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
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