped about 70m of braid off my spools, as I was convinced it was loaded to close to the lip, I'd lost about 50meters in wind knots, and now I had removed even more, this left me about 150meters on each spool, it was s'#t or bust!!, one more crack off and it would of been game over!! I was casting carefully, and purposely not overpowering it, 1.) because I didn't want to crack off again and lose my last rigs, and 2.) I could see the spool as there wasn't very much braid left on it after casting. The plan worked, and after a series of successful cast  saw a big pull down that continued to strip braid off the spool, I hit the fish straight away! a very different fight where I could feel it fighting and pulling back, I slipped it out of the water and onto the sand, another Thornback, and the biggest of the night at 6lb.

3rd Ray at 3lb

It had been one hell of a beautiful night, and a stunning dusk and dawn, the fish had been few and far, and the lack of tide and crabs meant the rods were staying out for long periods of time, giving me time to relax, which I really, really enjoyed, it's something we all need from time to time. The Sole rod had been quite all night and only accounted for a few Whiting, but I had 2 Thornback Rays and cheekily reeled in 3rd weighing in at about 3lb on the last cast. The venue was stunning, more rougher around the edges than Dymchurch main beach and sandier and shallower than most of the main beaches at Hythe. I would definitely come back! All I needed to do now, was drive home safely after no sleep, and re spool my 2 reels, now what line to put on them? oh.... and not forgetting to tie lots more rigs!

Bass And Sole Fishing

The Great Escape

Jurys Gap, Rye TN31, UK and Rock-A-Nore, Hastings TN34 3DW, UK

Jurys Gap is some awesome beach!!!!

Its started off a very funny year for myself this year, I've been plenty of times and caught lots of fish, I think the best fish has been a 6lb odd Thornback Ray, but nothing else really of note, and I found it hard to get excited and write a blog. I've said it before that if I only wrote blogs about those special captures that I would only be writing about twice a year if I was lucky! So I guess my point is really what is a good session worthy of a blog? well if it numbers of fish caught then that's what I have done, and if its catching a target fish, then I've caught my target fish, and if it is catching a new species, then I have done that. So why have I not written many blogs this year?, I don't know, maybe I've just been to busy, Preoccupied with my 1 year old son, Life is a complete rush at the moment, or I just need to find the inspiration and motivation, and that is only coming from being out there fishing, so I decided that I would be blogging about this session regardless, and as it happens it wasn't a bad one either.

short snod wessex rig, size 4 hooks

It's Sole season, and with 2 score of Black Lugworm and 1/2KG of live Ragworm, 6 x Wessex rigs with size 4 hooks, and my Penn Fierce 2 reels loaded with 12LB mono with 12lb - 30lb tapered leaders, I was 110% ready to go Sole hunting! Only thing was they just hadn't quite showed yet, I had fished about 4 venues unsuccessfully, and even other anglers only reported the odd one caught hear and there, this session was going to be more about finding where they are. Because I already knew where they wasn't really showing, I even changed plans with a friend who I was was supposed to be fishing with, on one of these venues in north Kent venue, which left me going solo! and the adventure began then, I was confident the fish were going to be on the South Coast. one venue had always been on my radar, but I never had the chance to fish was Jurys Gap, a shallow sandy bottom filled with deep gullys and holes, with a narrow shingle storm beach with a close range gutter, the perfect Sole territory!

nice fighting schoolie Bass

I arrived at 7pm on a hot Friday evening to hoards of kite surfers, picnickers and everything thing else imbetween, I was not fishing close, I looked right and it got busier, I looked left and it got very dead, I couldn't see anyone! so I walked along the beach for around 15 minutes found this very quiet bit of beach, I realise that I was going to get cut off by the tide hear and trapped in what I think was a military firing range, but more on this later!. it was quiet I had the whole beach as far as the eye could see to myself, no dogs, boats, no people in the water, this is where I would be fishing!, and I picked an area where I could cast each rod into a deep hole in the sandy bottom, hopefully where the Sole would come and wait for food to congregate in. It looked perfect! the tide crept over the sand as the sun was setting, one rod baited with Lugworm, the other baited with Ragworm, my traps were set! Well, I keep this short, I caught 10 Bass, from 8cm to 41cm, lovely fish of coarse, and enjoyable fishing made better by the complete lack of perceived nuisance fish, but I will move this along as this was only the first half, and things only get more commando from now on.

