Lure session down the lleyn produces the goods

 The Lleyn 28/03/2012

With all this glorious sunshine at the moment, the urge to head down the lleyn has been far too tempting and this session was my fourth outing in 5 days. After 3 previous blank sessions on the plugs at my usual spot, I opted for a change and headed to the North side of the Lleyn. I had originally planned to fish the tide up for the last few hours and then down a few hours with bait but this idea was scrapped when, upon peering over the headland, I could see a shoal of fish rising to take sandeels off the top. Getting a haste on back to the car I felt very optimistic about my chances, however when I returned the fish on the

surface had vanished. Not sure whether they were bass or mackeral I climbed down on to the ledges and whacked a sun sprat coloured baby patchinko on. After half an hour of nothing I ditched the surface lures and instead opted for a 4.5" original ayu coloured x-layer. First cast and before the lure had even hit bottom I had a twitch. On the retrieve I had another couple of knocks but no hook-up. It was only when the lure was visible through my polaroids that I realised it was small schoolie bass having a go; about 20 of them following the lure until they spooked after catching sight of me. Brilliant, bring on the bass I thought. 2nd cast, knocks again and this time a fish on. Not what I expected though when a ballan wrasse of about 1lb popped up in front of me (top left). This was a first for me at this mark as its clean ground with only the odd patch of rock. Has anyone else had wrasse over reasonably shallow sandy ground? Anyway after a quick picture it was back out with the lure and would you believe it 3rd cast, a spirited little schoolie that was followed in by 6-7 of his mates. Only 35cm but a bass and after the blanks of the previous sessions it was a very welcome one. I couldn't believe what was happening and the fishing continued at this pace for about 15 minutes in which time I ended up landing 4 bass all between 34-39cm. Crazy stuff! I even decided after this mad period to set up my camera on video mode to try and record the fishing. I'm glad I did aswell because whilst it was recording I managed a first for me. A turbot on a lure (species 24). I have had turbot before but never fishing lures so this was brilliant and I have video proof of it as an added bonus. I'll try and upload it to the blog if I can but the last time I tried it took hours and I decided not to bother with it in the end. I have it stored though. Bass numbers 5 and 6 came around 20 minutes later on consecutive casts but then it went dead for about an hour.

I think this was the slack water period. Whilst it was quiet though I took the opportunity to scout the coastline further down. There was an abundance of small sandeels in close all along this stretch for about 1/4 mile so no wander the bass were here early. On my way back I noticed some splashing on the surface in the distance. As I got closer I realised it was the bass again shoal feeding on the sandeels. I dropped everything bar my rod and a few lures and bolted down the cliffs only to find the ledge I wanted to fish was now an island surrounded by what looked like waist height water. Without hesitation I leapt in to find that it was actually chest high water and I now had to swim to the ledge. Dedication was the key though as after putting in the effort to reach the ledge where the fish were it was party time. The baby patchinko was back on and I couldn't wait to whack it onto the fish. For the first few casts I literally watched the fish taking it in turns to have a go as the lure danced across the surface but they kept missing the hooks. It wasn't until the 4th cast here that I finally got a hook up. Still only a schoolie though of about 35cm but it didn't half give me some stick. Back he went and after a few more casts, bass number 8 was on, safely landed, unhooked and returned to grow a bit for next time. Then I made a bad decision by deciding to go and get my camera to try and make another recording, this time with the surface lure. Sod's lure though as by the time I was back the fish on the surface had again disappeared. I tried for a good 20 minutes but they had gone and that was the last action I saw for the day on my rod at least. For the following hour I sat on the cliff tops surveying the water as my clothes dried off and the bass made a few appearances nailing the sandeels again, unfortunately far beyond casting range though. I left feeling well and truly satisfied and I can't wait to get back there for another crack, hopefully with some bigger fish showing.

And for the record, all fish were released.

