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3am start... picked up mates by 5am.. down at the Brighton Marina before 7am
The sun was shining, the sea was mirror calm and we'd turned up to go Conger hunting armed with big sticks and, after a visit to the Tacklebox, armed with £20 of cuttlefish for some additional Conger appeal.
Conditions were slow tide, slack about 9ish, then tide increasing steadily for the remainder of the day with mild applications of factor 50 suntan lotion.
Once on the boat, Jamie (Deckhand) and Paul (Skipper) were helping people get kitted up, I was busy prepping three of the four rods I brought:
50 lb sea range (think heavyish 30-50lb), warbird reel, 50 lb mono, 50lb shock leader, wire trace zero point running ledger (on wire) to a 10/0 oshaunnassy (I can never remember - hook for moby dick). This was freshly repaired by myself with a new fuji ring.
Agility Uptide 5-10oz, no up tiding but as a 20-30lb class, penn reel and 50lb gardner braid, 50lb shock to a boom, lure(s).
Agility Sea Spin 20-50g (1-2oz) 8ft with shimano hyper loop full spool, 20lb braid and mackerel feathers then lazzy band to the weight.
(this was taken about an hour out..)
We headed off.. first wreck was occupied but we setup for mackerel - although perfect above water, the conditions underneath were murky. Just a couple of macky, a set of horse mack, some pout.. with that we headed off for Conger town with the cuttlefish and squid in defrost (we'd planned to use both anyway)..
On arriving, I put a whole cuttlefish, with a head of another that was in the bag on the 10/0 carefully so that it would be balanced and gave it a wrapping of elasticated thread. Lovely.. not moving on the hook and sits in the water nicely too.. with 12oz attached it made it's way quickly down to the bottom. The slack tide not moving it and allowing some line through the running ledger. I settled down to watch whilst telling some of the guys in our group (boat exclusively for our group) what they should do with one of the massive foot long squid and cuttlefish to prepare it for conger.
A little while later I noted a few knocks.. left it alone and it went all quiet again.. pulled up for a bait check - no problem.. and down it went again.
A little longer pasted.. Conger is a waiting game.. the tip of the 50lb rod moved a little - this being a medium action carbon rod means you have to watch as there's not much of this quiver tip action.. the rod nodded a little again.. time to pick up the rod and give it a 'play'.. so I picked up the rod and gave the line a little cuttlefish "slow pull".. sure enough there was weight and a pull back.. so I wound down.. with the tip of the rod just above the water... and raised steadily, with strength but not whipping it up.. I started to wind, and pump..
Paul: "Keep the rod out.. or the braid will snap on the keel"..
The rod bent in a lovely medium arch. I was busy pumping, winding.. and rod tip was knocking around - it's the first time I've seen this rod actually bend.. Even with 5Kg on in the garden it didn't bend like this. Meanwhile I'd been screaming "Guys.. err... this is a 50lb rod... Guys... err...". Whatever it was at the bottom of it .. it was feeling frisky. One mate strapped a support on, and the rod but went in.. my arms were starting to burn.. the rod was arched over ... man it was angry..
Paul: "Keep the rod out.. or the braid will snap on the keel".. So I repositioned myself.. my arms and back aching left me in the weird twisted form..
Paul (Skipper) was saying - ease off the drag, let it run and tire itself out.. so I slowly found the point of drag to leave it some movement... a few minutes late it slowed down and I started pumping again.. the rod was unloaded and I was reeling like crazy..
Jamie "Think it might be off.."
Paul " You might be right."
Beeeeennnnndddd... shake shake.
Paul "Oh no.. fish on"
Pumping again.. it made it into sight of the boat.. before making a slower run... at which point it was quickly surface bound.. with my new pumping style and the rod bending less each time.. it broke surface.
With it netted for photos - it's not a large fish but it had a lot of attitude.. rolling like crazy on the boat I couldn't get my fingers in to hold up.. T-barred and the hook was out. Slipping I finally got a hold on it..
As I say not big.. but certainly made a bend I ache still today.. No idea of weight, or size.. I'm 6'5 with the hiking boots on.. and to be honest I didn't care about the weight but I have a little understanding of the respect these things need..
Returned head first it didn't look back, and with body undulating it made quick work of disappearing into the depths.
The hook photoed on return, I noted the teeth marks on the shank of the hook (there's little t-bar scrape but not all of that is t-bar, the skipper was too efficient):
With that over.. I settled down into some light fishing using the spinning rod - I switched over to using a smaller set of hoki and put a 40g silver pike spoon on the spinning rod. With 6oz of lead the poor thing was in downtide mode.. but the spoon made it.. after a quiet period BLAM a full set of mackerel for bait.
I switched to the uptide rod and dropped a sidewider down with some fish on the hook for smell.. sat it there around the bottom - 20ft up.. just to see if there's any cod etc down..
I switched to the spinning rod.. and BLAM out of the blue a single mackerel.. The birthday boy Steve was presented with the mackerel.. which was put onto his line...
4 minutes later all I hear is a screaming reel.. "oh, I lost one before by striking too early.."... SCREEEEAAAAMMMMM ... Steve then picks up his rod and strikes hard.. *ping* !@£(*&!£(!&£Y$(!@&£$Y(@£&%Y(@£*&% @£%*$&@£%(&@Y£%(*&@Y expletive.. expletive.. probably a large tope but this was a 30-50lb setup with the drag screaming.. maybe the drag set to high.. but unlikely as he's been fishing for years.. the leader snapped. Gutted.
Flukiest catches by the same person - old brass pipe "that was fighting hard" until it broke the surface.. Much pish taking... then as all the last lines were lifted at the end of the day.. the same guy breaks the water surface - LOBSTER. Blue and freshly moulted, it had left one claw behind and the hook was wrapped around the other, he pulled it on the boat without a net (eek!) and then it shed the claw. Well that's dinner at his house sorted.. decent size too.
So Congers, Pouts, a cod, mackerel, horse makerel, cuttlefish (dropped back), brass pipe, lobster and lots of memories - all on a sunny lake like sea..
Next up... Ling.
I finally got back - being nominated driver... at 8pm I lost conciseness and the mrs decided to have some fun with the door stop she made.. but she only showed me this in the morning..
