The Joy of Fishing.

         Fishing can drive you insane sometimes and I recently had 24 hours that took me close to the edge.
First mark, jagged would be an understatement, the rocks here are so sharp like nothing I've seen anywhere else.
 Replaced the 20lb 8 strand for 30lb power pro and a long 15 lb mono leader , checked the knots and started fishing confidently. Hooked a bass over 6lb close in on a feedshallow, it took a few metres of line then came to the surface and gave me a clear view of itself. Quick thrash and it cut the mono so easily with what I can only presume was its gill-plate? It made a complete mockery of my attempts to beef up my gear and it hadn't even touched a rock. I was gutted , nothing is more upsetting than losing a fish with a lure stuck in it , or so I thought!
Fished on for a bit longer but my head was wrecked. Headed off to a second venue and met up with Julian and Mike . The guys made vain attempts to break my leader as I told them the story , I took some stronger line off them and changed it , just incase.
I was still feeling gutted and sat and watched the lads while they covered the area . Julian missed a fish straightaway and then it went quiet. Decided to give the water a break and sat around chatting for 20mins.

It was a misty dark evening by now and there was a good swell on the shoreline. I fancied trying a big lure and picked out a Storm Wildeye Live Anchovy ,at 6 inches long and 1.5ozs it was the biggest shad I had .
  A gentle lob put it out there and I started the retrieve before the lure touched bottom. Steadily winding  slowly with the rod held high, I could picture the lure in my minds eye swimmining just above the rocks , its big paddle-tail working away and sending out vibrations. I had no desire to "work " the lure and was just waiting for the nose to touch off a rock to signal to me to increase retrieve speed slightly.
 Slam ! the take was strong rather than violent and I knew it was a good fish, atleast 6 I thought to myself. The lads wound in quickly beside me as the fish made a couple of surging runs, they knew I'd have to make my way past them to land the fish. As it came closer to shore it seemed to get stronger and stayed deep in the water, I realised my first guess at its size had been an under-estimation.
    I was standing on the rocks in the pounding water up to my thighs , a white foamy fizz all around me when its head came out of the water 3 metres away , F*** ! was the only thought that accompanied the gasp I had on seeing the beast at close quarters , Mike standing next to me thought the same , it was a very big fish.
     Its mouth was still closed (no sign of the lure) and it was nowhere near ready to come in, but it was on the surface a swell was coming, my line was strong , my drag was set and my reaction was to lift the rod and pull as the swell picked up the fish and brought it towards me. I was hopeful of a quick landing as I wasn't comfortable with my position. Even though I had landed many fish into this gully/pool behind me before the swell made me feel uneasy on my feet and I just wanted to get out of it .
     Then for the first time in my life the rod I was using snapped.............

Right on the large eye on the butt, I remember the sick feeling as I write.  A false hope came over me as I grabbed the line and realised the fish was still attached and somewhere in between us was most of my rod . Could I hand-line it in ? .......With no leverage and little control the braid parted easily on a rock to rub my face in it in the most excruciating way,....... bye bye rod ,lure and definately the biggest bass I've caught in a good while . One cast and it was game over , the lads tried to raise my spirits but they were nearly in as much shock as me , I went home to bed .
   The head was tortured all night and after a poor sleep I got up went straight to the van , grabbed what was left of my rod attached a weighing scales to my line and tested the drag on my reel . I steadily pulled and I jerked , I could only get just higher than 3lb pull on the scales , it didn't help my confusion.
    I needed a fish to ease the pain and stop me feeling like the biggest numpty to ever cast a rod ,so after lunch I set off to the shore once again where I managed another first in my fishing career .
   I caught a seabird ! A cormorant to be precise , I could only laugh like a mad man losing the plot as I removed the hook from its wing , my other hand clamped in its mouth like a pacifier , it was time to consider new hobbies.

Eventually though I did what I'd planned to do when I started fishing over 24 hours earlier, I actually caught and landed a fish , relief would be another understatement ...........

A lovely fish as you can see but it was no consolation for the one that got away ! not in the same league at all I'm afraid.

As I drove home I pondered over the worst fishing experience I'd ever had ,but was happy now I'd broken the curse as catching a fish was obviously the sign it had ended. Then I ran over a cat (another first),............
I broke into a cold sweat......................