How to Fish for Congers, Lesson 1.

Was feeling the need to catch some congers after ordering a load of wire and big hooks, so set off for the breaky with Andy and Mark. We arrived as darkness was falling and the tide was rising, but as we unpacked the gear I realised that in the excitement of getting ready, Id forgotten the bait..  Fortunately Andy had a few mackies sandeel and squid, so all was not lost, but my hopes of picking up minis on rag was gone.. but slivers of mackerel could get something..

So each all set up a conger rod and a scratching rod each. Iv been contemplating switching back to fixed spools recently, and was away to set up with one of those for the conger rod, but then realised I only had 15lb line on these with a 50lb leader, so opted for my trusty fladen multiplier which had either 25 or 30lb line through (cant quite remember) and it also had the clicker so I could detect bites without watching the rod.

Andy was first with a decent bite, but got snagged up after a couple of bangs from what could have been a decent fish. He was also next to reel in a fish a wee pollock which he thought was a whiting until I looked at it properly, and then he got a nice plump codling, but didnt notice the bite, but its all a learning curve, as you're about to find out..

At about an hour before high, I heard a nice smooth run of clicks and dashed over to my conger rod and struck into a solid weight. I then had the best fight from any fish Iv had in the british seas, lasting good few minutes. Eventually it hit surface, and it was a monster serpent, 'as thick as Andys leg'. Andy was on his stomach with his net on a long pole, and grabbed my line, and guided its head safely into the net. As he lifted the weight of the fish with the line to try get more of it into the net so he could get it up, the worst happened..  apparently my at least 25 lb line was not strong enough to lift out this monster and it had snapped.. to say im gutted is an understatement, but, iv caught the congering bug, and shall return every day or two until I get that fish, or one bigger!

At least I now know the rest of my tackle, and the way I played it,  and the way I made my traces can stand up to a monster fish (I will be putting my conger rig up in the rigs section when im not as tired and attempting to do work in the library in the morning),  and i now have about 30ft of 60lb shock on every reel I own. there was also a bit of method optimisation in the way to net them, as we also had a dropnet with us, but not set up as we were all too busy trying to catch fish, so preparation is the key, and Im sure we'll net the monster next time and have some excellent photos..

Mark had the best session with a steady stream of whiting and doggies, but nothing much else happened for me, apart from a little Poor Cod which brings my species tally to 12. so the night was not completely unsuccessful!!

The rest of the night was spent with Andy laughing to himself at the fact I went congering without shockleader, but my thoughts were iv never seen a conger over about 10lbs, and let alone hooked one myself, with my p.b. at 7.5lbs! And so I thought 25lb line would have been enough to be able to tame a conger. but it seems im not going to be sleeping tonight with the thought of, 'why didnt I choose the other reel????' going through my head..

So lesson 1 of congering is to always have very strong shock leader cos you never know what you might hook!!  I know i wont be making the same mistake ever again!