Mid-February gathering : Part 1



Having planned for a 4-day fishing marathon about a month ago, myself and mates Lee Goddard and Scott Hutchison were all eagerly anticipating a nice relaxing break from work and some long hours on the rocks species hunting. Our chosen venue was Anglesey, which being my local area was ideal and would give me the chance to show off what North Wales has to offer in what most people refer to as the worst month of the year for fishing.

Scott was first to arrive late Thursday night but no fishing was done, instead a few pints, a takeaway and the Inbetweeners movie was looking the best option. Friday morning came round though and the first port of call was a trip pike fishing. Terry had reported to us that he'd had a number of fish that morning at the mark we were going so expectations were high, but on arrival conditions seemed against us with bright sunshine and only around 6" visibility in the water. Perhaps we should have been up earlier as we had definitely missed the best of the fishing, the only action being a small pike I'd hooked on a yellow kopyto which threw the hook at my feet, can't say I was majorly bothered :)

You have to love tompot blennies, such a cool fish!

We sacked the piking off around midday and headed to the power station for a spot of LRF. Due to the constant flow of warm water, the mini-species tend to hang around all year at this mark, so it's a good banker spot when fishing elsewhere is a struggle.
When down at the preferred spot, I first chucked in a few ladles full of chum hoping to see some mullet show up. Sure enough, they did and before long I'd hooked and landed one of the thick lip variety freelining a small piece of breadflake on a size 12 hook.
Though that turned out to be the only mullet of the day, we were both kept more than busy by the masses of Corkwing Wrasse and Shannies down below and I managed to winkle out a few tompots as well, a good way of spending a few hours :)



Scott gets 1st new species of the trip

That evening our third member arrived and was keen to get straight into some rod bending action. As neither of them had ever caught a rockling of any form, I decided to take them to a spot on the North Coast where I've had a good number of 3-beard and shore rockling, all be it usually whilst I've been fishing for eels. The tide was not ideal with what I considered to be the prime time falling at around midnight, but as they were so keen to wet a line we got there a good few hours before hand on the off chance of catching our target. I first showed Scott and Lee the most productive spots and then went a bit further down the rocks myself to see if I could tempt an eel. As it played out the first few hours were very slow with Scott managing to land the only fish, a small codling. As the prime time got nearer, the bites started coming, myself and Lee both losing Congers in quick succession and all of us missing a few rattly bites which I believed to be lobsters. Just before midnight though, Scott hit the jackpot and got his first ever rockling, a nicely patterned shore rockling. That would be it for the night, not a hectic session but we'd got what we came for so job done!

The next day I was back in work so I had to leave the guys to it for the majority of the day. When they visited me in Menai though they had nothing fishy to report, but they had caught plenty of crabs and had found that enjoyable, each to their own I guess lol. When I was finally free to go at 6, I'd had enough time to check the tides and was set on a trip conger fishing at my favourite conger mark on the island. For one reason or another though, the lads were determined to get out with the LRF gear. I did my best to convince them otherwise and pointed out that it was low water, at night in February but that just seemed to spur them on more to prove me wrong. So in the end, I dragged my mate Steve out with me, who is yet to catch an eel and I dropped Scott and Lee at Amlwch breakwater, which would be there best chance of a few fish........... they wisely took some mackerel fillets with them!
Fishing was not to bad for them, Scott turning to the bait and landing a good variety of fish including whiting, poor cod, codling and another shore rockling whilst Lee stuck it out with the lures for the majority, managing a lonely poor cod for his efforts before also switching to bait and landing a few whiting as well as a codling himself.

In the meantime, myself and Steve headed over to my mark, nicely sheltered from the wind and almost spot on tide wise, I was very confident of a few eels. I was right to be confident as well, for at the end of the night, I had landed a brace of eels, one of which already had a trace down its throat and a scorpion fish, also dropping a third eel, whilst Steve had dropped what was surely his first Conger ever and landed a cursed doggie. Not a bad night all round!