Hope you enjoyed the read,

Tight Lines,

Ross

A few more species off the list and a first ever mullet for Jon

Wylfa Outflow 24/03/2012

The first session of the weekend was at wylfa where I had been advised by garethp to go for a mullet. A big thankyou for all the info, it was appreciated. Myself and Jon started fishing an hour before high using home made 2 hook flappers, with size 8 hooks and fresh rag. Straight from the off we were into fish and the main culprits were blennies, some being no bigger than my little finger. After wading through 6/7 of them though the corkwings started to get involved (top right). Then a mini disaster as I dropped a black goby just before it was in my reach. It took me ages to get one last year so was gutted it fell off and therefore won't count for the species tally :( It was made better on

the next cast though as this fella on the left came in having engulfed the bait. A little tompot blennie (species 20) The fishing then slowed for an hour or so with only corkwings and blennies popping up every so often. We were considering leaving early as the mullet we had come for were nowhere to be seen but a stroke of genious from Jon suddenly sparked a frenzy. He had thrown in the crust off one of his sandwiches and out of nowhere within minutes the cove we were fishing in was full of small mullet. Remembering I had a loaf in the car it was a quick run there and back to find the mullet still happily gauging away on jon's sandwich. For 30 minutes we tried our best to get one of the blighters but all our initial efforts were proving useless. Even the size 8 hooks were seeming to big. I then got the LRF box out as I had just bought some tiny size 12 jigheads. I had to improvise somewhat and used a suspending jighead as a float to keep the bait near where the fish were feeding on the surface. After a few shy nibbles on my bread I watched a mullet take the bait into its mouth so striking instantly I managed a hook up. A lovely little mullet of about 6oz and my first ever UK mullet (species 21). It wasn't long until I had my second mullet and finished with 4, with this one below being the biggest at just under a pound. After I'd had my fun I lent jon my rod so he could have a go

on the lighter gear and he didn't waste the opportunity landing his first mullet ever putting a massive smile on his face. Unfortunately though the camera had decided to run out of battery and I wasnt able to get a photo for him. Changing back to the conventional method of rag on a 2-hook flapper for the last half hour, I managed to add a couple more species to the list. Firstly a ballan wrasse (species 22) and then on my last cast a rock goby (species 23) Again due to the dying of the camera batteries I was unable to get any photos.

Dabbling into the wonders of LRF

 Ravens Point Area 21/03/2012

After spending the week debating whether to spend a few quid on some LRF gear, I eventually gave in and spent the mass sum of £27 on stocking up with mini soft plastics and jigheads. Heres a picture to give you an indication of the size below. The jighead to the right of the 5p is a size 12 hook on a 1g jighead, absolutely tiny in comparison to the gear I usually opt for. I know to some people this sort of

 fishing seems silly but just for the fun factor of it I would definitely reccommend it to anyone in two minds, plus its redicoulously cheap to get started. Anyway with the gear in my bag I set off to the west coast to have a dabble. The sea was fairly flat with a tiny bit of swell but was almost ideal for this sort of fishing. After dropping down my tiny rag immitation I could see some small stuff having a look at my lures and it wasn't long before a fair sized male shanny gobbled the whole thing down. (species 19).

Even this was exciting on such light gear so I honestly cannot wait to have a go for some big ballans in a month or so's time. Anyway pictured and released it was 5 minutes before a female shanny popped up. This one was a lot smaller than the male shanny and a lot less aggressive.

Through the afternoon I continued to bag up on these smaller fish and eventually after having around 5/6 of each I decided to have a change. I used a slightly larger lure, another ragworm immitation infact, however this time round I fished it with a 2oz bomb at the bottom. The way I rigged it was to use a floating jig head and postion this around a foot above the lead on a 1 foot snood. By doing this I could gurantee the lure would be around 1.5ft off the deck avoiding all of the snags, or at least in theory. On my first cast I got a nice knock

and reeled in this fella on the right. A small pollock. As you can see he obviously liked the lure as it managed to neck the whole thing near enough. I continued to fish in this style for another 30 minutes before eventually calling it a day. Not bad for a first attempt and 2 more species ticked off the list for 2012. To put it into perspective though, Jon who had joined me for the session and had been fishing bait, only managed a single pin whiting in the same period of time. Food for thought for anyone looking to pass the time whilst waiting for that screaming ratchet on a large bait :P

Tight Lines, Ross

One hell of a session including a PB equalising ray!

 Ty Croes 12/03/2012

How do I even begin to describe how epic this session turned out to be. I met Captain Calamity and the danger squad ie, Ed, Ad and Gav L in Ty Croes car park for 4.30am making sure unlike last time, we caught the tides perfectly. This was in the hope that Ed and Gav, being ray virgins could bag themselves there first thorny. Having made camp on one of the lower ledges we rigged up with pennnel pulley rigs (as shown in rig section) and cast out just after 5am baited up with a sandeel and squid wrap.

