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