Bass selfies

The tide was fully in now, and as I sat there, I had lost confidence of catching a Sole, the tide would retreat leaving me fighting to keep up with the retreating water and navigating in the dark around the permanently water filled gullys and holes.  probably would have gone home at this point, but I still had half my prime bait, and with dawn only 3 hours away, I had time to relocate and fish for Sole on a less demanding beach, I decided to go Hastings, and fish my favourite spot. Well I climbed up the steep man made shingle wall onto a path and walked towards the car, very soon I was enclosed in barbed wire and a locked gate and guard tower, my fears were right, I was trapped, or at least until the tide went out, this was no good I had Sole to catch!! Barbed wire, locked gates, the sea, a giant boulder wall, and even a concrete wall were never gonna stop me!!! climbing around in the dark with a head torch breaking out of a military compound with 2 rods, a tripod, a tackle box and a cool box, ie no free hands, I think this proved my dedication some what, or I'm just crazy!!!

First Sole of the year

Having made my great escape, I drove to hasting pulled up in the car park Dam!!! people were camped out and fishing my obviously not so secret spot, it's actually a well know spot, but I like to think otherwise. I set up on the beach about 40 meters from them, very disappointed that I wasn't getting where I wanted to be. I walked over to them to see if they had caught much, but I saw rods and a bivey but no one standing, as I got closer it became clear they were not presently fishing and fast asleep in the bivey, I made a quiet retreat hoping not to get caught, I mean, what would you think if you woke up to someone creeping around your fishing rods in the middle of the night? As I returned, I decided, that I was gonna take advantage of the situation, hell I had broke out a military establishment to get here!! I turned my torch off and enter stealth mode, I crept quietly along the shore line with all my gear, until I reached the groin, with the still sleeping anglers up on the high tide ridge, I was around 40 yards in front of them, I set up and cast both rods out, with high expectations.

a small slip

It didn't take long, 5 mins, and the first bite was a cracking bite!, I struck and played a hard fighting 2lb plus Eel, dam the rig was twisted to hell, covered in slime and ruined, I cut the Eel loose, he wasn't even hooked, he then speedily made his way across 10 meters of beach to put himself back in the water! It took another 10 minutes for the next bite, a shy and gentle bite, definitely a bite but more like a crab pulling the bait off the hook. I struck and it felt like I was stuck to the bottom like a crab, it pinged free, and I reeled in a weight, it was fish or crab on I wasn't sure until I  beached it,it was a Sole!!! yes get in !!! a lovely perfect keeper Sole of 30cm! it didn't stop there! the next bite was a bigger Sole of 34cm, and after a few missed bites, I landed a third of 26cm, the sun by now had fully risen, and with it, the bites soon dried up and the expectation of catching another disappeared. 

The best of the trio at 34cm, daddys dinner!

It was time to pack up! the sleeping anglers camping behind me were still fast asleep as I left, and to my knowledge they will never even know that I had been there, as I walked back to the car, I could see they were serious about saving the spot, I counted another 5 rods, along the beach and sea wall that I didn't see in the dark! If they had woke of coarse I would of just moved, luckily for me they didn't. This had been a adventure I think most wouldn't of encountered, I had escaped one camp and broke into someone else's in my attempt to find the Sole, and I'd caught 3 keepers!, strangely enough, one at 34cm for daddy, one for 29cm mummy and one at 26cm for baby. That's the whole family catered for. Dover Sole are some of the best tasting fish I know, and I'm very much looking forward to this meal!! I asked at the begining of this blog what makes a session worthy of writing about, and I refound my reason, it's the adventure, that's what I've been missing for a bit, and that's whats gonna keep me going!