1st Stop: Llanbadrig Ledges
Was looking for a fast start to March so had plans for a lot of fishing early on. The day of the 1st March started off badly when I saw that having forecast little/no wind for the night, it had suddenly changed to 12-15mph South Westerlies. Being rather annoyed I set off to go and check the conditions during the day on the off chance that it would still be comfortably fishable. It didn't look to pleasant so decided to rethink my plan of action. It was neap tides at night so decided to see if Ed fancied a go for Congers. He hadn't had any success on the previous few trips so decided to take him to a less pressured mark between Llanbadrig and Porth Wen where I had success a few weeks ago. We arrived at the mark after a nice 30 minute trek to find a nice sea mist coming in. Having set up with the usual running ledger with mackeral/squid and in Ed's case a
tip of Sardine we chucked the rods out into the depths. The fishing was so slow that I even resorted to catching a scorpion fish from one of the rockpools nearby to pass the time :) Approaching midnight the mist thickened and whistling noises started to echo around the cliffs. Add to this the scraping sound of limpets moving over barnacle covered rocks and it all added up to a scene from a horror movie. Slighlty on edge we were soon comforted with the sound of Ed's ratchet. He hit the fish and started pumping it in whilst I clambered to the waters edge to land his fish. Up it came twisting and turning and after safely landing it we weighed it in at 9lb 3oz. Finally Ed had broken his 2012 conger drought. Unfortunately for me the only action I had other than a few rig losses, was an annoying dogfish that decided it wanted my 3/4 mackeral head. Oh well, things could only get better at this point. Packed up and back at the car the drive home again got us on edge. Firstly from a herd of sheep in the road of which until we were right upon them just looked like a thousand angry eyes staring at us. Then shortly after from a mass of suicidal toads that were making there way across the busy tarmac. Relieved to be at home by 2am it was time for a short 4 hour kip before heading out again in the morning.
Ty Croes: 7am-12.30am - 02/03/2012 - After the previous nights disappointment it was time to get some serious fishing done. Ad had wanted to go ray fishing and as my original plan had been to head to Ty Croes the night before, I was more than happy to join him for an early session. We set off just before 7am and were on the ledge and ready for action by 7:45. It was perfect conditions again with a nice swell and low water coming at roughly 10am. I had told Ad not to expect much until the hour before low and it turned out that way. After a quick walk round to clean up any litter I could find it was Ad with the first capture, an octopus. This really tickled me as he had also had 3 octopus in his previous Ty Croes outing. Just not a venue that gives much to him at the moment. Not discouraged though we both reeled in, put some fresh bait on the pennels and once again sat back in waiting. It was my baits that soon got some interest and the first ray of the morning was landed shorty after (top left). Only a baby at 3lb 11oz but enjoyable all the same. It was a case of waiting then and after a further hour the tide had turned. Ad's second catch of the day followed, a starfish lol. We were both starting to think that his luck was well and truly out and after the capture of my second ray at 5lb 9oz (left) his morale had dropped to new lows. He doesn't like being outdone and little did he know things were going to get worse for him. The fish had started to come on now so having whacked out my sandeel/squid cocktail I was fairly confident of another fish. Before I could get chance though Ad was in and this time it was fishy. From the swell popped a greedy little 
whiting; not exactly what he'd had in mind but a fish none the less. This was when things just got better and better for me. Firstly, I landed this thorny on the left at 6lb 4oz before ending the session with my biggest of the day at 7lb 13oz (bottom right). Wide awake now even after little sleep, it was back to the car and off to plan the evening session. I had a certain pollock mark in mind and having seen the conditions at Ty Croes it was very promising. Report from evening session will be in post tomorrow. Need some much needed rest now after a long day
Hope you enjoyed the read,
Tight Lines, Ross
it is so amazing and challenging.if you do this you need a lots of energy and patience.
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