So with two days down, we'd notched up a total of 10 species but there was more to come!
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for part 2,
Tight Lines All,
Ross

The end is in sight!

The end of the year is creeping up now and species hunting in particular is getting very difficult. With temperatures starting to plummet, many of the species that have spent the summer around the coastal waters of Britain are now moving off to deeper, more bait rich ground. There are however a few fish I haven't yet landed that are still targetable. To give myself a good chance of bagging a couple of these, I went up to Scotland again, firstly to the Aberdeen area where I would attempt to catch a ling and then to Loch Etive where I'd have a dabble for a spurdog.

So first stop was visiting my mate Ad in
Aberdeen for a long weekend. The promise of good sized cod and a reasonable chance of ling was to good to refuse, so off I went on a 5 hour car drive north, arriving just in time for an evening session. After a quick stretch of the legs and some of Ad's home cooked cod green curry, we were off to the mark. Baiting up with large combinations of macky, black lug, squid and crab it wasn't too long before we had a few taps, whatever it was though was not large enough to inhale the 6/0 hooks we were using. It was a good while before I had my first proper bite which resulted in my first Scottish cod of the trip, unfortunately only a small one at around 1.5lb. The next cast produced another small codling and Ad got off the mark as well. The session came to an end shortly after though when the swell picked up and we had to get off the mark quickly to avoid getting cut off. Over the following few days we tried for the bigger cod again and also ventured up to Peterhead South breakwater, the mark where I'd be targeting a ling. The highlight of these few sessions was a very big tadpole fish for Ad weighing 15.5oz, a species he'd never caught before and only the second one I have seen. The ling proved to be elusive for the duration but I won't give up on catching one just yet.

The long weekend was over before i knew it and a trip down to Edinburgh ensued where I'd be meeting up with good friend and mini-species legend, Scott Hutchison. After a night of rig making and research, the 5am alarm bells rang and we were both up and on our journey to Loch Etive, where we had booked a boat for the day through http://www.sea-fishing-loch-etive.co.uk/. The aim of the trip was for us both to tick off a new species for the year, myself desperate to get a spurdog and Scott wanting a thornback ray. We arrived in Taynuillt for first light with this scene to greet us and after a chat with the boat owner Doug Bannatyne, we were on our way to our first mark. As expected, the depth in Etive is incredible, even within casting distance from the shore we were in over 100ft of water. We tied up to a buoy and dropped down, as line kept peeling off the spool we were both wondering when we would find bottom but at 185ft we were down there. For 30 minutes the bigger baited hokkai's remained actionless so a change of plan was needed. I tackled up my plugging rod with a one-up one-down rig blinged up with plenty of lumi-beads. A 4oz bomb was all that was needed to hold bottom and in no time at all I had my first fish on. After pumping it up from the depths up came a small thorny, a good way to get off the mark. Next drop
and it was species number 2 for the day,  a lovely grey gurnard and probably the biggest one I've caught to date. Scott had now joined me with the lighter rod and it became a quite productive few hours, the majority of fish being pouting, poor cod or whiting. After a quick spot at another spot during which  I boated another 3 thornies, we decided to go and try a drift by the quarry, it was fruitless. Time was flying by and we were starting to get a little agitated by the constant hoards of manky parasite ridden whiting and poor cod. With just an hour left we headed back to the slipway where we launched just to try and see if Scott could get his thornback. After 20 minutes of nothing I suggested steaming out to the middle of Airds Bay just to see how deep it was. At over 200ft it was the deepest spot we'd fished on the day and I decided to drop down my bigger hokkai baited rig again and leave it. With a

Spurdog : Species 68

 few minutes left Scott landed a bigger whiting and began preparing the engine for motoring back to shore. Whilst he was though, I noticed a few knocks on my rod..... I left it to develop before striking and setting the hooks, fish on. After playing it up for what seemed like forever, we eventually caught sight of it and it was the species i'd come for, a spurdog. Scott quickly grabbed the net and slipped it under my fish, I'd done it, scraped one at the last possible chance and I cannot describe how happy as well as relieved I was. With that came the end of our trip and it was back to Edinburgh.