Within 5 minutes of touching bottom and before the others had set up I had this little pecker  (top left) at 3lb 1oz. Cracking start! Within another 20 minutes I had ray number 2 on the bank, a little smaller at 2lb 13oz but still a nice little fish. Then it was Ad's turn to hook up with this small ray (top right) at 2lb 10oz before he had one a little bigger at 4lb dead (right). I do believe I told him what seems to be a funny joke just before I took the photo hense his silly face lol. The best fish of the morning was soon to be on my rod though as just after low water and as the sun made an appearance on the horizon, a classic slack liner lead to this fish (below). A nice thorny of 7lb 11oz :)

 This was the last of the rays for the morning session but as this was planned to be a long day it was really just the opening ceremony for what was to come. At around 10.30am I left the others to go home, have a rest and get some supplies for the team; bait, food and drinks etc. I didn't return until gone 4pm when the tide was getting to that stage again where the rays come out to play. The other 3 had now been there for nearly 12 hours and in the time I was gone, it was only Ed that managed a few fish in the form of ballan and corkwing wrasse. Having not ticked either of them of the species list yet, I spent my first 30 minutes trying my best to get one and got my reward when I got a small corkwing to a small rag bait (species 18). By the time I was done it was prime time for the rays again so back down on the bottom ledge fishing commenced.

 After thornies number 4 and 5 for the day I finally hooked into another decent ray (pictured left) and after a good scrap close in it was in my hands. It was a very nice fish and equalled my PB of 8lb 15oz beating my own 2012 record list fish by 4oz so theres the new target :)

The evening session would prove to be far more productive than the morning session and the next into a fish would be me again but whilst I was playing my fish, Ad had a drop back and was also into a fish. The fish were going mental! After both safely landing our fish we had a nice team photo taken. My fish on the left weighed in at 5lb 13oz and Ad's on the right came in at 5lb 3oz (picture below)

 

 This session was proving to be a right clonker but as Ed and Gav were still to land a ray it left me thinking what they were doing wrong. They were using the same rigs and bait but weren't getting any fish. They couldn't blame the spot they were fishing as Ed was in between myself and Ad and Gav was fishing in the spot I would usually opt for. Anyway we continued fishing and ray number 8 for me came in at 4lb 3oz before Ad manged his 4th ray of the day at 2lb 10oz. Then finally after nearly 17hours of fishing Ed managed his first ray ever. Hurraaayy! It was only a pecker at 2lb 5oz but a ray none the less.(pictured below) Now it was only Gav who needed a ray.

Ed having now landed his maiden ray

was on a roll and landed his second fish

10 minutes later at a slightly bigger size

of 3lb 3oz.(right) Desperate for a 10lb+ ray I continued fishing hard in match style, rigs baited up at the ready and when I felt a decent fish on my line soon after casting out I was praying for it to be the biggun. It wasn't to be though as per. It was another cracking fish though weighing 8lb 8oz (below). I just can't seem to break the 9lb barrier and this is my 9th ray now between 8.5lbs and 9lbs. Soon this 10lb ray mission will be succesful though if fishing stays like this or at least I really hope so. The next fish out was

to be the largest of the evening but was not our usual suspect. The fish came to Ad on a nice sandeel and squid wrap and was giving him some strong head bangs leading him to think it was definitely not another ray, and he was right. After the fish had managed to cross his other line and one of Gav's lines it was in sight and it was a cracker of a huss. It looked a certain double and after clambering down to the waters edge in my rockhopper boots the fish was safely on dry land. Ad's face lit up ten-fold when he saw me emerge up onto the ledge with his fish. It was truly a beast. After taking a number of photos we weighed the big fella. It came in bang on 11lbs and beat Ad's PB by just under 4lb. Some fish and the biggest huss I've seen landed fom Ty Croes...... so far! (picture below)

 

Ad then set his sights on congers determined to achieve whats known to us as 'the ty croes grand slam' which involves landing a ray, a huss and a conger in one session. Myself and the other 2 stayed at the bottom but after seeing Ad's huss I changed to a large Mackerel and squid bait fished at short range. When my rod bent over again I was sure it would be a huss but it wasn's unfortunately. It was however ray number 10 of the session for myself. My last fish came again on the large fish baits and was another clonker of 8lb 10oz.( pictured below)

Unfortunately for Gav L the session came to an end before he had managed a ray but with the fishing being this prolific we'll bag him one soon thats for sure. The final tallies were as follows:

Myself : 11 rays, 1 corkwing and numerous dogfish

Ad : 4 rays, a beasty huss and numerous dogfish

Ed : 2 rays, a few ballans, 1 corkwing, a dab, whiting and doggies.

