Rough with the Smooth..

Just had to have another crack at it while the tides were right, so off we toddled again to the same venue. It looked good, wind had dropped, sea was calm, confidence was high. First cast..and the lead broke out almost straight away. Apparently there was quite a lot of weed around and with the strong flooding tide here, holding bottom was impossible, the only chance we had was to wait until it slackened off towards the top of the tide. We messed around for a while and found a spot further along the beach where the tide and weed were negligible, but it just didn't feel right here, we are so used to fishing in current and finding the fish there that to fish slack water now seems pointless. We waited some more, finally I could stand it no longer, we were approaching the top of the tide now, so I whacked a Crab out and waited to see what would happen. Still weed was collecting on the line, but by slowly paying out line and creating a bow I was able to hold fast in the tide for a few minutes. Watching the rod tip carefully, I saw it tap quite hard like a fish had hit the bait, then a moment later the line seemed to slacken, so I wound down to see if there was anything on there. Difficult to tell at first, then as the bundle of weed neard the shore I saw a tail wag behind it, Fish on! It was only a small one of about 1-2lb but it was a start. We all cast out again and it seemed that the tide and the weed was indeed slackening. Mr B was the next to connect, again only a small fish but at least we were getting bites. A short time later I was stood watching my rod tip when I had an almighty whack on it, I grabbed the rod, wound down and hit it, I was almost dragged into the water as the fish powered off on a tight clutch! Frantically I slackened the drag so the fish could take line, it was clearly of a good size. It fought hard in the flow and really pulled hard, Smoothound really do fight, and on the light Bass rods it really doesn't get much better! A few minutes later the fish was tailed by Mr H and I at last had a good Hound, which turned out to be a new personal best of 8lb 4oz. To say I was pleased was an understatement, and I smiled smugly as the pictures were taken. ( as you can see! ). One more fish was landed by Mr B, again a smallish one, before the tide once again began to run and the weed came back, but it didn't matter, time was up, some fish had been caught and fun had been had despite the hard work with the weed and tide.