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
that is what is called a sandy swimming crab
ReplyDeletesailfish