Gav L : A hell of a lot of dogfish and some whiting.

We then proceeded to the pub for a quick reflection pint on the evenings fishing. This one is going to be a very hard one to beat was our conclusion. The evening did have a somewhat sickening ending though when just as I'd started my pint I had a phone call from my mates Steve and Ben who had been out near mackerel rock. Ben's car had been horribly vandalised and the guilty party had tipped his car on its roof smashing most of his windows in the proccess. Why people think this kind of thing is funny or clever I will never know but as I hadn't finished my 1st pint I went to pick them both up and bring them home. Ben was obviously fuming as this incident means he probably will be without a car now for a few years. I hope that the culprits are caught and are made to pay for his inconvenience. So ending on a downer, just be careful if you leave your car somewhere secluded.

Hope you enjoyed the read and get after those rays whilst there in numbers!

Tight Lines,

Ross





A couple of sessions where it was just nice to be out

 Cymyran and a new rock mark

This was the scene that greeted me on Saturday night at cymyran. It was almost idyllic and I was optimistic for a decent night on the beach. I spent the first 40 minutes beach combing after I had seen a few birds pulling up the razor clams. After my grab and dig approach I managed a nice bag of bout 30 or so before finally deciding to wet the lines. I was after rays so was fishing with long pennel pulley rigs with 4/0's loaded with a nice large sandeel and squid wrap. The fishing never really lived up to the nice conditions unfortunately and after fishing the tide up to high all I had managed to catch was 3 whiting and 2 dogfish. A bit of a disappointment really but will be back there soon after the small eyed's. I did meet another member off the forum whilst I was there though and had a good chat. I believe his name was Mike but unsure what his WSF username is so was nice to meet you if read this.

A new rock mark near Ravens Point : Decided to have a little wander with Andy on the Sunday. The aim was to get a few pollock for Andy's tea and try and up my species tally. We fished pretty much all day with soft plastics and bait at various marks but it wasn't until an hour before sunset Andy had this nice ballan wrasse of 2lb 10oz to a rag bait. You only have to look at that grin to see how happy he was lol. It was after dark though that would produce the most fish. I had only managed a single small pollock but andy had managed to find a nice reef  at 50-60 yards which he pulled 3 pollock off, all in the 38-40cm range. That was his tea sorted. Feeling very tired and having lost a few rigs it was time to go home to bed at around 8pm. I wasn't to get much sleep though as I had plans to be up and out again with a few of the lads for 4am. (report to follow)

Cheers and Tight Lines,

Ross

Christening the new rod with my 1st double of 2012

LLam Carw : 06/03/2012

I've been looking for a new rod for a while now and wanted a decent rod without paying over the odds for one. So when I saw that Gareth at Menai Angling had a Century Kompressor Lite for sale 2nd hand I was soon on my way over there for a look. The rod itself was in almost mint condition and at around 50% of the usual retail price I couldn't say no and bought it then and there. Extremely happy with my new toy there was only one thing left to do, put it into action :) With the winds being extremely strong at the moment, we didn't have a large amount of options and in the end decided to try Llam Carw for congers. Myself and Gav L arrived a couple of hours prior to high water and got set up on the rocks down from the car park. I hadn't tried this exact spot before so didn't know exactly how far to cast to clear the snags. I guessed at 30 yards due to the boulders on the left hand side. The rig I opted for was a running ledger with a 5oz lead connected to a weak link. Then at the business end 35kg wire with 2 size 6/0 hooks in a pennel and half a mackeral for bait. The conditions were horrible at best with fairly strong wind and a heavy drizzle. After leaving the rods for 30mins it was time to check the bait. I picked the rod up to feel a slight knock but not thinking anything of it I struck hoping to pull free of any snags I may have landed in. Sure enough, I was into a snag, or was I...... After giving it a good pull there seemed to be a slight bit of give and eventually the line came free, all be it with some added weight. It wasn't long before I realised I had actually got a fish on and what felt like a decent one at that. The new rod was put through it's paces as the fish hung on and provided a nice little fight in a bid for freedom. After a minute or 2 the fish was at the bottom of the rocks, so handing the rod to Gav I clambered down to land it. Safely up on the ledge I could see that my weak link to the lead had worked and the lead had come loose from the clip. Somehow though the death rolls of the fish had managed to tangle the lead back into the rig so I still got my lead back, what a bonus. It was a very long fish as you can see from the picture but it didn't have much of a girth and so when weighed it only dropped the scales down to 11lb 13oz but it's my first double of 2012 so cannot complain. Then things turned for the worse again. The weather which was already awful got even worse, Gav L lost his rig to a snag and the rats had started to close in on us. These 3 factors meant it was time to leave before we ended up sad, cold and wet fishermen. An enjoyable evening despite the weather and what a fish to christen my new rod with. Can see this new toy bringing me alot of joy over the summer months or at least I hope so.

