A mid-February Gathering - Part 2

Here it is, I've finally had chance to write part 2 after a few busy days in work.

After the previous nights success on the congers and with weather meaning a huss session was out of the question, Lee and Scott suddenly had a change of heart and decided that they too would like a bit of rod-bending eel action the following night. But we still had a whole day to fish before that could happen.

Our first port of call on day 3 was to fish a local lake for the Pike. I know Lee in particular had been looking forward to this, but unfortunately it was extremely disappointing with not a single fish landed between the 3 of us for our few hours of effort. So approaching midday we sacked off the piking once again and I asked the guys what they fancied doing. With no definitive answer coming back, I gave them a few options, to which another day on the LRF at the power station was decided favourite.

We would only have a few hours to fish before the tide had dropped to a level where fishing was not possible, but once again we were pulling out the fish one after the other. Both Lee and Scott were still desperate for a tompot blennie and Scott finally got his prize after switching tactics to a small chunk of rag, Lee however had to settle for the dozens of corkwing wrasse and shannies that plague the mark. I was having no such problems with the tompots and landed at least half a dozen of them over the course of the session, most of which were taken drop-shotting white power isome. I just can't get enough of these fish, how anyone can find catching mini's boring is beyond my explanation. Oh well, there will always be haters I guess :)

That evening, as promised, I took the lads to my favourite conger mark but it wasn't to be unfortunately. We did have one good run on my right-hand rod which I let Lee strike into, but after a short tug of war, the hook pulled free and the eel was gone. A little disappointing after such a good session the night before. Will leave this mark a good month now before I head back to hopefully tame a leviathan.

The last full day of the trip was in my eyes a little bit of a disaster. Having looked at the swell forecast for the end of the Lleyn, I had suggested that it would be a bit rough and that staying local would be a better idea. Lee and Scott had other plans though and were determined to head down to Uwchmynedd, a good hour and a half drive away from Bangor to do some deep water fishing for Pollack and wrasse. Anyway, in the end I just drove down there for Lee and Scott to see what it was like and to see the beauty of the landscape in the area. As expected, the swell height made it almost unfishable which put me in a bad mood, after all I'd just had to drive 60 miles to prove that the forecast I'd seen was correct. Whilst there though, there was no point turning round and going back, so we decided to head to a little cove where the swell was just about manageable. Still annoyed, I spent the first hour and a half watching the others from the top of the rocks. Eventually though after seeing Scott land the first Pollack of the session, I decided to join them and have a fish. It wasn't long before I was into my first of 4 small Pollack on the 3" white delta eels and Lee managed to avoid the blank with a Pollack of his own soon after. Shortly after it was time to shoot to Ty Croes for the evening, where I'd hoped to get Lee and Scott a few rays.

 The tides were far from ideal for ray fishing, but as Lee had never had a ray of any kind and Scott had only had the one thorny, it was worth a shot. As we arrived in the carpark, our evening got a little worse, it wasn't packed but we'd just seen a bloke head off with his rods down the path. I knew full well where he'd be fishing, but I had to check just incase, sure enough though my preferred ledge was once again taken. Opting to fish way to the left instead, our chances of a decent haul of rays were greatly reduced, but we were on a spot where I'd had a good number of huss in the past so it wasn't all bad. As it planned out, we did get a couple of fish, a 5.5lb thorny for myself and a doggie for Scott, which he was happy with. With those fish came the end of our last evening session together, at least we had caught what we had gone for. I'm sure next time, they will both get a few rays themselves.


The decision on where to fish for the last day was simple really, the lads just wanted to end the trip on a high and catch plenty of fish, so for the final time we'd go after the mini's. Again we hammered out corkwings and common blennies and once again to Lee's disgust, I held my own with the tompots, bagging another half dozen or so whilst the others were left bewildered as to how I was doing it lol. The one highlight for me on the final day was my first lure caught mullet of 2013, a small but very welcome thick lip which took a liking to my white isome.