The morning of my last day in Scotland dawned and due to a drop in the wind, it gave us a chance to get down to Torness once more to try for one of the 2-spot gobies. Both Scott and Jake have had plenty of these little beauties on there previous visits so confidence was high even though it was bloody freezing. Scott kindly donated me one of his mini-fish special hooks, a size 26 tied on 0.5lb fluoro and it was go time. We both scanned the pools for the mini's and within a few seconds I had my first fish, a common goby. Then I noticed a small flounder so informed Scott and left him to try and catch it. Sure enough he did and it brought with it the first sign of a 2-spot. Out from underneath a boulder shot two of them, very interested in my power isome but not willing to take it properly. After trying for ages I nearly gave up but Scott decided to see if he could find me some bait. How he found a ragworm I'll never know but he did within minutes and so on went a slither of fresh worm. Straight away the mini's went for it and in seconds I had what we'd come for, a two-spot goby and my 69th species of the year.

The session and my trip was over, 2 new species and a cracking week in Scotland once again. Both Ad and Scott had been great hosts and I look forward to fishing with them again soon, maybe sooner than they think.  So that leaves me with just 1 species left to catch, but what will it be? Thoughts at the moment are that Ling would probably be the best to target but if your reading this and can see a species I've yet to catch that you can advise me on then please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross

1 mark, 2 days, 2 styles of fishing, same result....Bass

Anglesey 25th & 26th June 2012

My first session this week took place on Anglesey with the lures. I met Terry in Beaumaris and headed off to a mark I hadn't fished yet this year, but was confident of a fish or two. After a nice downhill trek to the mark we set up the rods and began having a walk along the coast chucking the lures as we went. Switching between surface lures and shallow divers I got my first fish of the day on just my second cast, not what we were after though, a small pollock. After a good hour I was losing my confidence in the bass so after having a quick word with Terry, we headed off to our left to fish off a deeper stretch of coastline. After scouting a bit we decided on a spot and began chucking again. As it was a little deeper I decided to try a slightly deeper running lure, the zonk gataride in katakuchi colour (blue top, silver flanks, red belly for anyone not familiar) These lures fly so against the wind I launched it out a fair distance and began my retrieve. About half way in a small tap and then a solid take, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz sounded as the braid left the spool. I was very conscious about setting the drag right as due to running out of my usual 20lb fluoro leader I had to settle for some 10lb stuff I use when after wrasse, not ideal. As I played it gently to the side though, there Terry was on hand to guide my prize into a little gully where he could grab it. I didn't bother weighing/measuring it as it wasn't as big as others I've had this year so after a few quick photos I released the fish back into the depths. At a guess I would have said it was around the 3.5-4lb mark. The Zonk had proven its worth once again and certainly put a big smile on my face for the rest of the evening. Terry soon followed suit and whacked on his Zonk and sure enough got his first fish of the session soon after the changeover. I failed to catch for the rest of the evening but Terry managed to winkle out a second bass just as the light was fading. In typical style, he'd noticed a few fish surfacing for sandeels and had switched to a Patchinko surface lure. I watched on as his first few casts got some interest in the form of a missed take and then the proceeding cast got a hook up and his 2nd bass. As soon as they switched on though, they disappeared so after a further hours plugging into the darkness, we called it a night and headed back. This was a tester on the legs though, as after a seemingly easy descent, the mile or more walking straight back up the hill certainly got the heart pumping. Worth it though just for that one stunning fish.

