Morning everyone.
I contacted Barry (Big B here on UA) a while ago to see if he was keen to join me for a trip down to Raggiehole. He was keen, but the weather kept us away for a while. Already got sandblasted earlier the week by a strong East wind and was not in the mood for it again. Finally the wind slacked a bit yesterday and we decided that it is now or never.
Me and Christiaan met up with Barry and Pierre is Aston Bay The road is still flooded and full of potholes, so drive carefully when heading down there. The locals of Paradise Beach are now so used to the flooding that they started to see the lighter side of it. If anyone wants to buy a plot of land.....
On arrival (about 17:20) the conditions looked really good and we even saw a little bronzie being landed. Unfortunately other anglers had already claimed the prime spot, so we had to fish a bit to the side. No-one complained, as this meant a much shorter walk anyway.
Our neighbours were quickly into some diamonds while we were waiting for our first bite. Luckily the elfies were out in force and the sneaky buggers kept us busy while waiting for the bigger stuff. My lighter tackle was the first to get a run and after a good little fight I landed our first fish - a little diamond. Not the monster we were looking for, but at least the ice was broken.
Sunset came quick and fast and we were geared up and ready for the next one. Christiaan had a really good pull, a raggie by the look of it, but the hooks failed to set. Barry was next in line as his ratchet started screaming. The fish gave a good account of itself and after some bobbing and weaving through the rest of the rods, we finally had the leader and Barry landed a beaut of a diamond - 159cm if I remember correctly.
Also got a bit of a splash on the release
Pierre also slid out a mackie head and was quickly into a fish. The fish stayed behind the steep drop and fought really hard, but we soon had it over the lip and another good diamond was landed. Pierre was tired, but full of smiles!
I was just wondering when the raggies will start biting, when Barry's rod screamed off. This was on a whole chokka that he slid out when we arrived - about 4 hours ago. After a hard, but short fight, Barry pulled the first rag onto the beach.
The inland boys were really starting to show us up, so we struck back by catching a few of those elfies for bait on the next trip. Finally my reel screamed again and I showed that we EC guys can also catch a fishie from time to time.
While we were busy packing, one of our neighbours came over with a good fish on the line. The young man (about 14 years old) was struggling under the strain of a BIG fish. Another 30 minutes later he landed a really good rag of 202cm pcl. A really good fish on any day. Well fought and really well done young man!
We packed up and had a nice cold one back at the parking. The season is open and the fish are biting!