After 4 long days of fishing, the time had come to say our farewells, or at least we thought it had, half way back to Bangor, Scott realised he'd misplaced his phone. Positive he'd left it on the roof of the car before we'd set off, he had to make a tough decision : leave it and get his train home or go and have a look for it and miss his train. In the end he decided it was worth having a look for but after a thorough search it was nowhere to be seen. What a downer! So in the end it was just Lee we waved goodbye to that night and Scott kipped in my spare room having booked the next train northbound at 5am the following morning.

Wanting to make the most of my time off, I headed out again that evening for a spot of bass fishing whilst Scott decided to stay in and get some sleep. It was not a hugely productive session but I did manage to get my target with this bass of 45cm and roughly 2lb in weight, better than a kick in the teeth.

By the time i'd woken up for work the following morning, Scott had left so it was back to the day job for the foreseeable future.

It was great to see the guys once again and all things considered, I think we did a fairly good job. I was happy at managing to put them onto a few fish and I'm sure they enjoyed it. I don't think many people can say they've caught 14 species over a long weekend in winter, so we did a good job :)

Thanks for reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross
                                                                                                                                                                        

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

From the brilliant to the bizarre

After the great morning session yesterday, I have really got the buzz back and there was only one place I was ever heading in the evening. Back down there for an hour before last light, this time accompanied by Ben and Rory as well as a few others we met down there, we started working the lures and covering all depths. The three of us perched ourselves off an island, myself taking the left side, Ben the straight out route and Rory covering the right. After a good half hour I decided I'd ditch the surface lure and go sub-surface. It's relatively deep so on went an SG Eel and back out I went, targeting the left hand side of an underwater reef. A few casts with nothing before hitting my first bass of the evening on the drop, only a schoolie of

around the 1lb mark but a fish nonetheless. I started to glance round to see how the others were doing and after seeing Ben's rod nicely arched over and the reel screaming, I went across to help him land his fish, which so far is his best of the year and his first qualifying fish for the TLF Bass Challenge at 52cm and roughly 3lbs in weight (This will make Dan Ferguson happy) Another hour passed and it was now dark, Ben had called it a day leaving myself, Rory and another lad Boansy to fish on. I decided to try the spot I'd had my fish earlier in the day, this time wading out to waist height where I was met with a deep drop off. First lure tried

was unsurprisingly the successful lure from before, the Seaspin ProQ 120, but nothing.....then came the turn of the Komomo II AFP, nothing.....The Komomo II JFP, nothing. We couldn't buy a fish between us and we were approaching the time where we'd have to start thinking about making a move. It was time to whack on old-faithful, the daiwa shore line shiner, which I have have more fish on this summer than any other, but for some reason has never done the business for me in the straits. That soon changed though on my first cast, in which the fish plucked at it a few times before smashing it properly and bolting off towards the current. My drag, although set tight was screaming alerting Rory to the fact I had a decent fish. A brilliant fight lasting around 4 minutes ensued before the fish finally nestled safely in the kelp where I could grab it. Not quite as big as my one from the morning but very stocky. It measured 59cm on the ruler but more importantly, Rory had his boga so I was interested to see what it weighed, just over five and a quarter so say 5lb 5oz, gutted I didn't have my scales for the morning session now lol. Anyway, no more action was had, so after guiding Boansy back across to safe ground due to him forgetting his headtorch, I headed off home setting the alarm for 6am again for one last raid.

The morning came and after reaching the mark, I first decided to go back home due to the rain, however after a phone call from mate Eddy to say he was down there, I opted to go back. Met down there this time by Jon, Stu and Scotty we all tried our best to rise a fish but they weren't having any of it. Then things turned bizarre. I'd switched over to a SG Eel to see if the fish were staying deep when close in I felt a small tap. I initially thought I'd hooked weed but then it started pulling back. In the water in front of me appeared none other than a dogfish! What is the world coming to lol. I was in two minds as to whether or not I'd fouled it but after Jon had tailed it for me, we realised it was hooked right in the scissors, surely that must have been a deliberate take? Certainly not what I was expecting but I'm claiming it for the lure caught species hunt :) Rest of the session was a big fail, with all of us failing to get anything else. A few days rest now I think.....or not, a weekend of lure fishing and toping begins.