The day after saw me returning to the exact spot from the previous evening. This time I had left the plugging rod at home and lugged down the beachcaster, a bucket of crab and plenty of spare leads hoping for some more silver and maybe something new for the species list. After a much more strenuous walk down I found myself dealing with a brisk breeze and a slightly choppy sea, not what I had hoped for, but nevertheless I ploughed on hopeful. I set up with a portsmouth loop rig armed with a lovely helping of fresh peeler and launched it out across a bay to the west of me. After a fruitless first cast, I wound in rebaited and repeated the process, this time casting slightly shorter. After a short wait, I had my first knock and then a nice pull round. Initially my lead was snagged up but after a quick tug it came free, luckily with the fish still attached. Up it came in front of me, with its silver flanks catching the suns rays, a nice little bass of around 1lb. For the next few chucks I continued to get fish of this size, finishing with 4 bass in 6 casts. My seventh cast however produced this codling of around 1.5lb which went home for tea, tasted lovely pan fried in some breadcrumbs. Unfortunately the following cast I snagged up again, losing both my snoods but retaining the lead. I thought enough was enough though and headed back happy again after a good couple of hours. The walk back was agonizing on the legs, especially considering I was carrying a good amount of gear  this time round and had done the same walk less than 12 hours previous. But again the long walk was worth the effort and at least I had dinner lined up :)

Thanks for reading,

Tight Lines,

Ross

The good part : Last fortnight with lures

 The bumble: 18-21st May

Day 1: Having had a few pm's from some fellow LRF'ers about the bumble, I'd happily agreed to pick both Lee and Scott up from Bangor station at midday with the intention of heading straight out fishing. After a meet and greet, we headed for Ravens point, with the prospect of some new species for the list. It was slow going in all honesty and the flow made it hard to get the lures down deep enough, but after some perseverance we managed a few fish. Scott was first in with a pollock of around 1lb before I had a tiny pollock on the ever faithful isome. The next fish went to Scott again somewhat fortuitously, when a mackerel I had hooked on a dexter wedge had thrown the hook only to head straight for Scott's isome lol or atleast thats what seemed to happen. Lee got his first pollock of the day after a small climb to a ledge just next door, another fish of around 1lb. Whilst there though we also rescued a seagull that had been caught in a rig some mindless moron had left fully baited on the rocks. One hook through its beak, the other lodged in its wing and a 4oz lead dangling from it, no wonder it was struggling to move.
As the tide started rushing, we headed off to the ranges to a nice spot where I've had some success in the past. I realised once parked up I'd left my camera on ravens, so I made sure to show the lads the mark and where to get down before bombing back to get my camera which was luckily still there, phew! Upon arriving back, Lee and Scott had a sly grin on their faces, both had had a few fish including Lee's first ballan of the trip and a number of pollock. I went with a little IMA trilobite and was into a few pollock fairly quickly with the biggest going around 1lb again. We stayed for a few hours with myself and Scott both getting ourselves a ballan each in the proccess and all 3 of us getting a few more pollock each. On the retreat though we realised we'd been cut off. As I'm a confident climber I made my way over the rocks without to much bother but for Scott and Lee it was a case of trying to limit how wet they were getting. In the end I took a soaking to help them both safely off the mark, after all I had led them there in the first place.

Day 2: The saturday morning was the first chance to meet up with all the bumblers. We all met shortly after 9am and were greeted by hot drinks and bacon and sausage butties as well as Billy's car boot lure shop (which was very good I may add) It was nice to finally put a few names to faces and it was a good turnout. We headed our seperate ways though around 10.30. This time it was myself, Ad and Ben and we had planned to go to a difficult access mark again on the ranges. We arrived to a lovely flat sea and first drop I had a pollock on the way up. This mark had some incredible depth with around 50-60ft of water less than 2ft from the rocks. It was a bit more productive than the previous day with myself finishing with 3 ballans and 2 pollock with the biggest ballan going 2lb 5oz whilst Ben managed 2 pollock and a ballan as well. Ad unfortunately blanked but had a few of his x-layers munched by wrasse and dropped a number of pollock as well. After this we headed for what we thought was a meet at the pub at 6pm but when we arrived it was only us and Haydn there.

