Hi all
Fished my usual spot at portishead yesterday 27/5/12 high tide 11.50am
Picked up some rag from reel fun headed off to my mark .....
Arrived on the beach /rocks at 10.30 ..........
One rod out with six rag on a pennel pully rig
second rod out with wish bone rig with the hope of a sole or two ....
All quiet till 11.10 small pull down on pennel rig rod ........left it for a min or two then rod tip came back up slowly then twitched several times ...........
Picked up the rod and lifted into something real heavy .......
The rod started to nod as my prize felt the hooks take a hold ...........as I put pressure on the fish it just made a lunge and took several yards of line in seconds ......
I increased the preasur on the clutch ..........this stopped the fish for a very short time
Bump bump I felt the fish protesting to the extra pressure but still it took line off the reel with very little effort ........by now the fish was at least 80_100rds off shore
I wound the clutch down on the reel as much as I dare but still this fish was having none of it.
the runs the fish made were not fast but slow steady solid swimmer .......
All I could do was too hang on and hope the fish would either turn or surface ........
The more pressure I applied the more this fish took line -
I hooked this fish at 11.10 ish .....I ran out of line at 12.01 it took every last inch of line I had on the reel ...........approximately 210 yrds .......
I have fished portishead for over thirty years and have had many fine fish some in to double figures ...........but this fish was in a league of its own .............
Any ideas what it could have been?.?? ;)

Sounds sort of Conger/Big Ray/Good Cod type off bite/fish - unlucky on that one Zipplex :(

Gert ray I recon mate.

Unlucky but sounds like you had a good fight :D

if he stayed down mr conger or a big ray kiteing up in the tide both can get very big there.
i lost a monster conger there last year it just hit reverse and did not stop.

my guess big snake.
shame. we will never know but thats why we fish :D

Sounds a bit like a Veals boat report further down the Channel. http://z10.invisionfree.com/Veals_Mail_Ord...topic=5066&st=0
Wonder if it could be a common skate maybe?

Nothing worse for me than to lose a fish without getting a glimpse of what it was.
Unlucky chap but for it to take all your line like that must have been a bloody good un whatever it was, i bet you'll be back there very soon! :D

Thanks for the replys guys ......
This experience has given me a sleepless nite not knowing what it was and im sure it will give me a few more ..............it will probably never happen again .......but who knows, ..........
I guess that's what makes us go back time and time again .............
Tight lines all ;) :D

im putting my money on a big snake,if you would of landed it i reckon it would of been a chanell record lol :lol:

A big conger would be a noticeable head shake and give regular strong knocks during the fight - to me it sounds like a great big ray, Guess anything over 25lb would be capable of a run like that but thinking even a 25lb would be turnable.

There's something in the channel like there is in Loch Ness, only difference is a few of us have hooked it...
Skate is still my bet... But it could be that pesky plesiosaur!

It's interesting how there's a pattern emerging with this type of catch report from reliable angler's.
Big uncontrollable fish stripping off 100's of yards of line with shear power, would love to see someone land one, was wondering if it would be worth trying to target what ever it from the shore, it does wet the appetite.
Also found this, maybe they might venture further up the Channel.

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/Common-...l&mode=threaded

Could it have been a large tree? I say this with utmost respect but have seen some very experienced anglers landing monster fish which have turned out to be snags/carrier bags etc? Most of the bits of the fight you describe could be attributed to a big old branch tumbling along the seabed!?

Fishwise - I'm sure a conger would have given itself away with head shakes. Big ray/skate or a lost tope?

Seal/dolphin/porpoise? Would have come up for air I guess...

Cheers

Andy

Another possibility is seaweed ? - this is a sod to wind in at the best of times - aided by the fight of a reasonable fish and you would have a fair ole weight on the end of your line - throw in a bit of tide - H'mm - we'll never know :D

could this be what we are going for in september Bassman?