Thanks for reading,

Tight Lines,

Ross

Scottish Adventures with Schogsky and Hutch : Part 4 - The MOG boat trip

After having a few pints the night before at the Clashwannan, I woke up feeling a wee bit sluggish. Ever ready for another days fishing though and with it being the morning of the boat trip, I  perked up fairly quickly and started sorting the gear out with Jake and Scott. All sorted we loaded the car and left to meet with our skipper Spike at Portlogan harbour. Greetings out of the way it was launch time and we soon found ourselves steaming out to a mark to do a spot of pollack fishing. Spike was recommending macky fished under a float but as everyone knows, we are lure fisherman, so at first this was not a viable option lol. Instead, armed with a number of SP's we began working the area hopeful of a few fish. Sure enough it wasn't long before we all started getting a bit of action, with Jake getting the majority of the fish on either his arkansas shiner sluggos or his new found love, the ribsters :) Me and Scott were getting fish as well though to a number of other lures which included red gills.. Jake got the pick of the bunch though with a lovely pollock of over 6lb, which unfortunately after a bit of confusion with the skipper, was thrown back before we could get any decent photos. I decided on a change of tactic after a period of drought on the SP's and decided to drop down a set of sabikis tipped with Power Isome. To say it was slow would be an understatement but I did manage a couple more pollock and my first new species of the trip, a cuckoo wrasse ( species 51) before turning to bait to catch a few more fish. After catching a few more cuckoo's myself, Scott decided to give the rag a try as well and this soon resulted in his first cuckoo of the year. Scott also added a coalie to

the days species tally shortly after and I added a ballan also. We then had a very quick few drifts for macky before again steaming off to another mark in hope of something a little different. The skipper had decided to take us to an area of sandy bottom where he thought we'd have a decent chance of picking up some flatties along with a selection of gurnards and any other predominantly sand based species. Again we chose to fish artificials over bait tipping sabikis with Isome. Jake was first in on the opening drift with this grey gurnard, another species to add to his list for the year.Scott followed suit bagging himself his own grey gurnard on the same drift whilst I was left to watch on. After a couple more drifts and just a single pollack landed we moved out to deeper

water where the plan was to target a tope. Spike dropped anchor over one of his hopeful marks and we were all baiting up with half a mackerel whilst the skipper sorted some shurvy. Chucked out and left, the three of us dropped down with an assortment of unbaited feathers to see what was around. After hitting mackerel on the way down for a few drops we all eventually managed to get the rigs down to the sea bed. Jigging the sabikis/hokkais over the seabed was again slow but after a 10 minute lull I finally managed to start getting into a few fish. First off I levelled the scores by getting my first lure caught grey gurnard of the trip before managing to add my 2nd new species to my yearly tally in the form of a red gurnard ( species 52..also lure caught) Scott saw that I was having some success so

lending him my rod for a while I watched on as he tried to get something fr himself. Sure enough a bite did come and as it came up to the boat we both saw it was a whiting which would have been a new one for Scott. Unfortunately though as he was lifting it up from the water it threw the hook leaving us to watch it swim back down to the depths. Then a bit of excitement as my tope bait was picked up, but after an initial short run the fish never came back which was rather disappointing :( Anyway, after that Scott handed back my rod and I dropped down a couple more times to see if I could get anything else. I wasn't disappointed either as after a 10 minute wait I got another bite which resulted in a whiting (another one for the TLF species hunt). It was now time to move on as the tope baits were sitting untouched for long periods. The area we were heading to now was an area of broken ground in which we had been told we had a good chance of codling, haddock and a variety of other species. At this point in the day none of us were any longer fussed about catching on lure only so we decided to bait our hokkais with strips of