We were joined by Terry, Lee and Scott shorty after but where everyone else was is a mystery. Oh well, we had a chat about marks and decided to hit the straits. We all met in the carpark, joined by Den and a few other bumblers and walked off down the beach. We left the group and had a wander a little further round. This turned out to be rewarding for me as I landed a little schoolie on my feed popper after around 10 casts. Ads day got worse with sea trout jumping right in front of him and a bass lunging for his lure and missing, no luck for him on the day. After an hour we headed back to the group, stopping for a few chucks on the way which resulted in Ben's first bass of 2012, finally off the mark and again on a surface lure We called it quits and had a chat with the others.

As far as I'm aware Scott, Den and Terry had all had a fish, I don't know about the others though. I offered to take Scott and Lee back to Amlwch to save Terry a drive, who had in fairness been a taxi service for the day and I know the lads appreciated his effort a lot.

Day 3 : Picked Lee and Scott up and headed for Wylfa power station, home to all sorts of wee beasties expecting a few different species from the previous day. It started well with blennies galore much to scotts delight. He happily sat pulling them in on little bits of isome whilst I tried down the bottom for a mullet. The bloke previously on the ledge had left a bit of bread so I sneakily pinched some on the hook throwing the rest in as grounbait and had a mullet almost instantly, didn't count though of course. Back on the isome we all persited, Lee also getting in on the blenny action.

The first new species fell to Scott though who managed his first ever tompot, well done that man. He was clearly delighted and finally a new one for his species hunt. The rest of the day went very well for me. First off I had my first lure caught corkwing, followed shortly by a second, then a few tompots but finally to set the record straight I had a thick lipped mullet on my isome. It was my turn to be happy as it's my first mullet on a lure and one I hadn't really expected.

We stayed in the area for a while ending with around 40 blennies between us (20 for me) before moving slightly round the coast to some deeper water and big pools. Scott was the only one who managed to catch at that spot though with a nice ballan of over 1lb. We then headed off for a drink at Terry's were we again discussed a few possible marks, cheers Terry.

We ended up at the ranges though near the fangs.

 A lovely little pool that Lee and Scott had found the day before on their recce day. I managed one small ballan and Scott got a few blennies, including one good sized one. I think Lee had a ballan too. We finished the day on holyhead head breaky, down at corkwing corner. It turned out to be pollock corner though with each of us catching 2-3 pollock each before calling it quits for the day.

 Day 4: It was the last day of Scott and Lee's visit so I treated them to a trip to Porth Wen, a lovely mark up on the North Coast of Anglesey. I picked them up from Amlwch again and had a quick food/drink stop before heading off. We walked down to the mark and I could see the lads eyes light up when they saw it. Not only is it a decent fishing venue, it also has some stunning scenery which almost makes you happy to be there. I spent the first hour climbing up some rocks to get a few decent photos of the fishing action. After though it was down to business. Today was Lee's day and he managed a little ballan to take first blood before getting himself a better one just shy of 2lbs. It put a lovely bend in his rod though and he deserved it for his weekends efforts.

 I eventually managed one myself, only a tiddler though. Today was not Scott's day though and I watched a wrasse take his gulp after bumping it over a boulder just to run and snap him. It was a cracking site to watch from my high vantage point and something I'd love to see again. We left the mark though quite happy. We tried a few more spots to no avail eventually finishing in the pub for a nice refreshing pint. After the pub though it was time to say goodbye and I dropped Scott and Lee off at the station. I had a cracking few days and enjoyed every minute of it, it was a real pleasure fishing with them both and I look forward to some trips over the next few months to visit them both.

Mission Sea Trout continues: Tried again for a sea trout the other night with no success. However did pull out 6 schoolies, a pollock and a codling all on lures. The lures used were the IMA calm 110 and the faithful toby in silver and red. The codling takes my lure caught species for 2012 up to 20.

Uwchmynedd : The most recent session was one a bit further afield. Decided to try a new mark in the uwchmynedd area. We arrived at around two hours before high and fished it up. First cast resulted in what turned out to be my best fish of the day at just under 4lb (pictured right)

Fish fell to a carolina rigged storm sandeel fished weedless and put up a cracking fight on my plugging gear. The session was a great success and can't wait to get back to the mark. The finishing tally was 5 pollock and a wrasse for me and 3 pollock to Ben. I have a feeling theres some monsters at this mark though so hopefully the next time will produce a potential new PB.

