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And the winner is: Matching a male cuckoo wrasse with Gary’s tee shirt!

Turbot time for Graham on the Shambles

Its conger time, for Wendy.

Matching a male cuckoo wrasse with Gary’s tee shirt!

Part 2 The tide was rattling through now. Eels of around 30lb were really hard work and 1.5lb of lead was needed against the 30lb braid and 20/30 rods we were using. Bait was low and so with an air of doubt I cut a 3 inch wide steak of Pout and hooked it were the dorsal was. It was only minutes before I got that first, pussey cat, tug on the rod. Big eels are always gentle when they first bite. Soon the bite became a little more positive and then the rod started to heel over as the big girl below decided it was done eating out. Lifting into the fish nothing felt too unusual to start with, but soon she was using the tide to her advantage. After about ten minutes I could just see a long, snaking shape, some fifeteen yards behind the boat and about five yards down. A startled sea gull took flight, screaching at the beast that was slipping around his feet and with that the snake sounded. This was no ordinary run. A 40lb eel may dive ten yards or even 15, but this girl went from the surface, all 180 feet to the bottom. How do I know?.... I felt the lead hit the bottom when it reached it! Another five minutes and she was back on the surface. Bleeding hell, she was a very good fish! She dived one more time, but this time she got about halfway down. Rolling by the portside of the boat, Dan went to slip the net over her, but she literally barked and dived another time. She went deep, but after this run her fight was all but gone and she was soon in the net. Fatter than a man's thigh About seven feet long and fatter than a man's thigh she was a monster in the net.... "63lb" I shouted "Better not be", Charlie replied. At this juncture I should point out that Charlie has held the Poole Bay Conger record since 2000 with a nice eel of 61lb! "You'll be walking back if she is". At 60lb the scales didn't stop, they bounced from 70lb and then settled back at 66lb where they held steady. 66lb Of Poole Bay Conger record! Was I walking home? A very firm hand shake from both the Chapman's showed that Charlie was honourable at losing the record and Dan was a gent at not being the one to claim it. Gent for now, anyway.... I didn't rub it in at all. As many of you will know, I am quiet and understated and never open my mouth out of turn. "Wouldn't it be funny if we got another bigger one and broke it twice in one day". "Don't be stupid, that record has stood for 9 years and we ahve tried to break it almost every week since then". By now the tide was absolutely hacking through and so we lifted the hook and went to a secret Cod mark for a few drifts. It was still foggy, but we could hear the odd rumble of engines in whiteout nearby. As our drift started we quickly started hooking a couple here and a couple there and about 20 minutes in, the fog lifted. 20 minutes! 20 bloody boats. So much for the mark being a secret. From centre console Boston Whalers to charter boats crammed to the gunnels, there were boats everywhere. We fished the secret mark for about an hour through the peak run and managed quite a few fish with one or two returned. Best went 12lb with the average being the typical Summer fish of 6lb we have seen a lot of. All to soon the tide slackened to below 2.5 knots and it was time to go and set the hook on another nearby wreck. A quick drift over the top for "bait" saw a flurry of Summer Pollack to about 8lb coming on Mackerel feathers and then we set the hook and dropped down. Charlie was full of stories of how the biggest Conger he'd seen caught had come from this wreck and he was full of hope that he or Dan could reclaim the title. I leant into a gentle bite and the unseen beast below commenced those thrashing head shakes so familiar with an angree strap. A couple of reasonable runs and I was guessing this girl was around the 30lb mark, but she came to the surface easily and thrashed like a "little'un" all the way up. Wallowing on the surface I realised I'd badly misjudged. "Get the net Dan,this ones a good 55" As I pulled her the last ten feet towards the port quarter she realised something big was amiss and banged her tail hard on the surface. Down she went, down, down, down. The run was absolutely unstoppable, but very slow. Quite literally she ran very slowly, vertically down for about three minutes. It was, genuinely enough time for Dan to set the hook on, reel in and T bar off a 15lb fish from start to finish. After this long run, she came to the surface, pretty easily. Dived one more time, before she was well netted by Charlie. She was long, very long. Maybe not as thick as the last big fish, but she was big. How big? In disbelief, Dan and Charlie held the fish up on the scales and read off. "You've only gone and done it" "Bloody hell, 67lb!" I was more or less done in by this point. It was all I could do to heave her back over the side after a brief photo call. Rather pleased with myself, I sat back and enjoyed watching the other guys catch a few fish. As the tide slackened, the Tope came on again and then one final species to add to our tally of ten for the day, Dan hooked in to something. Maybe not big by Huss standards, but lovely to round things off and clearly he was happy with his catch. A beautiful little Bull Huss. Pretty as a picture Ten species: Poor Cod Pout Mackerel Cuckoo Wrasse Red Gurnard Bull Huss Pollack Cod Tope Conger 4 Fish of 100% or more of the Wessex specimen size Cuckoo Wrasse (specimen 1lb 4oz) 1lb 4oz Conger (specimen 40lb) 43lb Conger (specimen 40lb) 66lb Conger (specimen 40lb) 67lb I'll leave others to discuss appropriate attire for Conger fishing and why tailored shorts and flip flops are not a good idea.... Aching all over Tom