It reminds me of the Total Sea Fishing's Editor, when he nearly caught a massive skate.

His reel blew up as the creature was being cranked up from the depths. It could be seen swooping around under the boat, as several of the crew stood by to grab the monster as it got to the top.

Eventually they managed to wrestle the beast to the surface, only to find that he'd successfully hooked a double matress.

If one of those monsters migrates from the travellers site at Aust to be hooked off of Battery Point, there'd be no way of stopping it :D

I had one of these hookups last year, line being taken and nothing you can do about it, I managed to get a few yards back, and it was definately a fish on the end. Shouted across to another angler for some help in landing it as I was on a ledge at battery, just as he got alongside me the pulley rig broke, and I reeled in a swivel. Big lunging pulls the same as you describe, I guessed it at either a big ray or conger, and was sick as a pig for days after thinking...was that what a 40lb cod feels like!? One day a monster fish is gunna reeled in with all of our traces in it's mouth!Hard luck zippy I know how you feel, it's totally gutting!

No Gary - we are going for Skate - not seaweed :D

I would say that what Zipplex had on was not a Common Skate or else he would have lost his 200 yds of line a lot quicker than the hour that it did take him to lose his line - my bet would be on a big Ray - Blonde/Sting/Electric - their all a possibility ?

The fact that he could feel some head shake during the tussle would point towards a fish fighting to get away - a Skate would have just glided off without any head shaking - just a constant steady weight that would have been unstoppable on beach gear.

round there with the tidal pulling large rays can be held in the tide they will kite up to the top sometimes give you wave quite some distance out from the shore then brought in across the top or nearer to the surface.

one thing for sure he is still out there somewhere lurkin in the murky waters of the BC.

if forgotten what was the bait again. :rolleyes:

big blondy cant be ruled out though i suppose.

just so you can sleep now zziplex lets call it a conger .well thats what i say to myself when i lose a monster. :lol:

Just another thought guys ......it was suggested to me that it could of been a ray but foul hooked ?? Hense un stopable ?.
The weed and tree theory sounds plausible but there was very little tide run as it was just coming to the top of tide ...........
Tight lines all <_<

yeap a foul hooked ray gets some getting in .

Reminds me of when a friend of mine hooked a ruddy great tarpaulin in the channel. He swore it was abig fish and the only way he could regain any line was to walk backwards and then run forwards winding in the slack line as he went. It was dark so we didn't realise what it was until it was right underneath us. He broke his back getting it in and I split my sides laughing :lol:

It wasnt those two lads carp gear i seen on sat morning
the next bag n jjb bag n carp rods stuffed in the carp landing net with the old school boy tackle box
could it
na couldnt be?????
maybe

i still reckon it was a conger,as you say it was coming to the top of tide thats when your most likely to hook a biggy off there,the only thing i find strange if it was a big conger why did it not bite through your trace unless it was lip hooked.as a matter of intrest what hooks & trace size were you using? :unsure:

:o Reminded me of two incidents, first was when I was a kid and we were fishing a small patch of shingle beach between the rocks near Devil's Point in Plymouth, something took my bait and steamed off with it, when Ii tightened the drag down I got physically dragged down the beach until it bit off. That must have been a decent size conger as that area is renowned for them. :o

The other was one night session by the fishing boats at Dungeness, it was really foggy and my mate Lee hooked something substantial and was struggling to get it in. When he got it about 10 yards from the beach we could make out something big breaking the surface occasionally so we dragged it up by the leader between the pair of us only to discover it was a big discarded trawler net! Mind you it had half a dozen dogfish in it so we had a bit of fun in Marsh Tackle the next morning, the guy was amazed we'd bagged up on doggies round there, we forgot to mention the net! :D

This is what it was.....

25lb hook length with a pair of size 2/o hooks ........

perhaps u had this

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/...nded-shark.html

The guy who caught the shark has a really good website with free fishing videos, totally awsome fishing, check it out.