Cheers for reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross

24 hours of fantastic fishing part 2: 5pm 2/3/2012 - 10pm 2/3/2012

 Stop 3: South Stack Area

Having had a cracking morning session, hopes were high for a good evening bash at my pollock mark. I had promised Ad a few fish to make up for his mornings disappointment so pressure was on to produce. We arrived at the mark after the climb down for about 5pm, which was around high tide. Using baited sabikis we dropped the baits down the side no more than a foot from the ledge we were stood on. I had told Ad it was deep but as his lead continued to sink taking metres upon metres of line from his spool his face went from amused to confused within seconds. It was Ad who struck first though instantly after his lead had touched bottom with a pollock of 12oz (top right). We were underway!

The first couple of hours I got outfished by Ad and he was bringing in a nice steady line of fish. His species tally took a nice boost when his second bite lead to this double header (Up Right), of a LS scorpion fish and a corkwing wrasse. I still havn't had a wrasse this year so he's beat me to the ball with that one :) Ad went on to add a couple more pollock and another corkwing to his tally whilst I struggled and managed just a single LS scorpion fish from the innitial ledge. As we moved mark though, I came into my own and started to claw back some fish. This ledge drops off into some shallower water but seems to hold a much larger variety of fish and also the better size pollock. My first few fish from this spot were smallish pollock around the 3/4lb mark but I did after some persistance manage this better fish of 2lb 11oz (Up right)

I was set on catching these all night with the hope of another biggie but the big ones remained inactive for the duration. Instead however it was shore rockling that came out in numbers. Ad managed 2 of them in consecutive casts (top left) and I pulled one out shortly after. The highight of my night though came in the form of this wee beastie (pictured right). A tadpole fish! (Species 17) Yet another 1st for me in a year that seems to be planning out very well. It was only about 9oz but I didn't care, just an awesomely cool fish. The last of the days action came from another few pollock, one for each myself and Ad before it was time, after nearly 24 hours solid fishing to pack up and go home for some much needed sleep. The fishing has picked up brillaintly over the past few weeks all round the island so if you get chance, get out! You might get a nice surprise :p

 

Hope you enjoyed part 2,

Tight Lines,

Ross

24 Hours of fantastic fishing part one... 10pm 1/3/2012 - 12am 2/3/2012

 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

3 hours plugging, an achy shoulder but I got my reward!

A trip down the Lleyn  29/02/2012

It has been too long since I ventured down the Lleyn in the search of bass and even though it's far from ideal weather at the moment, it was time to try my luck at one of my more secretive spots. With my lure rod and reel in hand I set off from Bangor 2.5 hours before low water with the intention of fishing the tide up a few hours. Hopeful but not expectant, I reached the mark spot on low water. I decided to start off using soft plastics, everything from x-layers and sluggos through to delalande sandras, but with no sign of a take after an hour, it was time for a change. I opted firstly for some 2-3 metre deep ranged lures. In particularly the Megabass Zonk. I love these lures as with braid you can see every movement of the lure through the rod tip. I tried various types of retrieve again with no avail so had a further change. Shallow divers this time. My first bit of action came using the Duo tide minnow 125. I had been twitching it on a fast retrieve when I had a decent knock, twitched it a few more times but nothing happened. I continued the retrieve almost all the way to the rocks when from nowhere a fish spooked after what I can only guess was a follow. This got me excited as any lure angler will appreciate and kept me going for another 40 minutes without sign of anything. My last ditch tactic was to whack on the trusty Feed Shallow UB15. Again nothing for a further half an hour until finally, after over 3 hours of plugging, a proper smash and grab hit. I had set the drag reasonably loose so I could have a bit of fun and after a short tug of war the fish came to the surface a few yards out. Safely netted, I took it up to where I had set up my camera and pictured and weighed it before releasing it back into the shallows. It was no beast at 2lb 5oz but gave a cracking fight and brightened up my night considerably. Shoulder now aching a tad it was time to call it quits but at least I could go home fully satisfied. Goes to show that even at this early stage of the year, if you put in the time and effort you will get rewards.

Thanks for reading,

Tight Lines,

Ross