 macky and see what we could bring up. The first drop saw me and Jake get a double hook up of haddock, my first ever ever and my 3rd new species of the trip to boot (species 53). This area was proving to be a little more productive than where we

 had previously been and we were soon all landing a good number of fish. Scott managed a double of new species for himself when he landed a whiting and dogfish whilst myslef and Jake also had a few more doggies and a pollock. It was now nearing the end and so the skipper called last drift. Not expecting an awful lot down went our baited rigs and in came another doggie for Scott before I had a nice smash on my plugging rod. This felt a little better and after a spirited fight up came the only Codling of the trip at maybe 2lb, great fun. I wasn't to fussed about a photo as I was confident of bigger before the end of the year. Fingers crossed that won't come back to haunt me.

  So that was it then, the end of a cracking day out. Between us we managed a very respectable 11 species which included new lure caught species for all of us as an added bonus. Thanks to Spike for a great day out and of course it wouldn't have been anywhere near as enjoyable without the banter from Scott and Jake so thanks again fellas.

Hope you enjoyed reading,
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

THE CALM AFTER THE STORM

                                     Ty Croes/Ravens Point 14th/15th Jan 2012

Well it seems the strong westerly winds of last week have been taken over by south easterlies recently, which although bitterly cold, provide us as anglers a great opportunity to get over to the west coast of the island and fish comfortably. Our chosen marks over the past few nights have been Ty Croes and Ravens Point, two marks where fish are pretty much guranteed. On Saturday we headed to Ty Croes on a mission for huss and rays. Arriving about an hour before low water,we were happy to see just the one car in the car park and had high hopes that our usual ledge was free,which fortunately it was. So myself, Ed and Jon tackled up with a mixture of pennels for the rays and heavier duty rigs for congers close in. Baits used were sandeel and mackeral to start with. I was first into a fish but knew from the bite it wasn't anything decent and sure enough in came a whiting. Then a moment of madness,as whilst Ed was setting the ratchet on one of his rods the other arched over his tripod and started ripping line. What on earth was this we thought! As Ed lifted into the fish we could see his line had moved a good 30 yards right of where he had cast and had gone across my lines. Still heading off to the right the fish had gone round the rocks infront of us and after one hell of a head-shake the line went solid. Ed tried his best to pull free but his 30lb mainline eventually gave way and the fish was gone. Our only guess was that it must have been a late season tope! With that excitement out of the way, we continued to target rays and congers but before long we were overun by whiting and dogfish (species 6). It was getting late and our excitement had faded somewhat before I eventually managed to hook something that felt a tad better. Keeping it quiet, just incase it turned out to be doggy I slowly brought it to the edge where upon surfacing my eyes lit up, as in the swell was a little thorny (species 7). A few more doggies and whiting were caught before we called it quits and headed back to the warmth of home.

Ravens Point - On the Sunday myself, Stevie G and Gav headed to Ravens point. Word of mouth had suggested that there wasnt much coming off but we thought we'd have a bash anyway. To cut a long story short, we should have listened. We had plenty of fish though so it wasn't all bad. I even managed this double header of doggies(pictured left) on my pennelled sandeel. Was gutted when they surfaced as I was sure it was going to be a huss/ray due to the weight, oh well :p. We fished the tide up from low until a few hours before high but had nothing of substance. The only reasonable fish caught being a 32cm whiting and a couple of nice dabs for me and Steve. Gav had a steady catch of whiting all night on light gear and even had a bonus when he managed to foul hook 3 gripper leads from the bottom, bonus. We called it a night when are hands decided they were no longer able to function and headed home for some nice hot coffee.

                                                       Hope you enoyed the read, Tight Lines,

                                                                             Ross