It has been a wild couple of months of lockdown, isolation and finally the excitement of finally getting our lines wet again.
St Leonards pier has produced a challenge, the weeks post lockdown many of the usual species disappeared and are only now starting recover to it's regular self. Only caught a single squid since the 22nd, mornings they've caught a few but it's real quiet.
Friday 22/5/2020, Sunny afternoon with light calm S winds, clean rising tide.
Headed out looking for some gars, after 15 minutes of fine burley a school of mixed species and tommy rough turned up and went wild chasing the squid strip of a size #10 long shank with a single split shot. Ten Tommies in ten minutes, kept the largest five and gave away the rest.
Burlied for 15 minutes with no luck, until a huge school of kgw (we're talking easily 100+) went straight to my bait, hooked the one and spooked the school. Moved shallower and burlied heavy, school kept moving around and ended up landing another 8. Nothing huge, but a great dinner.
Burley proved a treat, big mixed school of luderick, zebras, wrases and leather jackets were crusing back and forth every 5 minutes. They've been hanging around since the 22nd, exact same school minus the tommies. Only species interested in the unweighted long shanked squid were the leather jackets, ended up pulling out the largest of the school. Luderick didn't want to bite, tried putting some sea lettuce on the end with a ball of the burley and had a couple of light bites. No gars, no tommies.
Heading out on the low wind Monday, burley up again.
Bread crumbs/garlic powder/tuna oil and water to make a paste, works a charm.
Tight Lines!