 

 So as you can see, the lure fishing has picked up considerably. I guess for the majority of the summer now my lure rod will never leave my side. However with Pembroke looming next week, the chance of a shore smoothie and tope is on the cards as well as a chance of black bream, red mullet and a few other targets for my species hunt. Hopefully I'll hit the 40 mark before the 2nd week in June. Fingers crossed.

Hope you enjoyed part 2,

Tight Lines,

Ross

NEW MARK: SAME OLD SPECIES

 PORTH EILIAN AREA 10/02/2012                                                                                        Decided to try out a new mark last night that I have never seen mentioned on the forums. Setting off at 8.30pm, myself, Jon and Matty headed off up to Porth Eilian not really knowing what to expect. Having arrived and parked up at the roundabout where people park for Point Lynas, we headed off left along what seemed to be a coastal path. After 10-15mins walk we spotted a nice looking ledge and so made our way down. Setting up with 2-hook rigs we cast out to find a decent amount
 of depth in front of us which is always an encouraging start. After 20 mins or so and not a nibble between us, it was time to reel in and change bait. Off out it went and this time almost as soon as the lead hit bottom the rod tip started tapping. I left it for a minute or so until a better knock and slight drop back forced me to strike. Fish on! Knowing full well it was a small fish I cranked it in to find this small codling hanging on to my rag/squid baited hook. Blank averted I chucked out again only to be waiting a further 20mins for any more action. In the mean-time Matty had been going about his business and had brought in a little whiting which he said he had not even noticed the bite for on Jon's Beastmaster that he had borrowed for the session. As it was Matty's first session of the new year though, it was good news for him and he had avoided a debut blank. Shortly after his second fish of the session was on the rocks, this time everyones favourite dogfish. Jon kept on going but he couldn't seem to connect to anything leading him to think his hooks were a bit blunt but either way, when he did finally manage a hook-up, he snagged on the way in and the fish came off before the lead came free. Fishing was slow for the night and bites were few and far between but before the night was over I managed to add a further 3 whiting, a doggie and a tiny poor cod to my tally. Matty finished with a dogfish, 2 whiting and a poor cod and Jon unfortunately blanked this time round. Not a brilliant nights fishing but always good to get out and enjoy the fresh air. Certainly better than being sat indoors doing lit-reviews and watching bbc iplayer. Hopefully the weekend will prove far more fruitful!

Tight Lines, Ross

A LITTLE CLOSER TO HOME

 THE MENAI STRAITS 13/1/2012



It was nice to get out again on Friday and due to good tides we decided to stay local and fish the Straits an hour either side of high. We had intended on fishing Menai Bridge pier but after seeing that the RV Prince Madog was moored up we had a walk to find a new mark. It wasn't long before we had found a likely looking spot and so myself and Ad got the rods set up. To start with, I had a quick cast with a small gripper lead to check what sort of ground we were fishing and to my surprise it was fairly clean and had some depth, without having the problem of the current, fantastic! Rigging up with 2-hook flappers baited with a combination of fresh lug, rag and sandeel, we cast out hopeful of a good session and we were not disappointed. Within a minute I'd had my first knock and before Ad had even set up my first double header of codling (species 4) were on the bank. The fish kept coming one by one for the duration of our session. The main surprise for us, was the lack of whiting (species 5), just 2 between us in 2 hours. Very strange for the straits this time of year. The final tallies were 12 codling and 2 whiting. Not bad for a short session in the straits. The only other thing of note, was this crab (pictured bottom right) that had latched itself to my sandeel bait. I study marine biology and have never seen this crab in the straits before and after having a gander online at British crab species, couldn't identify it. It had a very pale abdomen and a very distinctive blue tint to the dactyl section of its swimming legs.

Does anyone have any idea what species this is, as I woudn't mind doing a bit of research on them?

                            

                                  Tight Lines, Ross