Had a nice session with my new rod and reel yesterday afternoon.

The tide was up around 6pm, so I hit my mark around 3pm, as around here, fishing is best the last 2 hours before high tide, and the first hour after.

Rigged up my surf rod first with the new 7000iC3 reel with a pulley tackle using boiled prawns as bait. I simply tie them on using normal office type eleastic bands…works great.

Anyway chucked out but was not happy with the distance. Had the break to tight so just reeled in and on the next cast I hit the spot I wanted

Then I set up the new ABU Workhorse2 rod, with my old 6500CS Rocket using a 40 gram lead lure. Cast and watched the lead disappear towards the horizon. The new rod is an incredible caster.

The lead hit water, I started reeling and I imediateley was into fish. The little green saithe actually gave a fight.

Two more casts landed me 2 more of the same kind. But now I wanted to check the surf rod. Winding in was no problem with the 7000 reel.

Nothing had touched the bait. So I simply added another prawn. And moved 20 meters (and 50 meters deeper), and cast out, set the rod down and on with the ratchet….and in the same moment: RRRRRRR…RR…RRRR form it.

So I grabbed the rod, and at the same moment it bent. Typical cod, only this one was not letting itself just being winched in like a piece of weed. But of course the little 1 kilo codling was no match.

But okay, first fish on both the new rod and the 7000iC3

For the next 2 hours I houled in 8-9 of the small saith with the Workhorse rod and lead lures. With no action on the surf rod at all. So i cleaned the saithe I was keeping for the table, and was just going to do one last cast before heading home, and wham!

The Workhorse was creaking…and something huge was stripping line from the 6500 CS rocket in an amazing speed…then it stopped, turned and came towards me! I reeled in keeping my rod high…and then it got stuck on bottom and that was that…

Got it loose and disapointed and standing next to the surf rod I reeled in… to see the tip of the surf rod nodding. But no hurry, so I just continued to reel in…uh…the surfrod was nodding in unison with me reeling in. So I stopped, and it too was stopping…slapped myself, as the biggie I had on must have crossed the surf rods line.

So I finished reeling in, and the surf rods line was draged in with it…making it totally limp in the water. I just let it be, and started dismantling the workhores rod…when I suddenly noticed that the line was tight again!

Grabbed the surf rod and gave a soft tug…yup, fish, but no ressistance, just the normal, boring cod winching. And this little 1 kilo codling was it. Went home to the wife with 2-3 kilos of saithe for staurday dinner…going to fry them and eat with fresh potatoes from the garden, and some other stuff that I have no idea what is called in English.

Anyway her is that last one:

Well well, not everyday in Norway yields giant cod and halibut….but I suspect this was a close call, and I had the mark all to myself…, as summer fishing is long since over, and it was raining to boot.