Ty Croes gives me an early birthday present

 Ty Croes 24/04/2012

After getting a message from Gav L on Monday night asking when I was next going to Ty Croes, I checked the weather and thought why not go tomorrow night. He was very keen to join me, so we organised to meet at 2.30 in Menai Bridge and off we went. Arriving at about 3ish we noticed another car parked up and were praying they hadn't taken the number 1 ledge. Unfortunately we had been beaten to it though, so for the time being we dropped down on the ledge just the left. It was around mid-water and on the ebb so instead of wasting bait trying for the rays,

I chucked out a scratching rig in the hope of getting a whiting for bait, whilst Gav had some casting practice. Unbelievably I had not a single touch for a good hour and a half so decided to chuck out a sandeel just in case; my rewards, you guessed it, mr dogfish. I gave up with the heavy duty rods after this and instead focused my attention on fishing rag in the margins for some wrasse. Gav had also decided to give this a go but after getting a few knocks he struck into a snag. His rod tip was still bouncing indicating the fish was still on, so I climbed down to get a better angle for to pull from but when it came free the fish had gone, we got his rig back though. Now on a lower level I had a better angle to cast closer to the rocks and almost immediately I had my first ballan of the day. We kept at it for about an hour with myself landing another ballan as well as 5 corkwings. Gav however struggled with his striking and couldn't hook one until finally he had a fish on which popped off on the retrieve Not his day again! Tactics now changed once more due to the 2 blokes on the right of us pulling in a full string of launce meaning one thing, fluff chucking time. First cast I lost a fish but didn't make the mistake twice and on my 2nd cast a couple of average sized mackerel (species 28) That was it though and after 30mins more effort, no more fish were caught. We decided we would now chance it by fishing off the top of the right hand side ledge in hope for Gav's maiden ray. We set up and started by casting out sandeel/squid wraps but we soon found out the doggies were out in force and we brought in a fair few in succession. Originally I had planned to have the mackerel I'd caught for breakfast, but as sandeel was proving fruitless, I decided to use one of them as bait. I chopped two lovely fresh fillets off it and chucked out short for a conger/huss. First fish on the macky was yet another doggie. I'd had enough of these doggies now so began packing up at just before 10pm. One rod was packed up and ready to go when I saw one of the lads on the lower ledge with a nice bend in his rod. I watched them pull in a decent thorny shortly after and this spurred me and Gav on to have another cast. Gav managed then to land a few

his first thing of the session, an octopus lol. He did however on his next cast get himself a doggie. The one rod I had left out then started banging, a typical doggie bite really but when striking and reeling it in it felt a lot heavier than usual. As it neared the rocks it started heading straight left and giving some big head shakes. I clambered down the the sea level and saw my prize, a good sized huss. I managed to grab my leader and start pulling it closer but then disaster happened, the huss bit through my 60lb snood. I stood watching it as it sank down and starting swimming in circles. At this point I was very annoyed but I continued to watch it as it started swimming out to sea before making a U-turn and heading back towards me. Surely not I thought, but with one big wave the fish came to the surface and nose planted the rocks just to my left. I got down as low as I could and the fish seemed to swim straight to me, so with a quick swoop I plunged my hand down and managed to grab its tail. Unbelievable! I then went waist high in water as the swell came up but I had a very good grip on the rocks so was going nowhere and due to having my waist waders on kept dry in the proccess. I climbed back up the rocks with the fish trying its best to bite me and weighed it in at 12lb 1oz, my best North Wales huss (species 29) After a struggle to get a good photo I settled for this one above and climbed down again to release it safely. Whilst Gav continued I packed up and went to have a chat with the blokes on the lower ledge. Funnily enough as I was getting my huss up for weighing and photos, one of them had also had a huss 3oz bigger than mine lol. Its funny how the fish suddenly turn on from nowhere, for 7 hours nothing decent and then in the space of 30mins, a good ray and 2 big huss. I'll never fully understand fish feeding habits at Ty Croes but certainly won't complain. Gav did manage a few more doggies but we called it quits around 11pm and headed back for a quick beer before bed. Not an incredible session on the whole but 2 more species to tick off the list and my first Ty Croes double of the year.

P.s If  this birthday is anything like the last few, I think I'll be having a few days off from fishing :)

Tight Lines,

Ross