Having just recently fished Grasslot Beach three days before and disappointedly caught very little on a huge 10.1 metre tide. I decided to give it another try on a more favourable 9.1 metre tide with a nice 12-15 MPH south westerly wind putting a lovely colour in the water.

Starting off fishing on the sand in front of the steep shingle beach, I was more confident of catching fish looking at the nice surf and chocolate coloured water.

The first hour was no surprise, quiet with no bites, as I find the fish tend to appear when the water hits the shingle and starts to get deeper, as it floods up the steep beach. I would highly recommend this beach for anglers with limited mobility, as it has the compacted sand car parking directly behind it and a short 50-100 metre walk is all that is needed.

I started fishing with the intention of fishing a rod close in looking for any flatfish, even a codling possibly feeding in the gutter at the bottom of the shingle. This rod was a Sonik Gravity X5 HT 15 foot 4 inch beach caster, paired with a Diawa BG 8ooo fixed spool loaded with 18lbs main line and a 60lbs shock leader. This rod is ideal for this type of clean ground fishing, but is capable of casting heavy leads up to 7oz and dealing with the weed that a rough sea may bring with it.

As this beach frequently turns up larger fish from a number of species, such as codling, bass, smoothounds, bullhuss and thornback rays, I opted to use a 13 foot 6 inch Century Tip Tornado Sport paired with a Penn Fathom 15 loaded with 15lb main line and 60lbs shock leader. This rod has a cult status amongst a lot of anglers and is more than capable of landing anything that swims around our shores.

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At the sharp end of the Sonik rod was a two hook 1 up and 1 down flapper rig. With 18 inch long fluorocarbon snoods in 20lbs breaking strain, armed with size 2 B940 Kamasan hooks. These hooks are one of the best on the market and give me confidence if I hook into a large species I was not targeting, as often can happen. I was using straight lug baits and cocktails of lug tipped with both squid and bluey.

The Tip Tornado Sport was fielding a 2 hook 1 up and 1 down clipped down rig with 18 inch 20lb fluorocarbon snoods armed with 2/0 Kamasan B950u Uptide hooks. These were baited with a large chunk of bluey or a yellow tail lug wrapped in squid.

I was shortly joined on the beach with Maryport club mate John Dixon, also fishing two rods and who was quickly into his stride landing a rapid succession of lesser spotted dogfish. I also landed several dogfish on the Tip Tornado Sport at range and they were also feeding close in, as I started to catch them in the gutter close in on the Sonik HT. John carried on catching doggies every cast and mine were interspersed with a few whiting. It was nice to see most of the whiting were of a legal size, the best being 30cm.

John and I had a busy 2 hours leading up to high water getting some cracking bites every cast, good rattles and slack line bites. It quietened down a little over high water with a few bites not hooking up, but we both were still picking up the occasional doggie or whiting. About an hour after high water I dropped a small possibly bass or codling in the surf, just getting a glimpse of a different shape and coloured fish as it disappointedly slipped the hook.

My disappointment was short lived, as I watched a bite on the Tip Tornado Sport slowly nodding away. Giving it time to take the bait I wound down onto the lead and slowly lifted the rod breaking the grip lead out of the sea bed. Immediately I could feel a heavy load on the rod as the tip arched into a nice curve. Running through my mind I was wondering if it was a big clump of weed or was it a decent fish or even a double shot! I dispelled the weed theory, as whatever it was stayed deep down in the water. As it broke the surf in the edge I could see the tell tail sign of a thornback rays wings flapping in the foamy water. I slid the fish onto the beach with the help of a nice wave and picked up a male thornback probably weighing about 4lbs. It had taken a yellow tail lug wrapped in squid. My last cast resulted in a nice double shot, a doggie and 30cm whiting, which went nicely with an earlier double shot of dogfish.

John and myself ended the session with about 8-9 dogfish each and a number of whiting and the bonus thornback. Weed had been a pain in the first hour or so, but thinned out nicely for a really enjoyable afternoons fishing. Once again Grasslot beach in the right conditions can be a great venue, easily accessed and producing the goods. All the fish were returned to fight another day!