relight my fire...

So after probably the worst 2 years of my life so far I'm hoping to start fishing again,It's always been a massive part of my life and it's a big part of who I am in a way. Just renewed my rod licence so I'm good to go, Not rejoining my local club just yet gonna do a few day ticket venues locally.

These last 2 years have seen me lose my lovely mum and my wonderful step dad micheal who truly was one of life's most likeable people you could ever wish to meet.on a positive note I finally managed to marry my long suffering fiance Claire just over a year ago ,So glad micheal made it to the wedding as it was hard enough mum not being there.we also moved shortly after getting married and we are now right by the seaside which is simply lovely.when micheal passed I inherited his little westie which he loved dearly and I made a promise to look after her for him,she's quite a character and a nice addition to our family.

All the stress of the last 2 years has taken its toll and I'm now dealing with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure ,which is almost under control.did manage to get out for a couple of trips sea fishing from a local venue and I will talk about that in a moment. Did manage a trip to the wonderful sanctuary in France but it was just after mum died and the trip was a disaster.couldnt focus ,for a lot of the time couldn't be bothered to even wet a line.found myself in the middle of France with very little company and no transport.my head was all over the place and my grief definitely ruined the trip for me although I did manage a few fish.the last 2 years saw me lose touch with a very dear friend and fellow angler and recently we have managed to re establish our friendship and our love of fishing.hoping to get back out very soon ,Any way back to those sea fishing trips.....

I fished a few months back from salterns car park at lee on solent. However from memory i knew there were 2 good rock pools fairly close in so i put a large shrimp into the middle of where i thought it was.nothing happened for the first 20 minutes or so but when the take came it was nothing short of savage ,I've caught some hard fighting fish before but nothing like this.can honestly say this was the first shore fish that I've ever caught that took line and lots of it.i was using braided main line and I could feel every bump and twist and turn of the fight and when I finally beached it in the surf I was gobsmacked,a near double figure smoothhound on my first trip out! Absolutely made up with this capture.took dome photos and released it back to the sea.i followed this up with a small pup and a tiny school bass ,not bad i thought to myself,beginners luck surely,lol.